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Humanoid-maker Apptronik has opened Robot Park, a factory in Austin, Texas, where its robots will practice real-world tasks across a warehouse the size of two football fields. One of the biggest hurdles for robot companies is a lack of real-world data: There aren’t enough robots in the field to significantly improve the models running them, and existing testing sites can only hold a small number.
Apptronik’s new warehouse will see “hundreds” of the company’s latest humanoids in operation, spokesperson Liz Clinkenbeard told Semafor. Its previous testing site could only hold roughly 10 at a time. The bots will practice tasks they’ll perform for customers — often manufacturers — like packaging items together, sorting tools, and moving boxes around shelves.
Along with real-world tests to train robot systems, companies also use digital simulations, where renderings of the robots practice tasks in the digital world. Those simulations can run all day, every day, but they don’t account for limitations like aging hardware or real-world occurrences like a robot’s foot slipping on the ground.
By testing at Robot Park, the company can “capture that physical nuance and can adapt quickly,” CEO Jeff Cardenas said.
Apptronik will share the data it gets with Google DeepMind, a research partner and investor. Google can then integrate that data back into Gemini Robots, the AI model used across the robot industry.
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As part of Apptronik’s Tuesday announcement of Robot Park, it also unveiled the latest line of its Apollo humanoid robots. Notably, it upgraded its wheeled robot, which looks like a humanoid mounted to a wheeled base rather than legs, because of high demand, Clinkenbeard said. The industry has not yet determined adequate safety standards for two-legged robots to operate alongside humans. But wheeled robots are currently allowed.