Revolutionizing Existing Robots: Potential of RLWRLD’s Physical AI

Hoon Lee, Japan Representative of RLWRLD Inc. (RLWLRD), a portfolio company of Global Brain (GB); and Yasuhiko Yurimoto, President & CEO of GB, took the stage at Morning Pitch, a pitch event aimed at fostering business partnerships between startups and large corporations.

Titled “VC Recommendation Series: Next Unicorn Special,” the session featured GB alongside three other Japanese VC firms and their recommended startups. Many from large corporations attended the event, sparking intense discussions about collaboration and finance. This article introduces RLWRLD’s business along with case studies of its collaborations with large corporations that were showcased at the event.

RLWRLD’s world-leading technology

RLWRLD is a startup providing Physical AI optimized for onsite applications. It has developed a proprietary robotics foundation model called Vision Language Action (VLA) model, fine-tuned it for various industries, and offers it as Physical AI. Founded last year, RLWRLD is headquartered in the US and has subsidiaries in Japan and South Korea.

The VLA technology on another level

Lee started off by explaining that the Physical AI and VLA developed by RLWRLD are technologies in a different dimension compared to conventional industrial robots or collaborative robots. He elaborated on this by contrasting them with the existing Vision Language Model (VLM).

VLM is a technology that adds vision (visual perception) to large language models like GPT. For instance, using GPT to draw anime-like pictures is an example of VLM being integrated into everyday life.

On the other hand, VLA links robot actions to VLM’s reasoning capabilities and intelligence. Like GPT, it evolves through learning, and when sufficiently trained, it acquires a versatility that conventional robots did not have. This has drawn global attention for its potential to realize robots capable of working with human-like flexibility and creativity.

“Just as GPT transformed the world of text, VLA holds the potential to transform the real, physical world,” Lee said, and further emphasized its potential saying, “The moment VLA is mastered, it will pave the way for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).”

Human-level dexterity

RLWRLD’s strength lies in the dexterity of its robotic hands. The company possesses its proprietary robot, ALLEX, whose performance is highly regarded as a robot two generations ahead compared to humanoid robots of other companies.

Generally, the human hand has 27 degrees of freedom (DoF), while conventional robots typically have around 6. RLWRLD’s robots, on the other hand, have 15. This high DoF enables delicate movements previously unachievable with conventional robots.

The pitch featured a video of ALLEX, an autonomous robot powered by RLWRLD’s foundation model, RLDX. It showed demonstrations such as opening milk bottles and neatly pouring milk into randomly placed glasses, opening boxes in front of shelves to take out and display dolls, and even placing complexly shaped objects like maneki-neko (Japanese beckoning cat)—a task previously difficult for traditional mechanical and suction gripper robots.

Field demonstrations are also underway in Japan. In Japanese convenience stores, instant noodles are always neatly displayed with their logos facing the customer. RLWRLD’s ALLEX can identify where the logos are and place them with their faces aligned. RLWRLD has conducted such demonstrations with major convenience store chains and telecommunications companies.

Target market and collaboration needs

Lee explained that RLWRLD’s primary target is the manufacturing industry, saying that they want to focus on manufacturing because only about 30-40% of its operations are automated and the market size is large.

He also discussed potential applications in the service industry. For example, hotel banquets require simple work like polishing spoons and forks with towels thousands of times. He stated that these repetitive tasks can be done with their current technology, indicating enormous potential within the service industry.

At the end of his pitch, Lee cited a remark by the President of Lotte Hotel in South Korea: “We do not welcome replacing human labor with humanoid robots. It is not a true cost-saving measure; it merely shifts labor costs to tech companies.” He emphasized that RLWRLD aims for a business model that resolves this concern.

According to Lee, client companies can provide their field data and RLWRLD can use it to develop fine-tuned VLA models. This enables client companies to possess VLA models optimized for their specific onsite operations, while also creating a business where both parties jointly develop and sell these models, sharing the revenue.

He passionately shared his vision for driving this business model with large Japanese corporations. He also revealed that RLWRLD was currently raising funds for the Seed 2 round and concluded his pitch by stating, “We are eager to partner with large corporations, both in business collaboration and finance.

GB’s Yurimoto speaks on the significance of RLWRLD

GB’s Yurimoto, who recommended RLWRLD, commented that RLWRLD is a global leader in Physical AI. He praised their challenge in the real world as highly significant amid the rapid evolution of digital space.

Since leading the investment round last year, GB has been supporting RLWRLD in facilitating partnerships with large corporations to pioneer the world’s first use case together. Addressing the attendees from large corporations, Yurimoto made a strong appeal: “We would like to further expand collaborations between RLWRLD and large corporations. As they are currently in the middle of fundraising, we would be delighted to hear from any corporations interested in exploring investment opportunities.”

Lively discussions at the networking session

The pitch session was followed by a networking segment between the speakers and attendees. Many representatives from large corporations were seen interacting with RLWRLD members, including Lee, and engaging in active discussions.

GB will continue to actively support collaborations with large corporations that contribute to the further growth of its portfolio companies, under the mission of “bringing unimaginable innovation into society.”

Note: Affiliations, titles, and figures are as of the time of coverage.
(Written by GB’s Brand Communication Team)