A Czech startup is making manufacturing facility automation simpler by letting staff educate robots new duties by easy demonstrations as an alternative of advanced coding, as Anthony King explores.
What if coaching a robotic to deal with soiled, harmful work on the manufacturing facility flooring was so simple as displaying it how? Czech startup RoboTwin is doing precisely that, serving to manufacturing facility staff educate robots new abilities by demonstration.
As an alternative of writing advanced 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 units and no-code software program that seize human actions and translate them into directions for industrial robots. The purpose 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. “Individuals 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 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 sort of conventional and centered on scientific papers,” mentioned Mejdrechová. “Visits to Singapore and Canada and different work experiences led me to deal with making a product that individuals might use.”
Mejdrechová’s background in manufacturing innovation
In 2021, Mejdrechová entered a jump-starter programme and received 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-robot partnerships. Mejdrechová obtained backing from Women TechEU, an EU scheme supporting girls founders of deep-tech startups.
The RoboTwin group 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 international manufacturing commerce truthful, and opened doorways to new enterprise contacts and offers.
By means of a mixture of private and non-private funding, RoboTwin has secured funding to refine its know-how and increase to producers in Central Europe, the Netherlands, Mexico and Canada.
In 2025, Mejdrechová was named in Forbes Czechia’s 30 Below 30 checklist for her work in making the coaching of robots accessible to extra producers.
Capturing pure approach with out laborious coding
On the coronary heart of RoboTwin’s system is a handheld machine outfitted with sensors. When a employee performs a activity, 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 comply with.
“We began with jobs which might be ugly, soiled and unhealthy for staff to do manually,” mentioned Mejdrechová.
Due to the no-coding system, the method will be accomplished in just a few steps and usually takes a couple of minute. For factories producing small batches or ceaselessly altering merchandise, this pace could make automation way more sensible than conventional robotic programming.
Robotics and automation in manufacturing will not be new
The automotive trade already leads the way in which with about 23 000 new robots added to manufacturing traces in 2024. However whereas massive 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 surface-treatment trade – corporations that powder coat, paint or polish metallic or plastic elements for automotive factories.
“Even when the batch of merchandise you’re producing is small, with our strategy you’ll be able to 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 machine we will educate the robotic exact trajectories which might be wanted for a product and about its environment,” mentioned David Vobr, a robotics specialist at RoboTwin who usually assists clients.
Resolving abilities shortages in 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 may 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 centered on floor remedy in manufacturing, the place duties reminiscent of 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 usually loads of hidden motion concerned,” mentioned Mejdrechová, referring to small changes and gestures that staff make instinctively.
The sector additionally faces labour shortages.
“Individuals are usually not completely satisfied doing these items and there’s a lack of staff prepared to take these jobs. So there’s a excessive demand for automation.”
Clients report that many robotic programmes can now be created with out shutting down a manufacturing line.
RoboTwin has already labored with a lot 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.
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 following technology of RoboTwin’s know-how. As an alternative of relying solely on handbook demonstrations, the system will more and more use saved expertise and information to generate robotic programmes mechanically 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 advanced or expensive to automate.
For Europe, applied sciences like RoboTwin might play an vital position in strengthening digital sovereignty and sensible industrial innovation. They will 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 educate robots new duties could show more and more helpful.
Mejdrechová believes this shift will assist convey automation inside attain of a a lot wider vary of corporations.
“Our purpose is to make robotic coaching one thing that staff can do themselves,” she mentioned. “If we succeed, automation will now not be restricted to massive factories with specialised engineers. It should turn out to be a software that any producer can use.”
