Apptronik has launched Apollo 2, an updated version of its general-purpose humanoid robot, and opened a newly expanded flagship data-collection and training facility called Robot Park in Austin, Texas. The Austin company said the two launches, paired with its research partnership with Google DeepMind, form an integrated system for rapidly developing and deploying humanoid robot intelligence.
A modular humanoid built for real work
Apollo 2 comes in two configurations: a bipedal version for moving through spaces built for people, and a wheeled base engineered to conform with existing safety standards for industrial mobile robots. Apptronik said the modular approach lets it deploy the same core humanoid technology across different environments while continuously refining the safety and reliability of its walking platform. "The industry has spent years showing what robots can do in demos. We're focused on what they can do every day on the job," said co-founder and CEO Jeff Cardenas.
Robot Park fuels a continuous learning loop
Inside the nearly 90,000-sq.-ft. facility, both bipedal and wheeled Apollo 2 systems perform tasks across logistics, manufacturing and retail use cases. Through teleoperation and autonomous execution, the robots generate large volumes of high-quality training data. As part of Apptronik's research partnership with Google DeepMind, that data helps advance Gemini Robotics, DeepMind's foundation models for robotics.
The road to Apollo 3
Apptronik said everything it learns through Apollo 2 directly powers the development of its commercial product, Apollo 3. The company, which grew out of the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin and has worked on 15 previous robots including NASA's Valkyrie, earlier this year raised $520 million, bringing total capital raised to nearly $1 billion. The push mirrors a broader race in embodied AI, with rivals like AGIBOT hitting production milestones and X Square Robot scaling its valuation on the promise of physical AI.
Reporting based on coverage from The Robot Report and Apptronik.