Lightwheel and PICO Partner to Advance Human Data Collection Infrastructure for Physical AI

The companies will form a joint product team to co-develop a next-generation, general-purpose hardware solution for capturing real-world human demonstration data — a foundational input for training robots and world models.

Santa Clara, Calif., July, 2026 — Lightwheel, a data and simulation infrastructure company for Physical AI, today announced a strategic partnership with PICO, a leading XR platform, to advance human data collection infrastructure for the industry. The two companies will combine their respective strengths across intelligent hardware, spatial computing, and data and simulation infrastructure to jointly develop and scale a new generation of human data collection solutions.

PICO brings mature hardware and software R&D capabilities, large-scale manufacturing, and a global supply chain network. Lightwheel builds data and evaluation infrastructure for Physical AI: through SimFoundry, its in-house, full-stack simulation platform spanning physics solving, real-world measurement, and asset generation, the company delivers high-quality human video data, simulation synthetic data, and industrial-grade simulation evaluation for the robotics and Physical AI industries.

A Joint Product Team for
Physical AI Data

Under the partnership, Lightwheel and PICO will form a joint product team focused on the human data requirements of Physical AI training, and will co-develop a next-generation, general-purpose hardware solution for human data collection. Lightwheel will contribute its expertise in human data systems, scenario definition, and industry-specific solutions, while PICO will bring its leading hardware R&D and product engineering capabilities. Together, the companies aim to build a standardized, scalable human data collection infrastructure that supports the high-quality capture of real-world human behavior, manipulation processes, and environmental information.

Meeting a Growing Demand for
High-Quality Human Data

As robotics and Physical AI advance, demand for high-quality human data is growing rapidly. Human data is both a key source for robots learning real-world tasks and an important bridge between the physical and digital worlds. The two companies will pursue long-term collaboration across real-world data collection, spatial digitization, and multimodal data acquisition, continuously upgrading human data collection capabilities to provide a richer, more realistic data foundation for Physical AI training.

A Strategic Step in
Physical AI Infrastructure

The partnership represents a significant step for both companies in Physical AI infrastructure. Going forward, Lightwheel and PICO will continue to deepen technical and commercial collaboration, working to move human data collection from a project-based model toward standardized, scalable, and platform-level development — building a more complete data foundation that accelerates the transition of intelligent systems from the digital world to the physical world.

About Lightwheel

Lightwheel builds data and simulation infrastructure for Physical AI. Its closed-loop Real2Sim2Real platform spans real-world data, physics-grounded simulation, scalable evaluation, and deployment feedback, delivering large-scale human data, industrial-grade evaluation, and reliable real-world deployment for robotics and Physical AI teams worldwide. Lightwheel partners with the world's leading world-model and robotics teams and is a global leader in human data, simulation evaluation, and real-world deployment for Physical AI.

About PICO

Founded in March 2015, PICO is a leading VR company with independent innovation and R&D capabilities, focusing on the VR all-in-one technology. PICO is committed to offering immersive and interactive VR experiences to our customers, including providing tailor-made solutions for our enterprise clients in the fields of education and healthcare. The brand ranks among the world’s top two VR manufacturers.