Labs works best in industries with something at stake in the real world: a fleet, a network, a line,
a customer base. Most of what we build is software and AI. Some of it is hardware. All of it has to
work outside the demo, which is where a robotics lab earns its keep.
The frontier is already on the shop floor. Most of it doesn't work yet. Vision-guided picking, autonomous mobile robots and frontier-model forecasting are all real and all uneven. The question isn't whether to adopt; it's which claims survive contact with your SKUs, your lighting and your peak.
Warehouse · AMR / picking
A
Picking & handling
What current grippers and vision stacks can actually pick from your range, tested on your items in our lab.
B
Yard & fleet
Where perception models are reliable enough to run unsupervised, and where they aren't yet.
C
Planning & forecasting
Frontier-model forecasting against your data, benchmarked honestly against what you already run.
02 / 06
Manufacturing
Traditional automation is brittle: it does exactly what it was programmed to do. Frontier robotics is starting to handle variation. Knowing precisely where that line sits today, for your parts, is worth a great deal.
Line · Unitree H1-class + arms
A
Quality inspection
On-device vision models for defect detection, tested on your parts before anyone talks about a rollout.
B
Adaptive assembly
Where learned manipulation beats scripted motion on high-mix, low-volume lines.
C
Maintenance intelligence
Frontier models over sensor and maintenance data, and the cases where they add nothing.
03 / 06
Utilities & energy
Networks are large, physical and ageing. Drones, ground robots and vision-language models change what's inspectable and how often. Regulated organisations need the evidence before the pilot, not after.
Inspection drone
A
Asset inspection
Imagery triage and defect detection with current models, benchmarked against your inspectors.
B
Field robotics
What ground and aerial platforms can do unsupervised in your environments, and what they can't.
C
Sovereign deployment
Running frontier models on infrastructure you control; the Edge platform is built for exactly this.
04 / 06
Infrastructure & construction
Sites are unstructured. That's the hardest problem in robotics and the biggest prize. Progress monitoring, survey and site robotics are advancing fast and failing quietly. Labs tells you which are ready for your sites and builds the ones that are close.
Site · survey drone
A
Progress & survey
Automated capture and comparison against plan with current perception models.
B
Site robotics
Honest assessment of mobile platforms in mud, dust and changing layouts.
C
Safety intelligence
Vision models for hazard detection; precision, recall and the cost of being wrong.
05 / 06
Agriculture
Seasonal, outdoor, variable: the proving ground for embodied AI. Agricultural robotics has moved from trials to early deployment. The difference between vendors is enormous and hard to see from a brochure. We test the claims in the lab and tell you what we found.
Unitree Go1 · field
A
Perception in the field
Crop, weed and condition detection with frontier vision models under real light and weather.
B
Selective handling
Where grippers and manipulation are good enough for delicate produce, and where they aren't yet.
C
Vendor due diligence
Independent evaluation of the platforms pitching to you, from people who build the same things.
06 / 06
Public sector
Public bodies need to understand frontier AI and robotics without becoming dependent on the vendors selling it. An independent monthly view, grounded in a UK lab and deployable on sovereign infrastructure, is a different starting point.
Sovereign racks
A
Independent horizon scanning
A monthly report your leadership can rely on, written by people with no product to sell you.
B
Sovereign deployment
Products built by Labs and run by Edge Expert Services on UK infrastructure under your control.
C
Physical services
Inspection, maintenance and field operations where robotics is becoming viable.
Don't see yours?
The list above is where we've looked hardest so far. If your organisation has to make AI work in the real world, software or hardware, we'd like to hear about it.
Warehouse · AMR / picking
