A Reading-based robotics company that lets people operate robot arms and humanoid robots from far away using virtual reality and cloud software.
Extend Robotics makes it possible for a person in one place to do a physical job in another place by controlling a robot remotely. This is called teleoperation. The company began with a low-cost robot arm, sold as the Robot Toolkit, that has six degrees of freedom (six directions of movement) and can be operated with a virtual reality headset. It has since built a software platform, called AMAS, which gives operators a 3D view of the robot's surroundings and uses AI to help them, so people without deep robotics training can control robot arms or humanoid robots.
Dr Chang Liu founded the company in 2021 after working as a research associate in aerial robotics at Imperial College London. He describes the mission in clear terms: "Our mission is to democratise dexterous teleoperation at scale", and the vision as "to extend human capability beyond a physical presence". More recently the company has offered a Result-as-a-Service model, where a factory pays for finished tasks rather than buying a robot. Its idea is that many manufacturers have jobs they cannot fill, such as small-batch production, rework, maintenance and tasks that are hazardous for people.
The company is based in Reading, Berkshire, and works with UK customers. A 2026 article describes live deployments at Adrian Scripps, a UK apple grower, where a humanoid robot checks quality on a packing line, and at Leyland Trucks, where the system has handled high-voltage component fitting and spray painting. Extend Robotics also works with several kinds of robot hardware and says it is an official integrator for Unitree Robotics. The sources we read do not list other UK offices, so we cannot say more about its sites.
The sources say little about day-to-day culture, and they name Dr Liu as the only team member, so we have not described other people. What the company says about its aims gives a sense of its outlook: it wants robotics to be affordable for firms that cannot easily buy equipment, and it points out that remote operation can open up work to a wider group of people, because an operator does not need to travel to a factory floor. A university-linked research background runs through the founder's story.
A company like this employs robotics and software engineers, people who build virtual reality and 3D interfaces, AI specialists, engineers who set up robots on customers' sites, and the operators and business staff who run the service. If you are curious about how people and machines can work together, or enjoy building and programming, it shows how a small UK team can take an idea from a university research setting to real factories and farms. Check the company's own website for current roles and the way it works with students and partners.
Website: www.extendrobotics.com
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