Building Complete Systems

The Problem Nobody Warns You About

A robotics startup has built each piece of its system and tested them individually. The cameras recognize objects at 98% accuracy on the test bench. The arm hits its target position within 0.1mm in the motion lab. The gripper holds 5 kg without slipping on the force test rig. The control software passes all unit tests. The battery lasts 10 hours under simulated load.

They bolt it all together, power it up in a customer’s warehouse, and the robot drops things.