San Francisco AI startup will soon bring robotic dogs into homes for testing
When Jan Liphardt takes his dog for a walk, it quickly garners attention. He hasn't named his robotic quadruped yet.
Inside OpenMind, an AI robotics startup, a team of researchers and a Stanford engineering professor are locked in to make next-gen bots more capable, adaptable, and collaborative in real-world environments, including inside your home.
"If the quadruped dog does not see its owner for 10-plus minutes, it will explore the house, go find its owner and make sure the owner is OK," said Liphardt.
At a nearby park in SOMA, curious onlookers are impressed.
"I've seen robots before, the bigger ones trying to be industrial and stuff, but I've not seen one as approachable and as engaging as these guys. Very cool," said Bob Shuttle.
OpenMind will soon deploy its quadrupeds for testing. Math lessons for kids, home security, and caregiving checks for seniors are on the list.
"We see the software, technology, and the hardware to be essentially ready to go now," Liphardt said.
As AI startups in San Francisco continue to expand, real estate companies are seeing an uptick in demand for manufacturing space in the city, from SOMA to the 3rd Street corridor.
Robert Sammons is the senior director of research at Cushman & Wakefield.
"There's definitely a change for San Francisco. San Francisco historically has been a software market," Sammons said.
By comparison, Silicon Valley has more than 160 million square feet of R&D space. San Francisco has just 8 million zoned for manufacturing, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
Sammon said that last year, only one tenant was looking for that kind of real estate, about 3,000 square feet. This year, it's a different story.
Sammons said 10 tenants are in the market, asking for more than 650,000 square feet of what's called PDR space — production, distribution, and repair.
"Everything from automotive to robotics to some of the chip makers, they're all kind of looking at space in San Francisco, really, to be close to the AI tenants that are here," Sammons said.
Jan and his crew are several steps closer to what they envision in the near future.
"Our main priority is to prove that the notion of Thinking Machines broadly deployed into homes, hospitals, schools is no longer science fiction," Sammons said.
Just a year ago, OpenMind was in its infancy, being developed in his Palo Alto garage.
Now it's commanding others and taking center stage in San Francisco.
OpenMind is also now looking for a larger space after its latest round of funding, raising $20 million.
The company recently announced it will start rolling out 10 thinking dogs to homes next month, to collect data and improve its technology.