A Scottsdale-based startup was among 10 companies handpicked by Jeff Bezos to showcase its technology at Amazon’s MARS conference, held earlier this year in California.
At the exclusive invite-only event, Revolute Robotics Inc. demonstrated its hybrid mobility robot — or HMR — which is a drone mounted inside a spherical exoskeleton containing a mechanism that enables it to roll on the ground when it's not flying to collect data.
The HMR reduces the need for companies to perform manual inspections, cutting back on labor costs and saving time while improving safety.
The company designed an obstacle course replicating seven environments that traditional drones and rovers are unable to access, showcasing the HMR’s ability to navigate hard-to-reach spaces commonly found during industrial inspections, site surveillance and military operations, said Collin Taylor, cofounder and CEO of Revolute Robotics.
“Maybe a drone can do a couple of the obstacles. Maybe a rover can do a different couple (of obstacles)," he said. "But there's not one robot that can operate across the board in all of these tight spaces and environments. So that was the idea.”
Every year, some of the brightest minds converge at Amazon's MARS conference, which highlights emerging technologies in machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and space exploration via presentations and demonstrations. During the five-day conference hosted by Bezos, Revolute Robotics had an opportunity to network with Amazon executives, scientists, industry experts, other startups and Fortune 500 companies.
“My curiosity has been running rampant ever since,” Taylor told AZ Inno. “We got a firsthand look at the newest, most innovative things that are coming out and a lot of which are still in development …You see all these presentations and demos, and you leave thinking, ‘Wow, we are, as a species, doing some really awesome stuff. There's never been a better time than now.”
In October, Amazon MARS conference organizers contacted Revolute Robotics about potentially featuring its HMR at the event, Taylor said.
“They said, 'We're scouting out this technology and we're going take our picks to Jeff (Bezos) and he’ll decide his top 10,'” he said.
In December, Revolute Robotics was selected to participate in the conference and had three months to prepare its technology demonstration, Taylor said.
The company's HMR garnered positive feedback from MARS conference attendees, some of whom were curious about the robot's capabilities. The technology also caught the attention of Bezos, who received a demonstration from the company on the robot's potential uses in mining, construction and military operations, Taylor said.
Company launching paid pilots in late 2024
Revolute Robotics, which AZ Inno named a Startup to Watch in 2024, will continue hosting product demos for the military and inspection companies throughout the year.
“We are doing a U.S. Navy demo in the next couple of months, and we're doing an Army demo in September, which will actually be at Fort Huachuca in Arizona,” Taylor said.
The company is looking to raise a pre-seed round for additional product development in preparation for paid pilots, which will begin with inspection companies in the fourth quarter of 2024, generating its first commercial revenues.
“At our core, we keep humans out of harm's way. This is what drives us. It's what we love most about the company,” Taylor said. “There's this element of, we're doing something that's never been done before, building a robot that can drive and fly, and open up all these new use cases and applications across so many different industries. That gets us excited.”
