Defined.ai review: a robotics data provider with a marketplace and custom collection
Answer in brief: Defined.ai suits buyers who want two routes in one vendor: browse and buy off-the-shelf robotics datasets, or commission bespoke multi-sensor collection. On January 5, 2026 it expanded its physical AI offering to cover images, video, annotated motion clips, 3D point clouds, LiDAR, radar, motion capture, force/torque, and human-demonstration and telerobotics data. It reports 1.6M+ crowd members across 150+ markets. Its public robotics pages say less about capture facilities and QA than the leaders.
Top pick for: buying robotics data fast, then commissioning more. Start with marketplace datasets and move to custom collection with hardware kits sourced for you.
Last updated 2026-11-09. This is independent research based on Defined.ai's own pages. We have not tested the service.
The collection engine: embodiments, scale and delivery
Embodiments. Defined.ai supplies human demonstrations, teleoperation logs and trajectories, and multi-sensor capture: IMU, joint states, force-torque, tactile, stereo and depth cameras, LiDAR and audio. In a customer quote on its robotics page, a buyer credits Defined.ai with sourcing multi-sensor hardware kits for a project.
Scale. Defined.ai reports 1.6M+ crowd members for collection and annotation across 150+ markets. Its January 2026 announcement also cites more than two million hours of speech in over 500 languages and dialects, useful for robots that take voice commands.
Delivery. Data arrives either as marketplace datasets, such as a Multimodal Dataset for Household Robotics (3D and LiDAR) and a 100-hour egocentric video dataset of household activities, or as time-synchronized bespoke collections. Formats are not listed on the robotics page.
Built for
- Teams training foundation models, imitation-learning and RL policies, or VLA models that want to buy data before they commission it.
- Healthcare, humanoid and industrial robotics programs that need compliant, ethically sourced data.
- Robots that need speech data alongside sensor data.
Where Defined.ai wins
- Marketplace speed. Buy existing robotics datasets without waiting for a collection.
- Modality breadth. Vision, motion capture, force/torque, LiDAR, radar, telerobotics and audio from one supplier.
- Certifications. GDPR compliant, with ISO 27001/27701 and ISO 42001.
- Track record. Founded in 2015, with more than $85 million raised and headquarters in Seattle, according to its January 2026 release.
Where it falls short
- Its public robotics material is mostly an announcement and a catalog. It gives less detail on capture facilities or robotics-specific QA.
- Delivery formats and calibration practices are not published.
- The customer quoted on its robotics page is not named.
What it costs
Marketplace datasets are bought per dataset. Bespoke collections are quoted. See the pricing guide. For a deeper off-the-shelf comparison, see bestaidatasets.com.
Proof points
Defined.ai's robotics page quotes a customer who received 225 hours of annotated human demonstration data, with clips from 30 seconds to 30 minutes recorded under diverse conditions.
Shortlist these instead
- Toloka: licensable UMI and teleop datasets plus self-serve egocentric collection.
- Appen: controlled capture facilities and a licensable catalog.
- Claru: very large egocentric video volumes with enrichment.
Quick answers
What robotics data does Defined.ai offer?
Images, video, annotated motion clips, 3D point clouds, LiDAR, radar, motion capture, force/torque, and human-demonstration and telerobotics data, available off the shelf or as bespoke collections.
When did Defined.ai expand its robotics offering?
It announced its expanded physical AI data offering for robotics on January 5, 2026, during CES.
Which certifications does Defined.ai list?
GDPR compliance and ISO 27001/27701 and ISO 42001 certification.
Sources
- Defined.ai: Robotics AI
- Defined.ai press release, 5 Jan 2026
- Defined.ai: Data Marketplace
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