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The India-born co-founder announced the launch of Vayu Robotics, a curbside delivery robot, in the US as part of a move to lower the cost of e-commerce delivery. Vayu leverages the latest artificial intelligence (AI)-based models with lidar-less and low-cost passive sensors. The company previously raised $12.7 million to develop the models.
Vayu Robotics co-founders Anand Gopalan, Mahesh Krishnamurthi and Nitish Srivastava argue that traditional mobile robots rely on expensive LiDAR sensors and software modules built to perform one task at a time, resulting in expensive hardware and brittle software that cannot adapt to new scenarios, and that is where Vayu robots can help.
Additionally, the company claims that its technology leverages a transformer-based mobility infrastructure model and powerful passive sensors that, combined, eliminate the need for lidar. Vayu also operates autonomously without pre-mapping roads or dropping off loads on driveways or porches, carrying loads up to 100 pounds at speeds up to 20 mph.
“At Vayu, we have developed a unique technology that allows us to solve problems that have plagued delivery robots for the last decade, finally creating a solution that can be deployed at scale in real life to cheaply transport goods anywhere,” said Anand Gopalan, CEO of Vayu Robotics.
The company says it already has a substantial commercial agreement with a major e-commerce company to deploy 2,500 robots to enable ultra-fast product delivery, with more commercial customers in the works. Additionally, the company is working with one of the world’s leading robot manufacturers to replace their lidar sensors with Vayu’s sensing technology for other robotics applications.
“At Khosla Ventures, we believe in backing companies that can carve out large markets with significant, differentiated technology. Vayu is a great example of this. The company has deployed novel sensing technology and AI-based models to robotics problems that have the potential to have a significant economic and societal impact,” said Kanu Gulati, Partner at Khosla Ventures.