by Brianna Crandall — July 27, 2018 — Brain Corp, an artificial intelligence (AI) company specializing in the development of self-driving technology for robots, recently announced its investment in Savioke, developer of Relay, the first indoor service robot designed to work safely, securely and reliably in public environments including hotels and hospitals. As part of its participation in the Series B funding round, Silicon Valley-based Savioke will also license BrainOS, a software platform streamlining the development, deployment and management of mobile robots.
Relay autonomous indoor delivery robots can transport food orders, hospitality items, parts and more. Image courtesy Savioke
Brain Corp partners with original equipment manufacturers to integrate BrainOS into their manually driven machines, allowing for smart, self-driving capabilities. As a global provider of robotic floor care, its autonomous cleaning machines operate daily in crowded environments, such as malls, airports and retail stores. Brain Corp’s partnership with Savioke extends the reach of BrainOS into hospitality, healthcare and logistics.
Whether a receptionist wants to deliver a just-arrived lunch order to an office upstairs, or a hospital or hotel staff member wants to send food or supplies to a particular room, or a facilities manager (FM) wants to send a part to a technician, the Savioke Relay autonomous delivery robot is ready for the task.
The Relay robots are engineered to work safely, securely and reliably across an ever-expanding variety of facilities such as office buildings, logistics, hotels, apartments and health care. Image courtesy Savioke
According to Brain Corp Co-founder and CEO Eugene Izhikevich:
We have experienced strong success automating the floor care industry, and as part of our growth strategy, are now introducing the BrainOS platform across a multitude of other applications. Supporting leading robotics companies that can leverage BrainOS to accelerate their robotic development is one of our primary development objectives. Savioke has a unique product, early traction and experienced leadership. We are confident Savioke and Brain Corp will make ideal partners as we work together to make robots part of our day-to-day lives.
Steve Cousins, CEO of Savioke and founder of the open-source Robot Operating System (ROS), remarked:
Working with Brain Corp’s BrainOS platform will help Savioke scale efficiently to quickly deliver robotic solutions to our customers and partners in the global healthcare, hospitality and logistics markets. As we continue to expand, BrainOS will allow us to better focus our internal development efforts on customer-specific applications and environments.
Savioke’s Series B also includes participation from Swisslog Healthcare, current investors and others.
Brain Corporation (Brain Corp) is a San Diego-based AI company that partners with manufacturers of commercial equipment to convert their manually operated products into autonomous robots. Brain Corp’s technology represents the next generation of artificial brains for robots. Brain Corporation is funded by the SoftBank Vision Fund and Qualcomm Ventures. For more information or to access videos of its robots, visit the Brain Corp website.
Savioke develops and deploys autonomous robots that work in human environments to improve people’s lives. Founded in 2013 by a team from Willow Garage, Savioke’s flagship product, Relay, is an award-winning autonomous indoor delivery robot “that increases productivity, revenue, and delight” for people across a range of environments such as logistics, hotels, office buildings, high-rise apartments and now health care. For more information, visit the Savioke website.
