Ambi Robotics, formerly Ambidextrous Laboratories Inc., emerges from stealth today to introduce AmbiOS, an advanced robot operating system based on simulation-to-reality artificial intelligence (AI). AmbiOS rapidly trains robots before deployment to pick and pack items for fast and affordable integration. The $6.1 million seed funding, led by Bow Capital, Vertex Ventures and The House Fund, supports efforts to deploy more AI-powered robotic systems across Ambi Robotics' U.S. customer base as e-commerce and shipping demand continues to surge. This press release features multimedia. "Using our unique approach to deep learning AI based on simulation-to-reality transfer, AmbiOS quickly configures our systems for a variety of sensors, robots and package categories," says Ken Goldberg, co-founder of Ambi Robotics.

Imagine for a moment that you have suction cups for fingertips--unless you're currently on hallucinogens, in which case you should not imagine that. Each sucker is a different size and flexibility, making one fingertip ideal for sticking onto a flat surface like cardboard, another more suited to a round thing like a ball, another better for something more irregular, like a flower pot. On its own, each digit may be limited in which things it can handle. But together, they can work as a team to manipulate a range of objects. This is the idea behind Ambi Robotics, a lab-grown startup that is today emerging from stealth mode with sorting robots and an operating system for running such manipulative machines.