Again to high school: robots study from manufacturing facility employees

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 employees train robots new abilities by demonstration.

As an alternative of writing complicated code, employees 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 intention is to make automation quicker, less complicated and extra accessible to producers that shouldn’t have specialist robotics programmers.

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

Mejdrechová, a mechanical engineer skilled 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 kind 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 soar‑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 start out RoboTwin with colleagues Ladislav Dvořák and David Polák, who shared her enthusiasm for human‑robotic partnerships. Mejdrechová obtained backing from Girls TechEU, an EU scheme supporting girls founders of deep‑tech startups. 

The RoboTwin staff 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 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 develop to producers in Central Europe, the Netherlands, Mexico and Canada.

In 2025, Mejdrechová was named in Forbes Czechia’s 30 Beneath 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 steel element, the system data 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 method and interprets it into exact directions a robotic can comply with.

“We began with jobs which are ugly, soiled and unhealthy for employees to do manually,” mentioned Mejdrechová.

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

Making automation simple for all

Robotics in manufacturing is just not new. The automotive business already leads the way in which with about 23 000 new robots added to manufacturing traces in 2024. However whereas massive 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‑therapy business – firms that powder coat, paint or polish steel or plastic elements 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, scale back prices and minimise rework. 

“With our system we will train 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 prospects.

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 might work alongside people as a result of they’ve sensors that inform them when to cease transferring if somebody might get damage,” mentioned Vobr.

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

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

The sector additionally faces labour shortages.

“Individuals are typically not pleased doing these items and there’s a lack of employees 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 a variety of firms, 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 prospects.

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 improvement and market growth.

The funding will help the following era of RoboTwin’s know-how. As an alternative of relying solely on guide demonstrations, the system will more and more use saved expertise and information to generate robotic programmes routinely based mostly 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 function in strengthening digital sovereignty and sensible industrial innovation. They can assist smaller producers undertake superior robotics while not having specialised programming experience.

As factories turn out to be extra versatile and data-driven, the flexibility to rapidly train robots new duties might show more and more worthwhile.

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 employees can do themselves,” she mentioned. “If we succeed, automation will not be restricted to massive factories with specialised engineers. It should turn out 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 replicate these of the European Fee. When you appreciated this text, please take into account sharing it on social media.

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