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TIER 2 — HARDWARE ARRIVING6 MODULES6 INTEGRATED MODELS6.7× ROI YEAR 1

HEPHAESTUS

Robot Inspection by Touch

Robots that see AND feel. Camera-based inspection catches 85% of defects. Add tactile sensing — 99.2%. Sub-millimeter precision. Touch catches what cameras structurally cannot.

DEFECT CATCH RATE

99.2%

TIER 2 // 05

RGB+LiDAR+Thermal+Tactile → HARMONIA → LOGOS → PROTEUS → TACTIS → ERGON → CHIRON
01THE PROBLEM

CAMERAS MISS WHAT MATTERS

Manual QA costs $750K per year per production line. Camera-only systems plateau at 85% catch rate — missing hairline cracks, reflective surface anomalies, and subsurface defects entirely. What you can't photograph, you can't inspect.

$750K
ANNUAL QA COST PER LINE
85%
CAMERA-ONLY CATCH RATE
30
PARTS/HOUR MANUAL
02THE SOLUTION

VISION + TOUCH. GROUND TRUTH.

HEPHAESTUS fuses six research models into a single inspection pipeline. RGB, LiDAR, thermal, and tactile sensors converge through adaptive fusion. The robot sees, segments, understands language commands, feels surface topology at 0.5mm resolution, compares against CAD ground truth, and maintains compliant contact throughout.

MODULE CHAIN:RGB+LiDAR+Thermal+Tactile → HARMONIA → LOGOS → PROTEUS → TACTIS → ERGON → CHIRON

  1. 01

    HARMONIA

    Adaptive Sensor Fusion

    Dynamically weights RGB, LiDAR, thermal, and tactile streams. Learns which modality matters most for each surface type and defect class.

  2. 02

    LOGOS

    Language-Guided Commands

    Natural language task specification. "Inspect weld seam B7 for micro-cracks" becomes a structured inspection plan with sensor routing.

  3. 03

    PROTEUS

    Part Segmentation

    Instance-level part decomposition. Every bolt, seam, edge, and surface region gets a persistent mask for targeted inspection.

  4. 04

    TACTIS

    0.5mm Tactile Sensing

    GelSight-class tactile perception. Sub-millimeter surface topology mapping detects hairline cracks, texture anomalies, and subsurface voids invisible to cameras.

  5. 05

    ERGON

    CAD Deviation Analysis

    Compares measured geometry against nominal CAD models. Flags dimensional drift, warping, and tolerance violations at micron-level precision.

  6. 06

    CHIRON

    Compliant Contact Control

    Force-adaptive end-effector control. Maintains consistent probe pressure across curved, fragile, and irregular surfaces without damage.

03WHAT THIS MEANS

FOR MANUFACTURING

Every production line running camera-only QA is leaving defects on the table. HEPHAESTUS closes the gap between visual inspection and ground truth — turning touch into a first-class sensor modality for autonomous quality assurance.

  • 01120 parts/hour throughput — 4× manual inspection speed
  • 02$112K annual cost vs $750K manual QA — 6.7× ROI in year one
  • 03Aerospace, medical device, and precision manufacturing — where one defect means recall
04NUMBERS

KEY NUMBERS

99.2%
DEFECT CATCH RATE
0.5MM
TACTILE PRECISION
120P/HR
INSPECTION THROUGHPUT
$26B
ADDRESSABLE MARKET
05MARKET

WHERE THE VALUE IS

WHERE THE VALUE IS
SMART MANUFACTURING QA$14B
MICRO-FACTORY & PRECISION$5B
AEROSPACE INSPECTION$4B
MEDICAL DEVICE QA$3B

THE MOAT

Touch is ground truth. When a sensor is pressed against a surface, the measurement is more reliable than any camera. HEPHAESTUS inverts the perception hierarchy.

Feel first. See second.