Realtime Robotics, the developer of responsive motion planning for industrial robots and autonomous vehicles, has raised $11.7 million in Series A funding.

This capital will be used for several efforts, including accelerating the development of more commercial product releases, and growing the Realtime Robotics team to support key customers and partners across the world.

“The commitment garnered from strategic investors reflects both the need and the demand for smarter robots,” says Peter Howard, CEO, Realtime Robotics.

“Our technology transforms the way machines interact with both people and other machines.  Robots will now be able to take on a wide range of new tasks and manufacturers will finally benefit from the productivity and efficiency gains that increased automation has promised, but failed to deliver.”

Realtime Robotics says that its technologies help overcome the challenges of today's robots not being safe enough or smart enough to navigate in “dynamic, unstructured environments, without costly safeguards and oversight.”

In just milliseconds, machines such as industrial and collaborative robots and autonomous vehicles can evaluate millions of alternative motion paths to avoid a collision and choose the optimal route before making a move using Realtime Robotics' specialized computer processor and software.

“Realtime Robotics’ technology is ground-breaking and will transform the deployment of robotic automation across a range of industries,” says Seiji Miyasaka, head of US Investment Team, SPARX Asset Management Co., Ltd., the leader of this investment round.

“We’re proud to work closely with the team as they begin to help their customers reduce the friction, cost, and complexity of automation.”