Robot model
REV-1
Refraction AI (founded 2017 in Ann Arbor, Michigan by University of Michigan professors Matthew Johnson-Roberson and Ram Vasudevan; about $4.2 million seed raised in 2021; now led by CEO Luke Schneider with teams in Ann Arbor and Austin, Texas) makes the REV-1, a distinctive three-wheeled delivery vehicle sized between a sidewalk bot and a car. The REV-1 travels up to 15 miles per hour with about a 280-pound payload and is designed for winter and snow and bicycle-courier-style operation, running primarily in the bike lane or road margin while able to use sidewalks where permitted, a regulatory regime between a sidewalk personal delivery device and a road autonomous vehicle. A critical current-state correction: the dispatch flagged a possible wind-down or acquisition, but Refraction is verified still operating through 2024 to 2026, with the Osage Venture Partners exited label being a venture-portfolio markdown rather than a confirmed acquisition or shutdown, and counter-evidence including a new CEO, an Austin office, Chick-fil-A as a marquee client, and an active 2026 company profile, so it is not tagged discontinued. The registry records it at pilot maturity, since it is a roughly 21-person company with a named client and multi-city presence but no independently verified scale figures. It runs a robots-as-a-service model where customers subscribe to dedicated brand-customizable robots. Any lifetime delivery count, fleet size, revenue, or live-market count is unverified, the claim that the REV-1 is discontinued in favor of a REF-1 is a likely misread of source language describing a second generation of the same design, and the precise nature of the Osage exit is unconfirmed.
REV-1 is a sidewalk robot built by Refraction AI.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /models/refraction-rev-1.md
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/models/3d6ab7c3-98a8-4e88-b453-3816582a9101
- Data documentation: /data
- Form factor
- sidewalk
- Maturity stage
- pilot
- Lifecycle
- active
- Deployments
- 0
- ID
3d6ab7c3-98a8-4e88-b453-3816582a9101
Specs
- notes
- [object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
- specs
- REV-1: three-wheeled delivery vehicle sized between a sidewalk bot and a car; up to 15 mph, ~80 lb vehicle weight, ~280 lb / 127 kg payload (~16 cu ft, ~4-5 grocery bags), 5-ft stopping distance; designed for winter/snow + bicycle-courier-style operation. Founded 2017, Ann Arbor MI (U-Michigan professors Matthew Johnson-Roberson + Ram Vasudevan); $4.2M seed (2021); CEO Luke Schneider; Ann Arbor + Austin TX.
- formFactor
- sidewalk (low-speed delivery PDD; REV-1 operates primarily in the BIKE-LANE / road-margin, a distinct regime between sidewalk bot and car)
Supply chain
No verified supply relationships on file. Supply-chain coverage is being added across the registry; check back as the seed populates this model’s suppliers.
Suppliers appear here when verified with at least two strong sources (maker-official / IR / regulatory / standards-body / verified tier-2). Sources are append-only; corrections add new sources rather than rewrite history.
Sources (4)
Common questions
- What is REV-1?
- Refraction AI (founded 2017 in Ann Arbor, Michigan by University of Michigan professors Matthew Johnson-Roberson and Ram Vasudevan; about $4.2 million seed raised in 2021; now led by CEO Luke Schneider with teams in Ann Arbor and Austin, Texas) makes the REV-1, a distinctive three-wheeled delivery vehicle sized between a sidewalk bot and a car. The REV-1 travels up to 15 miles per hour with about a 280-pound payload and is designed for winter and snow and bicycle-courier-style operation, running primarily in the bike lane or road margin while able to use sidewalks where permitted, a regulatory regime between a sidewalk personal delivery device and a road autonomous vehicle. A critical current-state correction: the dispatch flagged a possible wind-down or acquisition, but Refraction is verified still operating through 2024 to 2026, with the Osage Venture Partners exited label being a venture-portfolio markdown rather than a confirmed acquisition or shutdown, and counter-evidence including a new CEO, an Austin office, Chick-fil-A as a marquee client, and an active 2026 company profile, so it is not tagged discontinued. The registry records it at pilot maturity, since it is a roughly 21-person company with a named client and multi-city presence but no independently verified scale figures. It runs a robots-as-a-service model where customers subscribe to dedicated brand-customizable robots. Any lifetime delivery count, fleet size, revenue, or live-market count is unverified, the claim that the REV-1 is discontinued in favor of a REF-1 is a likely misread of source language describing a second generation of the same design, and the precise nature of the Osage exit is unconfirmed.
- Who makes REV-1?
- REV-1 is made by Refraction AI, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, founded in 2017.
- Where is REV-1 deployed?
- No verified deployments of REV-1 are currently on the DEPLOY registry. DEPLOY records deployments only when verified at a named site with a primary source; absence may reflect pre-deployment, research, or manufacturer-internal use.
- What is REV-1's maturity stage?
- REV-1 is at the pilot stage on the DEPLOY maturity ladder (research, prototype, pilot, commercial, production). Pilot stage means at least one named-customer trial deployment is verified.