Fluid Reality

Market context

Fluid Reality supplies haptic fingerpad hardware for humanoid robot teleoperation, giving operators tactile feedback during remote manipulation.

Facts

• Website: https://www.fluidreality.com/
• HQ: Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Segment: physical-AI data infrastructure
• Known funding rounds: 1

Funding

• 2025-07-15 - $305K - Fluid Reality wins NSF SBIR award for robotic touch haptics - source: seedfund.nsf.gov

Events

• 2025-07-15 - Funding - Fluid Reality wins NSF SBIR award for robotic touch haptics - NSF award 2507634 is listed at $304,991. Project covers compact haptic actuators using electroosmotic pumps. The award is distinct from the existing CMU research-publication event for Fluid Reality haptic gloves.
• 2024-04-04 - Research Publication - CMU publishes Fluid Reality haptic glove work - The glove uses electroosmotic pumps to actuate 32 pressure pixels on each finger pad. The system fits battery and Wi-Fi equipment on the hand and wrist. CMU said Fluid Reality had spun out into a startup focused on fingertip actuators.

Team

• Joe Mullenbach - Co-Founder and CEO - Leads commercialization of Fluid Reality's fingerpad haptic arrays for teleoperation and dexterous manipulation workflows.
• Craig Shultz - Co-Founder and CTO - Drives the technical path for Fluid Reality's electroosmotic haptic glove hardware.

Context tags

• Haptic teleoperation - Capability - Fluid Reality sources describe haptic teleoperation for robotics or robot-adjacent manipulation systems.
• Robotics data capture - Stack Layer - Fluid Reality sources describe robotics data capture for robotics or robot-adjacent manipulation systems.
• Humanoid tactile feedback - Capability - Fluid Reality sources describe humanoid tactile feedback for robotics or robot-adjacent manipulation systems.