Again to high school: robots be taught from manufacturing unit staff

By Anthony King

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

As an alternative of writing complicated code, staff carry out the job as soon as and RoboTwin’s know-how 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 goal is to make automation sooner, easier and extra accessible to producers that don’t have specialist robotics programmers.

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

Mejdrechová, a mechanical engineer educated on the Czech Technical College in Prague, developed the core know-how 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 targeted on scientific papers,” mentioned Mejdrechová. “Visits to Singapore and Canada and different work experiences led me to concentrate on making a product that individuals might use.”

Getting began

In 2021, Mejdrechová entered a leap‑starter programme and gained first prize within the manufacturing class. “We noticed then that there was potential for the know-how,” she mentioned.

This inspired her to begin 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 crew shared their outcomes on the Horizon Outcomes Platform, an internet 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 international manufacturing commerce truthful, and opened doorways to new enterprise contacts and offers.

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

In 2025, Mejdrechová was named in Forbes Czechia’s 30 Underneath 30 listing 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 an alternative 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 are ugly, soiled and unhealthy for staff to do manually,” mentioned Mejdrechová.

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

Making automation simple for all

Robotics in manufacturing just 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 corporations 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 corporations within the floor‑therapy business – corporations that powder coat, paint or polish metallic or plastic components for automobile factories.

“Even when the batch of merchandise you’re producing is small, with our strategy you may create a robotic programme quick and simply,” mentioned 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 educate the robotic exact trajectories which are wanted for a product and about its environment,” mentioned 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 are able to have manipulators or portray robots and likewise collaborative robots, which might work alongside people as a result of they’ve sensors that inform them when to cease shifting if somebody might get damage,” mentioned Vobr.

RoboTwin initially targeted on floor therapy in manufacturing, the place duties reminiscent of spray portray require staff to put on protecting clothes and carry out repetitive actions.

“These jobs are tough to automate as a result of there may be typically quite a lot of hidden motion concerned,” mentioned Mejdrechová, referring to small changes and gestures that staff make instinctively.

The sector additionally faces labour shortages.

“Individuals are typically not comfortable doing these items and there’s a lack of staff keen 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 plenty of corporations, together with Surfin Expertise, a Czech firm specialising in robotic coating options, and Revolutionary Ending Options in Canada, which brings its know-how to North American clients.

Scaling up

EU help 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 help the subsequent technology of RoboTwin’s know-how. As an alternative 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 had been beforehand too complicated or pricey to automate.

For Europe, applied sciences like RoboTwin might play an essential position in strengthening digital sovereignty and good industrial innovation. They may help smaller producers undertake superior robotics without having specialised programming experience.

As factories turn into extra versatile and data-driven, the flexibility to shortly educate robots new duties could show more and more beneficial.

Mejdrechová believes this shift will assist deliver automation inside attain of a a lot wider vary of corporations.

“Our objective is to make robotic coaching one thing that staff can do themselves,” she mentioned. “If we succeed, automation will now not be restricted to giant factories with specialised engineers. It would turn into a instrument 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. When you appreciated this text, please contemplate sharing it on social media.

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

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