Mantis Robotics is building MR-1 safety functions into fenceless workcells

Mantis Robotics announced MR-1 certification to ISO 10218 and ISO 13849 on February 24, 2026. The arm uses dynamic safety controls for industrial operation without fixed fencing.

Amazon previously identified Mantis as a San Francisco company founded in 2020 and developing a tactile robotic arm that uses sensor technology to work alongside people. The company appeared in the first round of Amazon's $1 billion Industrial Innovation Fund, which focused on safety, logistics, fulfillment operations, and robotics that can coexist with people.

Mantis lists investors including Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Emerald, GHC Partners, and Sabanci Ventures, with operating locations in Pleasanton, Leuven, and New Taipei City. CEO Gerry Vannuffelen leads the company, and MR-1 is built around fenceless industrial workcells where the robot changes behavior around people and objects.

The certified layer includes 47 embedded safety functions inside the MR-1 architecture. Mantis SafetyCore uses range-based object detection through STAR and changes robot speed or behavior around dynamic objects. MR-1 reaches a maximum linear speed of 10 meters per second, and Mantis says the arm uses the same footprint as a human operator while reducing required footprint by 80%.

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