Former Tesla Lead Unveils Powerful Warehouse Robot, Launches Robotics Startup

Former Tesla lead unveils warehouse robot that can lift 3000 lbs

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More The rise of foundation models has reignited interest in robotics. From Boston Dynamics to Figure, companies are exploring how continuously learning humanoids can transform enterprise and consumer ecosystems. But does it always have to be a complex, two-legged robotics system roaming around? Well, Chris Walti, the former head of Tesla's Optimus humanoid project, thinks otherwise, especially in the case of warehouse operations. Today, he announced Mytra, a startup co-founded with former Rivian lead Ahmad Baitalmal, with a mission to use simple, AI-driven, 3D robotics systems to handle one of the biggest tasks within a warehouse: material flow. "We're taking a radically different approach by reducing the number of parts and moving the focus from hardware to software. We are the first and only solution that can universally automate many of the most labor-intensive, costly, and complex aspects of material flow, which are the 'red blood cells' of any industrial operation," Walti said in a statement. The company has been operating under the radar since 2022 but is finally emerging from stealth with $78 million funding up to series B. The investment has come from some major industry heavyweights and venture capital firms, including Greenoaks, Eclipse, Abstract Ventures, Promus Ventures, LifeX, 515 Ventures and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan. What exactly does the robotics startup provide? Material flow, or the movement and storage of materials, products and goods, is the lion's share of work in a warehouse. However, even with all sorts of advances in AI and robotics today, many enterprises handle it with humans driving forklifts or handling conveyors. This is not only time-consuming but also unsustainable, given the increasing pressure on manufacturing and the supply chain as well as the dwindling labor supply. Walti saw this problem firsthand during his seven-year-long stint at Tesla. He tells VentureBeat that the situation of the material flow system back then was so bad that it "almost sunk the company." "I created and led an internal team to ensure Tesla never was in this position again. As the scope of this effort increased, including leading the Tesla Bot, it was clear that more than 'general purpose' robotics, the world needs better, simpler, form factors that can harness the power of modern software to solve highly pervasive problems in factories and warehouses," he said. This ultimately led to the inception of Mytra in 2022. At the core, the startup provides enterprises with a modularly deployed cell-based matrix structure through which an AI-powered bot navigates. It can carry up to 3000 pounds from any cell to any adjacent cell in any direction, given the needs of the warehouse, delivering a significant upgrade over manual ways of lifting, moving and storing materials. "The structure can scale in any direction and form to any shape. Technically, it's a tesselating lattice structure. It has no moving parts or powered devices and serves to 'structure' a 3D space for the bot to move around from any cell to any adjacent cell in any axis (X, Y, and Z). Together, these two systems enable the physics-limited maximum kinematic flexibility," Walti explained. Meanwhile, the end-to-end AI software enhances the bot's efficiency, optimizes routes and manages inventory. It uses manufacturing facilities' predicted plan (based on past data) of what needs to be done and places inventory that is high velocity or needed soon in strategically higher throughput zones in the structure. Meanwhile, if the goods are not needed soon, it stores them in lower throughput zones. "Every cell can be software-addressed as a storage or throughput location. This way the Mytra system creates nearly infinite configurability where goods are stored and, conversely, the paths through the system are defined," the CEO added. Essentially, depending on needs, teams can modify the robotics' system for the required scale, density, throughput and application at any point in time. To meet the computational demand of this software-based approach, Mytra has deployed a combination of algorithms trained with reinforcement learning. "Algorithms focus on small subsets of the problem which are critical and high-value add. The reinforcement learning addresses this computational complexity in a very elegant and efficient way by sorting through the limitless possibilities to create an efficient plan for the operations at any point in time," Walti noted. Significant traction from Fortune 100 While the company has just emerged from stealth, the founder claims they are already seeing significant traction from Fortune 100 companies like grocery giant Albertsons (which has also invested in the startup). "We have pilot programs in progress and interest from existing customers who want to scale their work with us. More recently, we're seeing growing demand from new customers, with several new deployments slated for 2025. The strong traction we've seen so far from customers demonstrates we are solving a critical and growing business challenge," Walti added. When asked how much deploying the modular system would cost, the CEO emphasized that the "upfront investment in the structure should be comparable to traditional pallet racking at scale." The other elements of the system - the bots and AI software - are offered on a service-based model. "With all of our projects so far we have seen significantly lower costs of using Mytra bots + software vs. traditional material handling equipment (forklifts, pallet jacks) + human labor for the same activity," he said. Notably, companies like AutoStore, Locus and Zebra are also working to automate material movement tasks with the help of robots, the CEO claims that all those solutions require deep technical expertise and a massive investment of time and money. On top of that, they lack the flexibility to adjust to evolving business needs. With the funding, the CEO plans to scale the technology and deliver the system to interested customers. It will also grow its team across departments to further improve the system and deploy the next generation of Mytra bots for blue chip companies looking to automate applications that remain highly manual and labor-intensive.

Former Tesla humanoid head launches a robotics startup | TechCrunch

Mytra has been quietly operating behind the scenes since its May 2022 founding in a bid to rethink warehouse automation. The startup brings a solid pedigree to the table, founded by automotive vets from EV firms, including Tesla and Rivian. Warehouse/fulfillment has been a white hot category for automation since the pandemic hamstrung the global supply chain in ways that are still being felt. It's a highly competitive space, as well, with big names like Amazon, Locus and Zebra/Fetch making headway and setting the stage for an explosion of interest in the bipedal humanoid form factor. Even as the world has come back to life post-pandemic, labor shortages remain a major sticking point for the industry, as with so many others. There's still plenty of room for players to make an impact, however. Estimates suggest that between 5% and 10% of global warehouses are automated in any meaningful sense. Like so many others, Mytra co-founder and CEO Chris Walti discovered automation's shortcomings the hard way. He was previously at Tesla, where the hard way tends to be par for the course. Walti spent seven years at the carmaker, first in engineering, then mobile robotics and ultimately as the senior manager/lead for what would become Optimus. He describes his journey through Tesla as an ongoing cycle of looking for solutions, determining that nothing in market was suitable for its specifics needs, and then going and building the things themselves. That started with autonomous mobile robot (AMR) solutions. "I was pulled into manufacturing and automation through the Model 3 ramp," Walti told TechCrunch. "Tesla was struggling to get our automation systems up and running, so we ended up setting up a manual warehouse as a pressure release valve for the manufacturing system. About six months later, they were like, 'Can you just take over the automation system that's causing a lot of these challenges?'" Among the industry shortcomings that emerged for Tesla's specific needs was an inability to find AMRs that could move around payloads as heavy as 3,000 pounds. Those are the sorts of demands one bumps up against when making cars. So the team went to work building their own solutions in-house. "And then Elon [Musk] was like, 'We should build a humanoid," Walti said. "My team was tapped to lead that. I led the internal hiring effort for that team. Everything you saw on AI Day was a product of those efforts." He added that, "at some point, [Optimus] became the number one effort in the company. It ended up not really being a fit for what I ended up wanting to do." Walti remains bullish about the long-term impact of humanoid robots across a variety of sectors, but he noted that he "think[s] it's going to be a while before humanoids are truly moving the needle on a production floor." Mytra's solution shares a lot of common DNA with vertical robotic storage solutions produced by companies like AutoStore. Two of the primary differentiators between the startup and existing solutions, according to Walti, are its ability manage heavy payloads. "There are literally trillions of different ways that I can move one of these pallets or bookshelves from point A to point B within the system," he explained. "Which is fundamentally unique. This is the most kinematically free system that has been conceived." In spite of maintaining stealth until now, Mytra has already drummed up interest with big names. The startup has a pilot with grocery giant Albertsons, along with "another half-dozen Fortune 50 customers that are in varying stages in the pipeline." Mytra also recently closed a $50 million Series B, bringing its total funding up to $78 million. Investors include Greenoaks and Eclipse.

Warehouse robotics automation firm Mytra launches with $78M to change how materials move - SiliconANGLE

Warehouse robotics automation firm Mytra launches with $78M to change how materials move Mytra, a warehouse automation solution that uses artificial intelligence and robotics to move materials, today announced its launch from stealth with a total of $78 million to solve the biggest problems facing physical storage right now, which is moving materials. The company has developed a novel solution for storing and moving materials in a three-dimensional grid, making the best possible use of space. The matrix lattice for the storage grid can be built quickly and easily from simple, modular pieces of hardware, which takes a lot of the technical debt off the customer and it can be shaped to fit whatever space customers have. The company is backed by Greenoaks, which led the company's Series B funding round and Eclipse, which led the company's Series A and seed funding rounds, in addition to Okta Inc. co-founder and Chairman Frederic Kerrest's 515 Ventures and others. Mytra's robot works like a pallet jack and can move within the 3D lattice structure to pick up and drop off boxes within different cells. Using rollers and grippers on its sides, it can roll side to side or move vertically either unloaded or with a box atop its square holding surface. That means the robot can move wherever it needs through the lattice and pick up and move items, and warehouse administrators can choose how to configure where items are stored. In an interview with SiliconANGLE, Mytra co-founder and Chief Executive Chris Walti said that he founded the company to help disrupt the highly specialized industry of logistics behind what is called "material flow." That's the delivery of product between different parts of manufacturing processes or from packaging to staging or within retail warehouses to display. "You see all sorts of bespoke, customized and custom things, conveyors that are moving boxes and pallets from a very specific point to another specific point," said Walti. "And you know what should sound alarm bells in your head is like, wow, that is a lot of tech debt. That is a lot of stuff to maintain, that's a lot of stuff to install. It's a lot of stuff to configure. There's literally thousands of different unique parts that are needed to make all this happen." What's worse, Walti pointed out, is that if a business changes, the material flow might also change and all those conveyors, custom setups, sensors and the like need to be changed. That could be an undertaking that would cost a business millions of dollars from the outset and an investment that might be so prohibitive that it could make it impractical to change it and thus catch up with a business opportunity. Mytra's robots can move up to 3,000 pounds horizontally and vertically through the matrix cells. The company's name comes from a Greek word, "Mitra," which means matrix. When moving between cells, robots will avoid each other and administrators can define clear corridors as hallways and columns and elevators for them to move boxes through. This allows them to easily define where robots can store and retrieve items, creating regions within the matrix for storage. The robots are "highly collaborative," Walti explained, because of the environment and the space within which they need to operate. Any given storage matrix is expected to support more than one bot at a time and they will be moving to retrieve and deliver objects from within the lattice with other bots all the time at very high speed. So they have artificial intelligence algorithms that help them avoid collision and lock states that might create traffic jams or unemotionally trap a bot within a section of the matrix. "It's unique to our problem that we have to solve, and it enables these bots to become, very independent thinking agents in a very high velocity and high concentrated environment," Walti said. "Think of 'Minority Report' where all those vehicles were spinning around in a very dense city, living in all different axes. Like these bots will be able to do that in full three dimensions. Humans are pretty darn good at doing this too. Walk down the streets in New York, and people, surprisingly, don't run into each other that often." Walti's experience comes from working at Tesla Inc., the company best known for its autonomous cars - and now also for its work on the Optimus humanoid robot. His early work there involved working with a team scaling up an autonomous robot that could move in all directions and carry heavy loads. Eventually he was put on the humanoid robot team but felt like that wasn't where he wanted to put his efforts, so he left the company. According to Walti, warehouse and manufacturing centers need to solve practical problems such as material flow issues and Mytra's solution does exactly that. Although humanoid robots and other manipulators have an interesting niche use case, they're not quite there yet.