iHub Robotics
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Last reviewed
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| iHub Robotics | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Full name | I Hub Research and Robotics Pvt. Ltd. |
| Founded | 2021 |
| Incorporated | 3 March 2022 |
| Founders | Athil Krishna (CEO), Akhil K. Haridasan (COO), Sarath S (CTO) |
| Headquarters | Kerala, India |
| Registered office | Panampilly Nagar, Ernakulam, Kerala |
| Industry | Robotics, Artificial intelligence |
| Products | TARA GEN1 semi-humanoid robot, Daksha Gen 2 industrial humanoid |
| Core technology | Viveka DecisionCore vision-language-action system |
| Total funding | Rs 4.3 crore (approximately $520,000) |
| Pre-seed round | March 2025 |
| Website | ihubrobotics.com |
iHub Robotics, formally I Hub Research and Robotics Pvt. Ltd., is an Indian robotics startup based in Kerala that develops semi-humanoid and industrial humanoid robots for service and industrial applications. The company was founded in 2021 by Athil Krishna, Akhil K. Haridasan, and Sarath S, and is registered with the Kerala Startup Mission. Its product portfolio includes the TARA Gen 1 semi-humanoid service robot and the Daksha Gen 2 industrial humanoid, both built on the company's in-house Viveka DecisionCore vision-language-action (VLA) system.[1][2][3]
iHub Robotics has exported its TARA Gen 1 robots to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and in January 2025 became the first Indian company to be officially recognized by NVIDIA and selected for the NVIDIA Humanoid Robotics Program. In March 2025 the company raised Rs 4.3 crore (approximately $520,000) in pre-seed funding from United States-based investors, with proceeds earmarked for what it describes as India's largest humanoid robotics manufacturing facility in Kerala.[1][4][5]
iHub Robotics was co-founded in 2021 in Kerala by three entrepreneurs:
The parent legal entity, I Hub Research and Robotics Private Limited, was incorporated as a private limited company on 3 March 2022 and is registered in the state of Kerala. According to records held by the Kerala Startup Mission, the company's registered office is at Pothens Building, Panampilly Nagar in Ernakulam, with operating offices in Edappally, Ernakulam. The company is classified under the IT and IT-enabled services sector with a focus on enterprise applications, and its declared core technologies span artificial intelligence, machine learning, manufacturing robotics, and additive manufacturing. iHub Robotics operates across business-to-consumer, business-to-business, business-to-government, and direct-to-consumer channels.[6]
In March 2025 iHub Robotics announced that it had closed a pre-seed funding round of Rs 4.3 crore, equivalent to approximately $520,000, from undisclosed United States-based investors. The company said the proceeds would be used to establish what it described as India's largest humanoid robotics manufacturing facility in Kerala, with a target of creating more than 150 jobs in the following two years.[1][4][7][8]
Founder and chief executive Athil Krishna characterised the round as a step toward the company's goal of physical AI, a term used in the industry to describe artificial intelligence systems that interact with the world through bodies and actuators rather than only through screens. Coverage of the round in trade publications such as Evertiq, Indian Startup News, Entrackr, and TICE News linked the financing to plans for expanded export operations and the rollout of the company's education arm.[2][4][9][10]
In January 2025 iHub Robotics became the first Indian company to be officially recognized by NVIDIA and selected for the NVIDIA Humanoid Robotics Program. The program provides participating companies with access to NVIDIA hardware platforms, simulation tools, research collaborations, and global networking opportunities relevant to humanoid robotics development. iHub Robotics has cited the selection as a validation of its in-house AI stack and as a path toward closer integration with NVIDIA's robotics software ecosystem.[1][5][7]
On 17 February 2026 iHub Robotics unveiled Daksha Gen 2, its second-generation industrial humanoid robot, at the India AI Impact Summit held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. The robot was positioned as a platform for industrial automation, logistics, defence, mining and oil-field applications, and disaster response, and was demonstrated alongside other Indian robotics platforms at the summit.[11][12]
The TARA Gen 1 (sometimes written as TARA GEN1 or Tara Gen-1) is iHub Robotics' flagship semi-humanoid service robot. The company markets it as India's most advanced semi-humanoid robot and has positioned it for interactive customer-facing roles in hospitality, healthcare, airports, railway stations, and other public-service environments.[1][3][13]
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | iHub Robotics (India) |
| Status | In production |
| Listed price | $13,998 |
| Height | 163 cm |
| Weight | 75 kg |
| Maximum speed | 2.52 km/h |
| Lifting capacity | 2 kg |
| Runtime per charge | 8 hours |
| Number of fingers | 10 |
| Compute platform | 1024-core NVIDIA Ampere class GPU |
| Operating system | Ubuntu 22.04 |
| Camera resolution | 4K |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi |
| Motor technology | Closed-loop stepper |
| Gear technology | Harmonic drive |
| Main structural material | Mild steel |
| Ingress protection | IP53 |
| Glass-to-action latency | 1.5 seconds |
| LLM integration | Llama 3 |
| Languages | Multi-language speech |
| Export markets | UAE, Saudi Arabia |
Specifications listed in the table above are sourced from the third-party humanoid robot catalogue Humanoid.guide, which compiled them from manufacturer disclosures, and from iHub Robotics' own product communications.[3][13]
TARA Gen 1 combines computer vision, natural language processing, and motion control on a single mobile platform. According to iHub Robotics, the robot can identify human emotions, engage in conversational dialogue using a large language model backend (Meta's Llama 3), navigate dynamic environments autonomously, and assist users in multiple spoken languages. The platform pairs onboard 4K cameras with an NVIDIA Ampere-class GPU module to support real-time perception and decision-making.[3][13]
The vendor describes typical TARA Gen 1 deployments as customer reception, queue management, way-finding, and information services, with additional roles in patient support and basic logistics handling. By the time of the March 2025 funding announcement, units had been shipped to customers in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, making TARA Gen 1 one of a small number of Indian-designed humanoid platforms with confirmed export deployments.[1][13][14]
| Sector | Applications |
|---|---|
| Hospitality | Reception, guest interaction, concierge information services |
| Healthcare | Patient guidance, hospital wayfinding, basic information desk roles |
| Airports | Passenger assistance, multi-language information, queue management |
| Railway stations | Public information, ticketing assistance, wayfinding |
| Logistics | Light material handling, warehouse customer-facing roles |
| Education | Interactive demonstration, classroom assistance |
Daksha Gen 2 is iHub Robotics' industrial-grade humanoid robot, unveiled at the India AI Impact Summit on 17 February 2026 in New Delhi. Where TARA Gen 1 is positioned for service and customer-facing scenarios, Daksha Gen 2 is engineered for harsher operating environments and continuous-duty industrial work. The robot integrates three-finger precision grippers and is designed for end-to-end autonomy in unstructured tasks, with the vendor citing 24-hour operation as a design target.[11][12]
Daksha Gen 2 is built on the company's Viveka DecisionCore VLA architecture, which is intended to combine perception, language reasoning, and physical action in a single decision pipeline. Target use cases identified by iHub Robotics include industrial automation, logistics, defence operations, mining and oil-field tasks, and disaster response, where conventional fixed automation is difficult to deploy.[11][12][15]
iHub Robotics has developed an in-house vision-language-action model (VLA) called the Viveka DecisionCore. The system is described by chief executive Athil Krishna as the brain of the company's robots, combining vision, language, and action so that a robot can understand its environment from camera input, reason about an instruction expressed in natural language, and execute a corresponding sequence of physical actions.[15]
In public communications the company has emphasised three design choices for Viveka:
Rather than adapting third-party VLA models, iHub Robotics has positioned itself as building the full stack internally, covering object detection, task planning, motion control, and navigation. The company has also stated that it is increasing localisation of hardware components, including actuators, control electronics, and printed circuit boards, alongside its in-house software development. Its declared core technologies include artificial intelligence and machine learning, manufacturing robotics, and 3D printing for prototyping and small-batch component production.[6][15]
For onboard compute, the TARA Gen 1 platform documented by Humanoid.guide uses a 1024-core NVIDIA Ampere-class GPU module and runs on Ubuntu 22.04. The TARA platform has been integrated with Meta's Llama 3 large language model for conversational dialogue and instruction following.[3]
iHub Robotics has publicly committed to establishing what it describes as India's largest humanoid robotics manufacturing facility in Kerala. The proceeds from the March 2025 pre-seed round are earmarked for this facility, which the company has framed as part of a broader "Make in India" approach covering design, software, and assembly. iHub Robotics has also referenced longer-term plans for a research and manufacturing site with capacity to produce up to 3,000 humanoid robots per year and a research environment for around 200 engineers and researchers; press coverage uses the term "giga factory" to describe this larger facility plan.[1][2][16]
The immediate facility expansion is expected to create more than 150 jobs over a two-year horizon, according to statements made at the time of the funding announcement.[1][4]
In parallel with its core robotics business, iHub Robotics operates the iHub School of Learning, an educational initiative focused on training students in artificial intelligence and robotics. The company has stated a goal of training 100,000 students through the programme, with the aim of building a domestic talent pipeline for India's deep-tech ecosystem. Coverage of the March 2025 funding round repeatedly cited the school as a complementary pillar to the manufacturing strategy, intended to address skills gaps in physical AI, robot programming, and adjacent disciplines.[1][2][7][9]
| Function | Location |
|---|---|
| Registered office | Pothens Building, Panampilly Nagar, Ernakulam, Kerala |
| Operating office | Fortum Spaces, Marottichuvadu, Toll Junction, Edappally, Ernakulam, Kerala |
| Planned manufacturing | Kerala (humanoid robotics facility) |
Location data is drawn from the company's listing on the Kerala Startup Mission Kernel platform.[6]
As of the March 2025 funding round, iHub Robotics' confirmed export markets for TARA Gen 1 were the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. In a 2026 interview with Electronics For You, chief executive Athil Krishna stated that the company had deployed dozens of robots across India and the Middle East and was preparing shipments to the United States, signalling an expansion of its international footprint beyond the Gulf.[1][13][15]
The company sells humanoid and semi-humanoid robots directly to enterprise customers across hospitality, healthcare, transport infrastructure, retail, education, and industrial automation. The Kerala Startup Mission entry classifies iHub Robotics' business model as combining business-to-business, business-to-government, business-to-consumer, and direct-to-consumer sales, reflecting the breadth of its target sectors.[6]
iHub Robotics has been profiled in Indian and international startup and electronics trade publications, including Business Standard, Evertiq, Entrackr, Indian Startup News, TICE News, Silicon India, Electronics For You, Analytics India Magazine, and The Tribune. Commentary in these outlets has emphasised three themes: the company's status as one of the few Indian humanoid robotics startups with confirmed export deployments; its decision to develop its own VLA stack rather than relying on imported models; and its role as a test case for India's wider ambition to compete in the humanoid robot market alongside firms in the United States, China, and elsewhere.[1][2][7][9][11][13][15]
The company's selection for the NVIDIA Humanoid Robotics Program in January 2025 has been frequently cited in Indian press as the most prominent international validation of its work to date.[1][5][7]