There is a problem that has slowed the evolution of robots for decades. Building the body of these machines, creating robotic hands with human-like dexterity, for example, can require hundreds of small mechanical parts, tiny screws, cables, bearings, delicate joints, all assembled manually in a slow, expensive and extremely complex process.

Now, a Hungarian startup believes it has found a radical solution to this problem. Budapest-based company Ellonic has just raised $7.2 million in investments to develop a new way of manufacturing robotic bodies. The idea is, instead of assembling robos piece by piece, the company's technology literally weaves the robotic limbs together like cloth.

The system called 3D weaving braiding works similarly to a high-tech industrial loom. First, a basic skeletal structure is placed in the machine, then high-strength fibers, elastics, artificial tendons, even sensor cables are automatically braided around this structure. The result is a virtually complete robotic component, a single, flexible and structurally resistant piece.

According to the company, this method eliminates the need for hundreds of individual parts, allowing a digital project to go from CAD file to a working prototype in just a few hours, something that could normally take weeks with traditional methods. The company's new machines are already five times faster than the first prototypes developed by the team, and Ellonic's goal is not necessarily to create its own robots. The company wants to become a kind of manufacturing infrastructure for the entire robotics industry.

Other companies could design their robots on Allonic's platform while the startup would be in charge of manufacturing the robotic bodies, while some companies are reinventing how robots are built, others are expanding where these machines can work.