AILOS-Robotics

AILOS is an emerging robotics hardware company transitioning from research and prototype development toward industrialization. In December 2025, the company raised €3.5 million in seed funding from QBIC, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Wallonie Entreprendre, and finance&invest.brussels to industrialize its technology and launch pilot projects with robot manufacturers. Its development is based on more than a decade of research at VUB, with the company now working toward scalable production and broader deployment of its actuation technology.

AILOS develops robotic actuators built around its patented R2poweR gearbox, a high-ratio transmission designed to combine the backdrivability and agility associated with quasi-direct-drive systems with high torque density. The gearbox is intended for robotic joints that require high loads without adding excessive weight, reflected inertia, energy consumption, or mechanical resistance. Its scalable architecture is being developed for integration into high-volume robotic platforms.

The R2poweR platform is designed as a core actuation component rather than a complete robotic system, allowing robot manufacturers to integrate the technology into different platforms and joint architectures. This makes it applicable to humanoid and collaborative robots as well as wearable robotic systems such as exoskeletons and prosthetic devices.

AILOS focuses on robotics hardware where actuation performance directly affects robot weight, safety, efficiency, agility, and operating cost. Its primary applications include humanoid robotics, collaborative robots, exoskeletons, and prosthetic devices, with the technology also relevant to broader industrial and human-centered robotic systems. The company is engaging with robot manufacturers and industrial partners to move its gearbox technology into pilot applications and scaled production.

Its market focus reflects a growing demand for compact, high-performance robotic joints that can operate safely around people while delivering the torque required for demanding movements. AILOS addresses this at the component level, developing transmission technology that can be incorporated into different robotic architectures rather than limiting the technology to a single robot platform.

AILOS's technical expertise spans robotic actuation, high-ratio mechanical transmissions, planetary and Wolfrom-based gearboxes, backdrivability, torque-density optimization, mechanical design, mechatronics, and experimental validation. The R2poweR concept uses a high-ratio Wolfrom-based architecture to achieve high reduction ratios while maintaining low backdrive resistance and efficient operation.

The company's engineering work combines transmission design with mechanical modelling, prototyping, testing, actuator integration, and manufacturing engineering. Current development activities include gearbox validation and reliability testing, mechanical test benches, torque and temperature measurement, vibration analysis, and optimization of designs for industrial production.

AILOS is addressing one of the key hardware challenges in human-centric robotics: developing compact and efficient actuation that can simultaneously provide high torque, low backdrivability resistance, and the dynamic response required for physical interaction with people. Its R2poweR technology was developed through more than a decade of VUB research and has progressed from proof-of-concept prototypes toward an industrialization program.

The technology has demonstrated the potential to improve the efficiency and backdrivability of high-ratio robotic transmissions while retaining the weight and control advantages of geared actuation. AILOS is now applying this technology to next-generation humanoid, collaborative, and wearable robotics, with its 2025 seed funding supporting pilot projects, manufacturing scale-up, and supply-chain development. In 2026, the company was also selected as a finalist for the euRobotics Technology Transfer Award, recognizing its transition of VUB robotics research toward industrial application.

AILOS Robotics partners with Metheion to source specialized engineering and technical-commercial talent across robotics, actuation, mechanical transmission, mechatronics, mechanical testing, industrial automation, and robotics hardware.

Metheion specializes in identifying technical professionals who combine engineering expertise with an understanding of complex industrial technologies and customer applications. Through this partnership, Metheion supports AILOS in building the technical and commercial capabilities required to move R2poweR from advanced R&D into industrial deployment, including engineering specialists as well as technical sales and business development profiles capable of working with robotics OEMs, system integrators, distributors, and industrial partners.