Botfellows GmbH

Botfellows GmbH is a German robot safety and robot programming software company registered at the Technologie-Campus 1 in Chemnitz, Saxony (Amtsgericht Chemnitz, HRB 36822). It is a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (Fraunhofer IWU) in Chemnitz, where the founding team worked together for several years on human-robot collaboration. The company is led by managing directors Dr. Mohamad Bdiwi, Paul Eichler and Sebastian Krusche; Jayanto Halim is named as a further co-founder. Bdiwi began research on human-robot collaboration in 2008 as a doctoral student at TU Chemnitz.

The venture was prepared under the EXIST Forschungstransfer programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, which in August 2024 funded prototype building, a business plan and preparation of the company founding; the website still lists the federal ministry as a funder. The SAXEED founder network coached the team during its application.

Its first product, Dynamic Safety, replaces fixed safety fences around industrial robots with protective zones that are recalculated continuously. Using the robot's own kinematic data, the software performs dynamic speed and separation monitoring: it tracks people and equipment in the cell with vision, LiDAR or radar sensors, then slows or stops a lightweight or heavy-duty robot only when a person comes closer than the computed minimum distance, letting the robot run at normal speed otherwise. It connects directly to the robot controller without additional interfaces and is offered as software or as a solution kit, covering coexistence, cooperation and collaboration scenarios such as fenceless palletizing. Founder coverage states that the software has been integrated into a robot manufacturer's controller for the first time, and the Chinese robot maker Estun is named as a partner for controller integration work.

Safety Twin is a modular safety framework for planning and operating robot cells. It supports dynamic risk assessment and documentation, real-time safe application monitoring, multi-level planning and AI-assisted technical documentation, and uses digital twins so that the safety concept can be updated when layouts, objects or trajectories change.

RobCraft is a no-code teaching framework for process robots. Non-programmers teach paths through AI and computer vision with 2D/3D sensor guidance, without CAD data, using process-specific skill modules called RobSkills for polishing, deburring, welding, painting, dispensing and inspection. A RobNode plug-in runs on the robot teach pendant, and robots can also be driven externally through an API.

Botfellows sells to system integrators, robot OEMs and manufacturers in automotive, electronics, food and beverage, logistics, pharma and healthcare, and metal and machinery, and offers technology integration, custom integration and R&D partnerships. Numerical performance figures, customer names, headcount and safety certifications are not published on its website.