Boston’s Bustling Robot Boom

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MIT, Harvard, and robots—those might not be comprehensive of what you think about when you think “Boston,” but the bots are booming around Beantown.

Brian Heater from TechCrunch took a trip to Boston to check in on the robotics situation. He found unique startups and an ecosystem of commercial, consumer, and industrial robots all around.

In addition to the well-known hometown bot companies, iRobot and Boston Dynamics, there are a host of startups popping up and making waves:

  • Formlabs, a 3D printing provider

  • RightHand Robotics, a product-picking robot developer

  • MassRobotics, a nonprofit robotics innovation center

  • Tatum Robotics, which is building communication robots for the deafblind community

  • Ras Labs, whose extremely sensitive sensor gives tactile capabilities to robot arms

  • Picke Robots, a robotic truck unloading solution

  • Marble Technologies, robotic and AI food processing tech

  • Toggle Robotics, rebar and construction automation robotics

This is by no means an all-inclusive list. Alumni of MIT, Harvard, iRobot, and Boston Dynamics continue to set out on their own paths after identifying a problem that robots could solve. Events of the last few years—a global pandemic, skilled labor shortages, inflation, and more—have accelerated the development of robotic solutions. 

After his trip, Heater said the robot community in Boston felt small—that everyone knew everyone. “We’re still very much in the early days of robotics,” he said. 

You could say robotics is wicked big business in Beantown.