Robotics startup develops universal industrial robot in under two years
Noble Machines was founded in 2024. But their first industrial robot is already ready for deployment.
(Image: Noble Machines)
US robotics startup Noble Machines has succeeded in developing, building, and delivering the universal industrial robot Moby to its first customer in less than two years. This was made possible by the concentrated experience within the company: engineers from NASA, SpaceX, Caltech, and Apple worked together on the AI-powered robot, which was put together in just eight months.
The startup Noble Machines was founded in 2024 to develop a robot with arms and legs for industrial applications that can withstand the constant demands of such environments. The engineers wanted to construct a robust industrial robot that could also be scaled and that would primarily operate in work environments where heavy, physical labor is performed, which can be strenuous and dangerous. The robot thus addresses work areas for which personnel are increasingly difficult to find.
Robust robot for tough work assignments
Moby is designed according to its working environment. It has a massive upper body with strong arms and legs. The robot is said to be able to lift weights of up to 27 kg. For comparison: the similarly constructed Digit from Agility Robotics can only manage just under 14 kg, Figure's humanoid Figure 03 can carry up to just under 20 kg, while Boston Dynamics' Atlas can carry up to about 50 kg.
Despite its robustness, the Moby robot is designed so that the approximately 70 kg robot can work collaboratively with humans, Noble Machines promises.
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The robotics startup developed the hardware and software entirely in-house. From the outset, the developers focused on embodied intelligence and autonomous action. They used Nvidia's robotics framework ISAAC Sim to achieve rapid results in AI training. The engineers have refined the robot so that it can learn new tasks within a few hours. The operator can train the robot using natural language instructions, demonstrations, and gestures.
Noble Machines is now cooperating with Solomon, Adlink, and Schaeffler to further develop the robots practically. Noble Machines does not disclose to whom the first Moby robot was delivered. However, it is said to be a Fortune Global 500 company.
(olb)
