AI Startup Jacobi Robotics Raises $5M to Make Box-Stacking Safer and More Efficient

A startup is using AI to revolutionize the tedious and injury-prone task of stacking boxes on pallets in warehouses, potentially delivering a tangible win for commercial robotics in the near term.

The importance of pallets in the global supply chain: Pallets are ubiquitous in the movement of goods worldwide, with billions in circulation and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of products transported on them annually:

• Over 2 billion pallets are used in the U.S. alone, carrying $400 billion in exported goods each year.
• Despite their critical role, loading boxes onto pallets remains a manual task fraught with risks of worker injury due to heavy loads and repetitive motions.

Jacobi Robotics’ AI-powered solution: The startup, spun out of UC Berkeley, has developed software that vastly accelerates the process of training robots to stack pallets:

• Jacobi’s software uses deep learning to generate an initial “draft” of how a robotic arm should move boxes onto a pallet, then refines it using optimization techniques to ensure safe, error-free execution.
• This AI-driven approach promises to cut the time to program a palletizing robot from months down to a single day, computing motions in less than a millisecond.
• The software integrates with the four leading robotic palletizing arm manufacturers and includes a virtual studio for customers to build digital twins of their warehouse setups.

Investors betting big on AI robotics, but practical wins matter: While billions are flowing into next-gen robots like humanoids that may take years to materialize, Jacobi’s $5 million seed round reflects a “pragmatic approach” to deploying AI for a widespread industrial problem now:

• Jacobi co-founder Max Cao believes focusing on achievable tasks like palletizing will drive faster adoption compared to long-term “moonshots.”
• The company’s algorithms blend the benefits of AI’s speed with the accuracy of traditional robotics methods, minimizing errors.
• Experts view Jacobi’s motion planning speed as “pushing this into a new category” with major implications for boosting efficiency in time-sensitive industrial settings.

Looking ahead: As the hype around transformative AI in robotics reaches a fever pitch, Jacobi Robotics’ solution for palletizing demonstrates the potential for narrow, practical applications of the technology to deliver meaningful improvements in the here and now. If the software works as promised when it launches later this month, it could serve as a case study for startups and investors looking to find the right balance between ambitious dreams and tangible results in this fast-moving space.