Collaborative Robtics’ Proxie 2.0 provides bimanual manipulation and autotasking. | Credit score: Collaborative Robotics
Collaborative Robotics (Cobot) unveiled the second-generation model of its Proxie cell robotic, including larger payload capability, self-swapping batteries, autonomous process identification, and a brand new two-armed manipulation choice as the corporate seems to be to broaden deployments throughout healthcare, logistics, and manufacturing.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm launched Proxie Gen 2 at Automate 2026, positioning the system as a production-proven cell manipulator.
“For many years, deploying robots has meant selecting between mobility and dexterity, and at all times required customized software program integration,” stated Collaborative Robotics founder and CEO Brad Porter. “Our second-generation Proxie brings all of that collectively in a single platform we designed end-to-end.”
Classes from discipline form Proxie Gen 2
Cobot has spent the previous two years quietly gathering operational information from buyer deployments. Based on the corporate, 28 Proxie robots have gathered practically 13,000 working hours, traveled greater than 22,000 miles, moved over 154,000 carts, and saved employees tens of millions of steps. The robots have been deployed in environments starting from hospitals and laboratories to manufacturing and logistics services.
Porter stated the corporate deliberately prioritized discipline deployments over publicity.
“Our technique has been to get into the sector and run hours,” he instructed The Robotic Report. “You need to undergo a number of generations of {hardware} to harden it. Till you set up numbers in manufacturing, you don’t know the place the stresses and breaks are.”
One notable deployment has been on the Mayo Clinic, the place Proxie transports supplies all through the ability, supporting workflows starting from laboratory operations to meals companies and medical gear dealing with.
The expertise generated greater than 500 design insights that knowledgeable the redesign of practically each subsystem in Gen 2. Whereas key architectural components such because the robotic’s high-mounted sensor suite, vertical backbone, swerve drive, and battery-swapping capabilities stay, Porter stated the corporate rebuilt the platform from the bottom as much as enhance reliability and manufacturability.
The result’s a robotic with 40% fewer components, a smaller footprint for navigating tight hallways and elevators, and larger energy. Gen 2 can transfer carts weighing as much as 1,500 lb. and elevate as much as 220 lb. on its vertical backbone.
The corporate additionally upgraded the sensing package deal with extra lidar capabilities designed to help future security certification efforts.
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Essentially the most vital development could also be Proxie’s rising skill to determine work by itself. Cobot calls the potential “autotasking.” Relatively than counting on integrations with warehouse administration techniques, hospital software program, or human dispatchers, Proxie builds what the corporate calls a real-time world mannequin of its surroundings.
After mapping a facility utilizing conventional SLAM methods, the robotic constantly observes carts, bins, and workstations. It might decide when supplies are prepared to maneuver, determine locations, and create duties with out human intervention. At one buyer web site operated by transport large Maersk, Porter stated employees merely wrote vacation spot info on small whiteboards hooked up to carts.
“Multimodal fashions are spectacular,” he stated. “The robotic reads the whiteboard lettering and is aware of the place to go.”
Based on Porter, roughly 95% of cart actions at that facility throughout a current measurement interval had been initiated with no human assigning a process or any integration with a warehouse administration system. The corporate believes this strategy dramatically lowers deployment complexity.
“We have to cease speaking about system integration and complexity and begin speaking about intelligence,” Porter stated.
Proxie provides cell manipulation
Gen 2 additionally marks Cobot entry into cell manipulation. The corporate is introducing an non-obligatory dual-arm configuration designed to carry out two-handed duties in healthcare, logistics, life sciences, and manufacturing environments.
The transfer comes as advances in vision-language-action (VLA) fashions, diffusion insurance policies, and world fashions are accelerating progress in robotic manipulation. Porter stated Cobot deliberately delayed including arms till it had validated the cell platform.
“Manipulation is an open-ended laborious downside,” he stated. “We wished to get 10,000-plus hours and harden all the things in regards to the cell base earlier than fixing the manipulation downside within the discipline.”
The corporate is at the moment utilizing research-grade manipulators however expects to introduce industrial-hardened variations later this yr. Porter famous that current enhancements in AI fashions have considerably diminished the quantity of coaching information required to show robots new duties.
“We don’t have the ‘manipulate something’ fashions we would like but,” he stated. “However we’ve ok AI to deploy.”
Cobot is increasing its relationships with NVIDIA and Amazon Net Providers. The robotic makes use of NVIDIA Jetson modules for onboard AI processing, enabling notion, planning, and process inference to run regionally with out cloud dependence. The corporate can also be working with NVIDIA Robotics on Isaac Sim and Omniverse NuRec to create digital twins and simulation environments based mostly on real-world deployment information.
AWS gives the cloud infrastructure behind the corporate’s Vista fleet-management platform and helps coaching for the AI fashions that energy Autotasking. Vista gives real-time visibility into fleet operations, permitting customers to watch duties, robotic standing, and operational bottlenecks throughout deployments.
Making robots simpler to deploy
Porter stated the business’s largest problem might not be {hardware} efficiency however ease of adoption. He in contrast the present state of robotics to the early private laptop market earlier than widespread client adoption.
“The genius of Steve Jobs was taking the complexity away,” Porter stated. “Individuals discovered computer systems formidable to undertake, and he relentlessly targeted on making them simpler. Our job is to make robots simpler and simpler and simpler.”
Cobot stated Proxie Gen 2 is accessible to order instantly, with deployments starting this yr, beginning at $5,000 per 30 days. The corporate is demonstrating the platform at Automate 2026 in Chicago.