The Robotics Business with Fexingo: Automation, Industrial Robots, and Hardware Startups

Episode 104 of The Robotics Business podcast dives into how robot arms are learning to fillet salmon. Lucas and Luna explore a collaboration between the Japanese robotics startup Mujin and seafood processor Maruha Nichiro, which deployed a dual-arm system that can debone and portion a salmon in under 30 seconds. They discuss the technical challenges: soft tissue variability, knife trajectory plann...

In this episode of The Robotics Business, Lucas and Luna explore how a surprising manufacturing bottleneck is driving the latest breakthrough in robotic manipulation: braiding fiber optic cables. Inside Corning's specialty fiber plant in upstate New York, a new generation of high-precision robot arms is taking over a task that once required skilled human hands — threading and weaving hair-thin gla...

This episode explores a surprising skill for industrial robot arms: throwing objects. Lucas and Luna discuss how a team at MIT's Improbable AI Lab taught a robot arm to toss tools and sensors to precise locations, opening up new possibilities for manufacturing logistics where a robot can't reach. The key challenge is controlling release timing and spin — more physics than programming. They walk th...

Episode 101 of The Robotics Business examines a new frontier in construction automation: robot arms learning to wire electrical outlets. Lucas and Luna explore how startups are teaching robots to strip, insert, and connect wires inside wall boxes — a task that requires precision, dexterity, and real-time error recovery. They discuss why electrical work has been resistant to automation, the role of...

In this 100th episode, Lucas and Luna examine how robot arms are learning to drill into bone for orthopedic surgery. They focus on a specific challenge: achieving sub-millimeter accuracy in a sterile, high-stakes environment where every movement is tracked. The hosts discuss how one startup, Think Surgical, has adapted industrial robot hardware for hip and knee replacements, covering the technical...

In episode 99 of The Robotics Business, Lucas and Luna explore the unlikely world of automated fly tying. They focus on a small robotics startup called FlyTie Robotics out of Bozeman, Montana, which adapted a six-axis arm from a Japanese supplier to tie size-14 Pheasant Tail nymphs. Lucas explains the precision challenge — handling thread as thin as 0.1 millimeter and materials like deer hair and...

Episode 98 of The Robotics Business explores the fascinating challenge of teaching robot arms to pick individual coffee beans from a conveyor belt. Lucas and Luna dive into the physics of gripping irregular, brittle objects and how machine vision handles color-sorting at high speed. They discuss the economics of deploying these systems in specialty coffee roasteries versus developing-world process...

In this episode of The Robotics Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the surprisingly complex challenge of teaching robot arms to fold laundry. They break down the core technical hurdles—deformable object manipulation, real-time cloth tracking, and grasp planning—and discuss how a startup called FoldiMate is approaching the problem with a custom gripper and computer vision system. Lucas e...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the surprising new frontier of robotic barbering. They break down how startups like BoomBox Robotics are teaching a seven-axis robot arm to cut hair, tackling the terrifying speed-to-safety challenge: the arm must move at 1.5 meters per second but stop within two milliseconds if it detects a human scalp. They discuss the force-torque sensors, real-time compu...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore a breakthrough in robotic tactile sensing: the GelSight sensor from MIT. Developed by Edward Adelson's lab, GelSight uses a soft gel pad and camera to give robot fingers a sense of touch finer than human skin — detecting ridges as small as two micrometers. Lucas explains how the technology moves beyond vision-based grasping to true haptic feedback, and Luna...

In this episode of The Robotics Business, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging field of decentralized robot swarms — groups of robots that coordinate without a central controller. They focus on a specific case: a 2025 field trial by researchers at the University of Sheffield and a UK agri-tech startup, where 50 small ground robots replanted a deforested hillside in Scotland. The robots used a 'cons...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the surprisingly difficult problem of teaching a robot arm to thread a sewing needle. They examine why this task — requiring precision, compliance, and handling of flexible thread — has become a benchmark for dexterous manipulation. The discussion focuses on a 2025 paper from MIT's CSAIL that used a combination of force sensing and visual servoing to achieve...

Episode 92 of The Robotics Business podcast. Lucas and Luna examine how robot arms are being trained to polish luxury watch cases — a task that requires micron-level precision and a specific 'feel' for pressure and angle. The episode focuses on a Swiss watchmaker's pilot program using collaborative robots with force-torque sensors to replicate the hand-polishing process. Lucas breaks down the tech...

Episode 91 of The Robotics Business podcast: why teaching a robot arm to sharpen a kitchen knife is harder than assembling a car. Lucas and Luna break down the physics of edge geometry, force feedback, and why the startup Sharp Robotics is betting on a $1,200 countertop robot for home cooks. They explore the business case: the global knife sharpening market is roughly $500 million annually, but 95...

Lucas and Luna explore a quiet revolution in industrial robotics: the ability of robot arms to hand off work to one another. They examine how collaborative cells with multiple robots are being taught to coordinate—passing parts, tools, and subassemblies without human intervention. The episode centers on a case at a German automotive supplier where three robot arms assemble a brake caliper in under...

Episode 89 dives into one of the most challenging automation tasks yet: sorting medical lab samples. Lucas and Luna examine how robot arms are being trained to handle test tubes, vials, and specimen containers — objects that vary in size, material, and label placement, and where a single mistake can compromise a patient's diagnosis. They focus on a 2025 pilot at a large hospital network in Ohio wh...

Episode 88 dives into one of the most delicate and high-stakes applications for robotic manipulation: sorting medical lab samples. Lucas and Luna explore how a startup called Apera AI is teaching robot arms to handle blood vials, urine containers, and tissue cassettes in hospital labs, where mis-sorting can lead to misdiagnosis. The episode focuses on Apera's vision system that uses high-speed 3D...

In this episode of The Robotics Business, Lucas and Luna explore why folding laundry remains one of the hardest challenges for industrial robot arms. Nearly 90 percent of commercial laundries still sort and fold by hand. But a startup called FoldiMate has developed a machine that can fold a batch of mixed garments in under 30 seconds using a combination of computer vision and pneumatic grippers. T...

Episode 86 of The Robotics Business explores a high-stakes frontier for industrial automation: recycling sorting. Lucas and Luna dive into the specific challenge of teaching robot arms to identify and separate plastics, metals, and paper from a chaotic conveyor belt. They spotlight AMP Robotics, a Colorado-based startup that has deployed over 300 robotic sorters across North America, and discuss t...

Industrial painting has long been one of the most hazardous jobs in auto manufacturing — toxic fumes, repetitive motion, and staggering waste. But a new generation of robot arms is changing that. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how companies like ABB and FANUC are teaching robot arms to apply consistent, defect-free paint layers on car bodies, using vision systems, flow modeling, and adapt...

Robotic sanding is one of the most challenging automation tasks because wood is inconsistent and sanding requires constant pressure adjustment. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how Odense-based startup RoboFinishing solved this problem with force-control algorithms and a new kind of compliant sanding head. They break down the technical hurdles: why wood grain, knots, and humidity fool tradi...

Episode 83 of The Robotics Business with Fexingo dives into a surprising industrial bottleneck: wiring electrical panels. Lucas and Luna explore how robotics startups are tackling the messy, high-variance task of pulling, cutting, stripping, and terminating wires inside breaker boxes. They focus on a specific case—a German startup called Wired Robotics—that has spent four years perfecting a dual-a...

In this episode, we explore why sewing is one of the hardest tasks for robotics and how a startup called Sewbot is finally cracking it. Lucas breaks down the physics challenge: fabric deforms, shifts, and frays in ways that metal or plastic doesn't. Luna asks why the garment industry hasn't automated sooner despite massive labor shortages. We discuss SoftWear Automation's approach using high-speed...

In episode 81 of The Robotics Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the surprisingly delicate task of robotic knife sharpening. They dive into how a startup called Knifewear Robotics taught a six-axis robot arm to replicate the subtle pressure and angle changes a master bladesmith uses on a whetstone. Lucas explains the physics of burr removal, why most industrial robots are too stiff for...

In episode 80 of The Robotics Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how industrial robot arms are being trained to fold origami—a task that demands high precision, gentle force control, and adaptive manipulation. The hosts dive into a specific 2026 research collaboration between a Japanese automation firm and a university lab, where a six-axis robot learned to fold a paper crane in under 9...