Traditional industrial robotics is often rigid, complex, and expensive to deploy, especially when it needs to interact with humans or variable environments. Compliance Robotics takes a different approach with soft robotics. Its Hollow industrial robot is a hollow, lightweight, and flexible arm designed to work alongside operators, while Emio is a reconfigurable robotic platform intended for education and research.
The ambition is to foster a new generation of robots that are safer, more flexible, and more energy-efficient, capable of addressing applications that rigid robots struggle with. This technology aims to make automation more accessible and easier to integrate where humans and robots must collaborate. In the short term, the startup is focusing on pick-and-place tasks in two sectors: waste sorting and fruit and vegetable handling.
Beyond the robots themselves, Compliance Robotics possesses differentiating expertise in the modeling, simulation, and control of deformable robots, stemming in particular from work conducted within the Inria DEFROST team. This software and simulation component allows for the design and validation of robot usage in real-world environments, as well as the planning of operations using AI.
The business model relies on three complementary revenue streams. First, industrial robotic solutions, with a model that combines the initial sale of a reusable motor block and the recurring sale of consumable hollow arms made from 3D-printed foam: by moving the motorization outside the robot, this architecture allows for easy replacement of arms based on usage, resulting in lower purchase costs for the client and recurring revenue for the startup. Second, the Emio Labs educational and research platform, already used by over 200 master's students and adopted by more than nine international early adopters, who make up the company's Scientific Board. Finally, custom engineering and simulation services for players such as IRT Jules Verne, Naval Group, and Orano.
The next step
Four key initiatives will structure the coming months. Accelerating industrial adoption of the technology through two targeted and replicable use cases: waste sorting and fruit and vegetable handling. Demonstrating the technological and economic advantages of the solutions compared to existing alternatives by quantifying operational gains and return on investment for end users. Industrializing Hollow while preserving the strengths of soft robotics: safety, ease of integration, agility, and energy efficiency. And deploying a scalable business model based on these two high-potential markets and an offering that combines the sale of the motor block—which houses the motorization, electronics, and intelligence—with recurring revenue from the deformable arms.
Why 21st by CentraleSupélec?
21st by CentraleSupélec provides Compliance Robotics with access to major industrial accounts in the food industry, industrial sorting, and other environments with similar use cases. The team also supports the startup with its positioning and go-to-market strategy, and opens doors to deeptech and robotics investors to fund industrialization and commercial development.
Meet the founding team
Christian Duriez, CEO
Thor Bieze, Chief Hardware Officer
Eulalie Coevoet, Chief Software Officer
Alexandre Kruszewski, Scientific Advisor
Dominique Watier, Director of Business Development and Partnerships
#SoftRobotics #Robotics #Automation #DeepTech #Cobotics
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
