AI for Industry Challenge

Brought to you by Intrinsic and Open Robotics

The AI for Industry Challenge was an open competition for developers and roboticists who want to tackle some of the hardest, high-impact problems that exist in robotics and manufacturing.

About the challenge

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Electronic assembly - cable and wire handling

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The challenge targeted a high-value bottleneck in modern manufacturing: electronics assembly. More specifically, dexterous cable management and insertion, which today is a manual, repetitive process.

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In terms of robotics, this task is notoriously difficult due to the complex physics of flexible cables and the precision required to see, handle, and carefully insert connectors.‍

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Teams trained an AI model using open-source simulators (e.g., Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, Gazebo), leveraging ROS for communication and an Intrinsic solution toolkit to get started. 


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Finalists remotely deployed their models from simulation to a physical workcell located at Intrinsic HQ. The top five solutions and teams won a share of a $180,000 prize pool.

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Congratulations to the winners!

Learn more about the winners and their strategies

read the blog

Phases of the challenge

1. Train your model

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During qualification, teams used their favorite open source tools and simulators, along with the Intrinsic challenge toolkit, to train their models and solve the cable insertion task. Submitted models were evaluated using Gazebo.

2. Develop in Flowstate

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For those who advanced to the next phase, teams gained access to Intrinsic Flowstate, our development environment, and the Intrinsic Vision Model, to validate and test a complete robotic cable handling solution using their trained models.

3. Run on real robots

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In the final phase, the top 10 best performing teams got the chance to remotely deploy their solution to a robotic workcell set up at Intrinsic HQ for real world solution validation and a chance to win prizes. Participants deployed their solutions from thousands of miles away, using the Intrinsic platform to go from sim to real.

Evaluation Committee

Full Bio

A panel of experienced industry experts served as the evaluation committee for the challenge – reviewing and selecting final submissions based on criteria such as innovation, technical soundness, scalability, and most importantly, performance and reliability in industrial-grade conditions.

Amit Goel

Director of Product Management, NVIDIA

Amit leads the product development of NVIDIA Jetson and developer relations for the NVIDIA Isaac robotics platform. Prior to joining NVIDIA in 2011, he worked as a senior software engineer at Synopsys, where he developed algorithms for statistical performance modeling of digital designs. Amit holds an MS in electrical engineering from Arizona State University and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Amit Goel

Director of Product Management, NVIDIA

Amit Goel

Director of Product Management, NVIDIA

Amit leads the product development of NVIDIA Jetson and developer relations for the NVIDIA Isaac robotics platform. Prior to joining NVIDIA in 2011, he worked as a senior software engineer at Synopsys, where he developed algorithms for statistical performance modeling of digital designs. Amit holds an MS in electrical engineering from Arizona State University and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Susanne Nördinger

Head of Ecosystems EMEA, Universal Robots

Susanne Nördinger is an experienced ecosystem leader in robotics, recognized as one of the ‘10 Women Shaping the Future of Robotics in 2025.’ She is an engineer who has broadened her knowledge with an MBA in ‘International Business Management’.

At Universal Robots she drives partner success across EMEA. Known for her collaborative spirit, she loves connecting people, ideas, and technologies to spark innovation and real-world impact. To meet her natural curiosity, Susanne strongly believes in the principle of life-long learning.

Before joining Universal Robots, Susanne worked as a journalist for technical newspapers and websites covering robotics and automation for many years.

She lives with her family and dog in Bavaria close to the Universal Robots Munich office and even closer to the Alps.

Susanne Nördinger

Head of Ecosystems EMEA, Universal Robots

Susanne Nördinger

Head of Ecosystems EMEA, Universal Robots

Susanne Nördinger is an experienced ecosystem leader in robotics, recognized as one of the ‘10 Women Shaping the Future of Robotics in 2025.’ She is an engineer who has broadened her knowledge with an MBA in ‘International Business Management’.

At Universal Robots she drives partner success across EMEA. Known for her collaborative spirit, she loves connecting people, ideas, and technologies to spark innovation and real-world impact. To meet her natural curiosity, Susanne strongly believes in the principle of life-long learning.

Before joining Universal Robots, Susanne worked as a journalist for technical newspapers and websites covering robotics and automation for many years.

She lives with her family and dog in Bavaria close to the Universal Robots Munich office and even closer to the Alps.

Francesco Nori

Director of Robotics, Google DeepMind

​​Francesco leads research into foundation models and physical control. He holds a Ph.D. in Control and Dynamical Systems from the University of Padova and previously held senior research roles at the Italian Institute of Technology, where he was a key figure in the development of the iCub robot.
More info

Francesco Nori

Director of Robotics, Google DeepMind

Francesco Nori

Director of Robotics, Google DeepMind

​​Francesco leads research into foundation models and physical control. He holds a Ph.D. in Control and Dynamical Systems from the University of Padova and previously held senior research roles at the Italian Institute of Technology, where he was a key figure in the development of the iCub robot.
More info

Geoffrey Biggs

Chief Technology Officer, Open Robotics

Geoffrey Biggs is the CTO of the Open Source Robotics Foundation. He was previously a software engineer at Open Source Robotics Corporation, a senior researcher at Japan's Institute of Advanced Industrial Engineering Technology, and an engineering manager at Tier IV, Inc., where he was part of the technical leadership team of the Autoware Foundation. Geoff has 23 years of experience working on open-source software, beginning with the Player Project, which he started contributing to while doing his PhD at The University of Auckland.  Geoff loves supporting those who create amazing robot applications by providing them with the software engineering tools and knowledge to do so. He is also constantly looking for ways to convince the world that formal methods are great. Originally from New Zealand, Geoff has lived in Japan for nearly 20 years.

Geoffrey Biggs

Chief Technology Officer, Open Robotics

Geoffrey Biggs

Chief Technology Officer, Open Robotics

Geoffrey Biggs is the CTO of the Open Source Robotics Foundation. He was previously a software engineer at Open Source Robotics Corporation, a senior researcher at Japan's Institute of Advanced Industrial Engineering Technology, and an engineering manager at Tier IV, Inc., where he was part of the technical leadership team of the Autoware Foundation. Geoff has 23 years of experience working on open-source software, beginning with the Player Project, which he started contributing to while doing his PhD at The University of Auckland.  Geoff loves supporting those who create amazing robot applications by providing them with the software engineering tools and knowledge to do so. He is also constantly looking for ways to convince the world that formal methods are great. Originally from New Zealand, Geoff has lived in Japan for nearly 20 years.

Wendy Tan White MBE

Chief Executive Officer, Intrinsic

Wendy leads Intrinsic, an Alphabet company democratizing robotics. Previously, she was Vice President at X, Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory, overseeing mature-stage projects. A veteran innovator and entrepreneur, Wendy co-founded Moonfruit and served as a Partner at BGF and Entrepreneur First.

She chairs the Imperial College USA Advisory Board and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s 2030Vision group. Wendy holds degrees from Imperial College, Cranfield, and Central St Martins and was awarded an MBE in 2016.

Wendy Tan White MBE

Chief Executive Officer, Intrinsic

Wendy Tan White MBE

Chief Executive Officer, Intrinsic

Wendy leads Intrinsic, an Alphabet company democratizing robotics. Previously, she was Vice President at X, Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory, overseeing mature-stage projects. A veteran innovator and entrepreneur, Wendy co-founded Moonfruit and served as a Partner at BGF and Entrepreneur First.

She chairs the Imperial College USA Advisory Board and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s 2030Vision group. Wendy holds degrees from Imperial College, Cranfield, and Central St Martins and was awarded an MBE in 2016.

Dr. Zhe Shi (Fride)

Chief Digital Officer, Foxconn

Dr. Zhe Shi holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and is responsible for Foxconn’s digital strategy and Lighthouse Factory initiatives, focusing on smart manufacturing and industrial AI to accelerate global digital transformation across the manufacturing value chain.

Dr. Zhe Shi (Fride)

Chief Digital Officer, Foxconn

Dr. Zhe Shi (Fride)

Chief Digital Officer, Foxconn

Dr. Zhe Shi holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and is responsible for Foxconn’s digital strategy and Lighthouse Factory initiatives, focusing on smart manufacturing and industrial AI to accelerate global digital transformation across the manufacturing value chain.

“Tackling a real-world problem of this scale required true innovation, persistence, and technical mastery. Seeing the winning teams' elegant solutions and the impressive journey it took to get there was thrilling. I learned so much judging these exceptional entries!”

Amit Goel
Director of Product Management, Nvidia