Google has entered into a partnership agreement with the German company Agile Robots, marking a strategic move by the search giant to focus on robotics as a key tool for advancing artificial intelligence. Agile Robots specializes in developing intelligent robotic manipulators and human-like sensor-equipped robots. As part of the collaboration, Google Gemini Robotics AI models will be integrated into the equipment of the German company.
The partnership is based on the belief that the application of AI in the physical world should be transformative. By combining Agile Robots’ equipment and other robotics solutions developed in Germany with Google DeepMind Gemini Robotics foundational models, both parties aim to succeed in deploying robots, collecting data, training models, and gradually improving processes, as stated in the company’s blog.
Google will gain insights into how its products perform in the real world through this collaboration. Robotics is a crucial use case for AI where Google competes with companies like Amazon and Tesla. The company has numerous partnerships in this field. Agile Robots, based in Munich, has deployed over 20,000 robotic systems worldwide to date and intends to integrate Google’s solutions extensively into existing systems, starting with “high-value industrial” scenarios, including manufacturing.
This partnership will enable Google to continue developing “more advanced AI models for the next generation of robots.” Last year, Google introduced basic and reasoning AI models, Gemini Robotics, and announced a collaboration with Texas-based Apptronik. This year, Google DeepMind’s division revealed collaboration with Boston Dynamics on the Atlas robot project. Google recently acquired Intrinsic, a subsidiary of Alphabet, foreseeing a future akin to “Android for robotics,” as well as welcomed former Boston Dynamics CTO Aaron Saunders to DeepMind.
Nevertheless, some Google employees are reportedly unhappy with the partnership between the tech giant and Boston Dynamics due to the latter’s existing contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense.
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