Lab demos versus real-world deployment

Mobile robots are rapidly spreading across warehouses, hospitals, factories, and beyond. But as fleets grow and companies deploy robots from multiple vendors, a new challenge has emerged. The robots often cannot communicate with each other. Founder and CEO Aldus von der Burg joins Greg to discuss the “interoperability gap” in robotics and why solving it could unlock the next wave of automation.

Aldus shares the unconventional journey that led him into robotics. After studying automotive engineering and working at startups in Denmark, he explored drone delivery before regulatory hurdles forced a pivot. That experience led to the founding of Meili Robots in 2019, and eventually to a realization that the biggest barrier to scaling robotics was not hardware capability, but the software infrastructure needed to coordinate diverse robot fleets.

Today, Meili Robots is building a universal fleet management platform that allows robots from different manufacturers to operate together seamlessly. By taking a hardware-agnostic approach, the company aims to remove friction for operators, integrators, and manufacturers deploying robots across industries.

In this conversation, Greg and Aldus explore:

• Aldus’s path from automotive engineering and drone startups to founding Meili Robots
• The “interoperability gap” preventing robots from different manufacturers from collaborating effectively
• Real-world examples of robot gridlock and how poor coordination creates downtime, safety risks, and lost productivity
• Why many robotics companies build great hardware but ship weak or outdated software stacks
• How Meili’s platform enables vendor-agnostic fleet management across industries like warehousing, healthcare, agriculture, and mining
• The importance of operator independence through configurable tools and no code interfaces
• Why lab demonstrations of autonomy rarely survive real-world deployment environments
• Lessons learned selling into enterprise and industrial automation markets, including the slow pace of procurement and compliance
• Aldus’s hiring philosophy for early stage robotics teams, focusing on personality, curiosity, and strong engineering culture
• His candid take on the robotics hype cycle, including why humanoids may be overhyped compared to practical automation solutions

This episode is a deep dive into the invisible infrastructure layer that will determine whether robots remain isolated tools or become collaborative systems that scale across entire facilities and industries.

Learn more about Meili Robots: https://www.meilirobots.com

Connect with Meili Robots on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/meilirobots/

Connect with Aldus on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldusvdb/

Connect with Greg on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregtoroosian/