Former members of Google DeepMind’s Applied Robotics team have founded Reimagine Robotics. The company is developing intelligent robots for industrial environments that can be trained by workers themselves, without the need for programmers or any programming knowledge.
Reimagine Robotics is developing technology that enables robots to learn by observing and trying things out for themselves. According to the founders, the approach is similar to training a new colleague to perform a task. An employee demonstrates to the robot how a task should be carried out, after which the robot attempts to replicate it. Employees can correct mistakes themselves. This not only helps to fine-tune the initial learning process, but also enables the robot to adapt to changes in, for example, production processes.
With this technology, Reimagine Robotics aims to make robotics more accessible to businesses. For example, no specialist knowledge is required to programme or reprogramme robots. This makes it easier for businesses to get started.
Operational since April 2025
Reimagine Robotics was founded in April 2025 by Jonathan Scholz, who led Google DeepMind’s Applied Robotics team in London for seven years. Scholz founded the company alongside former colleagues Oleg Sushkov, Akhil Raju and Misha Denil. The company has offices in London and Sydney.
Over the past year, Reimagine Robotics has focused on product development, team building and collaborating with customers to test the platform. The next phase will centre on a new round of funding, expanding the team and broader deployment of the robots with customers. According to the company, each new application should contribute to faster, more reliable and more efficient implementations.
Already in use on the shop floor
Reimagine Robotics’ robots are, incidentally, already in use in the real world. For example, the robots are being deployed in the manufacturing industry and for dismantling electronic components, amongst other things. At a company that produces custom-made plastic components, the robots have been trained to operate 3D printers at night. This includes removing print beds, operating latches and pressing buttons. The robots can also wash, cure and dry 3D prints.
Three of the manufacturer’s robots have also been integrated into a dismantling cell for used hard drives. The focus here is on recovering valuable critical materials from the hard drives. During this project, the partner managed to reduce the time needed to develop and test a new prototype from around one day to approximately ten minutes, enabling teams to test new applications for the robots almost immediately.
Reimagine Robotics is keeping the names of partners already working with the robots under wraps.
People remain at the heart of it all
Reimagine Robotics emphasises that humans continue to play a central role in all implementations. According to the company, the technology is not intended to remove people from the process, but to leverage their knowledge. In doing so, employees identify bottlenecks, train the robot and fine-tune it until it is operational. In this way, staff no longer need to carry out repetitive physical tasks thousands of times themselves, but can transfer that knowledge to a robot and focus on other tasks.
