Building on the success of the inaugural cohort, the program continues to accelerate startups building at the intersection of physical AI and robotics
MassRobotics announced the second cohort of the Physical AI Fellowship, a virtual program powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) Startups and NVIDIA Inception that helps high-potential robotics startups build, refine, and scale physical AI solutions. Following the success of the inaugural Fall 2025 cohort, the 2026 cohort brings together nine promising startups advancing physical AI across agriculture, construction and renewable energy, industrial automation, retail and logistics, robotics data infrastructure, teleoperation, and wearable and humanoid robotics applications.
Demand for physical AI continues to accelerate as industries seek to deploy intelligent machines in real-world environments. By providing startups with deep technical guidance, cloud and compute resources, and access to a global robotics ecosystem, the fellowship enables teams to move from promising prototypes to enterprise-grade deployments.
“We’re excited to launch our second Physical AI Fellowship cohort and continue working alongside industry leaders like AWS and NVIDIA to help startups scale real-world physical AI solutions,” said Tom Ryden, Executive Director at MassRobotics. “We look forward to showcasing the cohort at the Robotics Summit & Expo in May and connecting them with the broader community during Boston Tech Week.”
Meet the 2026 Cohort:
Burro | Config | Deltia | Haply Robotics | Luminous Robotics | Roboto AI | Telexistence | Terra Robotics | WIRobotics
The Physical AI Fellowship provides deep technical guidance, compute resources, and access to a global robotics ecosystem so teams can move from promising prototypes to enterprise-grade deployments. Fellows receive support from AWS Generative AI Innovation Center scientists and experts, and AWS credits. The Fellowship also provides benefits via NVIDIA Inception including mentorship, technical training, and the latest developer tools, alongside access to MassRobotics’ facilities and robust robotics community.
“Physical AI represents one of the most transformative opportunities in robotics, and startups are leading the way in bringing these intelligent systems from lab to market,” said Jason Bennett, VP and Global Head of Startups at AWS. “This fellowship is designed to remove technical and resource barriers that slow innovation by embedding our scientists and engineers directly with cohort companies, providing substantial cloud credits and AI services, and connecting them to enterprise customers who are eager to deploy these solutions. This model has proven to accelerate how quickly startups can validate, refine, and scale physical AI across real-world applications.”
“Startups are an incredibly powerful catalyst for innovation. By taking early bets on emerging technologies, they transform bold ideas into scalable businesses,” said Howard Wright, Vice President of Startup Ecosystem at NVIDIA. “As physical AI brings intelligence to machines, factories, and infrastructure, these innovators will drive greater efficiency and productivity across the global economy. In collaboration with AWS, we’re showing that our technologies are better together—helping startups accelerate innovation and bring transformative AI solutions to market.”
Fellowship benefits include:
- Embedded science and engineering support from AWS to build and refine physical AI solutions.
- Cloud, compute and hardware access, including $200,000 in AWS credits and dedicated support channels.
- Access to NVIDIA AI infrastructure, including the NVIDIA Isaac open frameworks and models, NVIDIA Cosmos open world foundation models, free self-paced courses and discounted instructor-led workshops from NVIDIA Training, and preferred pricing for software and hardware via the Inception program.
- Specialized training and webinars with AWS and NVIDIA robotics teams.
- Facilities and tools at MassRobotics for prototyping, testing, and integration into the broader innovation ecosystem.
- Opportunities for go-to-market support, including high-visibility showcases at major AWS, NVIDIA, and MassRobotics events, joint promotion, and access to customers, investors, and collaborators across the MassRobotics community.
See the fellowship cohort live at the Robotics Summit & Expo, taking place May 27–28, 2026, in Boston. Register here to connect with the startups shaping the future of physical AI. (Use 25% off discount code: MassRobo26)
To learn more about the Physical AI Fellowship, Powered by AWS, NVIDIA and MassRobotics, visit the program page here.
Physical AI Fellowship
Cohort 2, 2026
Burro builds autonomous robots that support laborers by automating routine, repetitive tasks in industries ranging from large-scale nurseries to family owned orchards, depot yards, industrial operations, and beyond. Designed to function like a coworker and amplify crew productivity, Burro leverages a combination of adaptive AI and rugged hardware to help organizations overcome labor shortages, eliminate operational bottlenecks, and get more out of their existing workforce.
Config builds data infrastructure and foundation models that enable robots to perform real-world tasks involving both arms. Leveraging an in-house foundation model trained on large-scale action data and rapid automated pipelines for iterative model and data improvement, Config enables robotic systems to adapt to new tasks and be deployed within days.
Deltia.ai is a Berlin-based AI company that turns shop-floor cameras into an intelligence layer for manufacturing, tracking human and machine processes to eliminate inefficiencies, deliver productivity gains of 20-40%, and build the data foundation for industrial automation. Trusted by global manufacturers including ABB, Bosch, and Continental, Deltia is uniquely positioned to power the next generation of industrial robotics.
Haply Robotics is building the human interface layer for Physical AI, enabling machines to understand and interact with the world through touch. Its technology captures human motion and force with high precision, transforming touch and manipulation into data that powers robotics, automation, and intelligent systems.
Luminous unlocks scalable solar energy to combat labor and logistics bottlenecks jeopardizing our planet’s trajectory to a more sustainable future. Freeing construction workers from repetitive heavy lifting of solar panels in large solar farm projects, our robot fleets enable faster, safer, and more cost effective installations at scale.
Roboto is the analytics engine for Physical AI, enabling teams to search, process, and analyze multimodal logs at scale. By surfacing key events and edge cases, Roboto transforms robotics data into a performance flywheel that continuously improves fleet reliability.
Telexistence Inc. accelerates the transition to a sustainable automation economy by deploying Physical AI and autonomous robots at commercial scale. With its robotic solutions already operating as an established business across Japan’s convenience store chains, the company is now deploying next-generation, Vision-Language-Action (VLA) powered humanoids into actual retail production to automate complex store operations.
Terra Robotics is developing the Terra Weeder, a smart tractor implement which scans the fields, identifies weeds and eliminates them with high powered lasers. Terra Robotics’ mission is to help professional farmers reduce their dependency on manual labor and chemical herbicides by introducing field-proven laser weeding technology that works within real farming constraints.
WiRobotics is building humanoid robots to bring physical AI into the real world. The company develops high-performance robotic platforms with high-dexterity hands and advanced actuation systems designed for real-world manipulation across industrial, service, and research environments.