Person

Chao Cao

Co-founder and CEO of Sancho Robotics, building a robotic workforce for advanced manufacturing. Previously a research scientist at Boston Dynamics AI Institute (RAI) working on whole-body dexterous mobile manipulation. Holds a Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, where he led the autonomy team for CMU's DARPA Subterranean Challenge entry, winning the 'Most Sectors Explored Award'.

His research on autonomous exploration (TARE planner) won both the Best Paper Award and Best Systems Paper Award at RSS 2021 — the first time a single paper received both.

American · 2 current roles · 1 founding

Track Chao Cao

Physical AI footprint (2)

The physical AI companies Chao is connected to that DEPLOY verifies. The full record is one click away.

Sancho Roboticsverified→
Founder
Palo Alto-based robotics startup building a physical API for flexible manufacturing, founded in October 2025 by two CMU roboticists.
Seed · $7M2 verified deployments · Sancho General-Purpose Robot at Palo Alto, California, USA →1 model
Boston Dynamicsverified→
Former Research Scientist, whole-body dexterous mobile manipulation
One of the most iconic names in robotics, founded 1992 (MIT spinout) and acquired by Hyundai Motor Group in June 2021 at a ~$1.1 billion valuation.
Acquisition (Hyundai 80% stake) · $880M38 verified deployments · Atlas at Hyundai Metaplant Georgia, USA →2 incidents5 models

Current roles (2)

Sancho Robotics Co-founder & CEOSecondary-verified
Sancho Robotics Co-founder & CEOSecondary-verified

Foundings (1)

Sancho Robotics

See all founders in the registry.

Co-founders (1)

Jack Yang co-founded Sancho Robotics

Former / Previously (1)

Boston Dynamics Research Scientist, whole-body dexterous mobile manipulation? to 2025-10-01Secondary-verified

Sources (1)

https://caochao.me/

Deploy Watch

Track Chao Cao on Deploy.

We notify you when a verified role changes, a founded-company event lands, or litigation surfaces.