Design and Engineering Partner for Robotics and Automation.
Senior industrial design and mechanical engineering on a monthly retainer, embedded in your team, from proof of concept to manufacture-ready.
Companies we have worked with:
Hardware design for robotics and automation teams
Robotics and automation companies live at the intersection of software and physical hardware. The perception stack, the planner, and the fleet manager are usually strong. What tends to lag is the physical layer: the sensor housing, the compute enclosure, the mount that survives being bolted to a forklift for two years without a service call.
Lucent is a design and engineering partner for robotics and automation teams that need that physical layer to catch up with the software. We ship the enclosures, brackets, and mounts that your reference customer will actually accept on their floor, and we do it on a retainer that scales with your roadmap.
Capabilities inside the retainer.
One embedded team, one monthly fee. Scroll through what sits inside the contract, from first sketch to release package.
06 capabilities
- 01 / 06
Sensor and camera housings
Optical windows, cable strain relief, and mounting rails for cameras, LiDAR, and depth sensors. Designed against real vibration and wash-down environments, not lab conditions.
- 02 / 06
Compute enclosures for edge AI
Passive and active thermal paths for edge compute and inference hardware, sized against continuous duty cycles, not spec-sheet peaks.
- 03 / 06
Retrofit mounts for existing equipment
Brackets and adapters that let your product install on forklifts, AMRs, and material handling equipment already on the customer's floor, without drilling, welding, or a service visit.
- 04 / 06
Cobot end-effectors and tooling
Grippers, fixtures, and custom end-of-arm tooling for cobots and industrial arms, designed to your payload, cycle, and reach envelope.
- 05 / 06
Cable management and serviceability
Field-serviceable architecture with captive fasteners, tool-light access, and cable routing that a maintenance technician can trace without a wiring diagram.
- 06 / 06
Photoreal renders for pilot and fundraising
Product visuals built from the engineering CAD, so the sales team can pitch the next customer and the fundraising team can pitch the next round before the first pilot install ships.
Want to see whether a retainer fits your roadmap?
What does a design and engineering partner for robotics and automation actually do?
A design and engineering partner for robotics and automation is not the same as a general product design firm. The constraints are different: the product lives on a moving vehicle, gets washed down at end of shift, and has to be installed by an operator who has never opened a mechanical assembly. The design language has to communicate that the hardware is serious industrial equipment, not a startup prototype.
We come into robotics programs with that context already built in. We know what mounting patterns forklift OEMs actually use, we know what happens to a plastic housing after six months in a cold-chain warehouse, and we design against that from the first sketch.
Working with Slamcore
Slamcore turns forklifts and AMRs into location-aware assets using vision-based SLAM, no beacons, no infrastructure. Ahead of their Series A they needed a reference sensor and compute unit that customers could hold, mount on a truck, and photograph for the keynote deck.
We delivered a machined aluminum sleeve over reference electronics in two weeks, three iterations, twelve hero shots. The unit shipped to pilot customers, appeared in the launch reel, and the round closed at 27M USD. The case study below walks through how the engagement ran end to end.
How the retainer works.
- 0120–30 min
Intro call
We learn the solution, the stage, and what is blocking you. No pitch, no slide deck.
- 022–4 weeks
Design sprint
A fixed-fee starter project on one clear deliverable, so you see how we work before any ongoing commitment.
- 031 session
Sprint review
We present the work and map the next 90 days together, what to build, what to validate, what to leave alone.
- 04Monthly
Retainer
We scope the real workload and send a proposal for a fixed monthly fee. Embedded team, no time-tracking, cancel with notice.
Common questions.
- Yes, both directly and through customers who install onto their equipment. We know the common mounting patterns and power interfaces on the major material handling platforms, and we design against those from the start.
- Yes. IP-rated housings, gasket strategy, and material selection sized against wash-down cycles and temperature extremes typical of cold-chain and food warehouses.
- Yes. Grippers, fixtures, and custom end-effectors for cobots and industrial arms, scoped to your specific payload, cycle time, and reach.
- For a hero-unit style engagement, two to four weeks from kickoff to prototype in hand is a realistic bar, as with Slamcore. For production-intent hardware, the first design-verification prototype typically lands eight to twelve weeks in.
- Yes. We are used to being the mechanical seat inside a company with strong firmware and perception. We sit in your standups, share CAD through your PDM, and lock antenna and sensor keep-outs with the electronics team early, not at the end.
Let's design your next solution, together.
Tell us where the solution is and what's blocking you, we'll tell you honestly whether a retainer makes sense, or what we'd do instead.