Cobot’s Proxie Gen 2 robot adds autotasking, mobile manipulation

Collaborative Robotics (Cobot) unveiled the second-generation model of its Proxie cellular robotic, including higher payload capability, self-swapping batteries, autonomous job identification, and a brand new two-armed manipulation choice as the corporate appears to be like to develop deployments throughout healthcare, logistics, and manufacturing.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm launched Proxie Gen 2 at Automate 2026, positioning the system as a production-proven cellular manipulator.

“For many years, deploying robots has meant selecting between mobility and dexterity, and at all times required customized software program integration,” stated Collaborative Robotics founder and CEO Brad Porter. “Our second-generation Proxie brings all of that collectively in a single platform we designed end-to-end.”

Classes from subject form Proxie Gen 2

Cobot has spent the previous two years quietly gathering operational knowledge from buyer deployments. In accordance with the corporate, 28 Proxie robots have amassed almost 13,000 working hours, traveled greater than 22,000 miles, moved over 154,000 carts, and saved employees tens of millions of steps. The robots have been deployed in environments starting from hospitals and laboratories to manufacturing and logistics amenities.

Porter stated the corporate deliberately prioritized subject deployments over publicity.

“Our technique has been to get into the sector and run hours,” he instructed The Robotic Report. “It’s important to undergo a number of generations of {hardware} to harden it. Till you set up numbers in manufacturing, you don’t know the place the stresses and breaks are.”

One notable deployment has been on the Mayo Clinic, the place Proxie transports supplies all through the power, supporting workflows starting from laboratory operations to meals companies and medical tools dealing with.

The expertise generated greater than 500 design insights that knowledgeable the redesign of almost each subsystem in Gen 2. Whereas key architectural components such because the robotic’s high-mounted sensor suite, vertical backbone, swerve drive, and battery-swapping capabilities stay, Porter stated the corporate rebuilt the platform from the bottom as much as enhance reliability and manufacturability.

The result’s a robotic with 40% fewer elements, a smaller footprint for navigating tight hallways and elevators, and higher energy. Gen 2 can transfer carts weighing as much as 1,500 lb. and elevate as much as 220 lb. on its vertical backbone.

The corporate additionally upgraded the sensing bundle with further lidar capabilities designed to help future security certification efforts.

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AI allows autonomous job discovery

Probably the most vital development could also be Proxie’s rising capacity to establish work by itself. Cobot calls the aptitude “autotasking.” Moderately than counting on integrations with warehouse administration programs, hospital software program, or human dispatchers, Proxie builds what the corporate calls a real-time world mannequin of its setting.

After mapping a facility utilizing conventional SLAM strategies, the robotic repeatedly observes carts, bins, and workstations. It may well decide when supplies are prepared to maneuver, establish locations, and create duties with out human intervention. At one buyer website operated by delivery large Maersk, Porter stated employees merely wrote vacation spot data on small whiteboards connected to carts.

“Multimodal fashions are spectacular,” he stated. “The robotic reads the whiteboard lettering and is aware of the place to go.”

In accordance with Porter, roughly 95% of cart actions at that facility throughout a current measurement interval had been initiated with no human assigning a job or any integration with a warehouse administration system. The corporate believes this strategy dramatically lowers deployment complexity.

“We have to cease speaking about system integration and complexity and begin speaking about intelligence,” Porter stated.

Proxie provides cellular manipulation

Gen 2 additionally marks Cobot entry into cellular manipulation. The corporate is introducing an non-obligatory dual-arm configuration designed to carry out two-handed duties in healthcare, logistics, life sciences, and manufacturing environments.

The transfer comes as advances in vision-language-action (VLA) fashions, diffusion insurance policies, and world fashions are accelerating progress in robotic manipulation. Porter stated Cobot deliberately delayed including arms till it had validated the cellular platform.

“Manipulation is an open-ended onerous downside,” he stated. “We wished to get 10,000-plus hours and harden the whole lot in regards to the cellular base earlier than fixing the manipulation downside within the subject.”

The corporate is at the moment utilizing research-grade manipulators however expects to introduce industrial-hardened variations later this 12 months. Porter famous that current enhancements in AI fashions have considerably lowered the quantity of coaching knowledge required to show robots new duties.

“We don’t have the ‘manipulate something’ fashions we wish but,” he stated. “However we’ve got adequate AI to deploy.”

Cobot is increasing its relationships with NVIDIA and Amazon Net Companies. The robotic makes use of NVIDIA Jetson modules for onboard AI processing, enabling notion, planning, and job inference to run regionally with out cloud dependence. The corporate can be working with NVIDIA Robotics on Isaac Sim and Omniverse NuRec to create digital twins and simulation environments based mostly on real-world deployment knowledge.

AWS offers the cloud infrastructure behind the corporate’s Vista fleet-management platform and helps coaching for the AI fashions that energy Autotasking. Vista offers real-time visibility into fleet operations, permitting customers to observe duties, robotic standing, and operational bottlenecks throughout deployments.

Making robots simpler to deploy

Porter stated the business’s greatest problem will not be {hardware} efficiency however ease of adoption. He in contrast the present state of robotics to the early private laptop market earlier than widespread client adoption.

“The genius of Steve Jobs was taking the complexity away,” Porter stated. “Individuals discovered computer systems formidable to undertake, and he relentlessly centered on making them simpler. Our job is to make robots simpler and simpler and simpler.”

Cobot stated Proxie Gen 2 is obtainable to order instantly, with deployments starting this 12 months, beginning at $5,000 per thirty days. The corporate is demonstrating the platform at Automate 2026 in Chicago.

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