Amnon Shashua unveils MenteeBot humanoid robot

• Published date: 17 April 2024
• Author: Assaf Gilead
• Publication title: Globes (Rishon LeZion, Israel)

Shashua founded Mentee Robotics two years ago with CEO Prof. Lior Wolf, a former AI researcher at Meta, and Prof. Shai Shalev-Shwartz, a computer scientist and machine learning researcher

MenteeBot is designed to undertake household chores like washing dishes, washing and cleaning and help businesses with warehouses in such tasks as lifting and carrying heavy objects, organizing and packing. The robot can carry up to 25 kilograms.

The company expects the first robots to come off the serial production line in the first quarter of 2025 and reports that to date it has raised just $17 million to date from the founders and Ahren Innovation Capital.

As part of the unveiling, no press conference was held or demonstration of the robot was given to journalists. However, the company has released short videos showing a humanoid robot performing tasks such as walking forward and backward, carrying a six-pack of mineral water, and placing fruit in a crate and carrying it several meters. From the clips, an image emerges of a robot that understands verbal command and can complete tasks including navigation, locomotion, scene understanding, object detection and localization, grasping and natural language understanding.

The...