Apple is ramping up hiring for robotics researchers and engineers to bolster its teams developing its new home robotics devices, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
Gurman’s comments came on Sunday. He says Apple is in the early stages of developing a tabletop robot and has its sights set on potentially creating a humanoid model in the future.
Last year, I was first to report that Apple had secret engineering and research teams working on robotics technology and future products for the home. This initiative has its origins within Apple’s self-driving car unit, which was disbanded last February. The robotics work is being led across two departments: the Home Labs hardware engineering group and Kevin Lynch’s AI special projects team within the machine learning organization. They have their eyes on a tabletop robot and, maybe one day, a humanoid model.
Apple’s robotics development is being handled by two departments: the Home Labs hardware engineering group and the AI special projects team. These teams spun off from Apple’s self-driving car unit, which the company shut down in February 2024.
The past several weeks has seen Apple post multiple job listings for robotics specialists. The job listings say that new hires will have “the opportunity to work with a small team of highly skilled engineers and scientists to bring new experiences to Apple products.”
… Apple published a research paper last month that detailed work on a tabletop robot. The device resembles the lamp from Pixar’s logo and could give a very early idea of what Apple’s 2027 product might look like. Ultimately, Apple’s tabletop robot is likely to be something closer to a HomePod smart speaker with a screen attached to a robotic limb. But it’s worth watching the embedded video to get a sense of why such a device might have appeal.
