Start-up claims it has universal AI for robotics
Covariant, a start-up that has been operating since 2017, has gone public with claims of an AI that can be applied to any environment, with logistics applications currently at the forefront
AI Robotics company Covariant has announced that it has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can self-learn and therefore be applied to a wide range of industrial applications. Already the company says its systems have been deployed and are fully operational at customer facilities in the apparel, pharmaceutical and electronics industries.
Founded in 2017, Covariant has spent the past two and a half years researching, developing, testing and deploying its AI. Based on research in deep imitation learning, deep reinforcement learning and meta-learning, the company has developed what it calls the Covariant Brain, which it says is a universal AI for robots that can be applied to any use case or customer environment.
Covariant robots learn general abilities rather than single, specific tasks as many current industrial robots do. Some of the characteristics the robots learn include robust 3D perception, physical affordances of objects, few-shot learning and real-time motion planning, which enables them to quickly learn to manipulate objects without being told what to do.
Covariant is backed by lead investor Amplify Partners. To date, Covariant has raised $27 million in funding, including $7 million in seed funding raised in 2017 and $20 million in Series A funding raised in the first half of 2019, which had not been announced until today.
Covariant's robotic stations are running at facilities in North America and Europe, including at a warehouse operated by Obeta (https://www.obeta.de), a German electrical supply wholesaler located outside Berlin.
Covariant brought Obeta's station into production in collaboration with KNAPP (https://www.knapp.com), a warehouse logistics technology company headquartered in Graz, Austria. KNAPP provides automation technology and software solutions for logistics and production facilities in the healthcare, textiles and fashion, trade, e-commerce and omnichannel retail, food retail and production industries.
"Customer expectations for fast, affordable package delivery have never been higher," said Michael Pultke, Head of Logistics at Obeta. "To stay competitive, we need to modernize our operations and keep order processing and delivery running quickly and smoothly. The Covariant-powered robot is an integral part of our live operations, exceeding our performance requirements and adapting quickly to change. AI Robotics is a foundational part of our future strategy."
"AI Robotics is quickly becoming relevant to every warehouse operation, and is critical to KNAPP's strategy of offering market leading solutions," said Peter Puchwein, VP of Innovation at KNAPP. "We looked at every solution out there. Covariant is the only one that's ready for real production."
"At Covariant, we are dedicated to advancing research in AI robotics to solve real-world needs," said Peter Chen, founder and CEO of Covariant.
"Even though we are just getting started, the systems we have deployed in Europe and North America are already learning from one another and improving every day," said Pieter Abbeel, founder, President and Chief Scientist.
"The pace of research in deep reinforcement learning over the past five years has been extraordinary," said Geoffrey Hinton, Turing Award Winner, Engineering Fellow at Google, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, and Covariant investor. "Covariant has produced one of the first major breakthroughs in real-world robotic application, and it's just the start of the possibilities."
"Covariant has assembled an impressive group of roboticists and AI engineers," said Yann LeCun, Turing Award Winner, Chief AI Scientist at Facebook, Professor at NYU, and a Covariant investor. "If anyone can make robots learn to perceive, reason, and act in real industrial settings, it's Pieter, Peter and the Covariant team."
"Developing safe and reliable robotic technologies to address challenges in the real world is extremely hard," said Raquel Urtasun, Chief Scientist at Uber Advanced Technologies Group and Covariant investor. "Whether you're talking about self-driving cars or warehouse operations, robots encounter an endless number of unexpected scenarios. Covariant has demonstrated exceptional progress on enabling robots to fill orders in warehouses, which could unlock many other robotic manipulation tasks in other industries."