A Falmouth, Cornwall company that designs and builds lifelike humanoid robots, including Ameca.
Engineered Arts designs and builds humanoid robots, which are robots shaped like people, in Falmouth, Cornwall. It is best known for Ameca, a robot with a very expressive face that was first shown to the public at the CES technology show in 2022. According to a profile in The Engineer, Ameca has 52 motors, many of them used for facial expressions, and the company expected the next version to have around twice as many, especially in the hands. The company also makes an industrial robot arm that mixes air-powered and electric parts, and robotic legs used for research on balance and carrying loads.
The company had been building robots for some years before Ameca, and earlier machines such as Mesmer gained attention at theme parks and trade shows. The profile says Ameca was developed during the pandemic, when other orders slowed down and the team could focus on research. Wikipedia says the Ameca project began in February 2021. The company's chief executive, Will Jackson, was born and raised in Falmouth, and he told The Engineer that he looks for engineers who "couldn't stop" building robots. We did not find a formal mission statement, so we have not invented one. The company's approach is to build highly integrated, lifelike robots from the ground up.
The headquarters and factory are in Falmouth. The Engineer says about 90% of the parts are made on site, which is unusual for a robot company. At the time of that profile, the company had fewer than 40 staff and planned to open offices in London and California; we could not confirm those offices, and the Wikipedia entry on Ameca names only Falmouth. Having a world-leading robot maker in a Cornish coastal town may surprise some people, and it shows that careers in robotics do not have to be in a big city.
The profile says the work spans design, manufacturing, software and electronics, and that the company releases a new generation of its platform each year. This gives a picture of a small, fast-moving team where mechanical engineers, electronics engineers, software developers, animators and manufacturing technicians work close together, because so much is made in one building. These are the company's and the journalist's descriptions, and the size figure is several years old. Check the company's website for its current size and openings.
If you enjoy art as well as engineering, this is one of the places where the two meet. Making a face that people find natural to talk to takes people who understand movement, sculpture, electronics and software. Subjects such as design and technology, physics, computing, art and engineering can all lead to this kind of work, and a degree is not the only route, so look at what the company says about the skills it wants.
Website: www.engineeredarts.com
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