Prox Industries Selected for AWS Japan's Physical AI Development Support Program

Prox Industries and AWS Japan’s New Initiative

Prox Industries, a cutting-edge startup focused on Physical AI, is pleased to announce its selection for the "Physical AI Development Support Program by AWS Japan." This valuable opportunity, offered by Amazon Web Services Japan (AWS Japan), aims to bolster the development of AI applications that integrate language, vision, and actions for robots. Prox Industries will concentrate on establishing an efficient Vision-Language-Action (VLA) learning pipeline adaptable to a variety of environments, tasks, and hardware.

Background: The Rise of VLA in Robotics

In recent years, the advancements in robotics, especially with models like VLA, have significantly expanded the possibilities for robot control that combines language, visual perception, and action. However, current VLA implementations often depend heavily on the conditions assumed during the training phase, leading to performance challenges in out-of-distribution (OOD) domains that differ from these assumptions. This limitation often necessitates fine-tuning for specific tasks during real-world operations. To successfully deploy Physical AI in practical settings, it is crucial to establish a highly reproducible and efficient cycle of learning, evaluation, and improvement tailored to individual use cases.

Program Focus: Enhancing VLA Applicability

Under this program, Prox Industries will leverage its strengths in simulation and manipulation technologies to build a Real2Sim2Real VLA learning pipeline that can be adapted across various environments and hardware conditions. The workflow will incorporate steps such as collecting demo data from physical systems, integrating this data into simulation environments like NVIDIA Omniverse, generating synthetic data, fine-tuning the VLA, and validating the system with real-world tests. By standardizing this cycle, Prox Industries aims to streamline the development and improvement processes for applying VLA to specific industry use cases, facilitating a more practical foundation for the implementation of Physical AI.

Overview of the Physical AI Development Support Program by AWS Japan

AWS Japan's initiative provides support for companies and organizations with a presence in Japan focusing on developing robotic foundational models, including VLA, on AWS. The program aids in the construction of an end-to-end development pipeline that spans from data collection and preprocessing to model training and deployment in actual environments. The aim is to promote the practical application of AI in robotics. Selected companies benefit from technical support from specialists in the Physical AI domain, AWS credits to offset a portion of development costs, and opportunities to foster a community around robotics and generative AI.

The AWS credits will be specifically allocated for workloads associated with developing robotic foundational models, including fine-tuning, simulation, and synthetic data generation, with a total budget projected to reach up to $6 million USD across the program.

About Prox Industries

Prox Industries is dedicated to realizing the implementation of physical intelligence from Japan, focusing on integrating AI with robotics to automate physical tasks traditionally performed by humans. Founded by researchers and engineers specializing in core Physical AI technologies, the company leads multiple projects across various sectors in collaboration with domestic enterprise partners. Utilizing a range of physical systems, including humanoids, quadrupedal robots, collaborative robots, and mobile manipulators, as well as simulation environments centered around NVIDIA Omniverse, Prox Industries tackles advanced technical challenges related to Sim2Real and Real2Sim processes.

The company actively connects cutting-edge academic research with industry needs, providing comprehensive support for research and development, learning pipeline construction, and the evaluation and improvement processes necessary for the deployment of Physical AI. In doing so, Prox Industries is committed to advancing Physical AI development and establishing the foundational pillars for Japan's next industrial era.