01
Design takes 6 months. You had 6 weeks.
Every redesign loop costs a month and a slice of your runway.
Sergei PapkovFull-Stack Mechatronics Architect
Kinematics/Dynamics/Hardware
I design robots, machines and devices for hardware startups, from a blank page to a working unit.
From 4-week R&D SprintsFrom $10,000
Leave the call with the 3 biggest production risks in your design.
Who you work with
One engineer from blank page to the factory floor.
12+ years designing robots and industrial machines across 10+ industries. Six years as CEO and CTO of my own automation and R&D company. Mechanics, motion, controls and commissioning in one head, so nothing gets lost between teams.
50+
systems delivered, blank page → commissioning
12+ years
designing robots and industrial machines
2 weeks
blank page → serial production, rapid engineering
10+
industries, each with its own rules
The problem
Hardware fails between the concept and the factory.
02
Three contractors. Nobody owns the machine.
Mechanics, electronics and software meet for the first time on the assembly bench.
03
It works in the demo. It breaks in the field.
Fatigue, heat and vibration show up in week one. Industrial machines can't stop, and that's the standard I design to.
04
Production cost kills the margin.
Parts nobody priced for volume, with lead times nobody checked.
I close that gap before you pay for production.
Selected work
Three hard problems, solved in hardware.
Full case studies in the portfolio PDF.
Kinematics · 01
Delta robot, from a blank page to a sold prototype
Kinematics with machine vision · The stage-one prototype sold
Kinematic solvers in Python and C, a distributed Raspberry Pi + STM32 motion architecture, vision and a web HMI, all built by one engineer. The stage-one prototype was sold to a customer.
1
engineer: mechanics, firmware, vision
−50%
production cost vs industrial delta robots
2 weeks
mechanical design
For your product: the person who writes your kinematics also designs everything that makes it move: mechanics, drives, electronics and firmware.
Dynamics · 02
One unit every 4 seconds, every unit verified
HILTI · fully automatic assembly station
8 mounting-nut variants (M8–M16) assembled at one unit every 4 seconds, with press-fit sensing that verifies every single assembly.
4 s
per unit, 8 variants
0
operators during the cycle, fully automatic
100%
units checked in-line
For your product: design for the cycle time and defect rate you'll have at volume, not at demo speed.
Hardware · 03
Underwater repair robot for nuclear spent-fuel pools
Nuclear power plant · System architecture · Radiation-resistant design
An automatic submerged welding robot for the nuclear spent-fuel pool environment, where seals and electronics normally die.
6 MGy
radiation design envelope
60 °C
submerged in borated water
Cat. I
seismic safety category
For your product: design for the environment it will actually live in, from day one.
Download portfolio (PDF)
Aerospace CNC · 16-axis Ex-proof prepreg line · 7-axis laminator · serial products and more.
In motion
Machines running, not renders.
Every machine below was designed and built by me and runs 24/7 in production.
Work with me
From blank page to a working product.
01
Call
20 minutes: your product, its risks, what you need.
02
Requirements
Together we define what the product must do: function, environment, budget, volume.
03
Proposal
Pre-design calculations, then a proposal with price, timeline and specification.
04
Contract
Fixed price and fixed deadline, based on the proposal. Design starts.
05
Design approval
You approve the 3D model and the engineering solution.
06
DFM package
Drawings, 3D CAD, parts list and vendors. Your contract manufacturer builds from it.
I support manufacturing and commissioning remotely, or on site when it's needed. NDA before the first technical call; all files and IP are yours.
I don't sell drawings. I sell a product that gets built and works.
R&D Sprint
From 4 weeks · blank page → DFM package
- Kinematics and system architecture
- Production-ready 3D CAD and drawings
- Parts list, key vendors, cost estimate
- Design-for-manufacturing review
From $10,000Fixed price and deadline in the proposal
Book a 20-min call
Fractional Head of Engineering
2–3 days per week · monthly
- Hardware roadmap and design reviews
- Manufacturing and vendor decisions
- Engineering hiring and team setup
6 years as CEO/CTO of my own engineering company, 4 years as lead engineer before that.
On requestScoped on the call
Technical Due Diligence
For hardware investors · fixed fee per company
- Architecture and manufacturability review
- Cost, risk and timeline assessment
- Written report with red flags
50+ industrial systems across 10+ industries: I know where hardware breaks.
On requestPer target company
Not sure which fits? The 20-min call is free.
Clients
Production systems delivered for
Nuclear plant · Aerospace industry · Composite materials production · Ex / ATEX zones
About
I design motion. For machines, and for myself.
Mechatronics architect with 12+ years and 50+ systems across 10+ industries. Most of my career I designed industrial equipment: machines that run 24/7 under tight tolerances, safety rules, fixed budgets and hard deadlines. That's the standard I bring to robots and devices. And my job isn't done at the drawings: it's done when your machine is built and works.
I work solo, lead engineering teams or consult, whatever the project needs, and bring in trusted specialists when a task calls for narrow expertise. I own the whole stack:
- System architecture and kinematics
- Mechanical design and DFM in Siemens NX
- Structural and thermal FEA
- Drives, electronics and control hardware
- PLC and motion programming
- Manufacturing support and commissioning
Six years as CEO and CTO of my own automation and R&D company. Mechanics, motion, controls and commissioning in one head, so nothing gets lost between teams.
Remote · Georgia · UTC+4
Next step
Building hardware that has to work outside the lab?
20 minutes. You leave with the 3 biggest production risks in your design.