The Robot Learning Company
YC X25 startup building open-source AI-native robot arms; TRLC-DK1 bimanual dev kit enables imitation learning and teleoperation for around USD 1,200.
The Robot Learning Company (TRLC) is a robotics infrastructure startup founded in 2025 by Jannik Grothusen and based in San Francisco, California, United States. The company participated in the Y Combinator X25 batch (Spring 2025).
Grothusen holds a degree in Mechatronics and spent two years conducting robot learning research at UC Berkeley and TU Munich before founding the company. The Robot Learning Company's stated mission is to build the infrastructure that robot intelligence is built and deployed on, specifically targeting the gap between high-cost industrial automation (which typically requires custom integrations costing over USD 100,000 per use case) and accessible, general-purpose robotic platforms for smaller businesses and research teams.
The company's first product is the TRLC-DK1, an open-source developer kit for AI-native robotics. The DK1 is a bimanual (two-arm) robot platform using a leader-follower configuration in which a passive leader arm is used for teleoperation and demonstration recording, while a motorised follower arm replicates those motions. The system is designed for imitation learning workflows: an operator demonstrates a task by moving the leader arm, the movements are recorded, and a learning algorithm trains the follower arm to reproduce the task autonomously.
The DK1 kit includes CAD files, URDF models for simulation, and integration with the LeRobot open-source robot learning library developed by Hugging Face. Cameras on the system use USB 3.0 connections (InnoMaker U30CAM-4K-S1 units) capable of streaming multiple 720p60 video feeds simultaneously from a single USB 3.1 port. The full bimanual hardware setup can be sourced independently for approximately USD 800, and TRLC offers pre-assembled kits with support for approximately USD 1,200.
All software and hardware designs are released under open-source licences, available on the company's GitHub organisation (robot-learning-co). A launch video was published in June 2025 on YouTube. The company had approximately one employee at time of launch and is at an early seed stage.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
TRLC-DK1
TRLC-DK1-X
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Contact The Robot Learning Company
WEBSITE
https://robot-learning.coHEADQUARTERS
United States
Company Facts
Founded
2025
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
-
Funding Total
-
