Te Gast Bij Avular: building the brain behind the robot

On Thursday 10 September, High Tech NL members visited Avular in Eindhoven for the latest edition of Te Gast Bij, organised with High Tech NL Robotics. With a good turnout from across the network, the afternoon offered an open look at a robotics company gearing up for its next phase of growth.

From four people to 120

Co-founder and Chief Business Officer Yuri Steinbuch welcomed the group in a building with a history of its own: a former Philips glass laboratory, where glass was still being made until 2017. Avular started with four people and now employs around 120. Part of the building is sublet to other companies, and Avular takes over more space as it grows. American ambition combined with Dutch soberness, as Steinbuch described it.

Why mobile robots, why now

Steinbuch pointed to two developments driving demand. Geopolitical tensions are increasing the need for sovereign European solutions, and labour shortages are hitting sectors such as healthcare and construction hard. One example: a hospital nurse walks around 17 kilometres a day. Simply letting robots carry items from A to B could free up a considerable share of that time. Robots are not there to replace people, he stressed, but to make their work more efficient.

Software at the core

According to Steinbuch, what sets Avular apart rests on three pillars: vertical integration, a supply chain that is as European as possible, and its own software. Avular designs its own electronics, mechanics and software, which makes a clear difference in cost. An in-house flight controller, for example, costs a fraction of an off-the-shelf industrial one.

The software is the heart of it all. Avular sometimes describes itself as a software company that also builds hardware. Its drones and ground robots share the same technology stack: the same processors, software, algorithms and user interface. Which machine the software eventually runs on is secondary. Rather than relying on one large black-box neural network, Avular works on autonomy that reasons more like a human: more compute-efficient, more predictable and able to take rules and regulations into account.

Scaling step by step

The ambition is clear: Avular wants to scale up and offer its technology as a platform. At the same time, the company is deliberately building step by step, focusing on applications that create value today and staying cash flow positive along the way.

For market-specific solutions, Avular partners with companies that bring the domain knowledge. Examples include a robot that treats golf greens with UV light instead of pesticides, developed with SGL, an autonomous asphalt roller for road construction, a drone that maps commercial forests and drones for wind turbine inspection. Avular’s own investments focus on drones for the security market, where demand for European alternatives is growing.

During the Q&A, members asked about competition from Asia and the United States and the race towards humanoid robots. Steinbuch was candid: Europe has strong technology, but access to large-scale capital remains a challenge.

Robots in action

During the tour, members saw the autonomous asphalt roller up close, including how an operator oversees the work with a remote control instead of sitting in the machine. The afternoon ended with drinks in the auditorium, where the conversations continued.

We would like to thank Avular, and Yuri Steinbuch in particular, for their hospitality and for giving our members a candid look behind the scenes.

Next edition: Bosch in Tilburg

The next Te Gast Bij takes place on Thursday 19 November at Bosch in Tilburg. We look forward to seeing you there.

Would you also like to host a Te Gast Bij and show fellow members what your company does? Get in touch via anneke.bekx@hightechnl.nl.