EPISODE · Jun 8, 2026 · 1H 5M
#143 Hiten Sonpal on Replacing Hydraulics and Building a Career in Robotics
from PreVetted Podcast · host Federico Ramallo
Hiten Sonpal is the CEO of RISE Robotics, an MIT-founded company targeting the $60 billion hydraulic actuator market with the Beltdraulic, a fluid-free actuator that is three times faster and up to 90 percent more energy efficient than traditional hydraulics.Hiten started his career self-funding college by writing software, then spent nearly 16 years at iRobot, growing from lead engineer to director leading teams of 140 people across millions of units shipped. He went on to become CEO at Robin Autopilot, President at Electric Sheep Robotics, and founder of his own robotics consultancy before joining RISE Robotics as CEO in 2024.In this episode, Hiten breaks down how the Beltdraulic works, why heavy industry has been slow to change, what it takes to get hardware from prototype to mass production, and what he has learned moving from individual contributor to executive across some of the most ambitious robotics companies in the world.If you are curious about the future of industrial machinery, AI in robotics, or what it takes to build and scale hardware products, this conversation is for you.About Hiten Sonpal 🤖⚙️🚀 CEO at RISE Robotics | 16 years at iRobot | Hardware and robotics leader- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiten-sonpal- 🌐 https://www.riserobotics.comAbout Federico Ramallo ✨👨💻🌎🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io- ✅ https://prevetted.ai🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast00:00 Introduction to RISE Robotics and BeltDraulic Technology02:45 The Advantages of BeltDraulic Over Hydraulic Systems05:02 The Evolution of Actuator Technology07:35 Market Opportunities and Industry Adoption Challenges10:18 The Future of Autonomous Systems with BeltDraulic12:39 Energy Efficiency and Recouping Energy15:17 Navigating Industry Pain Points for Adoption18:04 Leadership Lessons from Engineering to CEO31:04 Navigating Leadership Challenges38:27 The Pursuit of Knowledge and Growth47:31 Understanding AI and Robotics58:45 Advice for the Future01:02:02 Future of RISE Robotics
What this episode covers
Hiten Sonpal is the CEO of RISE Robotics, an MIT-founded company targeting the $60 billion hydraulic actuator market with the Beltdraulic, a fluid-free actuator that is three times faster and up to 90 percent more energy efficient than traditional hydraulics.Hiten started his career self-funding college by writing software, then spent nearly 16 years at iRobot, growing from lead engineer to director leading teams of 140 people across millions of units shipped. He went on to become CEO at Robin Autopilot, President at Electric Sheep Robotics, and founder of his own robotics consultancy before joining RISE Robotics as CEO in 2024.In this episode, Hiten breaks down how the Beltdraulic works, why heavy industry has been slow to change, what it takes to get hardware from prototype to mass production, and what he has learned moving from individual contributor to executive across some of the most ambitious robotics companies in the world.If you are curious about the future of industrial machinery, AI in robotics, or what it takes to build and scale hardware products, this conversation is for you.About Hiten Sonpal 🤖⚙️🚀 CEO at RISE Robotics | 16 years at iRobot | Hardware and robotics leader- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiten-sonpal- 🌐 https://www.riserobotics.comAbout Federico Ramallo ✨👨💻🌎🚀 Software Engineering Manager | 🛠 Founder of DensityLabs.io & PreVetted.ai | 🤝 Connecting 🇺🇸 U.S. teams with top nearshore 🌎 LATAM engineers- 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/framallo/- 🌐 https://densitylabs.io- ✅ https://prevetted.ai🎙 PreVetted Podcast 🎧📡- 🎯 https://prevetted.ai/podcast- 🐦 https://x.com/PrevettedPod- 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevetted-podcast00:00 Introduction to RISE Robotics and BeltDraulic Technology02:45 The Advantages of BeltDraulic Over Hydraulic Systems05:02 The Evolution of Actuator Technology07:35 Market Opportunities and Industry Adoption Challenges10:18 The Future of Autonomous Systems with BeltDraulic12:39 Energy Efficiency and Recouping Energy15:17 Navigating Industry Pain Points for Adoption18:04 Leadership Lessons from Engineering to CEO31:04 Navigating Leadership Challenges38:27 The Pursuit of Knowledge and Growth47:31 Understanding AI and Robotics58:45 Advice for the Future01:02:02 Future of RISE Robotics
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#143 Hiten Sonpal on Replacing Hydraulics and Building a Career in Robotics
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