Who We Are
Founded in 2023 by a Princeton University robotics professor and his former student, Vault Robotics is working to build the next generation of safe autonomous robots that reshape the transportation and logistics industries. Our journey began with a simple yet ambitious conversation about how safety could unlock new frontiers in deployable robotics—and today, that commitment to safety remains at the core of everything we do.
As a spinout from Princeton’s Safe Robotics Lab, we blend cutting-edge research with an entrepreneurial vision of the future. Since our inception, we have benefited from the invaluable mentorship of the broader Princeton community and critical early funding from the Faculty New Venture Assistance Fund and the 2023 Intellectual Property Accelerator Award.
Our team’s participation in the Northeast Regional NSF iCorps program gave us a front-row seat to the most pressing needs in transportation and logistics. Through extensive customer discovery, we identified a significant market opportunity for safer and more agile mobile robotic platforms that will succeed where previous industry efforts couldn’t. This insight led us to develop prototypes designed to streamline supply and delivery operations while setting new standards for reliability and user trust.
Moving Forward with Pilots & Partnerships
Now in prototype development, we are actively exploring pilot programs and strategic collaborations with organizations ready to embrace the future of logistics. We welcome conversations with government agencies, foundations, and corporate partners interested in supporting non-dilutive funding opportunities and real-world pilot deployments.
Driven by Vision. Guided by Safety.
At Vault Robotics, we see a future where robotic systems elevate efficiency without compromising safety, reliability, or peace of mind. We invite you to join us on this journey to transform how industries move, deliver, and grow—and to help shape a safer, more connected future.
Team
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Robert Shi
FOUNDER / CEO
Robert Shi is a co-founder focused on business operations and prototype development. He received his bachelor's and M Eng in electrical and computer engineering from Princeton University. Robert participated in the Oxford-Princeton Engineering Exchange during his junior year, where he matriculated in the University of Oxford and completed an M Eng project on whole-body trajectory planning with the Dynamic Robot Systems Group at the Oxford Robotics Institute. He was previously an engineer at Invictis Technologies, a Princeton biomedical device spinout that was acquired in 2020.
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Jaime Fernández Fisac
FOUNDER / Chief Technical Consultant
Jaime Fernández Fisac is a co-founder focused on autonomous robot operation; he is also an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University, where he directs the Safe Robotics Laboratory. His research integrates control systems, game theory, and artificial intelligence to equip robots with transparent safety assurances that users and the public can trust. Before joining Princeton, he was a Research Scientist at Waymo, where he pioneered new approaches to interaction planning that continue to shape how autonomous vehicles share the road today. Prof. Fisac holds an Engineering Degree from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, a Master’s in Aeronautics from Cranfield University, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and WIRED, and recognized with the Google and Sony faculty research awards and the NSF CAREER Award.