Robust.AI today announced upgrades to its flagship Carter robotic cart, new funding, and positive results from its partnership with DHL Supply Chain.
“We believe robots should empower people, not replace them,” stated Anthony Jules, co-founder and CEO of Robust.AI. “Carter is designed to be intuitive and responsive, enabling effortless human interaction. With its expanded functionality, Carter continues to set new standards for efficiency, adaptability, and ease of use in modern warehouse environments.”
Jules co-founded Robust.AI with robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks in 2019. The San Carlos, Calif.-based company was recognized with a 2025 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award for Carter’s force-sensitive user interface. Learn more about this year’s winners at the RBR50 Gala at the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston next week.
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Carter becomes a multifunction system
Through Carter’s use of artificial intelligence and an intuitive user interface, Robust.AI said the collaborative mobile robot can serve multiple functions. The software-defined platform can handle point-to-point transport, support fulfillment picking, or even be a mobile sorting wall, according to the company.
“We’re really excited about the upgrades, which started appearing in the wild this year, that take Carter from one or two applications to multiple applications,” Jules told Automated Warehouse. “For example, not only can it assist with picking, but also with putaway.”
“At ProMat, our built-in system for Carter to light up premiered, and as a mobile sort wall, you can do different workflows,” he added. “Warehouse associates could do batch picking on one Carter, and then follow its lights or screen to sort from Carter A to Carter B. They’ve done a batch pick and sort without occupying any extra floor space. We use the term ‘physical user experience’ internally.”
AI leads to contextual understanding
“Carter has eight cameras and no lidar for visual SLAM [simultaneous localization and mapping], and it can construct a semantic representation of the world,” explained Jules. “The robot can recognize a person, a truck, or a ladder and remember where they are in the world. Carter knows how to drive to the next tasks.”
How is this different from other autonomous mobile robot (AMR) routing algorithms?
“While there is a lot of AI in the background, we wanted to hide it from the users to make them as productive as they can be,” Jules replied. “There’s also AI at the fleet level. Each Carter understands space and shares information at the the back-end Carter Hub for higher-level optimization, route planning, and other insights.”
He cited an example of where Carter might wait for a few moments if it sees a two people talking, but it would immediately go around a pallet, since that’s less likely to get out of its way.
“Because it semantically understands the world, its combined picture is better than lidar, which just gives free space rather than a person, a box, or a shelf or information about what’s causing congestion,” Jules said. “I use the term ‘panoptics’ because one Carter can see the entire facility through the Carter Hub.”
“It was a big design decision for us, to ensure that each robot has enough information to make decisions and succeed locally,” he recalled. “This produces the most optimal solution based on recent information, but it also gets a picture from the rest of the fleet with as little latency as possible. It’s resilient to Wi-Fi drops.”
Carter robots run on RaaS model
robot is available through
a RaaS model. Source:
Robust.AI
Robust.AI added that this enhanced flexibility allows logistics customers to streamline warehouse operations, reduce costs, optimize workflows, and adapt quickly to shifting logistics needs without additional hardware investments.
“Normally, when you change workflows, you have to size for peak. but then you’ve dedicated floor space for what only matters at peak,” noted Jules. “Carter is really a piece of movable infrastructure. You can run a physical application at a location, such as picking, sortation, or virtual conveyor workflows.”
The company provides its powered carts through a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model.
“Our standard agreement is a three-year contact,” Jules said. “For each site, we work with the customer to mutually agree to the KPIs [key performance indicators]. It’s typically UPH [units per hour] or lines per hour.”
“Miles driven doesn’t net to ROI [a return on investment],” he asserted. “It’s important to me as CEO to have a quantifiable way of seeing how much productivity we’ll get for customers this year — and the year after that.”
DHL site improves productivity by 60%
Last year, DHL Supply Chain partnered with Robust.AI to deploy Carter across multiple locations. After a recent deployment in Las Vegas, Carter improved picking productivity by more than 60% from Day 1.
“Note that was an operation that was already efficient to begin with,” said Jules. “Our experience with DHL has been incredible. It’s the No. 1 3PL [third-party logistics provider] in the world in terms of size and operational efficiency. A 60% improvement here could mean 100% or more for other operators.”
“DHL’s standards are very high, and It has been the best possible apprenticeship in logistics,” he said. “We’ve learned an incredible amount about the industry, and we want to learn at the top of our game. I couldn’t imagine a better opportunity; it fits both our mission and our culture.”
The companies said they plan to continue expanding their relationship as Robust.AI deepens its commitment to augmenting workforces and transforming logistics automation.
“Even before we ship a robot, we do a pretty extensive simulation based on historical data to know the customer’s productivity goals,” Jules explained. “It’s critical that any robot in the field has a measurable impact so that both we and the customer understand what the impact is.”
Robust.AI finds a good funding fit
Robust.AI recently raised funding with participation from APL Ventures and 15th Rock. It previously raised $22.5 million in 2020 and $20 million in 2023.
While he declined to say how much Robust.AI raised, Jules said the amount was “significant.” He said APL Ventures and 15th Rock were referred by existing investors, and there is a strategic fit, “not just for capital, but we also understand their investment thesis.”
The company said it plans to use the latest investment to expand, strengthen partnerships, and accelerate the development of next-generation supply chain systems.
