Some startups take a year to find their feet. UB Robotics is just over two months old and already has demos, a seat at an NVIDIA event and a plan for a Portuguese humanoid. The Portuguese robotics company was born in July at Forest Labs and incorporated in August in Leiria, backed locally by Startup Leiria, NERLEI and other partners.
A brain that doesn’t care which robot it sits in
Its three founders, Pedro Oliveira, Filipe Martins and Francisco Leal, bring startup experience from Talent Protocol and Tekever. Their idea is a “brain” for ground or aerial robots that is independent of the hardware and can coordinate machines at scale. Oliveira says the team is small, fast and AI-native, and that early speed makes a big difference.
The company is self-funded and has already spent over €70,000, mostly on hardware, which he calls difficult and expensive.
Search and rescue first
At the center is the UBR Brain, one layer of a stack that also includes resilient communications and a ground control system, so a single operator can run several machines. A robot can take instructions in natural language and, based on scenarios it has been trained on, decide and act without a remote connection. That matters in natural disasters or war. Because the platform is hardware-agnostic, it can also work with older drones and robots.
The focus is search and rescue, though Oliveira admits the defense industry will find it interesting too.
NVIDIA robotics and a very busy autumn
Last week UB Robotics took part in the NVIDIA Open Models Codefest, the only Portuguese company among 15 selected. Oliveira sees value in visibility, contacts and access to multidisciplinary teams, and says the NVIDIA stack was already part of their toolkit. The team wasn’t chosen to present at GTC Berlin, but he says collaboration continues, and robots may simulate search and rescue missions at a pavilion, though that isn’t confirmed.
Earlier, in September, the company ran a “Physical AI: Demo or Die” session with Técnico Venture Lab and Unicorn Factory Lisboa, and gave a live demo at Lisbon AI. A second edition is set for November 10 in Beato. If you enjoy startup events where robots do the talking, that one is worth noting.
Aiming for a Portuguese humanoid
The team already has a G1 robot in Lisbon and wants to build the first Portuguese autonomous humanoid. The model isn’t decided, perhaps AMALIA or another national option. Oliveira also imagines a hybrid: a humanoid working with an autonomous vehicle to lift a body or object, using a prototype with a 150 kg payload. Training and testing would come first, strength included, before any field use.
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