SafeWorld announces $12.2 million for robot safety testing

SafeWorld announced $12.2 million in seed funding on October 5 for its robot safety testing business. Shine Capital and a16z Speedrun led the round, according to the company.

The business had already described its platform and named investors in an October 2 introduction. The latest announcement adds the funding amount and lead investor roles. It does not give the date the round closed.

Testing robots around people

SafeWorld says enterprise teams can create simulated situations from past incidents, robot logs and safety requirements. Tests place robots alongside reactive models of human movement and can be repeated after software or environment changes.

The company reports early pilots with automotive manufacturers, warehouse automation businesses and medical device manufacturers. It has not published measured pilot outcomes in the announcement.

Access and safety limits

The public website offers requests for access. Its terms say the site does not provide public product access and that private pilots and services require separate agreements.

Those terms also state that simulations do not establish that every hazard has been identified or that a real system is safe. ByteForward has not tested the platform or independently verified its safety claims.

Archival photograph of people beside Kawasaki industrial robots at the ASTOR Robotics Center in Kraków. Photo by Natalia Dziubek on Unsplash, published January 28, 2022, under the Unsplash License. This illustrative image does not show SafeWorld technology or a SafeWorld deployment. No endorsement is implied.