Prox Industries Shines at ICRA 2026 Workshop with Second Place Finish

Prox Industries, a startup founded from the University of Tokyo's Matsuo Lab, has made headlines by securing the second place in the ICRA 2026 Workshop competition titled "From Data to Decisions: VLA Pipelines for Real Robots." Hosted by the AI Robot Association (AIRoA), this workshop gathered 36 teams, showcasing innovative methods in robotics.

The focus of the competition revolved around the Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models—creative frameworks designed to apply AI-driven strategies to actual robotic systems. The workshop covered a wide array of critical aspects related to VLA pipelines, including data collection, curation strategies, learning tactics, decision-making during inference, evaluation, safety considerations, robustness, and generalization capabilities.

Competition Overview

Within the ICRA 2026 Workshop, the Mobile Manipulation Challenge was a key highlight. Teams had the opportunity to utilize approximately 10,000 hours of real robotic data, which was crucial in teaching VLA models. The challenge not only assessed the teams' ability to create a robust pipeline—including data, learning, inference, and evaluation—but it also aimed to explore the crucial aspects of applying VLA models in real-world robotic applications.

This robust dataset originated from a project contracted by AIRoA with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), which focused on the enhancement of post-5G telecommunications infrastructure and the active use of generated AI datasets.

Prox Industries' Achievement

Through their innovative approach in constructing VLA pipelines for mobile manipulation, Prox Industries emerged with a commendable second place. This achievement serves as a significant milestone towards the societal implementation of Physical AI technologies. The company is committed to advancing the development of robotic foundational models, real-world evaluations, and other cutting-edge technologies, including Sim2Real and Real2Sim practices.

Prox Industries also plans to release a technical report elaborating on their developed pipeline later on their workshop website and social media accounts. This transparency not only adds to the scientific community but also fosters an environment of shared learning and advancement in robotics.

Details regarding this segment of the competition can be referenced on the official sites:

About Prox Industries

Prox Industries holds a compelling vision: to implement Physical AI from Japan to enrich areas of physical labor traditionally reliant on human effort. The company engages in robust collaborations whereby researchers and engineers specialize in the core technologies of Physical AI. Centered around various robotics projects aimed at different enterprises, Prox Industries explores advanced technical challenges using a variety of real devices—humanoids, quadrupeds, collaborative robots, and mobile manipulators, all while exploiting simulation environments such as NVIDIA Omniverse.

Their mission emphasizes the importance of bridging leading-edge academia with industry needs. By supporting thorough research and development of robotic foundational models, constructing learning pipelines, and facilitating evaluations and improvements for real-world implementations, Prox Industries aims to propel research and societal incorporation of Physical AI technology forward, contributing significantly to Japan's next industrial framework.

Company Name: Prox Industries Inc.
Location: 4th Floor, Hongo K&K Building, 3-30-10 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
CEO: Yuji Kamei
Established: June 2024
Website: prox-industries.jp
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LinkedIn Official Account: LinkedIn
Recruitment Page: Herp Careers