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One of the most important things happening on Earth today is the solar energy build-out. Around the world, companies and countries are racing to deploy solar and batteries to achieve energy independence and limit the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n
That build-out, though, is running into a labor market challenge, with a limited supply of workers to meet a growing demand for installation. Robots could be an answer, but industrial robots have historically struggled in unstructured environments, at least until now. The latest generation of AI models may have changed that equation.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the driving idea behind Gritt<\/a>, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a $26 million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to $34 million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to \u201chelp civilization build infrastructure faster,\u201d in Puri\u2019s words.<\/p>\n \u201cOur thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,\u201d Puri tells TechCrunch, \u201cyou need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware\u2014thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki\u2014to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,\u201d said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt\u2019s Series A round. \u201cThese guys are in the second camp, and that\u2019s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt\u2019s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day.<\/p>\n Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months.<\/p>\n TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system\u2019s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won\u2019t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead.<\/p>\n Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics<\/a>, Cosmic<\/a>, and China\u2019s Trinabot<\/a>. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows.<\/p>\n Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it.<\/p>\n What\u2019s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say.<\/p>\n \u201cMaking a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?\u201d Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable \u2014 the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software.<\/p>\n But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt\u2019s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory.<\/p>\n \u201cGritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,\u201d Puri said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n