Salem Robotics brings autonomous nuclear inspection software to YC's S26 batch

Why it matters

Salem Robotics is testing whether deterministic software can turn expensive industrial robots from supervised equipment into auditable workers inside nuclear facilities.

Caleb Horan and Janak Panthi have brought Salem Robotics, their Austin-based hazardous-site inspection business, into Y Combinator's Summer 2026 batch. Salem Robotics sells autonomy software that lets existing robots conduct routine surveys, collect measurements and produce records for facilities where sending a person carries unusual cost or risk.

The founders arrived at the problem through years of nuclear robotics work rather than a general-purpose robotics pitch. Horan worked on autonomous radiation survey and inspection systems at Los Alamos National Laboratory and studied task planning at the University of Texas at Austin. Panthi, a UT Austin doctoral researcher and U.S. Army veteran, has worked on quadruped robots performing contact-heavy tasks such as handling instruments and operating valves.

Salem Robotics introduced the product through an early-August YC launch post, several weeks before its directory profile appeared on August 30th. YC lists Salem Robotics as a two-person company founded in 2026.

Software for robots already inside the plant

Salem Robotics is making a specific commercial bet: hazardous facilities already have usable robot hardware, while many still lack software capable of completing an inspection workflow with limited operator involvement.

An operator uses Salem Robotics' dashboard to define a job. Salem Robotics says the robot can then navigate the facility, avoid obstacles, handle measurement instruments, open doors, turn valves and collect readings. The system packages the route and resulting data into structured records for review.

That reporting layer matters in nuclear facilities, where an inspection has to produce a defensible record rather than a collection of sensor readings. Salem Robotics says its software links robot position, route progress and map-based measurement points into a single mission state, replacing field notes that must later be transcribed into another system.

Salem Robotics describes the software as hardware-agnostic. Customers can install it on compatible robots they already own or buy a turnkey system through Salem Robotics. The founders said in their YC launch post that some facilities have $200,000 robots sitting unused because the machines still require too much supervision to perform practical inspection work.

The underlying problem is visible in the founders' earlier research. A 2024 paper co-authored by Horan and Panthi described a radiation survey system that combined a Boston Dynamics Spot quadruped, a Ubiquity Magni mobile robot and smaller mapping robots. The machines divided work across elevated surfaces, floors and confined areas while sharing maps and survey plans.

Los Alamos also documented Horan and Panthi's work in its 2024 student research program. That project used Spot for elevated non-contact alpha surveys, Magni for floor surveys and custom mini-robots for mapping and supervision. The record corroborates the founders' claim that Salem Robotics grew from systems tested around real nuclear workflows.

Panthi's manipulation research addresses the harder part of the job. The UT Austin Nuclear and Applied Robotics Group published work on a deterministic planner for tasks such as turning valves while maintaining gripper orientation. Tests included a 420-degree valve turn on a Spot robot, with the research group reporting faster planning than comparison methods.

Salem Robotics is carrying that deterministic approach into its commercial stack. In a safety-critical facility, a reproducible motion plan is easier to review and audit than behavior that can vary between runs. Salem Robotics says its system comes with theoretical safety guarantees. Operating-facility validation will determine how those guarantees hold up around changing layouts, imperfect sensor data and equipment that was designed for human hands.

Nuclear is the first sales test

Salem Robotics is starting with commercial and government nuclear facilities, decommissioning sites and other locations that conduct recurring radiation surveys. Salem Robotics says it is also scoping contracts in oil and gas, where robots could be used for gas-leak and equipment inspections.

The commercial work remains at the validation stage. Salem Robotics advertises one-to-two-week engagements for operators to test inspection workflows, and its YC launch sought introductions to nuclear and industrial facilities with frequent surveys or staffing constraints.

Salem Robotics' website identifies Y Combinator, Non Sibi Ventures and Goose Capital as investor partners. In its investment thesis, Non Sibi argued that current industrial robots often fall back to prerecorded routes and one operator per machine when doors, stairs or changing layouts complicate the job. That labor model erodes the financial case for buying the robot in the first place.

Horan and Panthi are therefore selling a way to recover value from hardware facilities may already own. Nuclear gives Salem Robotics a tightly defined workflow, mandatory recurring work and a customer base accustomed to documentation. Success there would give the founders a reference point for chemical plants, oil and gas sites, biological facilities and other operations where autonomy has to survive closer scrutiny than a warehouse demo.