Gritt 并没有从零开始制造自己的机器人，而是使用现成的硬件——到目前为止，包括租赁的滑行机和由川崎等公司制造的机械臂——来构建由其 AI 模型控制的平台。其系统处理的第一个任务是卸下大型玻璃太阳能电池板，将它们运送到需要安装的金属框架前，并以亚毫米精度将它们定位在框架上，以便工人固定。
“有些人曾经制造可以进入太空的火箭，对每一个最小的零件都有无限预算；而有些人则知道从事肮脏、单调且危险的工作意味着什么，并且能疯狂地扩展这些工作，”Obvious Ventures 的合伙人 Andrew Beebe 说，他领导了 Gritt 的 A 轮融资。“这些人属于第二类，这是一种特别的创业者类型，他们拥有实现目标所需的技术能力、人工智能和机器视觉技能。”
Jack Dorsey正在通过Buzz挑战Slack，这是一款面向团队及其AI代理的群聊平台：https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/jack-dorsey-is-taking-on-slack-with-buzz-a-group-chat-platform-for-teams-and-their-ai-agents/ Amanda Silberling：https://techcrunch.com/author/amanda-silberling/
AI音乐生成器Suno数据泄露，影响了5500万用户，据Have I Been Pwned：https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/ai-music-generator-suno-breach-affects-55m-users-per-have-i-been-pwned/ Zack Whittaker：https://techcrunch.com/author/zack-whittaker/
Google正在开发一款新的AI芯片，以提高Gemini的效率：https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/20/google-is-working-on-a-new-ai-chip-designed-to-make-gemini-more-efficient/ Lucas Ropek：https://techcrunch.com/author/lucas-ropek/
One of the most important things happening on Earth today is the solar energy build-out. Around the world, companies and countries are racing to deploy solar and batteries to achieve energy independence and limit the effects of climate change.
That build-out, though, is running into a labor market challenge, with a limited supply of workers to meet a growing demand for installation. Robots could be an answer, but industrial robots have historically struggled in unstructured environments, at least until now. The latest generation of AI models may have changed that equation.
That’s the driving idea behind Gritt：http://gritt.ai, a startup founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a $26 million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to $32 million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words.
“Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.”
Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware — thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki — to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them.
“There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.”
Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day.
Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 U.S. power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months.
TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead.
Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics：https://www.luminousrobotics.com/, Cosmic：https://www.cosmicrobotics.com/, and China’s Trinabot：https://www.trinarobot.com/solution/. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows.
Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it.
What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say.
“Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software.
But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory.
“Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission：https://techcrunch.com/techcrunch-affiliate-monetization-standards/. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Scale faster. Grow your portfolio. Gain practical expertise. No matter your goal, Disrupt can empower you. Save up to $330 toda y!
Jack Dorsey is taking on Slack with Buzz, a group chat platform for teams and their AI agents：https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/jack-dorsey-is-taking-on-slack-with-buzz-a-group-chat-platform-for-teams-and-their-ai-agents/ Amanda Silberling：https://techcrunch.com/author/amanda-silberling/
Light made a flip phone — it’s colorful and it’s cheap：https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/light-is-modernizing-the-flip-phone-with-light-flip/ Amanda Silberling：https://techcrunch.com/author/amanda-silberling/
AI music generator Suno breach affects 55M users, per Have I Been Pwned：https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/ai-music-generator-suno-breach-affects-55m-users-per-have-i-been-pwned/ Zack Whittaker：https://techcrunch.com/author/zack-whittaker/
Google is working on a new AI chip designed to make Gemini more efficient：https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/20/google-is-working-on-a-new-ai-chip-designed-to-make-gemini-more-efficient/ Lucas Ropek：https://techcrunch.com/author/lucas-ropek/
Coca-Cola suspended production at its Fairlife dairy after a ransomware attack：https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/16/coca-cola-suspended-production-at-its-fairlife-dairy-after-a-ransomware-attack/ Zack Whittaker：https://techcrunch.com/author/zack-whittaker/
扫码直达文章详情