Artificial intelligence-powered industrial robotics startup Symbio Robotics Inc. today officially launched with an announcement that it has raised $30 million.

The funding round was led by ACMECapital and included Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse Ventures and The House Fund.

Founded in 2014, Symbio developers robotic systems and software for advanced manufacturing that use AI to modernize industrial manufacturing. The company’s technology can be retrofitted into existing industrial robots making them faster, more capable and more flexible.

Symbio’s robotics systems have at their core SymbioDCS, an industrial robotics middleware and python programming framework that’s claimed to simplify the programming of industrial robots to make them far more intelligent.

SymbioDCS enables programmers to leverage real-time sensor information and feedback from existing automation sensors in combination with advanced control software. Industrial robots that are programmed and managed with SymbioDCS can quickly learn and execute tasks increasing efficiency, improving quality and reducing ergonomic hazards.

The company’s framework runs on edge computing infrastructure through industrial networks to inform and instruct current factory systems, deploying the ability to create final assembly tasks that were previously not automated. 

Automated industrial robotics is not a new field but Symbio argues that industry incumbents are focused solely on black box systems that operate fully autonomously. Symbio’s solution, on the other hand, is focused on a different problem: building automation that enables the best of human-machine collaboration.

Although the company has only officially launched today, it has been working with various manufacturers, including Nissan Motor Corp. in addition to other major automotive companies.

“Symbio is doing for manufacturing what Windows did for DOS,” Max Reynolds, Symbio co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Existing industrial manufacturing robots run proprietary programming languages making them slow and cumbersome. Not only do these robots lack dexterity, they lack the intelligence to make them do what they need to do.”

Reynolds said Symbio’s technology is designed to reframe those existing manufacturing pain points by employing the best practices of AI and human robot interaction. “That’s what we believe will drive success,” he said.

Including the new funding, Symbio has raised $56.1 million to date.

Photo: Symbio Robotics