“I knew that the most beautiful moment of the year, despite everything, had arrived when …

… we finally reached the required lifetime for gearboxes in industrial robots after months of continuous testing. This milestone, that has been bugging IMSystems for years, is finally crushed! We shot ourselves in the foot by telling investors 2.5 years back this would be the right major milestone to chase after, while our drives still broke early due to design flaws, rather than normal wear. The problem was harder to solve than expected and prevented us from achieving milestones more than once. Still achieving just over 1% lifetime, the milestone was set at achieving 30% lifetime in 2021 during our latest investment a year ago. This year we finally solved the axial force issue and the drive kept running past 30% lifetime, then past 100% lifetime, until it was finally worn down at 130% lifetime a month ago! Santa came by a month early this year.”

Matthew’s favourite music track for the RoboHouse 2020 Playlist: Turn around (Hey What’s Wrong With You), by Phats & Small

Matthew Corvers co-founded IMSystems in 2015, a robotics firm betting everything on the Archimedes Drive, a speed reducer that is “the first gearless gearbox unlocking the full potential of frictional torque transmission”.