RealSense

Common

A depth-camera company spun out of Intel; its D435 and D405 are staples in robotics labs.

RealSense grew out of a 3D-camera project Intel launched in 2014, and the D400-series stereo depth cameras it released in 2018 — the D415 and D435, later joined by the D435i, D405, D455, and others — became the most common RGB-D camera, outputting both a color image and a depth map, in robotics labs. On July 11, 2025, it spun off from Intel as an independent company, led by former Intel executive Nadav Orbach as CEO, closing a $50 million Series A with Intel Capital and MediaTek's venture arm participating; it is headquartered in California, though most employees are reportedly in Haifa, Israel. The company says 60% of the world's autonomous mobile robots and humanoid robots use its depth cameras. On September 22, 2026, machine-vision company Cognex announced a $500 million cash acquisition, plus about $100 million for employee retention and stock incentives, expected to close in the fourth quarter.

ExampleIn tabletop-manipulation experiments, it's common to mount one D435 at the side of the table as a third-person view and one D405 next to the gripper as a wrist camera, feeding both RGB-D streams into the policy.

Also called: Intel RealSense
Related: RealSense Depth Camera (D435i / D405) · Intel RealSense SDK 2.0 (librealsense) · Depth Camera · Active Stereo · Wrist Camera · Orbbec
Sources: Intel let RealSense go. Now Cognex is paying $600 million to buy it (Calcalist, 2026-09)
Cognex to Acquire RealSense, Expanding Machine Vision Leadership into High-Growth Robotic Perception Market (Cognex, 2026-09)
RealSense Completes Spin Out from Intel, Raises $50 Million (Intel Capital, 2025-07)
As of: 2026-09