Vayu Robotics has signed an agreement with a large e-commerce player to deploy 2,500 robots to enable ultra-fast goods delivery, with similar commercial customers in the pipeline.
In a move to slash the cost of e-commerce deliveries, Vayu Robotics is to deploy the world’s first on-road Delivery Robot that combines the power of modern AI foundation models with lidar-less, low-cost passive sensors.
Traditional mobile robotics rely on costly lidar sensors and software modules built to do one task at a time, leading to expensive hardware and fragile software unable to handle new scenarios. Vayu’s robot does the opposite. The company has combined a transformer-based mobility foundation model with a powerful passive sensor that, together, eliminate the need for lidar.
As a result, Vayu’s Delivery Robot operates autonomously without pre-mapping the roads it intends to drive on and is capable of navigating inside stores, on city streets, and unloading packages on driveways or porches, carrying up to 100 lbs at under 20mph. This model is the first-of-its-kind, offering the most cost-effective, safe, reliable delivery system on the market.
“The unique set of technologies we have developed at Vayu have allowed us to solve problems that have plagued delivery robots over the past decade, and finally create a solution that can actually be deployed at scale and enable the cheap transport of goods everywhere” says Vayu Robotics CEO, Anand Gopalan.
“At Khosla Ventures, we believe in backing businesses where critical and differentiated technologies can unlock a large market. Vayu is a great example of this where they have deployed novel sensing and their AI foundation models to a robotic challenge that can have immense economic and societal impact” says Kanu Gulati, Partner at Khosla Ventures.
Gopalan adds, “Our software is robot form factor agnostic and we have already deployed it across several wheeled form factors.In the near future, Vayu’s software technology will enable the movement of quadrupedal and bipedal robots, allowing us to expand into those markets as well.”
Vayu has previously raised $12.7 million to fuel its mission to remove the hardware and software bottlenecks that have stunted the growth of e-commerce. Looking ahead, Vayu’s founders believe their revolutionary low-cost robotics nervous system can power a new wave of mobile robots in other use cases, too.
“Autonomous delivery robots are only the tip of the iceberg,” says Anand Gopalan. With its cutting-edge innovation and deployment, Vayu is poised to lead the adoption of real-world robotics across industries. For now, Vayu’s scalable robotics architecture is set to empower small businesses to deliver products to their customers’ doorstep seamlessly.
