Bezos-Backed Heartland Robotics Raises Another $20 Million

Heartland Robotics today announced that it raised $20 million in a series B venture round led by Highland Capital Partners. Other investors include Sigma Partners and existing investors Bezos Expeditions and Charles River Ventures. The Boston-based company previously raised $7 million in August, 2009.

The founder of Heartland Robotics is Rodney Brooks, a former AI reseracher at MIT and one of the co-founders of iRobot. Instead of making robot vacuum cleaners, time around Brooks is developing a new class of manufacturing robots. I normally don’t quote from a press release, but this Brooks quote sounds like something straight out of an Isaac Asimov novel:

“Our robots will be intuitive to use, intelligent and highly flexible. They’ll be easy to buy, train, and deploy and will be unbelievably inexpensive. Heartland Robotics will change the definition of how and where robots can be used, dramatically expanding the robot marketplace.”

They sound so harmless, don’t they? Let’s just hope these robots obey the Three Laws of Robotics. I wonder if they’ll be friends with the Anybots.