HKUST has incubated an embodied intelligence company, breaking the angel-round financing record in the field of tactile sensing | Exclusive report by Yingke

Author | Wu Huaxiu

Editor | Yuan Silai

Yingke learned that Daimon Robotics recently completed a 100-million-yuan-level Angel ++ round of financing, led by China Merchants Group Venture Capital, with Orient Fortune Capital and Jiaqiao Capital participating. In the past year, the company has completed three rounds of financing in a row, with a cumulative amount of hundreds of millions of yuan, breaking the record for angel-round financing in the tactile sensing field. The funds from this round will be used to promote the engineering and large-scale application of high-resolution visual-tactile perception and dexterous operation technologies.

Daimon Robotics was founded in 2023 by Professor Wang Yu, the founding dean of the Robotics Research Institute of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Dr. Duan Jianghua. Its headquarters is located in Shenzhen, and it has a R & D center in Hong Kong. It focuses on the R & D and industrialization of high-resolution visual-tactile perception and dexterous operation technologies.

In the process of the accelerated implementation of embodied intelligence, it has become an industry consensus that robots need to upgrade from being "able to move" to being "able to work". In tasks such as industrial manufacturing, intelligent logistics, and medical care, robots are required to have higher operation accuracy, compliance, and generalization ability.

However, robots relying solely on vision are still limited in complex tasks such as grasping flexible objects, precise assembly, and dynamic interaction; the bottlenecks of existing tactile sensors in terms of resolution, multi-modal signal acquisition, durability, and cost have long restricted the ability of robots to perform high-precision tasks. Therefore, high-resolution touch is regarded as the key to enhancing the operation ability of robots.

Daimon's tactile dexterous hand (Image source/Enterprise)

Based on years of technological accumulation, Daimon Robotics has launched a monochromatic light visual-tactile route. Compared with the three-color light principle commonly used in the GelSight scheme of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the monochromatic light scheme reduces computing power and heat generation and improves durability.

It is reported that the visual-tactile sensor independently developed by Daimon Robotics has 40,000 sensing units per square centimeter, far exceeding the 240 sensing units of the human fingertip and hundreds of times that of existing array tactile sensors. It can capture multi-modal information such as morphology, texture, softness and hardness, slippage, pressing force, and tangential force.

Daimon's visual-tactile sensor covers 40,000 sensing units per square centimeter (Image source/Enterprise)

For a long time, high-resolution touch has mostly been in the stage of laboratory prototypes or small-scale verification internationally. Duan Jianghua told Yingke that Daimon Robotics has found an engineering balance among computing power consumption, heat generation, and durability and has developed a variety of configuration products suitable for everything from grippers to millimeter-level fingertips.

It is reported that Daimon Robotics' flagship sensor has passed the 5-million-time pressing test and obtained the EU CE and US FCC certifications. Within three months of its release, the product entered the procurement systems of domestic and foreign customers, achieving a shipment volume of thousands of units and being implemented in scenarios such as industrial inspection, intelligent logistics, intelligent manufacturing, and intelligent services.

Based on visual-tactile perception, Daimon Robotics has built a full-link product matrix of "perception - operation - learning", including the high-resolution visual-tactile sensor DM-Tac W that can recognize texture, slippage, and softness and hardness; the dexterous hand DM-Hand1 with an ultra-thin visual-tactile sensor integrated at the fingertips; and the wearable device DM-EXton for data collection and model training. After integrating visual and tactile senses, the amount of data required for the operation model can be reduced to one-thousandth of the original, significantly improving the coverage of task types and the operation success rate.

Duan Jianghua, the founder and CEO, said that Daimon Robotics will focus on tactile perception and dexterous operation to promote the implementation of embodied intelligence in more industry scenarios and unleash the practical application value of robots.

Views of investors:

The person in charge of the project of China Merchants Group Venture Capital said: "Touch is an indispensable modality in the general operation of robots. Daimon Robotics' visual-tactile sensor has many advantages such as high resolution, multiple tactile modalities, high response frequency, and small size. It has achieved low-cost mass production and has significant R & D barriers. Embodied intelligence is one of the important directions of the strategic emerging industry layout of China Merchants Group's 'third entrepreneurship'. The investment in Daimon enriches China Merchants Group Venture Capital's layout in the embodied intelligence industry chain. We look forward to Daimon's tactile sensor helping the final implementation of general robot operation and expanding applications in the group's diversified scenarios."

The person in charge of the project of Orient Fortune Capital said: "Touch is the core input information for dexterous operation. As the focus of academic research and industrial development of embodied intelligence shifts towards Manipulation, the importance of tactile sensors in the industry chain will gradually increase. The visual-tactile route chosen by Daimon Robotics is similar to the CV modality and has unique advantages compared with other paths. The company has achieved breakthroughs in small size and high stability in its products and has taken the lead in promoting the industrialization process of visual-tactile sensors. Daimon is an important part of Orient Fortune Capital's layout in the embodied intelligence track. We look forward to the company riding the wave and becoming a leading enterprise in the industry."

The person in charge of the project of Jiaqiao Capital said: "Tactile perception and dexterous operation are the key technologies for the commercial implementation of embodied intelligence. Daimon Robotics was incubated from the top team of the Robotics Research Institute of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. It has been deeply involved in the field of touch and operation for many years. Its self-developed visual-tactile sensor has internationally leading performance, and its multi-modal tactile dexterous hand has been launched on the market. The commercialization of the products has reached an important turning point. Relying on the rapid hardware iteration ability of the Greater Bay Area, Daimon has innovatively proposed a monochromatic light visual-tactile sensor scheme, breaking through the bottlenecks of traditional schemes such as high computing power demand, high heat generation, low frequency, and poor durability. We are optimistic about Daimon Robotics' technological innovation ability, forward-looking strategic layout, and commercial implementation prospects. We believe that this round of financing can accelerate the commercialization rhythm of the company's products and continuously lead industry innovation."