Apptronik creates Elevate Robotics, a subsidiary focused on industrial automation

AI-powered humanoid robotics company Apptronik announced the creation of Elevate Robotics Inc.

Elevate Robotics is a wholly owned subsidiary that Apptronik said will focus on automating industrial tasks beyond the limits of the human form. 

Elevate Robotics will be led by Paul Hvass

According to the company, its flagship humanoid robot Apollo is the result of a decade of development, during which the company built more than 15 robotics systems and made numerous significant technological advancements. While Apptronik will continue to focus on Apollo, Elevate will look to reshape the future of heavy-duty industrial-scale work.

Apptronik said it is establishing Elevate to commercialize a unique multipurpose automation offering outside of the humanoid form factor with enormous potential to transform the way humans live and work. 

“We founded Apptronik to build general purpose robots that empower humans. On our path to realizing this mission we’ve developed all kinds of groundbreaking robotics technology for humanoid robots and beyond,” said Jeff Cardenas, co-founder and CEO of Apptronik. “Elevate shares Apptronik’s core, human-centered DNA and vision of building robots to help humanity, and they’re applying novel technology to tackle heavy-duty tasks in various sectors.”

Elevate will operate independently and be led by CEO Paul Hvass, previously co-founder at Plus One Robotics. Elevate’s founding team includes roboticists from the group that designed numerous robotic systems culminating with Apollo, and passionate and experienced builders from across the industrial automation landscape.

“With a world-class team assembled, Elevate Robotics is well-positioned to expand the possibilities of industrial-scale work with superhuman robotics,” Cardenas said. “The Apptronik team is excited to see the world-changing impact of Elevate’s innovations.”

Google Gemini Robotics runs VLA model on Apollo humanoid

Along with the Elevate Robotics news, Apptronik also announced that Apollo was part of a feature from Google’s Gemini Robotics and its On-Device vision language action (VLA) model.

Google DeepMind and Apptronik agreed to a strategic partnership in late 2024 to accelerate AI-powered humanoids.

Gemini Robotics said it adapted the On-Device model on Apollo. The model allowed Apollo to follow natural language instructions to manipulate different - including previously unseen objects - in a general manner.