How robot startups scrape for data: free cleanings, exoskeletons, sim limits
binarybits · x · 2026-09-04
A deep Understanding AI feature on the robot data scramble: startup Shift offered free NYC apartment cleanings while cleaners wore camera hats to sell manipulation data to robotics firms. The largest open robot dataset (ABC-130K) holds just 3,500 hours of demonstrations — nowhere near internet scale. The author interviewed dozens of founders and researchers, visited UPenn's lab, and watched VR-puppeteered humanoid data collection in China. The post's clip also illustrates why training manipulation in simulation still doesn't work well.
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