Again to highschool: robots study from manufacturing facility employees

By Anthony King

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

As a substitute of writing advanced code, employees 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 units and no-code software program that seize human actions and translate them into directions for industrial robots. The goal is to make automation quicker, easier and extra accessible to producers that should not have specialist robotics programmers.

“The robotic mainly copies the human demonstration,” mentioned Megi Mejdrechová, RoboTwin’s co-founder and chief expertise officer. “Individuals 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 trade. Her expertise in robotic management utilizing AI and laptop 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 deal with making a product that folks might use.”

Getting began

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

This inspired her to begin RoboTwin with colleagues Ladislav Dvořák and David Polák, who shared her enthusiasm for human‑robotic partnerships. Mejdrechová obtained 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 serious international manufacturing commerce honest, 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 expertise 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 machine geared up with sensors. When a employee performs a job, for instance spray portray a steel 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 comply with.

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

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

Making automation straightforward for all

Robotics in manufacturing will not be new. The automotive trade already leads the best way with about 23 000 new robots added to manufacturing strains 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 corporations within the floor‑remedy trade – firms that powder coat, paint or polish steel or plastic components for automobile factories.

“Even when the batch of merchandise you’re producing is small, with our method you possibly can 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 machine 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 usually 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 likewise 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 remedy in manufacturing, the place duties similar to spray portray require employees to put on protecting clothes and carry out repetitive actions.

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

The sector additionally faces labour shortages.

“Individuals are usually not completely satisfied doing this stuff and there’s a lack of employees 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 various firms, together with Surfin Expertise, a Czech firm specialising in robotic coating options, and Progressive 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 growth.

The funding will assist the following technology 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 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 advanced or expensive to automate.

For Europe, applied sciences like RoboTwin might play an necessary position in strengthening digital sovereignty and good industrial innovation. They may help smaller producers undertake superior robotics while not having specialised programming experience.

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

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 now not be restricted to massive factories with specialised engineers. It’s going to 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.