Apply for Lab Access

Researchers, PhD students, and builders — apply for free or subsidized access to our hardware, workspace, and data infrastructure at Silicon Valley Robotics Center.

Mountain View, CA San Francisco, CA 17+ Robots Available Free for Researchers

What You Get

Everything you need to run real experiments on real robots, without buying any hardware.

Hardware Access

Hands-on time with 17+ robots: arms (Piper, OpenArm, ALOHA), dexterous hands (Wuji, BrainCo), humanoids (G1, K1), mobile platforms.

Workspace

Dedicated desk or bench at our lab. Bring your laptop — we provide the robots, cameras, sensors, and compute.

Data Infrastructure

CenterOS platform access: record demonstrations, quality scoring, export in LeRobot/OpenPI format, train models.

Community

Weekly meetups, connections to other researchers, founders, and investors in the Bay Area robotics ecosystem.

Who Should Apply

If you have a compelling project and need access to hardware, we want to hear from you.

  • PhD students working on manipulation, locomotion, or embodied AI
  • Robotics researchers who need hardware they don't have access to
  • Founders building physical AI products who want to prototype quickly
  • Open-source contributors building robot learning tools
  • Anyone with a compelling project idea and willingness to share results

Application

Fill out the form below. We review applications weekly and most applicants hear back within 5 business days.

We review applications weekly. Most applicants hear back within 5 business days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it really free?

Yes for researchers and students with a compelling project. Commercial users pay standard rates.

Can I bring my own hardware?

Absolutely. We can also help integrate it with our platform.

Do I need to be local?

We prefer Bay Area applicants for in-person access, but remote collaborations are possible for data and platform access.

What do you expect in return?

Share your findings. If you publish a paper, mention SVRC. If you collect data, consider contributing to our shared data pool.

Have Questions?

Reach out directly — we are happy to answer questions about the program, available hardware, or anything else.

Email us directly: jerry@roboticscenter.ai