Curiosity may have been unfortunate for the cat, but it sparked the beginnings of what is now known as thtRobotics. Andrija, being an inquisitive engineer, was not the type to sit idly and wait for a conundrum to appear out of thin air. He went out looking for trouble, instead.
Working with his own robots, with limited resources in his own lab, he was fairly familiar with the idea of limitations. In fact, he liked them. He would turn them into puzzles and solve them one by one.
As exciting and advanced robotics can be, Andrija recognized an issue that would keep him up at night: what if the current state of robotics, with its goal to make robots do things better than humans, is steering us in the wrong direction?
In all fairness, making robots more like humans to help them be better than humans sounds like Freaky Friday on a hamster wheel, and yet, here we are.
The very first moment this idea received support was during Andrija’s time at LUT University. Upon receiving the Business Finland Research for Commercialization Grant, Andrija and his team turned his initial concept into a minimum viable product – a notable leap that brought them numerous projects for designing and building adaptive grippers for packing various items (think: flower pots and sushi).
In 2019, it became official: thtRobotics evolved into a business entity, ready to conquer this emerging field of robotics. Side by side with Andrija, quite a few people worked on growing the business. Some invested much more than time: they poured their expertise, skills, as well as personal funds into propelling the company to its success and protecting its patents.
A robot with the ability to mimic the softness of the human touch, supported by advanced computer vision software, finally overcoming decades of obstacles in this field.
A business that makes such solutions widely available and easily implemented for food-based companies worldwide.
A friendship rooted in endless support, equally relentless arguments, and enough ambition to set the entire robotics world ablaze.
There are hundreds of people who have made the story of thtRobotics possible. In fact, just mentioning some of them here would not do them justice, so we strive to live up to their commitment and justify their trust in our shared vision. Some of them have poured their hearts and souls into this world-changing idea, yet prefer to stay behind the curtains.
Some have their companies and are happy to be mentioned and tagged here, so that we can all enjoy the limelight.
