Location: Chicago, IL

Affiliation: Carnegie Mellon University

I-Corps Team: EL, Joe Mullenbach, Co-Founder; PI, Chris Harrison, Associate Professor, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University; Tl, Craig Shultz, Co-Founder; IM, Afshan Khan, Portfolio Executive, Hardware & Robotics, Innovation Works

I-Corps Cohorts: UMD/CMU regional, 10/21/2022; I-Corps National Teams, 2023

Fluid Reality develops compact, high-resolution haptic hardware for robot teleoperation, physical-AI training data collection and VR. One of the company’s advancements is fingerpad arrays that create detailed displays, which are critical for human-like object manipulation in virtual environments. The arrays also solve the “last millimeter problem,” the challenge of achieving micrometer-level precision in robotic manipulation and control, especially when working at very small scales.

Fluid Reality was spun out of CMU, where the Future Interfaces Group (FIG) in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute developed the haptic glove that lets users experience a detailed sense of touch in virtual spaces. The company was recognized with an Honorable Mention in Fast Company's 2024 Innovation by Design Awards.

In July 2025, Fluid Reality received a $304,991 NSF Small Business Innovation Research Phase I award to advance its electroosmotic actuator technology. The company, now based at mHUB Chicago, the largest manufacturing innovation hub in the U.S., is preparing its first commercial product, the Lansing Dev Kit, which packages its fingertip-scale actuators for robotics labs and teleoperation teams.

This profile was featured in the 2026 NSF I-Corps Mid-Atlantic Hub Economic Impact Report.