Neotics
Join the lab

Open robotics lab Challenges open

Robots learn
from people.

Neotics is an open lab for robot skills. Build and teach them, have them judged in the open, and keep your name on every one.

Join the lab How it works
  1. 01A robot hand closes in an instant.
  2. 02Knowing when, and how gently, has to be shown.
  3. 03Someone shows it. Neotics keeps their name on it.
A person holds a cracked egg between thumb and two fingertips.

Every gentle grip was shown by someone first.

A robot hand can close in an instant. How firmly, how slowly and when to let go come from people who already know.

Close up of a robotic finger: a braided orange tendon runs through brass eyelets past a machined joint.

01 · The idea

The strength between the parts.

In a body, sinew carries force from muscle to bone. In robotics, that is people: the ones who write the code, record the demonstrations, build the simulated worlds and check the results.

Neotics is new robotics: people show, robots learn, and the lab keeps their names on the work.

  • CodePolicies, planners, drivers
  • DemonstrationsRecorded attempts a robot learns from
  • WorldsSimulated rooms, objects and tasks
  • BenchmarksEvaluation packs that keep scores honest

02 · How it works

From a challenge to a skill a robot can use.

  1. 01

    Pick a challenge

    Challenges come in tracks: Basics to start, Proto and Research to go deeper, Enterprise when a company funds the prize.

    Open · first challenges soon

  2. 02

    Build it

    Write the code, record the demonstrations, design the world. Studio, a physics simulator that runs in the browser, is on its way.

    Studio in development

  3. 03

    Get judged in the open

    Every entry is scored by automated benchmarks and reviewed by the community. Scores and licences are public.

    How every challenge works

  4. 04

    Keep your name on it

    Accepted work goes into a shared library with its makers credited. When others use it, its makers are paid.

    Library and royalties planned

A hand reaches into an orange tree and closes around a ripe orange. Twist · 1.9 s Close · 1.2 s Reach · 0.0 s

Reach, close, twist.

Picking fruit without bruising it takes a person two seconds and no thought. A robot has to be shown, and a recorded demonstration is how: one path, signed by whoever made it.

Every demonstration is a line.

A robot learns a grip from many people showing it, one attempt at a time. On Neotics, every attempt is signed.

Each line is one demonstration. The orange one could be yours.

03 · Open by default

Every part, open.

Neotics is built on ten open-source projects and works in the open: licences, benchmarks and scores are public, and the code goes on GitHub at launch.

  1. ROS 2Robot middleware
  2. MoveIt 2Motion planning
  3. Nav2Navigation
  4. Gazebo SimSimulation
  5. MuJoCoPhysics
  6. GenesisPhysics and rendering
  7. LeRobotLearning from demonstrations
  8. ZenohMessaging
  9. OpenUSDScene description
  10. Open-RMFFleets
A square seen from far above: people cross a chequered pavement in every direction.

It has to learn to walk through us

Crowds, kitchens, workshops, warehouses: robots are heading into places people already know how to move through, and people are the ones who can show them the way.

04 · Who it is for

Four ways in.

  • Learners

    Start with a guided challenge and finish with a certificate.

    Basics

  • Builders

    Take on paid challenges and build a record of signed, judged work.

    Proto

  • Researchers

    Run reproducible challenges, with grants and co-authorship.

    Research

  • Companies

    Fund a challenge and get back tested, licensed answers.

    Enterprise

05 · Compute

GPU time for training and simulation.

Rent GPU instances with prepaid credits in USDC, in 10, 50 or 100. SSH keys only, billed only while an instance runs.

Live, limited at launch

Open Compute
The Neotics mark made as an object: an orange braided cord wrapped in an N around two brass spools on a stoneware mount.

06 · $NEO

The thread through it all.

$NEO pays for skills and assets, rewards makers, gives holders a say in how the lab runs and lowers challenge fees. Companies fund challenges in ordinary money and the fees convert to $NEO. There are no inflationary emissions.

Live

Nothing on this page is financial advice.

07 · Status

What is real today.

Every part of the hand laid out in rows from above: stoneware shells, graphite links and knuckles, silicone pads, brass axles and eyelets, the palm, a coil of orange tendon and a hex key.

Live

  • Lab sign-up, with the first challenges soon
  • Compute, limited at launch
  • $NEO
  • Ten open-source forks on GitHub

In development

  • Studio: a browser simulator with templates for pick and place, navigation, mapping, perception and reinforcement learning

Planned

  • A library of skills, worlds, datasets and evaluation packs, with royalties to makers
  • Later: design a robot's brain without code and have it delivered in certified hardware
An adult's clay-covered hand guides a child's hands as they shape a pot on a wheel.

The way you were shown.

Patiently, hands on, more than once. It is still the best way to teach anything, robots included.

Show a robot how.

Holding an egg without breaking it is something a robot has to be shown. Sign in with Google or GitHub and pick your first challenge when the agenda opens.

Join the lab See the challenges
The robotic hand holds a pale blue-green egg between its thumb and two fingertips.