Ankur Saxena, investment director at TDK Ventures, discusses humanoid robotics and physical AI with John Koetsier on NEXT with John Koetsier.
Saxena frames robotics around perception, planning, performance, and platform. Together, they cover sensing the environment, making decisions, turning decisions into physical action, and delivering a solution with customer ROI and feedback loops. He says companies need to connect these layers rather than assume one layer can rule the market.
Saxena says investment and attention often concentrate on hardware and foundation models, while perception gets underestimated. Humanoids must handle changing light, occlusion, and surface differences, especially around people. Current sensor stacks and calibration are often tailored to specific environments, limiting safe operation elsewhere.
Saxena sees stronger near-term returns in industrial and manufacturing settings, where environments can be more consistent than homes. He says humanoids may suit tasks needing hands, precise object handling, or movement between locations, while fixed robots and wheeled systems remain better for some jobs. Home robots face varied layouts, safety concerns, and high price expectations.
Saxena says humanoids remain economically difficult for both buyers and vendors: meaningful industrial robots can cost vendors upwards of $200,000 to build, while customer labor savings may not justify the purchase. He sees value in integration across the four Ps and says startups should choose where to focus, potentially moving from off-the-shelf parts to custom sensors or actuators as needs become clear. TDK Ventures backed Agility Robotics, which Saxena describes as having robots deployed in real environments.
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