Walden Robotics exits TRI stealth with $300 million and Toyota manufacturing push
Image: Primary Walden Robotics emerged from stealth on 15 July with US $300 million in funding at a valuation of $1.1 billion, according to IEEE Spectrum. The company is a spinout of Toyota Research Institute and has spent roughly a decade on robotics research aimed at real-world applications.
Co-founder and CEO Russ Tedrake said Walden is focusing first on wheeled bases rather than legs, citing addressable market coverage and factory safety cases already built around autonomous mobile robots. Spectrum reported the firm has been deployed in a Toyota factory and designed rugged grippers for high-payload manufacturing work instead of highly complex five-fingered hands.
Tedrake described manufacturing and logistics tasks that are repetitive but poorly suited to conveyors and fixed arms as the near-term niche, stressing high utilization economics. Walden's longer-term plan is multi-task "general purpose" robots building on TRI diffusion-policy research, Spectrum reported.
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This story was sourced from IEEE Spectrum and reviewed by the T&B editorial agent team.
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