Ilir Aliu

Ilir Aliu

Creator
0 followers

Automation & robotics advisor focused on scaling deep tech startups.

Nanoliter Precision Turns Lab Robots Into Full Automation
SocialMar 1, 2026

Nanoliter Precision Turns Lab Robots Into Full Automation

This is real time. You can see how stable the motion is. A system placing droplets between 1 nanoliter and 1 microliter inside a 96 well plate with almost perfect repeatability. No shake. No drift. No overshoot. The robot keeps...

By Ilir Aliu
World’s Smallest Robot Arm Achieves Sub‑Micrometer Precision
SocialFeb 27, 2026

World’s Smallest Robot Arm Achieves Sub‑Micrometer Precision

The world's smallest industrial robot arm Built for sub-micrometer precision. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how to control what is likely the world’s smallest and most precise industrial robot arm using custom software. The stack includes online and offline programming...

By Ilir Aliu
Programmable Pin Grid Enables Tool‑Free Rapid Moulding
SocialFeb 21, 2026

Programmable Pin Grid Enables Tool‑Free Rapid Moulding

Polymorphic moulding: a manufacturing method that forms parts using a grid of computer-controlled pins: Each pin can move up or down independently, so together they shape a surface that acts like a custom mould. Instead of building a fixed mould...

By Ilir Aliu
R
SocialFeb 20, 2026

R

A Diffusion Foundation Model for Bimanual Manipulation. RDT-1B is a 1B-parameter (largest to date) imitation learning Diffusion Transformer pre-trained on 1M+ (largest to date) multi-robot episodes. GitHub: https://lnkd.in/dUmGRibU ——- Weekly robotics and AI insights. Subscribe free: 22astronauts.com

By Ilir Aliu
Arduino‑Powered Acoustic Levitator Suspends Objects in Midair
SocialFeb 20, 2026

Arduino‑Powered Acoustic Levitator Suspends Objects in Midair

A student built a real anti-gravity machine… using an Arduino. How to Make an Acoustic Levitator: Arduino Nano + motor driver + about 60 ultrasonic transducers. They all emit ~40 kHz sound. The sound waves meet and form fixed pockets...

By Ilir Aliu
Humanoid Robot Performs Real-Time Parkour via Perception
SocialFeb 19, 2026

Humanoid Robot Performs Real-Time Parkour via Perception

Not a preplanned motion sequence. A robot deciding mid-jump what to do next. [📍 paper + demo] Researchers just showed a humanoid doing real parkour using only onboard perception. No motion script, no fixed obstacle layout. The system is called...

By Ilir Aliu
From Software to Robots: Making Automation Affordable and Deployable
SocialFeb 19, 2026

From Software to Robots: Making Automation Affordable and Deployable

🎙️ Evan Beard is the co-founder and CEO of Standard Bots , building AI-trained industrial robot arms designed to automate real factory work, not demos: In this episode, Evan shares a founder path that started in software startups and Y...

By Ilir Aliu
3D‑Printed Lattice Tires Eliminate Air and Suspension
SocialFeb 19, 2026

3D‑Printed Lattice Tires Eliminate Air and Suspension

3D printed tires Pure 3D-printed lattice magic in TPU that flexes, absorbs insane weight, and keeps rolling. No air or suspension needed. @robotsailor is building next-level robot wheels… fully custom, printed fast on Bambu Lab printers. If you don’t follow...

By Ilir Aliu
Open‑Source Motion Capture Using Cheap Webcams
SocialFeb 18, 2026

Open‑Source Motion Capture Using Cheap Webcams

A fully open source mocap system that works with cheap webcams: The FreeMoCap Project A free-and-open-source, hardware-and-software-agnostic, minimal-cost, research-grade, motion capture system and platform for decentralized scientific research, education, and training: https://lnkd.in/dEzJdTBK —- Weekly robotics and AI insights. Subscribe free:...

By Ilir Aliu
Language‑Based Policies Enable Zero‑Shot Cross‑Robot Skills
SocialFeb 18, 2026

Language‑Based Policies Enable Zero‑Shot Cross‑Robot Skills

Same task, same scene. Different robot. Everything breaks… LAP trains the model to express motion in plain language, for example “move forward 3 cm” or “tilt 15 degrees” instead of predicting joint torques or tokens. Because language carries structure and...

By Ilir Aliu
Robots Build Robots, Generating Data for IPO
SocialFeb 18, 2026

Robots Build Robots, Generating Data for IPO

robots building robots… • unitree dropped a video of their g1 humanoid assembling robot legs in their own shenzhen factory using the unifolm embodied ai model. yes, robots building robots at actual production speed • the tasks are real bimanual...

By Ilir Aliu
Nature-Inspired Robot Mastering Fly, Roll, Walk, Crawl
SocialFeb 17, 2026

Nature-Inspired Robot Mastering Fly, Roll, Walk, Crawl

Bioinspired robot Fly - Roll - Walk - Crawl Multi-Modal Mobility Morphobot (M4), a revolutionary robot inspired by nature's most adaptable creatures. > Capable of multiple forms of movement: flying, rolling, crawling, and more. > Features adaptive appendages that function...

By Ilir Aliu
ExtremControl Cuts Teleoperation Latency to 50 Ms
SocialFeb 16, 2026

ExtremControl Cuts Teleoperation Latency to 50 Ms

Whole-body control framework that reduces end-to-end latency of teleoperation to 50 ms. [📍it’s open source] Teleoperating a humanoid usually feels like driving through lag. This brings it close to real-time. A new control framework called ExtremControl cuts latency to about...

By Ilir Aliu
Brightpick Advances Logistics While Others Dream of Humanoids
SocialFeb 16, 2026

Brightpick Advances Logistics While Others Dream of Humanoids

Everyone: humanoids will accelerate logistics. Meanwhile Brightpick …

By Ilir Aliu
Robotic Microfactory Prints Full-Scale Ship without Dockyard
SocialFeb 15, 2026

Robotic Microfactory Prints Full-Scale Ship without Dockyard

Shipbuilding normally needs shipyards. This boat came out of a microfactory. Printed by robots. A full-scale vessel made inside an AI-driven facility, not a dockyard. Forget molds, heavy tooling, and offshore fabrication: Just a digital file → robotic print →...

By Ilir Aliu
Shared Resources Make Robot Swarms More Resilient
SocialFeb 15, 2026

Shared Resources Make Robot Swarms More Resilient

Robots helping other robots so none of them breaks. Instead of every robot needing its own battery, sensors, and connection, they share with their neighbors. If one robot “gets blind” or runs out of power, the others support it and...

By Ilir Aliu
Join Builders: Weekly Robotics & AI Insights
SocialFeb 14, 2026

Join Builders: Weekly Robotics & AI Insights

if you catch yourself going down rabbit holes about ‣ robotics ‣ ai ‣ physics ‣ mathematics ‣ manufacturing ‣ hardware + software ‣ design ‣ systems ‣ autonomy ‣ control ‣ perception ‣ embedded you’re at the right place....

By Ilir Aliu
Interfaces Evolve: Physical Space Becomes the UI
SocialFeb 12, 2026

Interfaces Evolve: Physical Space Becomes the UI

Interfaces are slowly leaving the screen. Instead of pressing buttons, you interact with things that behave like real objects in space. In this case, music stops being a timeline and becomes something you can walk around, touch, and reshape from...

By Ilir Aliu
Fully Open‑Source Robotic Arm Lowers Embodied AI Barriers
SocialFeb 11, 2026

Fully Open‑Source Robotic Arm Lowers Embodied AI Barriers

Open Source Robotic Arm for All Developers [📍Github Below] A robotic arm project (reBot-DevArm) dedicated to lowering the barrier to learning Embodied AI. They focus on "True Open Source" (not just the code), they unreservedly open source everything: > Hardware...

By Ilir Aliu
Drones Turn Indoor Strawberry Farming Into Data‑Driven Manufacturing
SocialFeb 11, 2026

Drones Turn Indoor Strawberry Farming Into Data‑Driven Manufacturing

Strawberries. Indoors. Stacked to the ceiling. Now add drones flying between the rows. In the 4D Bios setup, drones move through vertical shelves and capture high-resolution images of leaves and fruit. Instead of manual inspection, plant health becomes a data...

By Ilir Aliu
Essential UC Berkeley Math Primer for Machine Learning
SocialFeb 10, 2026

Essential UC Berkeley Math Primer for Machine Learning

Mathematics for Machine Learning (47-page) An introduction from UC Berkeley Linear Algebra Calculus and Optimization Probability [📍SAVE FOR LATER] https://lnkd.in/dgziZ3xS —- Weekly robotics and AI insights. Subscribe free: 22astronauts.com

By Ilir Aliu
Fingertip Redesign Unlocks Human‑Like Dexterity
SocialFeb 10, 2026

Fingertip Redesign Unlocks Human‑Like Dexterity

Can finger position control alone ever match human dexterity? Probably not. The missing piece is contact mechanics: [📍 Paper and Website] Instead of adding more sensors or control tricks, PLATO hand changes the fingertip itself. Each finger combines a soft,...

By Ilir Aliu
Detachable Robotic Hand Redefines Dexterity in Tight Spaces
SocialFeb 9, 2026

Detachable Robotic Hand Redefines Dexterity in Tight Spaces

A robotic hand that can detach from its arm, crawl away, pick things up, and then come back to work again. Yes, it looks a bit like Thing from The Addams Family. But the idea behind it is very serious....

By Ilir Aliu
High School Team Delivers Practical Robot in Six Weeks
SocialFeb 9, 2026

High School Team Delivers Practical Robot in Six Weeks

A high school team built a robot climbing system in six weeks. Watching this, what stands out is how practical it is. The mechanism looks thought through, stable, and realistic for competition use. No overengineering, no gimmicks, just something that...

By Ilir Aliu
From Neurons to AlphaGo: Robotics Deep Learning Curriculum
SocialFeb 8, 2026

From Neurons to AlphaGo: Robotics Deep Learning Curriculum

Deep learning curriculum for robotics. [📍 Link to Playlist below ] Modern robotics workflows often integrate deep learning models with traditional algorithms for mapping, localization, and control. This playlist builds it from scratch: Single neurons → Backprop → CNNs →...

By Ilir Aliu
Stop Building Robot Infrastructure—Use Cloud-Native Platform
SocialFeb 8, 2026

Stop Building Robot Infrastructure—Use Cloud-Native Platform

The biggest lie in robotics is that you need to build your own infrastructure. One founder just raised $3M to build the “AWS for robots.” 🧵 I talk to founders every week who are burning 80% of their seed round...

By Ilir Aliu
All‑Level Robotics Resource Library: Open‑Source Projects & Learning Paths
SocialFeb 7, 2026

All‑Level Robotics Resource Library: Open‑Source Projects & Learning Paths

A complete library of resources that caters to all levels of Roboticists. 📍Save the GitHub for later This one is not a single project or course. It is a curated robotics resource library. Open-source robots Hands-on project ideas Research repositories...

By Ilir Aliu
Robotics Must Deliver Real Value, Not Just Hype
SocialFeb 7, 2026

Robotics Must Deliver Real Value, Not Just Hype

Peak robotics demo. Still no dishwasher replacement. And to be fair: this is impressive. The roboticists building this are world-class engineers. But in many conversations with founders, one thing is clear: as an industry, we now have to start delivering...

By Ilir Aliu
Mathematical Foundations of Robotic Manipulation Explained
SocialFeb 6, 2026

Mathematical Foundations of Robotic Manipulation Explained

A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation. [📍Save for later] It is a foundational robotics textbook that universities use to teach full graduate-level courses. From body motion to manipulation, grasping, control, and nonholonomic planning. This is the mathematical backbone behind robot...

By Ilir Aliu
Steer Pretrained Robots in Real Time without Retraining
SocialFeb 6, 2026

Steer Pretrained Robots in Real Time without Retraining

A training-free framework that guides robot behavior in real time. [📍 Project, paper & videos below 👇] VLS runs uncut, steering pretrained policies across long-horizon tasks. Most robots don’t fail because they lack skill. They fail because their behavior isn’t...

By Ilir Aliu
Loki Robotics Focuses Beyond Humanoids, Innovates Differently
SocialFeb 5, 2026

Loki Robotics Focuses Beyond Humanoids, Innovates Differently

Everyone talks about humanoids. Meanwhile, Loki Robotics :

By Ilir Aliu
Predictive World Model Lets Robots Learn Tasks Instantly
SocialFeb 5, 2026

Predictive World Model Lets Robots Learn Tasks Instantly

Robots usually fail for one simple reason: they don’t understand what will happen next. [📍Paper, code & task gallery at the end] > 14B “World Action Model” from NVIDIA : DreamZero… Instead of copying motions or replaying demonstrations, this model...

By Ilir Aliu
Sports Discipline Fuels AI-Driven Industrial Automation
SocialFeb 5, 2026

Sports Discipline Fuels AI-Driven Industrial Automation

"Discipline Is a Transferable Skill" 🎙️ Camilla Mazzoleni is the co-founder & CPO of FORGIS , a Zurich-based startup building an AI operating layer for industrial automation: In this episode, Camilla shares a founder journey shaped long before robotics. She...

By Ilir Aliu
Self‑driving Demo Shows Learned Competence, Not Scripted Automation
SocialFeb 4, 2026

Self‑driving Demo Shows Learned Competence, Not Scripted Automation

Keep coming back to this demo because it does something rare: It looks boring... in the best possible way. A vehicle drives itself around a facility, makes reasonable choices, and reaches a waypoint without any visible choreography. No dramatic edge...

By Ilir Aliu
Open‑source 3D‑printed Robot Wrist Showcases Early Sharing
SocialFeb 3, 2026

Open‑source 3D‑printed Robot Wrist Showcases Early Sharing

3D printed differential robot arm wrist. [👇 GitHub Link - Open Source ] High demand, so they open sourced it early. A differential mechanism released as a test fixture for future robots. Built around their Spectral micro BLDC driver. Parts,...

By Ilir Aliu
Open-Source Python Robotics Algorithms for Localization & Planning
SocialFeb 2, 2026

Open-Source Python Robotics Algorithms for Localization & Planning

A collection of Python robotics algorithms (localization, SLAM, path planning, motion planning). (📍GitHub ) Python sample codes and textbook for robotics algorithms. GitHub: https://lnkd.in/eBZXA22n —— Weekly robotics and AI insights. Subscribe free: scalingdeep.tech

By Ilir Aliu
Historic 1885 Almond Coupling: Motorized, Support-Free Design
SocialFeb 2, 2026

Historic 1885 Almond Coupling: Motorized, Support-Free Design

A motorized Almond Coupling, or Bent-Arm Joint. No supports or hardware needed. (📍 Link to Makerworld) It was invented and patented around 1885 as a right angle transmission coupling for steam and gas engines. 📍 https://lnkd.in/eMUV_Kgp —- Weekly robotics and...

By Ilir Aliu
Robots Gain Finger-Level Force Awareness for Reliable Tasks
SocialJan 30, 2026

Robots Gain Finger-Level Force Awareness for Reliable Tasks

Robots are getting good at copying motion. Force is the harder problem. Too little force and the task fails. Too much force and something breaks. UMI-FT tackles this gap by adding something most learning setups miss: finger-level force awareness. Each...

By Ilir Aliu
Robotics Teams Lose Time Rebuilding Infrastructure, Not Algorithms
SocialJan 29, 2026

Robotics Teams Lose Time Rebuilding Infrastructure, Not Algorithms

🎙️ Stephen James is the founder and CEO of Neuracore , and Assistant Professor of Robot Learning at Imperial College London: In this episode, Stephen shares his path from growing up in Wales to spending a decade at Imperial, a...

By Ilir Aliu
Open‑Source Dev Kit Enables AI‑Native Robotics Integration
SocialJan 28, 2026

Open‑Source Dev Kit Enables AI‑Native Robotics Integration

An Open Source Dev Kit for AI-native Robotics. [📍github below ] This repo uses LeRobot's plugin conventions to be automatically detected by a LeRobot installation in the same Python environment. https://lnkd.in/gc5tmifi —— Weekly robotics and AI insights. Subscribe free: scalingdeep.tech

By Ilir Aliu
Essential ML Resources for Robotics Professionals
SocialJan 27, 2026

Essential ML Resources for Robotics Professionals

A curated list of resources about Machine Learning for Robotics 📍 [Bookmark or you’ll fever find this post again] Machine Learning is becoming a common technique to address robotics tasks. This repository intends cover this usage from a broad point...

By Ilir Aliu
Robotic Packaging Cuts Labor, Costs, and Complexity
SocialJan 26, 2026

Robotic Packaging Cuts Labor, Costs, and Complexity

High-speed food packaging only makes sense if automation actually changes the economics. At Anı Bisküvi A.Ş., a robotic box-filling system from Robentex now runs two lines at a combined 800 products per minute. They moved to a tray-and-lid concept instead...

By Ilir Aliu
Genesis: Open Physics Platform for General-Purpose Robotics AI
SocialJan 26, 2026

Genesis: Open Physics Platform for General-Purpose Robotics AI

A generative world for general-purpose robotics & embodied AI learning. Genesis is a physics platform designed for general-purpose Robotics/Embodied AI/Physical AI applications. 📍GitHub: https://lnkd.in/dEB_9zxC ——- Weekly robotics and AI insights. Subscribe free: scalingdeep.tech

By Ilir Aliu
Curated Open‑Source Robotics Projects to Accelerate Innovation
SocialJan 25, 2026

Curated Open‑Source Robotics Projects to Accelerate Innovation

Open Source Robotics A curated collection of high-quality open source robotics projects, tools, and software to propel the robotics community forward. https://lnkd.in/dEhrHz2V —- Weekly robotics and AI insights. Subscribe free: scalingdeep.tech

By Ilir Aliu
Synchronized Motors: Precision Drives Reliability in Robotics
SocialJan 24, 2026

Synchronized Motors: Precision Drives Reliability in Robotics

A pair of synchronized motors moving as one. You know that feeling when a system is so well tuned it almost looks alive? I like watching this… • Perfect timing, no fighting each other • Lower wear because loads stay...

By Ilir Aliu
Open‑Source Robot Arm Enables Low‑Latency Hand‑Teleoperation
SocialJan 24, 2026

Open‑Source Robot Arm Enables Low‑Latency Hand‑Teleoperation

Open-source robot arm meets hand tracking [📍GitHub below] It is designed with an industrial mindset but built as a 3D-printed desktop system. PAROL6 paired with a LEAP Motion controller is a nice example of how accessible robot teleoperation has become....

By Ilir Aliu
ESP32 Implements PID Control for Ball‑Beam Robotics
SocialJan 23, 2026

ESP32 Implements PID Control for Ball‑Beam Robotics

PID Control of a Ball and Beam System using a ESP32 microcontroller. Video: https://lnkd.in/dDWGgZFm —- Weekly robotics and AI insights. Subscribe free: scalingdeep.tech

By Ilir Aliu
Language-Driven 3D Modeling: Blender Now Programmable via Claude
SocialJan 23, 2026

Language-Driven 3D Modeling: Blender Now Programmable via Claude

BlenderMCP connects Blender to Claude AI through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). > Enables prompt assisted 3D modeling: Blender just became programmable by language. For anyone working in robotics, simulation, digital twins, or 3D content pipelines, this points to a...

By Ilir Aliu
Simulation Quality, Not Solvers, Drives Embodied AI Success
SocialJan 22, 2026

Simulation Quality, Not Solvers, Drives Embodied AI Success

🎙️ Steve Xie, Ph.D. is the founder and CEO of Lightwheel , building the simulation and synthetic data layer powering the next generation of embodied AI and humanoid robotics. In this episode, Steve shares a rare founder journey that starts...

By Ilir Aliu