CartFit Wins 'PHD Lab. Award' at TAKANAWA PITCH 2026, Aiming to Streamline Urban Operations via Robotic Cart Retrofitting

CartFit, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has received the 'PHD Lab. Award' at 'TAKANAWA PITCH 2026', a pitch contest held as part of 'GATEWAY Tech TAKANAWA 2026' sponsored by East Japan Railway Company (JR East).

CartFit presented as a finalist in the mobility robotics category, showcasing its AI-based autonomous navigation kit that retrofits existing carts and dollies into robots, along with a deployment vision for TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY.

CartFit develops AI autonomous navigation kits that can be retrofitted onto existing mobile units such as carts and dollies. Utilizing proprietary identification modules and control algorithms, the kits enable automatic following and autonomous driving, aiming to reduce labor in material transport tasks for logistics, commercial facilities, airports, and factories. A key advantage is the ability to expand functionality at a low cost by leveraging existing equipment instead of replacing it with expensive, dedicated robotics.

During the pitch, the company proposed a next-generation infrastructure vision capable of handling unmanned delivery, follow-me transport, and mobile patrol in a single unit. By utilizing existing carts, the concept aims to simultaneously achieve labor reduction, increased convenience, and enhanced safety. The company believes that demonstrating a new model of mobility robotics to support urban operations in a living lab like TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY led to this award.

The 'PHD Lab. Award' provides support including advice from University of Tokyo researchers participating in the Planetary Health Design Laboratory (PHD Lab.). PHD Lab. is an industry-academia collaboration project between JR East and the University of Tokyo dedicated to creating future lifestyles using stations and cities as experimental grounds. Tokyo University's GATEWAY Campus, the hub of this project, is also located within TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY.

Following this award, CartFit will further advance the social implementation of its technology to intelligently evolve existing mobile units. The company aims to broaden choices for urban and facility management, solve on-site challenges such as transportation and patrol, and realize more practical and accessible robotics through pilot and co-creation opportunities like those at TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY.