Universal Robots Ecosystem Meets Flexxbotics | Interview with Mike DeGrace and Tyler Bouchard

I had the chance to sit down with Mike DeGrace from Universal Robots at the Automate 2025 show, and it was a great opportunity to talk about what we’re building at Flexxbotics and why it matters.

At our core, Flexxbotics is focused on advanced robotic machine tending. We’re not just talking about basic loading and unloading. Our work is centered around automating complex manufacturing environments that involve multiple machines, multiple operations, and a need for precision and control.

During the interview, we showcased a UR30 robot tending both a Haas 5-axis CNC and a Hexagon CMM using our FlexxCORE™ technology. This architecture allows us to connect robots directly to over 1,000 makes and models of capital equipment, enabling them to communicate in real time. In this case, we were even updating machining offsets based on CMM inspection results, without human intervention.

It’s all about closing the loop between inspection and machining to drive true autonomous process control. That’s the future of automation, and it’s what Flexxbotics is enabling today.

If you’re interested in learning more, we have a white paper that dive deeper into how this all works and what it means for manufacturers.

Thanks again to Mike and the UR team for the great conversation. We’re proud to be part of the UR+ ecosystem and look forward to pushing what’s possible in connected, intelligent automation.

Video transcript:

0:10: Hi, my name is Mike DeGrace.

0:11: I’m the head of the Ecosystem Success Group and Solution Sales Manager here in the Americas region for Universal Robots.

0:16: We’re at Automate 2025 in the UR booth, and I’m with Tyler, the founder of Flexbotics.

0:21: Tyler, how are you doing?

0:22: Good, Mike.

0:22: Yeah, thanks for having us.

0:24: So yeah, so yeah, my name’s Tyler Bouchard.

0:25: I’m CEO and co-founder of Flexbotics.

0:27: Awesome.

0:28: So Tyler, can you tell us what is going on here?

0:31: Who’s Flexbotics?

0:32: Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

0:33: So we do advanced robotic machine tending.

0:35: And so we focus on applications that have multiple machines, multiple operations, and multiple parts.

0:40: OK, so highly sophisticated and high-precision type of manufacturing applications that are centered around tending.

0:47: OK, so machine tending is a big word, right?

0:50: It looks to me like you’re showing here tending a CMM.

0:53: Can you talk a little bit about all of what you guys get into as Flexbotics?

0:57: Yeah, so the way I like to say it is:

1:01: Any piece of capital equipment with a PLC on it that generally has a person standing in front of it—these are the types of applications that we’re focusing on, and these are ones where you need to be able to adhere to process control and make sure that you have fully automated the entirety of all the processes that surround that piece of equipment so you get the most bang for your buck out of your automation.

1:20: OK, so tell me a little bit—machine tending is a really popular application for Universal Robots.

1:25: We have over 100…

1:26: …T1,000 robots or bots sold by Universal Robots in the last 20 years of operation, and many, many are in front of some sort of machine loading and unloading parts.

1:36: Can you tell me a little bit about what makes Flexbotics different and unique and why customers in this space need to look to your guys or your guys’ expertise for solutions?

1:46: Yeah, absolutely.

1:47: So we have our breakthrough technology and innovation called FlexxCORE.

1:51: Which is basically the ability for the robot to be able to communicate directly with capital equipment.

1:57: So what we have behind us is a UR-30 tending to a HaaS 5-axis machine as well as a Hexagon CMM with a Schunk zero-point pallet setup.

2:07: So we are communicating directly with the HaaS machine itself and the Hexagon CMM.

2:13: This FlexxCORE technology is an architecture that allows us to create these connectors.

2:17: We call them transformers that sit within the cell, and because of this architecture, we actually have 1,000 makes and models of equipment that we’re compatible with.

2:25: So right now, in this application, what we’re doing with FlexxCORE is we’re actually taking the output of the inspection equipment—the Hexagon CMM—and we’re mapping that to the machining process that’s happening on the CNC and we’re updating the offsets in real time.

2:39: So we’re making sure that the process control and the part specifications are being adhered to during the manufacturing process and allowing the automation to handle that as opposed to having human intervention coming in every time.

2:52: Really interesting, really powerful stuff.

2:55: I mean, you guys really are looking at the application comprehensively—not just loading and unloading a CNC, but really bringing in all the tools from all of the peripheral applications as well.

3:04: Exactly, exactly.

3:05: That’s a great way to put it.

3:06: Awesome.

3:07: If customers or folks watching this want to learn more, where do they go?

3:11: Yeah, so you can go to…

3:12: …Flexbotics.com. We have plenty of material, blog…

3:16: …we have a great piece on autonomous process control.

3:19: So everything I was talking about—the communication, adhering to process control, and cluing robots into it—we have a great white paper that talks about that, as well as case studies of customers that have utilized this technology in the manufacturing environment.

3:31: Awesome.

3:31: And you can find more on the Universal Robots website as well…

3:36: …more information about Flexbotics.

3:37: You guys are part of our UR+ pre-integrated ecosystem, and the Flexbotics equipment has all of the configurability via the Polyscope operating system on UR.

3:48: Exactly.

3:49: Awesome.

3:49: Well, hey Tyler, thank you so much—and if you have questions or comments, feel free to drop those down below. Again, coming at you from the Automate show…

3:57: Mike and Tyler, thanks so much.

3:59: All right, thanks Mike.