Relai & Carnegie Mellon Robotics 🤖

A Milestone with Meaning

This year, Relai co-founder and CEO Miles Mufuka Martin was selected to join the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Pathways Fellowship, a program rooted in the world’s most respected robotics institution. For anyone working in robotics, automation, or the future of physical systems, the acronym “CMU” carries a weight unlike anything else. And within CMU, the Robotics Institute stands at the very top: the birthplace of autonomous systems, unmanned vehicles, manipulation research, field robotics, and the technologies that continue to shape global industries.

To be invited into that ecosystem is not just an academic milestone; it is a signal of long-term potential.

Why CMU Matters

Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute (RI) is where the modern robotics field was effectively defined. It is where foundational work in autonomy, embedded intelligence, sensor fusion, distributed systems, and human–robot interaction emerged long before they became commercial buzzwords. RI alumni have gone on to lead the world’s most advanced robotics and AI labs, including teams at NASA, Google, Uber ATG, Meta, Amazon Robotics, and more.

To say that CMU is the “gold standard” understates it. For decades, the Robotics Institute has been regarded as the global epicenter for applied robotics, a place where theory becomes machinery, where research becomes systems, and where world-changing infrastructure prototypes first come to life.

Our participation here places Relai’s vision for asynchronous, hyperlocal access infrastructure into the same lineage of thinking that helped shape autonomous mobility, smart cities, and next-gen logistics.

Infrastructure That Behaves Like Robotics

Relai's work has always bridged hardware, software, and real-world environments. Building secure, distributed physical infrastructure that adapts to human behavior is, in many ways, a robotics problem. It demands:

• • Reliable embedded systems
• • Safe and predictable physical interactions
• • Autonomy at the edge, not just in the cloud
• • Error-tolerant design for messy real-world conditions
• • Distributed decision-making and state synchronization

These are the same problem spaces CMU has led for decades, and they are the exact foundations Relai needs as it scales from dozens of Exchange Zones to thousands.

The fellowship gives Miles direct access to the researchers, mentors, and methodologies that have historically shaped the next generation of physical systems, and now, will help shape Relai’s.

What This Signals About Relai’s Long-Term Arc

Relai is not a convenience tool. It is not a feature. It is infrastructure, and infrastructure must endure. Being recognized by the world’s most respected robotics institution is a strong indicator that the system Relai is building is not only technically grounded but strategically aligned with where real-world automation is heading.

CMU’s Robotics Institute has a unique track record: technologies incubated there routinely become the backbone of new industries. Being embedded in that lineage puts Relai in conversation with the researchers and practitioners shaping autonomous mobility, small-form robotics, and smart urban infrastructure.

This fellowship confirms what we’ve believed from day one: Relai is not a niche tool. It is critical next-generation infrastructure that makes cities more flexible, more autonomous, and more human-centered.

Looking Ahead

Miles will spend the year learning alongside world-class engineers, roboticists, and researchers who approach physical systems with rigor, creativity, and long-term responsibility. The timing couldn’t be better. As Relai prepares for expanded deployments, platform evolution, and new Relai 3 partners, this fellowship brings new technical depth, new perspectives, and new opportunities for collaboration at one of the world’s most influential institutions.

Carnegie Mellon represents the future of robotics. Relai represents the future of everyday infrastructure. This fellowship is where those two futures meet.