With $20 million of new funding from Sidewalk Labs and Ikea umbrella company Ingka Group, the MIT robotics spin-off Ori is moving forward with its ambitious plans to revolutionize architecture.
It seemed like an impossible idea. In 2014, an MIT project called CityHome proposed a sleek robotic armoire that would live inside your apartment, amplifying a tiny footprint with Jetsonian features like a kitchen and bed that could slide out from seemingly nowhere. It was neat, sure, but experiments like this rarely come to fruition as real products.