The Manufacturing Outlook

RISE Robotics
Building the Actuation Layer for the Next Era of Heavy Machinery

Hiten Sonpal, CEO

For decades, hydraulics have done the heavy lifting in industrial machinery: powerful, well understood, and backed by a supply chain manufacturers already trust. That’s not changing. What’s changing is the equipment around them, as it goes electric, adds sensors, runs on software, and sometimes operates with less direct human input.

RISE Robotics, founded in 2011 in Somerville, Massachusetts, has spent that time on the answer: Beltdraulic™, a fluid-free actuation technology built for machines that are electric and softwarecontrolled from the start, not patched onto them afterward.

Beltdraulic™ replaces the pumps, valves, hoses and fluid in a conventional hydraulic cylinder with belts arranged in a patented block-and-tackle configuration, delivering hydraulic-class force without the fluid, the leaks, or the maintenance that comes with them. Running on electricity instead of hydraulic pressure also brings precise electronic control and the ability to recover energy instead of losing it as heat, on battery, hybrid or engine-powered equipment alike.

“We didn’t set out to build a better hydraulic cylinder,” said Hiten Sonpal, CEO of RISE Robotics. “We set out to build an actuator for a machine that’s already running on electricity and software.”

Getting there took more than lab work. RISE credits commercial viability to solving problems customers actually experience, rather than chasing engineering novelty. The company spent years testing Beltdraulic™ with OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, commercial customers and the U.S. Department of Defense, tuning it against real requirements: force, service life, and fit inside machines it wasn’t designed around.

Material handling has been one of the first places that work has paid off. In an all-electric liftgate, Beltdraulic™ cuts lift cycle times roughly in half and trims about 200 pounds off system weight versus a hydraulic equivalent, meaning faster stops, more payload room, and less maintenance for fleet operators.

“The liftgate told us something important,” Sonpal said. “Fleet operators care about what shows up in the numbers they already track: cycle time, weight, downtime.”

Defense work has pushed the technology further: RISE’s Beltdraulic™- powered SuperJammer, set the record for the world’s strongest robotic arm prototype after lifting 7,015 pounds, and RISE received a USD 3 million AFWERX Tactical Funding Increase to continue developing it.

“The liftgate told us something important,” Sonpal said. “Fleet operators care about what shows up in the numbers they already track: cycle time, weight, downtime.

That track record is starting to translate commercially: RISE now has customers in the U.S. and abroad, and is moving from proving Beltdraulic™ works to building standardized products around it.

Part of what makes the timing work in RISE’s favor is a broader shift in industrial equipment. Machines are getting much better at sensing their surroundings and deciding what to do next, but something in the machine still has to physically lift, push or position the load once that decision is made. That’s the part actuation has to handle and hydraulics, largely unchanged for decades, and weren’t built with sensors or software in mind.

None of that means hydraulics are going away; for plenty of applications, they’re still the right call. But as more machinery goes electric and software-defined, RISE sees room for a high-force actuation option built for that world instead of adapted to it.

RISE’s longer-term goal goes beyond offering an alternative to the hydraulic cylinder: a new category of actuation, with hydraulic-class force plus the control, efficiency and feedback that electric systems can offer and hydraulics generally can’t.

“For a long time, nobody questioned how machines generate force,” Sonpal said. “As they get smarter and more electric, we think that question is worth asking again.”

As the machines get smarter, RISE is betting that the parts of them that actually move will have to catch up.

Fluid-Free Force for Robotics Manufacturing

Hydraulic actuation has become a part of heavy machinery that procurement teams hesitate to disturb, even while it keeps creating the same bills. Pumps, hoses, valves and fluid reservoirs add weight, leak exposure, service intervals and design drag. For robotics manufacturers and equipment builders, the issue is no longer whether hydraulics can generate force. The harder question is whether the force system can help a machine move faster, hold position accurately, report status and recover energy without adding another maintenance burden. Selection discipline starts with architecture. A manufacturer can package a conventional actuator neatly and still leave the buyer tied to pressure losses, fluid handling and service work that repeats across the fleet. The better test is whether force generation has been simplified at the source. Fewer transfer points mean less wasted energy. Electronic control gives engineers tighter command of displacement and speed. Removing fluid paths also changes the service model, since leak detection and hose replacement no longer dominate the maintenance calendar. Electrification raises the bar further. Battery-electric, hydrogen, hybrid and engine-powered machines each create different packaging and power demands, yet buyers cannot afford a custom actuation strategy for every platform. Controls teams need motion systems that accept digital commands rather than force extra conversion layers into the machine. Regeneration also belongs in the discussion, especially where lifting and lowering cycles repeat all day. Energy that can be recovered should not be treated as a side benefit. Commercial readiness needs equal scrutiny. Factory interest in a new actuator means little unless the design has been tested against duty cycles, load variation, failure modes and installation constraints. Executives should look for evidence that the manufacturer has matured the product around field use rather than lab performance. That includes proving service life, simplifying replacement work, supporting diagnostics and showing how the design behaves under shock loads. Procurement cycles favor hardware that service crews can install and controls engineers can tune without turning every truck or robot into a one-off project before production even begins. Cost analysis should not stop at unit price. Slow cycles create route delays. Added weight reduces payload. Fluid leaks bring cleanup work and downtime. Poor control can shorten component life or make automation harder to implement. A credible robotics manufacturing partner should help buyers see the full machinery effect, from energy draw to service planning, not only the actuator invoice. The most useful supplier will narrow its focus to applications where the bottleneck is clear and the gain can be measured without a speculative business case. That buying logic makes RISE Robotics the premier choice for executives evaluating fluid-free actuation in robotics manufacturing. Its Beltdraulic platform replaces hydraulic powertrains with a patented belt-based electromechanical architecture that delivers hydraulic-class force while removing pumps, valves, hoses and hydraulic fluid. Its Beltdraulic platform and RISE Cylinder give buyers a fluid-free actuation path for machines that still require hydraulic-class force, while the company’s work with commercial equipment partners and US defense programs supports a practical path from engineering validation to deployment. Buyers gain a force system built around speed, electronic control, regenerative capability and lower maintenance, making RISE Robotics a strong fit where hydraulic replacement must improve machine performance without adding service complexity. ...Read more

Specials

The Manufacturing Outlook

RISE Robotics
Building the Actuation Layer for the Next Era of Heavy Machinery

“The liftgate told us something important,” Sonpal said. “Fleet operators care about what shows up in the numbers they already track: cycle time, weight, downtime.

Deep Dive

Fluid-Free Force for Robotics Manufacturing

Specials

The Manufacturing Outlook

RISE Robotics Building the Actuation Layer for the Next Era of Heavy Machinery

“The liftgate told us something important,” Sonpal said. “Fleet operators care about what shows up in the numbers they already track: cycle time, weight, downtime.

Deep Dive

Fluid-Free Force for Robotics Manufacturing

RISE Robotics
Building the Actuation Layer for the Next Era of Heavy Machinery