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Peer Robotics has two primary versions of its autonomous mobile robot. | Credit: Peer Robotics

Mobile robots that can understand human touch are being developed by Peer Robotics CEO Rishabh Agarwal and his team in New Haven, CT.

The firm revealed that it has secured $2.3 million in its seed round, money it plans to use to expand its fleet of robots across North America.

Peer Robotics is currently funded by six investors. Axilor Ventures and Innopact are the most recent investors. Also participating in the round: Kalaari Capital, Connecticut Innovations, STANLEY +Techstars AI in Advanced Manufacturing and Laila Partridge.

The company was founded in 2019 by CEO Rishabh Agarwal and CTO Tanya Raghuvanshi. The company is currently part of the Stanley+Techstars Accelerator and has offices in both New Haven, CT and Guragram, India. It currently lists 13 employees on LinkedIn.

The company offers two versions of its autonomous mobile robot. The base version can move 205 kg (550 lbs) of payload on top of the unit at speeds up to 1500 mm/sec (3.4 mph). The specs for runtime are 16 hours (two shifts).

The second configuration of the unit engages with a cart or trolley and can move a payload on the cart up to 250 kg (670 lbs).

The system includes a feature called “human training,” which allows a person to “push” the robot through the facility “like a shopping cart,” so that the robot can learn the layout of the facility and the route that it should follow. This is illustrated in the following video.