ETHRC x Wenger Vieli
Your Robot Works. Now a Company Wants to Pilot It. What Should You Agree Before You Say Yes?
You’ve built the prototype. It works. Now a company wants to test it in a warehouse, factory, lab, or real-world environment.
Great. But what exactly are you agreeing to?
Join Thomas Steiner at Wenger Vieli in Zurich, together with the ETH Robotics Club, for a practical session on how robotics teams can structure their first real-world pilot with a company.
When a startup, student team, or research project runs a Proof of Concept, or PoC, with an industry partner, both sides need to agree on the basics: what is being tested, who is responsible for what, how success is measured, who owns the technology and data, and what happens after the pilot.
That agreement is often called a PoC agreement.
We’ll explore questions like:
What should you agree on before putting your robot into a real operating environment?
How do you define a successful robotics pilot?
Who owns the software, hardware, data, and IP created during the project?
How do you handle liability if something goes wrong?
How do you avoid giving away months of engineering work for free?
What happens if the customer keeps asking for “just one more feature”?
And how can a successful PoC turn into a proper commercial deployment?
The session is aimed at people building robotics and deep-tech projects who are interested in working with external companies, whether through a startup, research project, student team, or spin-off.
Expect a practical discussion focused on the point where exciting technology meets real customers, real deployments, and real agreements.
Hosted by Wenger Vieli together with ETH Robotics Club in Zurich.