March 13 (Reuters) - Travis Kalanick, the co-founder and

former chief executive of Uber ( UBER ), on Friday launched his

startup, Atoms, focused on specialized industrial robotics

designed to automate tasks in the mining, transport and food

sectors.

Kalanick is betting that task-specific machines are the key

to improving industrial productivity. He is expanding and

renaming City Storage Systems, the startup he started building

after leaving the ride-hailing giant.

"Gainfully employed robots are the machines best suited for

the job at hand, that can make a living doing it," Kalanick

said in a statement.

Interest has been rising in specialized robots as they could

offer a clear path to profitability, given the stress on

automation across industries such as transport and waste

management.

General-purpose humanoid robotics faces challenges such as

how to teach machines to navigate unpredictable environments and

develop sophisticated reasoning abilities.

Kalanick said Atoms will be organized into Atoms Food,

providing infrastructure for the food industry, Atoms Mining,

focusing on increasing mine productivity, and Atoms Transport,

which he described as a "wheelbase for robots."

He had resigned as CEO of Uber ( UBER ) in 2017 due to pressure from

investors, capping a tumultuous period for the ride-services

company. In 2019, he left the company board.

Kalanick wrote on the startup's website that he was

"heartbroken" after he had left Uber ( UBER ) and now he was back to his

"calling" of building atoms-based computers, which are

specialized systems using physical artificial intelligence to

automate tasks in the real world.