Mobility Insights
What it takes to scale robots on the factory floor
At our latest Mobility Mixer in Paris, Shift4Good Co-Founder and Managing Partner Sébastien Guillaud sat down with Saurabh Chandra, founder and CEO of ATI Robotics. ATI builds autonomous mobile robots and humanoids for manufacturing, and its fleets run in more than 50 factories. Saurabh flew in from Palo Alto to share what he has learned about taking robots out of controlled environments and into the reality of the shop floor. Here are five takeaways from the conversation.
1. Robots are leaving the cage
Most factory robots still work inside fenced zones. The fence keeps their surroundings predictable and keeps people out. ATI builds mobile robots that work without it: alongside people, outdoors, between buildings and in factories that are decades old. Customers don’t have to redesign their sites to use them.
“All the robots that scale today operate inside a yellow box. It keeps the environment the same and keeps human beings out. From day one, we tried to make robots that don’t have a box around them: robots that work with people, in the rain, between buildings, in any environment.” ~ Saurabh Chandra, ATI Robotics Founder & CEO
2. Demand has caught up with the technology
Robotics software has improved steadily, and AI now makes a real difference on specific tasks. Demand has shifted just as much. Saurabh says US carmakers had a “Sputnik moment” after seeing China’s progress, and some now track how many robots their suppliers deploy.
3. One robot is easy. A fleet is hard.
Tasks that are simple for people, like opening a door, remain hard for robots. In small pilots, staff quietly step in when something goes wrong. At scale, nobody can, and a short stoppage can halt production. ATI’s answer is to plan for failure. When one robot breaks down, another takes over and the line keeps moving. Saurabh argues that buyers should judge the whole fleet’s uptime rather than each machine’s.
4. The supply chain is a strategic asset
ATI builds its robots from parts made for India’s electric two-wheeler industry. This gives it a supply chain almost entirely free of Chinese components, down to the magnets. Because ATI owns its designs, it can manufacture anywhere, and it is now accelerating production in the US as geopolitics reshapes the robotics market.
5. Humanoids will come in many forms
Saurabh expects humanoids to be widespread, but not in a single design. As he put it, an airplane isn’t a bird. ATI focuses on moving heavy materials, where two legs are a liability: a robot carrying a heavy load becomes top-heavy and can tip over. ATI’s first humanoid goes into production next summer and already has two customers.
ATI’s work is already being recognized beyond the factory floor: its Sherpa Mecha has just won a German Design Award 2027 in Excellent Product Design, Industry. Watch the robot in action.
