"TuSu Technology", an AI intelligent grinding robot company with suppliers such as CRRC and AVIC, secures tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing | Exclusive from 36Kr

Text | Zhang Zhuoqian

Editor | Yuan Silai

36Kr learned that Tusu Automation Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tusu Technology") announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing. The investor is Yunshi Capital, and Yuanshan Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds from this round will be mainly used for R & D investment, team building, and operational supplements to help the company further optimize and iterate its products. Previously, "Tusu Technology" had completed angel - round financing invested by SenseTime Group.

"Tusu Technology" was established in 2016. It is a high - tech enterprise dedicated to solving the problems of grinding automation in industrial production. The company focuses on the R & D and production of AI intelligent grinding robots and provides customers with automated grinding solutions. Its core self - developed product modules cover the TS flexible constant - force grinding device, TS multi - unit adaptive grinding tool, TS consumable automatic replacement module, AI special grinding process module, optical detection system, etc. The AI intelligent grinding robot composed of the aforementioned self - developed product modules can be widely used in fields such as rail transit, aerospace, wind power, and automobiles.

The AI intelligent grinding robot of "Tusu Technology"

Grinding is a key process in industrial production and has extremely wide downstream applications. Ge Xugang, the founder of "Tusu Technology", told 36Kr that according to research and statistics in several fields such as rail transit, passenger cars, civil airliners, and wind power, the potential demand for grinding robots in the relevant market exceeds 35 billion yuan and shows a continuous growth trend.

Although industrial automation has made significant progress in many fields such as welding, the automation rate of surface grinding processes remains at a relatively low level, less than 10%. Most still rely on manual operations. Manual grinding not only has low efficiency, uneven quality, and a low yield rate but also has problems such as difficulty in recruiting workers, high costs, and harm to health. At the same time, traditional grinding robots also have difficulty meeting diverse grinding needs due to complex programming and debugging, high response requirements, and the lack of precise force control and error compensation functions.

Facing the industry's automation challenges, "Tusu Technology" has developed a full - stack self - developed AI intelligent grinding robot. Through the collaborative optimization of software and hardware, it solves the pain points of downstream customers' grinding needs. Currently, the AI intelligent grinding robots delivered by "Tusu Technology" to customers mainly come in two product forms. One is a composite grinding robot with an AMR mobile base, suitable for airplanes, wind turbine blades, etc., which can move flexibly according to the scenario. The other is a fixed grinding workstation, which can handle independent workpieces such as rail transit car bodies and aerospace composite parts.

In terms of technology, "Tusu Technology" has full - stack self - developed software and hardware technologies such as AI defect recognition and detection, online path planning, and real - time intelligent flexible force control, and has accumulated a rich grinding process library in multiple industry scenarios. At the same time, based on its self - developed products, it has formed automation grinding solutions for multiple industries such as metal surfaces, composite materials, and paint coatings.

Among them, the TS flexible constant - force grinding device only needs to input the contact force value to independently complete force - controlled floating and achieve intelligent force - controlled grinding. Its multi - unit adaptive grinding tool uses force - feedback adaptation to achieve 0 - 5° curved surface adaptation on flexible surfaces and can freely switch between single - head / double - head / triple - head grinding modes. The TS consumable automatic replacement module uses a dexterous mechanical method to remove sandpaper and has functions such as sandpaper inspection, hole alignment, and data monitoring.

The AI intelligent grinding robot of "Tusu Technology"

"The vision module is also one of our core technologies. For example, in high - glare and highly reflective surface detection or defect recognition, it has more advantages," Ge Xugang introduced. The AI defect recognition and detection technology can efficiently and accurately identify paint surface appearance defects such as pinholes, paint residues, shrinkage cavities, and fibers in high - glare and highly reflective scenarios, with a detection rate of ≥98%, a false - detection rate of ≤2%, and a defect detection accuracy of 0.15mm. Combined with optical analysis, the path planning technology can help the robot independently generate paths and achieve 0 - 3° adaptation for special - shaped and curved surfaces. The robot can automatically generate the optimal grinding path according to the shape and characteristics of the workpiece.

Taking the paint stripping operation of a small airplane as an example, usually, this work requires 14 workers to grind for two days, but using AI intelligent grinding robots, only 4 machines need to work simultaneously for two days to complete it. Ge Xugang told 36Kr, "The in - depth integration of AI and embodied intelligence in the field of grinding robots is a trend. Our next focus is also to continuously iterate the technology to make it have stronger environmental perception and autonomous decision - making capabilities to ensure the consistency and stability of the grinding effect."

Currently, "Tusu Technology" has established close cooperative relationships with leading enterprises in multiple industries such as CRRC, AECC, AVIC, China Aerospace, and Sinoma. In addition, "Tusu Technology" has also carried out cooperation with many well - known manufacturers in fields such as the automotive, shipbuilding, and metal processing industries. This year, "Tusu Technology" plans to achieve the goal of hundreds of millions of yuan in orders.

"Tusu Technology" currently has a team of more than 30 people, with the R & D team accounting for more than 70%. The predecessor of "Tusu Technology" was a top - notch established team from the former German FESTOOL Group, which has long focused on the field of grinding tools and has accumulated rich experience in technology, products, and customer resources. The core technical team members are from universities such as the Berlin University of Technology in Germany, Beijing Jiaotong University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, and Tsinghua University, with capabilities in robotics and automation, AI, and vision.

Views from the investor:

Yunshi Capital said: "Precision grinding and intelligent surface treatment are the manufacturing links with the lowest penetration rate in the automation field. Relying on rich process large models, mechanical execution, and automation transformation, Tusu can achieve complex control of surface fine - processing and truly achieve product - market fit for this solution. The company has currently entered benchmark customers such as CRRC and obtained large - scale orders. Continuously expanding new industry customers based on these customers will be beneficial to the company's medium - and long - term development. The company's current revenue growth and overall performance are excellent. This is the first year of large - scale commercial explosion. The team has strong comprehensive qualities and are veterans in the grinding industry. The future is promising."