The richest man in Asia is throwing his hat into the humanoid robotics fray.
Mukesh Ambani is backing the venture through Reliance Industries, the largest company in India. Reliance owns 54 percent of Addverb Technology, which plans to produce 100 initial humanoid robots in 2025.
Addverb CEO Sungeet Kumar told Bloomberg the humanoids will perform tasks across industries like fashion, retail, energy, defense, and space research. Reliance is closely linked to the effort, offering financial backing, tech support, and industry connections.
“Reliance is our largest consumer of robots,” he said, adding, “So we are leveraging strength available internally and combining it and trying to build humanoids, which will be used in the industries where we are already present.”
Founded in 2016, Addverb began with mobile robots and gradually expanded to industrial and medical applications. It has a research center in Silicon Valley focused on advanced robotics. Addverb employs nearly 1,000 people globally.
Reliance bought Addverb in 2022 for $132 million to expand automation and robotics innovation.
Addverb is joining a growing array of Indian robotics companies developing humanoids, like IHUB Robotics whose semi-humanoid Tara just shared a TEDX Talk stage with Isha Farha Quraishy, a renowned tech entrepreneur.
Reliance recently announced a partnership with NVIDIA to establish AI infrastructure in India. They’re kickstarting the initiative using Reliance’s established resources.
Jio, Reliance’s telecom giant, offers the cheapest data in the world. The affordable connectivity has laid the groundwork for Reliance to integrate advanced artificial intelligence and robotics into everyday life.
Ambani says he wants AI tools to work seamlessly on existing phones and computers to lower barriers for entry.
Addverb’s offerings include:
- Dynamo, an autonomous mobile robot equipped with LiDAR sensors for transporting materials within warehouses and factories,
- Multi-Pro, a shuttle-based automated storage and retrieval system for multi-deep pallet storage,
- Zippy, an ultra-fast sorting robot for logistics and distribution centers,
- Syncro, a collaborative robot that works safely alongside humans,
- Heal, a medical cobot for rehab and imaging purposes,
- Trakr, India’s first assistive robot dog.
Unveiled at LogiMAT India 2024, the Trakr quadrupedal robot operates autonomously for tasks like facility inspections, patrols, and surveillance. Addverb is positioning the quadruped as competition for leading robotic dogs like Spot by Boston Dynamics, the Go2 by Unitree Robotics, and ANYmal by ANYbotics.