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Sanctuary’s Phoenix humanoid is being developed to assist quite a lot of duties. | Credit score: Sanctuary AI

In its Know-how Imaginative and prescient 2024 report, Accenture mentioned 95% of the executives it surveyed agreed that “making know-how extra human will massively increase the alternatives of each {industry}.” Effectively, at the moment Accenture put its cash the place its mouth is. Accenture Ventures introduced a strategic funding in Sanctuary AI, one of many corporations creating humanoid robots.

The Robotic Report reached out to Sanctuary to study extra in regards to the funding however hadn’t heard again at press time. This text might be up to date if extra particulars are realized. Monetary particulars of the funding weren’t disclosed.

Vancouver, Canada-based Sanctuary was based in 2018 by Geordie Rose, Suzanne Gildert, Olivia Norton, and Ajay Agrawal. In December 2023, the corporate introduced the acquisition of mental property from Big.AI Inc. and Tangible Analysis to enhance its contact and greedy applied sciences.

Humanoids are producing loads of curiosity nowadays. Determine just lately raised $675 million and is piloting its humanoid with BMW. Agility Robotics has piloted its Digit humanoid with Amazon and GXO Logistics. Apptronik just lately introduced a partnership with BMW. NVIDIA additionally introduced a basis mannequin for humanoids, referred to as GROOT, that’s designed to convey robotics and embodied AI collectively.

Sanctuary centered on dexterous manipulation

Whereas different humanoid builders have centered a lot of their power on bipedal locomotion, Sanctuary has taken a distinct strategy with its Phoenix robotic. It believes object manipulation is the important thing to humanoid success available in the market and has put most of its power into hand-eye coordination and AI intelligence to assist dexterous manipulation.

Sanctuary has revealed a sequence of movies of its robots “doing stuff” on YouTube (see video on the backside of the story). These movies illustrate the event path of the two-armed humanoid in addition to the AI behind the robots’ decision-making.

Powered by Carbon, Phoenix is now autonomously finishing easy duties at human-equivalent velocity. This is a vital step on the journey to full autonomy. Phoenix is exclusive amongst humanoids in its velocity, precision, and power, all crucial for industrial functions. pic.twitter.com/bYlsKBYw3i

— Geordie Rose (@realgeordierose) February 28, 2024

“AI-powered humanoid robots are important to reinventing work and supporting human staff as labor scarcity is changing into a difficulty in lots of international locations and industries,” mentioned Joe Lui, Accenture’s international superior automation and robotics lead. “Sanctuary AI’s superior AI platform trains robots to react to their surroundings and carry out new duties with precision in a really brief time. We see big potential for his or her robots in put up and parcel, manufacturing, retail, and logistics warehousing operations, the place they might complement and collaborate with human staff and automate duties that conventional robotics can’t.”

Constructing an AI mind

Phoenix is powered by Sanctuary’s AI management system, Carbon, which makes an attempt to imitate subsystems discovered within the human mind. The strategy taken by the corporate additionally seeks to make the AI actions explainable, in addition to editable.

“Robots with human-like intelligence will utterly rework the workforce of the long run,” mentioned Rose, chief government officer and co-founder of Sanctuary AI. “By combining Accenture’s experience in disruptive know-how with Sanctuary AI’s industry-leading robotics, we will help a few of the greatest corporations on the earth handle this transformation and supply the very best options for its purchasers.”

Accenture’s rising robotics portfolio

The funding in Sanctuary is the newest transfer by Accenture to construct out a robotics technique. In January 2024, Accenture and Mujin created a three way partnership to assist convey robotics to the manufacturing and logistics industries. Known as Accenture Alpha Automation, the brand new enterprise is owned 70% by Accenture and 30% by Mujin. The brand new firm, referred to as Accenture Alpha Automation, combines Mujin’s industrial robotics experience with Accenture’s digital engineering and manufacturing service, Business X.

Accenture Alpha Automation is situated in Japan, which is a robotics powerhouse. Japan had the fourth-highest robotic density of any nation in 2022, in accordance with the Worldwide Federation of Robotics. Robotic density measures the variety of operational industrial robots per 10,000 workers in a rustic.

Accenture has additionally constructed out robotics integration capabilities lately. In early 2021, Accenture acquired Pollux, a supplier of business robotics and automation. This was Accenture’s first acquisition of the sort. On the time of the deal, Pollux had applied greater than 1,000 initiatives for manufacturing corporations, primarily in Brazil. It mentioned it has deployed 150-plus collaborative robots efficiently all through Brazil.

In 2022, Accenture acquired Eclipse Automation, a supplier of customized automation and robotics options for manufacturing functions. Eclipse Automation creates automated manufacturing programs for all times sciences, industrial gear, automotive, power and client items corporations.