Verity wins IERA Award at ICRA 2026 with Open Nav 2 runner up
What good founders know about lean startup methodology and manufacturing
Verity wins the 2026 IERA Award at the ICRA conference in Vienna, June 4 2026. Launched out of ETH Zurich, Verity emerged from stealth in 2016 by flying drones over a live TED audience. Since then Verity has pioneered drone entertainment with partners like Cirque du Soleil and Metallica, while also delivering business solutions enabling ‘zero-error’ warehouses through automated inventory tracking and analytics for customers like Ikea, Maersk and UPS. One of Verity’s co-founders, Raffaello D’Andrea also cofounded Kiva Systems which was acquired in 2012 by Amazon in one of the first big robotics deals.
The IERA Awards started in 2005 as a partnership between IEEE RAS and the International Federation of Robotics. Previous winners include iRobot, Otto, Fourier, ABB, and many other well known names. After shortlisting three finalists, the finals were held on the Innovation Stage at ICRA Hall C, judged by leading roboticists from around the world, like Ryan Gariepy, Alexander Verl, Takayuki Ito, and Frank Park. Some of the judges had themselves previously won the award.
The two other finalists were Open Nav2 and Innok Robotics. Both gave very impressive presentations and it was particularly exciting to see an open source project as runner up for a global robotics commercialization award.
“Open Navigation has demonstrated an exceptional talent for both community management and software engineering; growing the project, interacting promptly with every bug report and feature request, while simultaneously leading the development of important new features and capabilities.
Through Open Navigation’s leadership, Nav2 continues to be the go-to solution for mobile robot navigation in any environment and provides a solid foundation for numerous new robotics ventures. I support their mission to power the democratization of mobile robotics technology.” Geoff Biggs — CTO, Open Source Robotics Foundation
Something all good founders know about lean startup methodology and manufacturing
Lean does not equal cheap
Too many founders try to save time and money (and control) at the very beginning by using whatever bits and pieces they have available, or know how to work with. This is treating ‘minimum viable product’ as ‘minimum viable effort’. While time is money, this is a shortcut that can cost you time and money in the long run.
A minimum viable product is how you answer a question and reduce a risk. Building only what is necessary to answer the question. Questions look like:
does the critical core technology work?
does it work with 99.9% reliability under these circumstances?
OR is it compatible with something else?
and can my customer visualize adding it to their product/workflow/experience
The design field uses ‘works like’ prototypes and ‘looks like’ prototypes.
One allows you to test the way a product should work, without worrying about the appearance, and the other shows the size or appearance of the product without any workings. There’s absolutely no need to put those concepts into the same package when you’re still at early stages and while you’re still changing the design.
I’ve seen startups successfully show three different ‘works like’ lab benchmarks for aspects of their main product. Each version showed a technical solution for one of the fundamental technical risks. That was enough to persuade investors to bet on the team’s capability to turn it into a finished product.
I’ve also seen aerospace engineers need to build a full scale lunar lander (out of plywood and metal poles) just so that customers could see the full cargo space available. Renderings and measurements were not sufficiently compelling. And it was definitely bigger than I expected.
Mistakes don’t add problems, they multiply them
At prototyping stage, you also need to consider the ‘manufactures like’ version. As early as possible. In a compound system mistakes are not additive, they are exponential and the faster you build, the more poor choices you might make and in the end you might never get to manufacture.
I have seen a great concept startup fail to get follow on funding because they went from prototype design to commercial product design, which was too expensive for initial low volume sales. Some parts of the manufacturing process (like mold making) have built in volume requirements. I’ve also seen startups discover that their ultimate BOM was much more expensive than expected.
A mistake doesn’t just add time and cost - it multiplies time and cost.
Every choice counts
50% reduction of design space with every single component choice - every choice exponentially reduces your options. Of course, if you don’t make choices or if you spend too long agonizing over them, then you also run out of time/money. All this means that you need to be thinking design for manufacture from the very beginning.
Several years ago I and the Deep Tech Team at IEEE Entrepreneurship interviewed robotics and clean tech startup founders about the biggest challenges they faced. Everyone starts with saying they needed more money, but in reality, the hardest problems that founders faced related to the prototype to product pathway, balanced against their funding.
That’s why we developed the Manufacturing Checklist and Workshops with Experts - in conjunction with Investor Roundtables. Next one is Boston June 10-11, 2026
IEEE Entrepreneurship Hard Tech Venture Summit - Boston
June 10-11, 2026 - Thomas M. Menino Convention and Exhibition Center (MCEC)
Boston, MA
Fueling Hard Tech growth through capital, mentorship, and resources. Designed specifically for Pre-Seed to Series A startups building complex physical technologies.
See what attendees experienced at April 2026 Summit
See what our attendees experienced at last year’s Summit
Why Attend?
High-Impact Engagement: Historically maintains a 2:1 startup-to-investor ratio.
Roundtable Discussions: Unique opportunities to connect directly with investors.
Technical Problem Solving: Receive hands-on guidance from manufacturing experts to solve hurdles.
Strategic Partnerships: Accelerate fundraising, production, and market entry.
Silicon Valley Robotics Investor/Startup Database
Are you a startup fundraising atm? Fill out our “For Investors Eyes Only” sheet.
These investors write checks anywhere from angel and seed stage to $5-50 million.
Feedback from the startups - high quality inbound interest from investors.
Feedback from the investors - incredible depth and range of robotics startups.
If you’re an accredited investor and haven’t already signed up for the spreadsheet - Sign up here for great robotics deal flow!
Reservoir Farms launches free Associate tier with real working farm access
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If you know a team — anywhere in the world — that needs to get on a farm and prove what they've built, send them our way.
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Robotics News
The robot puppeteers of Silicon Valley teaching humanoids how to make your morning coffee - Yahoo News
Is Silicon Valley ready to put robots in people’s homes? Hello Robot is. - TechCrunch
A robot is helping an ailing couple stay in their home. Are more to come for an aging population? - AP News
Vietnam’s Vingroup Unveils Two Humanoid Robots In One Week — A Guide Bot And A Factory Bot - TechTimes
1X Launches Humanoid Robot World Model Lab: ‘You Can’t Fine-Tune Your Way To AGI’ - Forbes
Jensen Huang Says Humanoid Robots Are ‘Very Very Close’ To Industrial Reality As Nvidia, Hyundai Deepen Alliance - Yahoo Finance
In China, robots began to be issued “digital passports”: humanoids received 29-digit IDs - HiTech.UA
CNBC’s The China Connection newsletter: Humanoid robots are great, but they need buyers too - CNBC
Sam Altman is quietly backing a stealth startup that’s building software for robots and cars - Business Insider
Uber, Wayve and Waymo are headed toward a robotaxi showdown in London - TechCrunch
Amazon unveils latest warehouse robot as tech giants continue AI layoffs - CNBC
Humanoid Robots Investment Race Heats Up: Goldman 6x Forecast, China Leads With Spy Law - TechTimes
The skeptic’s guide to humanoid robots going viral on the Internet - ArsTechnica
Robotics Events
Want to host an event or reach the robotics community?
Many companies are reaching out to Silicon Valley Robotics about hosting events, outreach or hiring and we have a great community network, of people looking for work, of investors interested in deal flow and of technologists interested in learning about the latest advances.
Would you be interested in hosting the next Bots, Bevs and Devs? Or something customized specifically for your goals? Reach out here!
More Robotics Events:
ICRA 2026 - Vienna, Austria - June 01 - June 05
ROS Meetup @ ICRA 2026 - Vienna, Austria - June 2
IEEE Hard Tech Venture Summit - Boston - June 10 - June 11
Automate - Chicago - June 22 - June 25
Deep Tech Week - San Francisco - June 22 - June 26
Robot Fringe Festival - London - July 2
Bots, Bevs & Devs - Sunnyvale - July 8
Robotics: Science and Systems - Sydney, Australia - July 13 - July 16
Open Sauce - San Francisco - July 17 - July 19
Bots, Bevs & Devs - San Francisco - Aug tbd
Actuate - San Francisco - Aug 18 - Aug 19
Bots, Bevs & Devs - tbd - Sep tbd
ROSCon Global - Toronto - Sep 22 - Sep 24
IROS 2026 - Pittsburgh - Sep 27 - Oct 1
IEEE Humanoids 2026 - Silicon Valley - Dec 6-9
The annual IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots is the internationally recognized prime event of the humanoid robotics community. The conference is sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and coordinated by the Technical Committee on Humanoids.
Send me your 2026 progress, plans or posts for potential inclusion in Robots&Startups. Or join the organizing team at Silicon Valley Robotics - bots&beer@svrobo.org
