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Tangent Robotics Secures $4.5 Million to Enhance Robot Hands with Fine Motor Skills
Tangent Robotics has successfully raised $4.5 million in pre-seed funding aimed at developing dexterous robot hands tailored for manufacturing applications. The funding round was co-led by Fly Ventures and Toyota Ventures, with additional participation from Logos Fund and Sparked Ventures, as announced on September 30. The company, which emerged from Columbia Engineering’s Robotic Manipulation and Mobility Lab, focuses on creating a fine motor skill layer that bridges vision-language-action models with low-level controllers. This funding is significant as it will enable Tangent Robotics to enhance the capabilities of its TR02 hand, which features three fingers and 10 degrees of freedom. The hand incorporates advanced technologies such as optical touch sensing and a palm camera for visual feedback, facilitating delicate tasks like fitting connectors and assembling gears. The company aims to reduce the learning process for these fine movements from days to hours, which could revolutionize the deployment of robotic solutions in industrial settings. Looking ahead, Tangent Robotics plans to leverage this funding to transform intricate movements into practical factory capabilities. The relevance of their work extends to humanoid robotics, where effective manipulation is crucial for completing industrial tasks. No further timeline was disclosed at the time of publication.
US Tangent Robotics
Tangent Robotics Secures $4.5M Pre-Seed Funding for Advanced Robot Hand Development
Tangent Robotics has successfully raised $4.5 million in pre-seed funding, led by Fly Ventures and Toyota Ventures, to enhance robotic manipulation systems aimed at high-precision industrial tasks. The funding will support the development of robot hands, light-based touch sensing, and motor learning technologies, which are essential for tasks such as assembly and connector mating. This funding is significant as it addresses the challenge of fine motor skills in robotics, a critical requirement for many manufacturing processes. According to co-founder Pedro Piacenza, the ability to perform delicate manipulation tasks is vital for local and scalable production, which current robots struggle to achieve. Looking ahead, Tangent Robotics aims to reduce the time required to teach robots fine motor skills from days to hours through innovative data-collection and machine-learning methods. No further timeline was disclosed at the time of publication.
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