Machina Labs uses robotics, AI to customize automotive body manufacturing - The Robot Report

Machina Labs, founded in 2019 and based in Los Angeles, is revolutionizing automotive body manufacturing by replacing traditional, bulky, and expensive dies and presses with a robotic and AI-driven approach. Their RoboCraftsman platform uses advanced robotics and AI process controls to incrementally form sheet metal into customized vehicle panels rapidly, eliminating the need for dedicated tooling per model variation. This innovation significantly reduces capital costs, storage needs, and production changeover times, enabling automakers to offer customized vehicles at mass-production prices. The technology also allows the use of new metal alloys, such as titanium and nickel, which were previously difficult to form with conventional methods. The company’s approach supports on-demand, low-volume part production near assembly lines, streamlining factory workflows and enabling dynamic batching without disrupting existing manufacturing processes. This contrasts with traditional automotive manufacturing, which relies on long-term use of costly dies and molds, limiting customization and flexibility. Machina Labs initially targeted defense applications with high-mix, low-volume production but