Foundation models for
extreme-purpose robotics.
Vertex builds the model layer for robots that work alongside firefighters, combat medics, hazmat teams, and search-and-rescue crews — in environments where every additional second of human presence is a tradeoff against death.
Approach
Train one foundation model on large-scale sensorimotor data (teleop, motion capture, simulation rollouts). Apply the recipes that built foundation models in language and vision to produce policies that generalize across embodiments. Operate from first principles — we don’t copy architecture choices because they worked somewhere else.
Safety posture
Every deployed policy ships behind a learned safety classifier and a real-time human-override channel that cannot be disabled in software. Capabilities ship through staged deployment with independent safety review at each gate. We publish near-misses alongside successes and decline contracts that conflict with our mission.