Bipasha Sen's Tangible Robots: Reimagining a Future of Commonplace Robotics

On March 29, 2024, science fiction and fantasy author Joanna Maciejewska tweeted, “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” The tweet garnered more than 95,000 likes and 3.2 million views, highlighting a fundamental issue with many current AI and robotics start-ups. They are often innovating in the wrong direction, focusing on mimicking human creativity rather than addressing practical needs.

While most AI start-ups invest in large language models (LLMs) that mimic human creativity, robotics companies are content to deploy industrial machines in warehouses or labs. This approach impacts what humans enjoy doing, such as making art, music, and literature, and what they need to survive, like gainful employment.

Enter Bipasha Sen, a USA-based Indian innovator. Sen’s Palo Alto-based start-up, Tangible Robots, aims to fill this gap by building dexterous, intelligent robots designed to navigate real-world environments. These robots can retrieve groceries, tidy countertops, and eventually become as ubiquitous as smartphones.

Tangible's vision is straightforward: “put robots in every home,” Sen says. However, executing this vision is far from simple. Home environments are unpredictable, cluttered, and constantly changing. Tasks like reaching for an apple hidden behind a bowl in a refrigerator or wiping down a sink require nuanced spatial perception, physical manipulation, and fast adaptation—challenges that even the most advanced current-gen robots struggle with.

Sen, who has spent over a decade in AI research, starting at Microsoft and later pursuing graduate work in generative modelling and robotic manipulation, believes the timing is right for a significant leap forward. She left her PhD program at MIT to focus full-time on Tangible, convinced that domestic robotics represents the most meaningful application of the technology today.

“Some of the words that I use to describe the essence of what we are building are transcendental, elevation, and enhancement,” Sen says. “I see robots not just doing menial tasks, but as a means to augment our physical world like AR/VR once promised.”

What sets Tangible apart is its focus on real-world dexterity and machine learning at scale. The company is investing heavily in teleoperation, control systems, and hardware-software co-design. But the bigger bet is on data. “The biggest challenge that any robotic company needs to solve is, how can we collect trillions of hours of robot data that is relevant for the underlying policy?” Sen explains. “That is where we put a lot of thoughts and efforts on and are innovating in this space to improve and enhance data acquisition.”

Tangible is building novel pipelines to acquire this data in ways that are cost-efficient, scalable, and deeply grounded in the practical realities of home use. While many robotics efforts focus on narrow tasks or single-purpose automation in industrial settings, Tangible is positioning itself as a platform company, one that can eventually support a broad spectrum of domestic applications.

For Sen and her co-founders, the long-term goal is not just about outsourcing domestic chores; it’s about reshaping the relationship between humans and machines. They envision commonplace robots as physical extensions of the human world—machines that enhance human productivity instead of replacing humans.

It remains to be seen how much of this dream Sen will be able to realize. Still in early development, Tangible Robots is currently prototyping in stealth and hosting private demos for investors and partners. If successful, the company could usher in a new era of embodied AI: the kind that doesn't just live in the cloud, but in the kitchen, the hallway, and the living room.