U of T Engineering PhD graduates Aaron Tan, left, and Angus Fung, right, co-founded home-robotics startup Syncere (photo courtesy of Aaron Tan)

Story by Amanda Hacio originally appeared in U of T News.

When Aaron Tan began his PhD in mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Toronto in 2019, leading a robotics startup in Silicon Valley was the furthest thing from his mind.

Today, as CEO and co-founder of Syncere, Tan is working with fellow co-founder and Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering PhD alumnus Angus Fung to reimagine the future of domestic robots by making them feel as familiar and commonplace as a floor lamp.

As graduate students in Professor Goldie Nejat’s Autonomous Systems and Biomechatronics (ASB) Lab, Tan and Fung studied how robots could function alongside humans.

“During our PhDs, we focused on the question of how robots could coexist and interact with humans in a way that’s socially acceptable, compliant and safe,” says Tan.

“We always knew we wanted to start a company, but we just didn’t know what it would be until we started testing our ideas.”

The duo first began their entrepreneurial journey building humanoid robots. But after deploying early prototypes in homes and hotels, they quickly learned that potential customers weren’t ready to share their personal space with systems that had originally been designed for industrial settings.

“Many customers shared that existing home robots are too clunky and intrusive,” Tan says. “So it was important to us that the next product we developed would be thoughtfully designed and blend seamlessly into the home environment so we could reduce barriers to adoption.”

An unexpected moment of inspiration arrived while Tan was watching the movie Beauty and the Beast with his wife.

“There’s this scene in the movie where the furniture comes to life in the castle. It got me thinking: Instead of bringing industrial-looking robots into homes, why not start with something that already belongs there – like furniture – and work backwards?”

This insight led to Syncere’s flagship product: Lume, a robotic floor lamp that folds laundry.

When not in use, Lume functions like any other floor lamp, but when activated by voice or a smartphone app, it reveals robotic arms and a camera, folds laundry on nearby surfaces and then returns back to its lamp form once its task is completed.

Tan says it’s the first robot of its kind intentionally designed to look like a luxury household appliance.

Read the full article on U of T News.