Again to highschool: robots be taught from manufacturing facility staff

By Anthony King

What if coaching a robotic to deal with soiled, harmful work on the manufacturing facility ground was so simple as exhibiting it how? Czech startup RoboTwin is doing precisely that, serving to manufacturing facility staff train robots new expertise by demonstration.

As a substitute of writing complicated code, staff carry out the job as soon as and RoboTwin’s expertise turns these actions right into a robotic programme – opening the door to automation for smaller producers.

Based in Prague in 2021, RoboTwin builds handheld gadgets and no-code software program that seize human actions and translate them into directions for industrial robots. The purpose is to make automation quicker, easier and extra accessible to producers that would not have specialist robotics programmers.

“The robotic mainly copies the human demonstration,” stated Megi Mejdrechová, RoboTwin’s co-founder and chief expertise officer. “Folks with no coding expertise can switch their know-how and expertise to robots.”

Mejdrechová, a mechanical engineer educated on the Czech Technical College in Prague, developed the core expertise behind RoboTwin throughout her work in robotics analysis and business. Her expertise in robotic management utilizing AI and pc imaginative and prescient impressed her to create one thing sensible for European producers.

“Czech engineering is sort of conventional and centered on scientific papers,” stated Mejdrechová. “Visits to Singapore and Canada and different work experiences led me to give attention to making a product that folks might use.”

Getting began

In 2021, Mejdrechová entered a leap‑starter programme and received first prize within the manufacturing class. “We noticed then that there was potential for the expertise,” she stated.

This inspired her to start out RoboTwin with colleagues Ladislav Dvořák and David Polák, who shared her enthusiasm for human‑robotic partnerships. Mejdrechová acquired backing from Ladies TechEU, an EU scheme supporting ladies founders of deep‑tech startups. 

The RoboTwin workforce shared their outcomes on the Horizon Outcomes Platform, a web-based showcase for EU‑funded improvements, which led to an invite to the EU’s Empowering Begin‑ups and SMEs initiative. 

This helped fund their journey to Hannover Messe 2025, a significant world manufacturing commerce honest, and opened doorways to new enterprise contacts and offers.

Via a mixture of private and non-private funding, RoboTwin has secured funding to refine its expertise and broaden to producers in Central Europe, the Netherlands, Mexico and Canada.

In 2025, Mejdrechová was named in Forbes Czechia’s 30 Below 30 record for her work in making the coaching of robots accessible to extra producers.

Education robots

On the coronary heart of RoboTwin’s system is a handheld system geared up with sensors. When a employee performs a process, for instance spray portray a metallic part, the system information the motion and converts it right into a robotic programme that may be reused in manufacturing.

As a substitute of requiring a specialist engineer to manually code each motion, the system captures the employee’s pure approach and interprets it into exact directions a robotic can observe.

“We began with jobs which might be ugly, soiled and unhealthy for staff to do manually,” stated Mejdrechová.

Due to the no‑coding system, the course of could be accomplished in just a few steps and usually takes a few minute. For factories producing small batches or ceaselessly altering merchandise, this pace could make automation much more sensible than conventional robotic programming.

Making automation simple for all

Robotics in manufacturing isn’t new. The automotive business already leads the way in which with about 23 000 new robots added to manufacturing traces in 2024. However whereas giant firms can make investments closely, automation stays difficult and costly for a lot of SMEs.

That is the place RoboTwin lends a hand. It has assisted companies within the floor‑remedy business – firms that powder coat, paint or polish metallic or plastic elements for automobile factories.

“Even when the batch of merchandise you’re producing is small, with our strategy you possibly can create a robotic programme quick and simply,” stated Mejdrechová.

For instance, RoboTwin has assisted RobPainting, a Dutch firm that robotises portray for SMEs to enhance high quality, cut back prices and minimise rework. 

“With our system we will train the robotic exact trajectories which might be wanted for a product and about its environment,” stated David Vobr, a robotics specialist at RoboTwin who typically assists clients.

Harmful jobs

RoboTwin’s system can work with a variety of commercial robots, together with collaborative robots designed to function safely alongside people.

“We will have manipulators or portray robots and in addition collaborative robots, which may work alongside people as a result of they’ve sensors that inform them when to cease transferring if somebody might get damage,” stated Vobr.

RoboTwin initially centered on floor remedy in manufacturing, the place duties comparable to spray portray require staff to put on protecting clothes and carry out repetitive actions.

“These jobs are troublesome to automate as a result of there’s typically a number of hidden motion concerned,” stated Mejdrechová, referring to small changes and gestures that staff make instinctively.

The sector additionally faces labour shortages.

“Persons are typically not joyful doing this stuff and there’s a lack of staff prepared to take these jobs. So there’s a excessive demand for automation.”

Prospects report that many robotic programmes can now be created with out shutting down a manufacturing line.

RoboTwin has already labored with quite a lot of firms, together with Surfin Know-how, a Czech firm specialising in robotic coating options, and Modern Ending Options in Canada, which brings its expertise to North American clients.

Scaling up

EU assist for RoboTwin is ongoing. A €2.3 million grant from the European Innovation Council secured in 2025 will assist speed up product growth and market enlargement.

The funding will assist the following era of RoboTwin’s expertise. As a substitute of relying solely on guide demonstrations, the system will more and more use saved expertise and knowledge to generate robotic programmes robotically primarily based on the form of an object.

The corporate says this might make automation viable for a lot of manufacturing duties that have been beforehand too complicated or pricey to automate.

For Europe, applied sciences like RoboTwin might play an vital position in strengthening digital sovereignty and sensible industrial innovation. They can assist smaller producers undertake superior robotics with no need specialised programming experience.

As factories grow to be extra versatile and data-driven, the power to shortly train robots new duties might show more and more useful.

Mejdrechová believes this shift will assist convey automation inside attain of a a lot wider vary of firms.

“Our aim is to make robotic coaching one thing that staff can do themselves,” she stated. “If we succeed, automation will now not be restricted to giant factories with specialised engineers. It should grow to be a software that any producer can use.”

Analysis on this article was funded by the EU’s Horizon Programme. The views of the interviewees don’t essentially mirror these of the European Fee. For those who preferred this text, please think about sharing it on social media.

This text was initially revealed in Horizon, the EU Analysis and Innovation journal.