Autonomous excavator startup Bedrock Robotics picks up $600M in funding

Bedrock Robotics, an autonomous excavator startup, has recently secured $600 million in funding led by Alphabet Inc.’s CapitalG fund and Emergence Capital. The Series C round also attracted contributions from Nvidia Corp., Bessemer, and numerous other investors. This significant investment brings the company's valuation to nearly $1 billion.

The funding round comes shortly after Bedrock achieved a major milestone by beginning to perform paid work on commercial construction sites. The company's product, the Bedrock Operator, is an autonomy module for excavators that enables them to navigate sites and execute earthmoving tasks with minimal human intervention. The Bedrock Operator relies on onboard artificial intelligence models to autonomously avoid obstacles.

The computing appliance responsible for running the Bedrock Operator's software is housed within the excavator's driver cabin and runs on Nvidia's ruggedized AI accelerator, the Jetson AGX Orin. This component is designed to withstand the challenging conditions of construction sites. Additionally, a sensor array mounted on the roof of excavators' driver cabins supplies crucial data for the computing module to make driving decisions.

The sensor array consists of eight cameras and a lidar device capable of detecting nearby objects, even in low light.

To address potential GPS errors in low-building environments or when the GPS antenna is tilted due to uneven terrain, Bedrock Operator incorporates an inertial measurement unit (IMU). This unit, featuring a magnetometer and other sensors, helps determine the excavator's orientation relative to the ground and correct GPS signal errors. Moreover, the IMU captures valuable data on the speed at which an excavator's arm rotates, enhancing its overall functionality.

Bedrock Robotics' CEO and co-founder, Boris Sofman, expressed his team's goal of proving that fully autonomous excavators can perform real work alongside crews and workflows on job sites. The company plans to use its new funding to expand the adoption of its technology and build the necessary field service infrastructure to support additional deployments. In the long run, Bedrock aims to extend its focus beyond excavators to cover other construction vehicles.