Sharpa: Comprehensive Company Overview
Overview and Mission
Sharpa (https://www.sharpa.com/) is a full-stack artificial intelligence and embodied robotics company focused on solving one of the most critical bottlenecks in automation: dexterous, contact-rich manipulation. Operating under the mission to "Manufacture Time by Making Robots Useful," Sharpa develops anthropomorphic hardware, humanoid robotic systems, and proprietary foundation AI models designed to automate tedious, long-horizon physical tasks in environments built for humans without requiring facility retrofits.
Rather than relying purely on vision or rigid industrial grippers, Sharpa centers its development on high-DoF (Degrees of Freedom) tactile end-effectors and hierarchical multimodal intelligence. This enables robots to manage the "last 1%" of complex manipulation—such as fine assembly, tool handling, delicate sorting, and tactile adjustment.
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Core Hardware Offerings
1. Sharpa Wave (Dexterous Robotic Hand)
The Sharpa Wave is a human-scale, five-finger robotic hand engineered for robot manufacturers (OEMs), robotics researchers, and industrial automation.
- Kinematics & Anatomy: Features a 1:1 human hand scale with 22 active Degrees of Freedom (DoF), allowing for natural articulation, human tool handling, and complex in-hand object reorientation.
- Tactile Sensing: Integrates high-density tactile sensor arrays across the fingers and palm, capable of sensing contact forces down to 0.02 N.
- Precision & Durability: Engineered for industrial-grade continuous use with sub-millimeter positioning accuracy (<0.1 mm).
- Compatibility: Native support for ROS 2, standard robotic control APIs, and integration with third-party humanoid or robotic arm platforms (including reference platforms such as NVIDIA Isaac).
2. Sharpa North (Full-Body Humanoid Robot)
Sharpa North is a general-purpose, full-body humanoid robotic platform designed to perform autonomous multi-hour shifts in commercial and industrial settings.
- Architecture: Built with 67 total Degrees of Freedom across the upper body, torso, and locomotion systems to support extensive range of motion.
- Manipulation Core: Equipped with dual Sharpa Wave hands to facilitate bimanual coordination, tool usage, and load handling.
- Application Scope: Engineered for dynamic environments such as manufacturing lines, logistics centers, hospitality, and food service, executing multi-step tasks without specialized workspace alterations.
Artificial Intelligence & Software Architecture
CraftNet (Hierarchical VTLA Model)
Sharpa has developed CraftNet, a proprietary Vision-Tactile-Language-Action (VTLA) foundation model architecture. CraftNet decomposes robot control into a three-tiered hierarchical structure that bridges high-level semantic reasoning with millisecond-level tactile reflexes:
- System 2: Reasoning Brain (~1 Hz): A Vision-Language Model (VLM) that interprets natural language instructions, analyzes visual scenes, breaks complex objectives into sequential sub-goals, and plans long-horizon tasks.
- System 1: Motion Brain (~10 Hz): Translates planned sub-goals into smooth trajectory generation, bimanual arm coordination, and spatial movement policies.
- System 0: Interaction & Reflex Brain (~100 Hz): A ultra-high-frequency control loop driven by real-time tactile array feedback and proprioceptive data. It handles slip detection, contact-force adjustments, grip stability, and fine in-hand manipulation without relying on visual latency.
Simulation & Deployment Ecosystem
- SimToolReal: Policy framework enabling zero-shot simulation-to-reality transfer for manipulating novel tools and unfamiliar physical objects.
- Teleoperation & Data Collection: Complete suites for RL-augmented teleoperation, motion capture mapping, and demonstration recording to train custom manipulation policies.
- Control APIs & SDKs: Developer tools for high-level scripting, digital twin simulation, and low-level torque/position control.
Target Industries and Solutions
- Robotics OEMs & Integrators: Supplying the Sharpa Wave hand as an off-the-shelf dexterous manipulation subsystem to enhance the physical capabilities of third-party humanoid and mobile manipulator robots.
- Academic & Industrial AI Research: Providing hardware and unified software toolchains for institutions studying Embodied AI, Reinforcement Learning, and contact-rich tactile control.
- Enterprise Shift Automation: Deploying full-body robotic systems (North) to manage continuous shifts in light manufacturing, kitting, parcel processing, food preparation, and material handling.
