{"id":578285,"date":"2024-03-27T18:08:22","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T22:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.therobotreport.com\/?p=578285"},"modified":"2024-03-27T18:08:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T22:08:22","slug":"accenture-invests-in-humanoid-maker-sanctuary-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therobotreport.com\/accenture-invests-in-humanoid-maker-sanctuary-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Accenture invests in humanoid maker Sanctuary AI"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sanctuary’s Phoenix humanoid is being developed to support a variety of tasks. | Credit: Sanctuary AI<\/p><\/div>\n

In its Technology Vision 2024 report<\/a>, Accenture said 95% of the executives it surveyed agreed that “making technology more human will massively expand the opportunities of every industry.” Well, today Accenture put its money where its mouth is. Accenture Ventures announced a strategic investment in Sanctuary AI<\/a>, one of the companies developing humanoid robots<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Robot Report<\/em> reached out to Sanctuary to learn more about the investment but hadn’t heard back at press time. This article will be updated if more details are learned. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.<\/p>\n

Vancouver, Canada-based Sanctuary was founded in 2018 by Geordie Rose, Suzanne Gildert, Olivia Norton, and Ajay Agrawal. In December 2023, the company announced the acquisition of intellectual property<\/a> from Giant.AI Inc.<\/a> and Tangible Research<\/a> to improve its touch and grasping technologies.<\/p>\n

Humanoids<\/a> are generating a lot of interest these days. Figure recently raised $675 million<\/a> and is piloting its humanoid with BMW<\/a>. Agility Robotics has piloted its Digit humanoid with Amazon<\/a> and GXO Logistics<\/a>. Apptronik recently announced a partnership with BMW<\/a>. NVIDIA also announced a foundation model for humanoids, called GROOT<\/a>, that is designed to bring robotics and embodied AI together.<\/p>\n

Sanctuary focused on dexterous manipulation<\/h2>\n

While other humanoid developers have focused much of their energy on bipedal locomotion, Sanctuary has taken a different approach with its Phoenix robot. It believes object manipulation is the key to humanoid success in the market and has put most of its energy into hand-eye coordination and AI intelligence to support dexterous manipulation.<\/p>\n

Sanctuary has published a series of videos of its robots \u201cdoing stuff\u201d on YouTube (see video at the bottom of the story). These videos illustrate the development path of the two-armed humanoid as well as the AI behind the robots’ decision-making.<\/p>\n

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Powered by Carbon, Phoenix is now autonomously completing simple tasks at human-equivalent speed. This is an important step on the journey to full autonomy. Phoenix is unique among humanoids in its speed, precision, and strength, all critical for industrial applications. pic.twitter.com\/bYlsKBYw3i<\/a><\/p>\n

— Geordie Rose (@realgeordierose) February 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n