Gecko Robotics is a leader in AI+Robotics (AIR), which can save tens of millions of dollars per year, when autonomous asset inspections are used to eliminate down-time and optimize maintenance operations. The company has already reached $1.25bn of valuation. The value hinges on the marriage of specialized hardware with an AI platform. This holds lessons for the future of robotics and across the industrial world?
Gecko Robotics was founded in 2013, is headquartered in Pittsburgh, has scaled to c300 employees and has raised over $220M, including from YCombinator, achieving a valuation over $1.25bn by 2025.
AIR = AI + Robotics. Gecko deploys gecko-like robots, supported by its Cantilever operating platform, to provide AIR solutions to industrial customers.
Stated aims include improving the up-time and reliability of power generation by 3-5%; avoiding the c20% of capital investment on fixed equipment and 50% of reactive maintenance that are unnecessary; and in some case studies, saving tens of millions of dollars per year via optimizing mainenance programs.
One striking comment from the company’s case studies chimes with our own findings into the AI era. “[In] the next generation of world-leading companies, those who embrace digital transformation will thrive, those who don’t will be left behind. “
Gecko Robotics’ patents focus on the hardware underlying its robotics. There is much more complexity here than we imagined, perhaps suggesting that it is the marriage between hardware and software that unlocks value in AIR. A summary is below, and details are in the data-file.
It was particularly interesting to see the patents turning to inertial navigation for localization.
Our own robotics research has seen more value in systems that are ultra-specialized for their specific purposes, rather than general-purpose “humanoid” robots. The Gecko patents are focused on hardware that is essential for climbing, sensing, data quality and data localization, in a package that is as compact and mobile as possible. This does not benefit from having two arms, two legs, ten fingers and ten toes (!).
Materials implications. We have written before that median electricity-consuming object is 6% copper by mass, and as much as 10-20% for some robotics concepts. But in our patent review, it stood out that Gecko Robotics would use Rare Earth magnets for wheels, motors and actuators; other Rare Earths for its laser and navigation systems; and yet other Rare Earths in fiber optic data transmission.
More comprehensive details into Gecko Robotics technologies, gleaned from its patents, are found in the data-file.