# Southie Autonomy

> Southie Autonomy is a Boston robotics company that sells turnkey robot-arm cells and a no-code software layer for packaging, kitting, and palletizing. Its practical bet is that automation becomes more useful when a line worker can teach a robot a new job in minutes, using a tablet and vision-guided software, instead of waiting for a specialist to rewrite code.

- **Founded:** 2017
- **Headquarters:** Boston, United States
- **Founders:** Rahul Chipalkatty (Founder and CEO), Jay M. Wong (Co-founder and Chief Architect)
- **Team size:** Public sources conflict: supplied company data lists 5 employees, while LinkedIn lists an 11-50 employee range.
- **Products:** Southie App, Turnkey robotic cell, Codiac, Dual-armed mobile kitting system
- **Notable:** Selected as one of nine teams in the 2019 MassTLC, Verizon, and Ericsson 5G Robotics Challenge and awarded $30,000., Joined the 2020 Air Force Accelerator Powered by Techstars., Won a roughly $1.5 million U.S. Air Force SBIR Phase II contract for an easy-to-use dual-armed mobile kitting system.

## Products & services

- **Southie App** — A task-based tablet application that lets a non-expert show a vision-guided robot what to pick and where to place it, then save and redeploy workflows.
- **Turnkey robotic cell** — An integrated package of Southie software and off-the-shelf robot, end effector, 3D camera, projector, safety design, installation, and support for packaging assembly, kitting, and palletization.
- **Codiac** — An earlier name used publicly for Southie's complete robotic solution, taught through gestures and a handheld wand for packing, kitting, and palletization.
- **Dual-armed mobile kitting system** — An Air Force SBIR project intended to automate aviation-kit assembly and reduce repetitive manual kitting work.

## Achievements

- Selected as one of nine teams in the 2019 MassTLC, Verizon, and Ericsson 5G Robotics Challenge and awarded $30,000.
- Joined the 2020 Air Force Accelerator Powered by Techstars.
- Won a roughly $1.5 million U.S. Air Force SBIR Phase II contract for an easy-to-use dual-armed mobile kitting system.
- Raised $2.5 million in seed funding and secured $5 million in robot lease financing in 2022.
- Demonstrated a We Pack Logistics cell packing up to 105 cans per minute with changeovers in ten minutes or less.
- Became a Mitsubishi Electric Automation Diamond Partner OEM and member of its e-F@ctory Alliance.

## Latest updates

- **2024-03** — Southie Autonomy was listed among the startups demonstrating at MassRobotics' Robotics in Manufacturing event featuring New Balance and Unilever.
- **2023-12** — Mitsubishi Electric published a case study documenting code-free task changeovers in under ten minutes and throughput of up to 105 cans per minute at We Pack Logistics.
- **2022-05** — Southie announced $2.5 million in seed capital and $5 million in venture leasing to support its Robot-as-a-Service model.
- **2022-02** — MassRobotics highlighted the Mitsubishi Electric and Southie partnership for easier-to-program packaging robotics.

## Links

- Website: https://southie.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/southieautonomy/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/SouthieAutonomy
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@southieautonomy6495
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southie.ai/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/southieai

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/southie-autonomy
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-20