[FI] About

We build robots that feel.

Factory Intelligence is a physical AI company training tactile foundation models for the real world. We build in Lafayette, Indiana, where the work is, and in San Francisco, where the models are trained.

Close-up of the onboard camera board mounted on a robotic arm

[01] Our thesis

Vision told machines what the world looks like.

Robotic gripper making contact, sensing touch

[02] Our thesis

Touch tells them what the world is.

[03] The loop

Four pieces. One loop.

Each piece feeds the next, and the last feeds back into the first. This is the whole company in four moves.

Robot arm handling electrical plugs on the shop benchShop cam · plug handling
01

Tactile foundation model.

A sensorimotor model trained on vision, touch, proprioception, and language together. Touch is a first-class input, not an afterthought. The model learns to anticipate contact, not just react to it.

Toolhead torquing a termination to specMacro · torque to spec
02

Real-time safety layer.

A classical control layer sits under the learned model, enforcing force and compliance limits in hard real time. If the model gets it wrong, the low-level controller still catches it. Safety and reliability are the substrate.

Custom gripper and mount built for the armMacro · custom end effector
03

Purpose-built hardware.

Sensors, grippers, and actuators designed around the model they serve. We build the physical stack so the data we collect and the forces we command are things our own electronics can measure and trust.

Four robot arms running in one cell, coordinated by a single runtimeCell cam · one runtime, many arms
04

Software orchestration.

One runtime that sequences skills, coordinates across a fleet, and streams data back to the training loop. A single robot learning in the field becomes every robot's experience by the next release. 04 → 01, and the loop turns again.

[04] FAQ

Questions about the how and why.

On the model, the hardware, and why they're built together.

What does Factory Intelligence do?

We train tactile foundation models for real-world robotics: sensorimotor models that learn from vision, touch, proprioception, and language together. We pair the model with a real-time control layer, hardware we build ourselves, and software that runs a whole fleet from one runtime. That combination is what's running in production today.

What do you mean by "robots that feel"?

Our arms sense force and contact directly, through sensors and a control layer built for that purpose, and that signal is a first-class input to the model, not a diagnostic bolted on afterward.

Why does touch matter more than vision alone?

Vision can localize a part. It can't tell you whether the contact the arm just made was correct. Touch closes that gap: it's the signal that tells the model whether an interaction is working, which is exactly what's missing when a rigid, vision-only system meets a part that flexes, snags, or shifts.

What is a tactile foundation model?

A sensorimotor model trained on vision, touch, proprioception, and language together, where touch is a first-class input rather than an afterthought. It learns to anticipate contact, not just react to it after the fact.

How is this different from typical vision-language-action robotics?

Most robotics models generalize from vision and language, with touch, if it's used at all, added on as a secondary signal. We start from touch as a first-class input, trained jointly with vision, proprioception, and language from the beginning, not layered in afterward.

Why build the sensors, grippers, actuators, and control stack yourselves?

The model is only as good as what it can measure and trust. A classical control layer sits under the learned model and enforces force and compliance limits in hard real time, so if the model gets something wrong, the low-level controller still catches it. That layer, and the electronics feeding it, are ours, because safety and reliability have to be the substrate, not a plug-in.

Why do contact-rich tasks break traditional automation?

Fixed-path robots need a part to show up in exactly the same place, the same way, every time. The moment something flexes, snags, or shifts, rigid automation stops. That's most manipulation work, which is why it's still done by hand.

How does one robot's field experience improve the fleet?

One runtime sequences skills, coordinates the fleet, and streams data back into training. A robot learning something new on a shop floor becomes every robot's experience by the next release, not just that one arm's.

Are you deployed, or is this still research?

Deployed. Arms are running wire prep and assembly in production at an electrical prefab shop in Indiana today, on real orders and real quotas, every shift.

Who should reach out?

Manufacturers with a manipulation task they can't staff or automate with fixed-path robots, researchers and engineers who want to work on tactile foundation models, and investors. The contact form has a track for each: work with us, careers, invest, or general.

In production today · $3/hour effective · 94% below manual labor

Bring us your worst task.

Lafayette, Indiana · San Francisco · hello@factoryintelligence.com