Director of Robot Park @Apptronik 🦾 | Previous @CapitalFactory | Buckeye from Columbus | Tweets are my own
Austin, TX
Joined February 2014
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Some of my coworkers are robots 🤖🦾 @Apptronik #Robotics
From a NASA partnership to a high-dollar funding round, Austin tech companies are continuing to innovate their respective sectors. Catch up on the news you might have missed in the link below. builtinaustin.com/2022/09/26…
Kevin Cook retweeted
Gemini 4 Argon is here! 🔥
It opens up a new frontier of intelligence for physical AI, including understanding, simulating, and learning complex, real-world physical tasks that matter for robotics 🦾 .
Here’s an example of how:
🎥 Argon watched a raw video of a human playing cornhole
🦾 It mapped the spatial coordinates of the environment, and calculated the required whole-body joint movements.
💻 It autonomously built the simulation code with MuJoCo, and then it practice in real
🎯 When transferred onto @Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid, the robot quickly sank seven consecutive shots in a real-world trial 🤯 .
This "Video-to-Sim-to-Real" pipeline compresses weeks of manual modeling into a few hours and is a step change across physical AI.
Learn more to prompt your robot at: developers.googleblog.com/ge…
Gemini 4 Argon taught a robot to play cornhole just by watching a video.
It mapped the physics, coded its own simulation, and taught @Apptronik's Apollo humanoid to sink 7 throws in a row.
Kevin Cook retweeted
Gemini 4 Argon taught a robot to play cornhole just by watching a video.
It mapped the physics, coded its own simulation, and taught @Apptronik's Apollo humanoid to sink 7 throws in a row.
Anyone up for a round of corn hole with Apollo? 🤖
@Apptronik @GoogleDeepMind #robotpark
youtube.com/watch?v=9PICEmtf…
Kevin Cook retweeted
Keep Austin weird! 🤠
Austin has quickly become one of the fastest-growing robotics hubs in the US.
Thanks to its mix of AI talent, advanced manufacturing, and a strong startup culture.
The ecosystem is supported by The University of Texas at Austin, which produces top engineers in robotics, AI, and computer science.
Around the university, a growing number of startups are developing autonomous systems, drones, and humanoid robots.
Austin has also attracted major technology companies. Tesla operates its Gigafactory near the city and is developing the Optimus humanoid robot, creating a large pool of robotics, AI, manufacturing, and automation talent.
The city is also home to Apptronik, one of the leading humanoid robotics startups, whose roots trace back to research at UT Austin.
@elonmusk has built a unique ecosystem in the region through his companies including Tesla, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. Together, they have attracted thousands of engineers working in AI, robotics, manufacturing, autonomy, and hardware, creating one of the deepest talent pools in the US.
Another advantage is Texas' business-friendly environment.
Lower operating costs, no state income tax, and a growing venture capital ecosystem make it attractive for founders looking to build hardware-intensive companies.
In the comments I'll post the companies from the ecosystem.
‼️ Note that Austin area has maaany more robotics companies, research labs, and innovation hubs, so this is a curated selection of the notable product companies, not an exhaustive census!
P.S. I'm constantly working on improving these maps, so if your company is missing, please DM me with basic info about the co, and I will include it in the next release.
~~
♻️ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news → ziegler.substack.com
Kevin Cook retweeted
Gemini Robotics 2 is here, with our new suite of models, robots can now reason through every movement to manage tasks that weren’t possible before, like tying delicate knots - and even team up to solve complex workflows. Huge congrats to the robotics team on this great milestone!
Kevin Cook retweeted
For decades, we’ve dreamed of robots that can seamlessly step into our world and lend a hand.
Today, we take a major stride toward making that dream a reality:
Introducing Gemini Robotics 2 from @GoogleDeepMind, the intelligence layer powering the next generation of truly adaptable robots. This major advance unlocks intelligent whole-body control, advanced dexterity, and even multi-robot collaboration 🤯.
Ok but... how does a robot actually "think"?
Real-world tasks take time and planning. To manage that complexity, our new embodied reasoning model, Gemini Robotics ER 2, acts as the robot’s high-level brain, enhancing the robot’s capabilities to:
— Observe the environment
— Reason about the actions needed to complete the task
— Coordinate with the vision-language-action model to carry out actions
— Track progress until the job is done
This setup allows robots to execute complex multi-step workflows, self-correct if a step fails, and adapt to completely novel situations.
Learn more about Gemini Robotics ER 2 (and our two other brand new models) here: goo.gle/4x4E8q6
Kevin Cook retweeted
Huge congrats to the @GoogleDeepMind team on launching Gemini Robotics 2! Watching Apollo 2 use advanced reasoning to navigate whole-body tasks and fine-tuned dexterity is a massive leap forward. See it for yourself! 👇 #apptronik #robotics #AI #humanoids
Kevin Cook retweeted
One brain. For any robot. 🤖
We’re launching Gemini Robotics 2: our next-generation physical AI bringing full body intelligence to humanoids, advanced dexterity, multi-robot teamwork and more.
Kevin Cook retweeted
As @Apptronik expands their Robot Park facility, our research partnership means real-world data collected by the latest Apollo 2 humanoid platform will help train and advance Gemini Robotics. 🤖
Find out more → goo.gle/4vOPwpO
Kevin Cook retweeted
Welcome to Robot Park, where we’re building the future with Apollo 2. Robot Park is where Apollo learns today, getting the experience needed to make a difference tomorrow.
#Apptronik #Robotics #AI #Humanoids
Kevin Cook retweeted
Also- we’re hiring! The team at Apptronik is world-class and care deeply about building a technology that makes people’s lives better.
Two open listings on the controls team:
- Senior Reinforcement Learning Engineer
- Software Engineer - Human Motion Data
- and more!
Welcome to Robot Park, where we’re building the future with Apollo 2. Robot Park is where Apollo learns today, getting the experience needed to make a difference tomorrow.
#Apptronik #Robotics #AI #Humanoids
Robot Park is officially live, feeding a continuous funnel of real-world customer use cases straight into our high-fidelity, full-body datasets. This is where Apollo learns true, generalized dexterity.
We aren't just collecting data; we are running the engine of intelligence! 🦾
Welcome to Robot Park, where we’re building the future with Apollo 2. Robot Park is where Apollo learns today, getting the experience needed to make a difference tomorrow.
#Apptronik #Robotics #AI #Humanoids
Kevin Cook retweeted
Elon Musk’s DOGE “blatantly used” race, gender and other protected characteristics to execute the largest mass termination of federal grants in the history of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. abcnews.link/kfJxWVn
Kevin Cook retweeted
Assembling the Leadership to Power the Next Generation of Humanoid Robots
To bring humanoid robots 🤖 like #Apollo into everyday use, you need more than great technology: you need leaders who have scaled it before.
As we prepare for our next phase of growth, we’ve bolstered our executive bench with veterans from the world’s most innovative tech giants like Waymo, Boston Dynamics, and Amazon.
Read more in @Forbes: forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsie…
@Donatos let’s talk about opening a spot in Austin, TX. Or get me that Red Robin hook up I see in other cities lol
I heard big things are happening in Austin! Come join us: apptronik.com/careers 🤖🦾
Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve raised more than $935M in Series A funding with a $520M Series A-X extension round, bringing our total capital raised to nearly $1B.
This milestone is a powerful vote of confidence in our mission: building AI-powered humanoid robots designed to work alongside humans.
With this new funding, we’ll be able to:
- Ramp production of #Apollo
- Expand global commercial and pilot deployments
- Build next-generation facilities for robot training and data collection
- Accelerate real-world impact across manufacturing, logistics, and beyond
We’re proud to be backed by an incredible group of repeat and new investors, including @BCapitalGroup, @Google, @MercedesBenz, @ATT Ventures, @JohnDeere, QIA, and more.
The future of embodied #AI is happening now, and Apollo is just the beginning.
- Read the full announcement: apptronik.com/news-collectio…
- Explore open roles: apptronik.com/careers