Tesla Optimus. Figure. 1X. Sanctuary. Agility. Boston Dynamics.
The humanoid robot race is on. Billions in investment. Millions of units planned. Headlines every week.
But here’s what the headlines miss: the infrastructure to deploy all these robots doesn’t exist yet.
The Deployment Problem
Building a robot is hard. Deploying it into a real environment is harder.
Every robot needs:
- A workspace designed for its capabilities
- Clear paths and collision boundaries
- Integration with existing systems
- Safety zones for human collaboration
- Maintenance access and procedures
Today, this is done manually. Custom engineering for every deployment. Bespoke solutions that don’t scale.
We’re building robots like it’s 2025, but deploying them like it’s 1995.
The Tooling Gap
The robotics industry inherited its tools from adjacent fields:
From CAD: Static geometry. File-based. No real-time collaboration. No AI integration.
From simulation: Separate from design. Different formats. Manual translation between systems.
From manufacturing: Proprietary systems. Vendor lock-in. Integration nightmares.
None of these were built for the robotics explosion. None of them scale to millions of deployments.
What’s Actually Needed
Work Cell Design at Scale
Robots don’t operate in isolation. They work in cells—complete environments with fixtures, conveyors, safety systems, and human collaboration zones.
Designing these cells needs:
- AI-assisted layout optimization
- Real-time reach analysis
- Multi-robot coordination
- Safety zone validation
- Cycle time simulation
All before you build anything physical.
Simulation That Transfers
The gap between simulation and reality is where robotics projects die.
You need:
- Physics-accurate simulation
- Sensor modeling (not just visualization)
- Domain randomization for robust training
- Continuous calibration against real-world data
Simulation isn’t optional. It’s the only way to iterate fast enough.
Collaboration Across the Value Chain
Robot makers, integrators, end users, facility managers—all need to work together.
Current tools force sequential handoffs:
- Robot OEM provides specs
- Integrator designs cell
- End user reviews
- Facility team plans installation
Each handoff loses information. Each delay costs time.
What’s needed: real-time collaboration where everyone works on the same model simultaneously.
Open Standards
Your robot deployment shouldn’t be locked into one vendor’s ecosystem.
- STEP for geometry exchange
- Open APIs for system integration
- Standard formats for simulation
Proprietary lock-in doesn’t work when you’re deploying thousands of cells across hundreds of sites.
The Scale Challenge
Consider what’s coming:
Warehouse automation: Amazon alone operates 750,000+ robots. Every logistics company is following.
Humanoid deployment: Tesla plans millions of Optimus units. Others are racing to match.
Manufacturing cells: Every factory modernizing, automating, adding robots.
Surgical robotics: Every hospital, eventually.
This is millions of robot deployments. Tens of millions of work cells. Billions of square feet of environments that need to be designed, simulated, and validated.
You cannot do this with manual engineering and bespoke tools.
The Opportunity
The robotics explosion is happening. The hardware is advancing rapidly.
What’s missing is the infrastructure layer:
- Design tools built for robot deployment
- Simulation that actually transfers to reality
- Collaboration across distributed teams
- AI assistance throughout the workflow
- Open standards for interoperability
Whoever builds this infrastructure captures the picks-and-shovels opportunity of the robotics gold rush.
Building or deploying robots? See how we’re addressing this →