Ottonomy is developing robots designed to solve real-world logistics challenges. Ritukar Vijay believes that the most complex aspect of logistics is the intermediate link—the movement of samples, food, parts, and parcels between buildings, through elevators, and across campuses, which has long remained largely unautomated.
This situation changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as hospitals, industrial campuses, and transport hubs suddenly required contactless delivery of goods and supplies.
With nearly two decades of experience in robotics and autonomous driving, Vijay teamed up with his classmate Hardik Sharma, along with former colleagues Pradyot Korupolu and Ashish Gupta, to found the deep-tech startup Ottonomy in 2020.
The company's CEO stated that Ottonomy was founded on the conviction that last-mile and intra-campus logistics are areas with an acute labor shortage where autonomous technologies can provide real benefit today.
Ottonomy, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, has over 60 employees, most of whom work in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) in India. The startup recently won the Accenture Tech Next Challenge 2026 in the 'Supply Chain and Engineering' category.
Vijay noted that the win helped the team better understand what is required to scale Physical AI in the corporate sector and provided access to people driving these changes in large organizations.
Aditi Kulkarni, Head of Global Network Advanced Technology Center and Accenture Advanced Technology Center in India, emphasized that autonomous technologies are ushering in a new era of corporate transformation, with deep-tech startups at the forefront of this shift.
Kulkarni added that thanks to this competition, startups are getting closer to customers, industry experts, investors, ecosystem partners, and the academic community, helping to implement innovations into real applications with enterprise-level scalability potential.
Ottonomy's first product, Ottobot, is a fully autonomous delivery robot designed to move cargo in both enclosed and open spaces without human operator intervention.
Vijay recounted that the initial prototypes were created in a guesthouse in India, tested in basements, and early e-commerce pilot projects were conducted, after which the first commercial project was launched at Northern Kentucky International Airport, where Ottobots delivered food, beverages, and necessities to travelers.
The company later decided to move away from food delivery, leading to the creation of Ottonomy 2.0. Vijay reported that the new version includes modular cargo compartments, enhanced accessibility features, and crab mode maneuverability for navigating tight spaces.
Today, Ottobots transport a wide range of items—from medicines and lab samples to spare parts and critical supplies, helping organizations automate material movement in complex indoor and outdoor environments.
These robots navigate corridors, call elevators, and pass through restricted-access doors before exiting to the next building. Instead of relying solely on GPS, they use high-information Maps to ensure contextual understanding of the environment and navigation capability both inside and outside buildings, including areas where GPS signal is unavailable.
Vijay explained that 'Contextual AI' is a layer of behavior built on top of this map. The robot first determines the type of environment it is operating in and then decides how to behave, including travel speed, yielding moments, and appropriate routes in an oncology center versus a warehouse.
The main goal, Vijay stresses, is not demonstrating autonomy in a controlled environment, but enabling multi-stop, indoor-to-outdoor unmanned logistics with a guaranteed chain of custody.
The deep-tech startup collaborates with 15 clients in healthcare, industrial campuses, airports, and last-mile logistics. Clients include the American hospital Wellstar Kennestone, where robots move blood samples, vaccines, and other clinical materials between buildings with a full chain of custody, as well as the multinational corporation Sodexo.
Ottonomy clients can choose from one of four products: Ottobot 2.0, Ottobot M, Ottobot V, and Ottobot X.
Vijay clarified that clients use Ottobots under a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) subscription model, typically for a contract of one to five years. This subscription includes hardware, software, fleet orchestration platform, and continuous support without upfront capital expenditure, with pricing tailored to each deployment and dependent on several factors.
The startup also offers Ottumn.AI—an intelligence layer that coordinates operations across the entire facility. Vijay explains that Ottumn.AI combines edge and cloud computing with a neuro-symbolic AI architecture, merging robot perception with operational rules governing the facility.
He noted that the system is designed for compatibility, allowing clients to integrate existing robots and systems via API instead of replacing them. This enables organizations to scale from small pilot projects to an autonomous campus-wide logistics network, managing all operations through a single platform.
The startup's target clients are medical institutions where labor shortages and increasing staff workload create operational and financial challenges. It also focuses on industrial campuses in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and manufacturing.
Vijay believes the next stage in the industry is Physical AI in complex, human-centric environments. While much of the current investment is directed toward humanoids and pedestrian delivery robots, Ottonomy believes measurable value will first be achieved in the less visible layer of indoor-to-outdoor logistics.
He added that India is becoming an increasingly significant location where robotics companies manufacture, develop intellectual property, and deploy solutions at scale. Previously, clients were less inclined to adopt RaaS models, but this is beginning to change due to growing demand from airports, large corporate campuses, and policy increasingly focused on Physical AI.
With a manufacturing facility in Noida, Ottonomy is currently deployed in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and India. The company is expanding production with a new manufacturing facility in the United States to increase production capacity.
Over the past six years, Ottonomy has raised $8.2 million from investors, including pi Ventures, CoreNest, Connetic Ventures, Wellstar Catalyst, Enrission India Capital, and ADR Ventures.
Vijay's plans include expanding Ottobot deployment in medical and industrial settings, developing Ottumn.AI as an orchestration layer for autonomous operations, and supporting mixed fleets that include various types of robots and drones.
Although the US remains the largest market, Ottonomy continues to expand deployments in Europe and India. It competes with companies such as Starship Technologies and Serve Robotics.
Vijay asserts that Ottonomy is distinguished by its ability to provide indoor-to-outdoor logistics using a single integrated system. 'Our robots are designed to navigate the entire path that exists in real-world conditions. We have received 24 patents out of 29 applications, and every deployment helps make our robots smarter. We also have a reinforcement learning pipeline that continuously improves robot navigation in real environments,' he concluded.