AI-enhanced robotic manufacturing program garners Air Force contract
NewsSeptember 18, 2025
LOS ANGELES. Manufacturing company Machina Labs, which deals in advanced manufacturing that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics for the rapid production of metal structures, announced that it won a contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in partnership with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Manufacturing Innovation Institute based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
According to the Machina Labs announcement, the multiyear award is aimed at expanding the company's flagship RoboCraftsman platform to leverage advanced AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities intended to address DoD sustainment modernization needs. Initially, the company asserts, the program will focus on automating toolpath generation for airframe skins and panels, which is critical to maintaining fleet readiness, and laying the foundation to extend these capabilities across additional sustainment applications.
The program will apply AI/ML and data generated on RoboCraftsman platforms to automate tool path generation for airframe production; the longer goal, the company says, will be for RoboCraftsman to serve as a flexible, deployable manufacturing solution capable of producing structural components for a wide range of defense platforms, from aircraft and missiles to vehicles and weapon systems.
“This award underscores RoboCraftsman’s role in the DoD’s sustainment modernization strategy,” said Edward Mehr, CEO and Co-Founder of Machina Labs. “Our mission is to deliver a portable manufacturing solution that can operate closer to the point of need, even in contested logistics environments. This enables mission-critical components to be produced faster, more efficiently, and without dependency on traditional tooling.”
