Intrinsic: Google parent company founds new robotics company

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The youngest alphabet startup from the secret “Moonshot” department aims to bring artificial intelligence and industrial robots together.

Alphabet’s last robotics experiment ended with moderate success. In 2017, Google’s parent company sold Boston Dynamics, known for its dancing and always somewhat scary robots, to the Japanese Softbank Group. Presumably because no marketable products were to be expected.

But because it is apparently too boring without its own robotics division, Alphabet has now founded a new startup dedicated to technology: Intrinsic. One wants “Unlock the creative and economic potential of industrial robotics for millions of other companies, entrepreneurs and developers“, it says in a blog post. “We develop software tools designed to make industrial robots (which are used to make everything from solar panels to cars) more user-friendly, less expensive, and more flexible so that more people can use them to develop new products, businesses, and services. “

Intrinsic arises Alphabet semi-secret Development department X and their “Moonshot Factory”, that deals with future technologies. Deliver under cover in the past Waymo too, the startup for autonomous driving, or the now discontinued Loon project. In fact, Intrinsic has been quietly researching for almost five years, for example since the sale of Boston Dynamics. This is why the startup can already present the first results and collaborations.

“In collaboration with teams from Alphabet and with our partners in real production environments, we tested software that uses techniques such as automated perception, deep learning, reinforcement learning, motion planning, simulation and force control,” writes the manager in charge, Wendy Tan-White. The robots in the intrinsic laboratory use machine learning and force control to insert power connections into a machine and assemble furniture.

In a first project, Intrinsic is working with Gramazio Kohler Research from ETH Zurich. The movement planning software from Intrinsic controls four industrial robots to assemble wooden components for a sustainable architectural project.

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