Post by Hrishik Mishra

The 2025 𝐑𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐭 (𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐌) crisis exposed critical vulnerabilities in the EU supply chains, with pronounced impacts on the 𝐄𝐕 sector. With robotics and automotive industries sharing supply chain dependencies, it was crucial to understand how exposed the robotics industry was. This led me to dig deeper and start working on a whitepaper titled "𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘴, 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘦", analysing supply chain risks (especially NdFeB/Dy) in actuators. Reports from the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) [1] and the 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐭𝐲 (DLR Projektträger, 𝐁𝐌𝐅𝐓𝐑) [2] also underscored these challenges. News coverage and expert opinions in late 2025 and early 2026 affirmed the growing "𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐌" problem for robotic actuators [3,4,5,6]. Meanwhile, EU academic institutions initiated research into non-magnetic motors, such as NAFTech by PEM RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Electrical Energy Conversion (IEW), University of Stuttgart and Institute FAPS [7]. Preliminary validations shaped a clear technology strategy: 𝘙𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭 of 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘕𝘥𝘍𝘦𝘉/𝘋𝘺, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦-𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘔 𝘉𝘓𝘋𝘊. This direction emerged from extensive discussions with Abhishek Manandhar (a colleague from the Technical University of Munich) and guidance from Christian Ott (my doctoral supervisor from Technische Universität Wien). This became the starting point for Kognexus. Since then, we’ve built three generations of actuator prototypes, working across the full stack: 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯, 𝘮𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 (𝘍𝘖𝘊), with support from the entreprenerual ecosystem in Munich: UnternehmerTUM and UnternehmerTUM Incubator (formerly XPLORE). Kognexus was selected for BayStartUP Ecosystem Startup Reveal and was a finalist at the TUM Entrepreneurship Day. A shoutout to the team, especially Abhishek, who have taken the work forward while I am on Elternzeit. If this resonates, or if you’re working on similar challenges, feel free to reach out. [1] 𝐑𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬, https://bit.ly/4uUgA5Y [2] Position Paper - 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬, https://bit.ly/4uUsehh [3] https://bit.ly/4ezlVJI [4] https://bit.ly/4gtFZje [5] https://bit.ly/4oEAOiu [6] https://bit.ly/4oI5gbp [7] https://bit.ly/4gwEj8z