About SolidBot

Built by people who have actually built robot cells.

SolidBot LLC is a robotics software company based in Greenville, Pennsylvania, developing offline robot programming tools directly inside SOLIDWORKS. Our goal is straightforward: make industrial robot programming more accessible, more visual, and more tightly connected to the CAD environment where manufacturing equipment is already designed.

Instead of recreating a robotic cell in a separate simulation package, SolidBot is being built around the engineering model that already exists.

Configure the robotDefine the toolingTeach positionsCreate paths from CAD geometrySimulate the motionValidate the programExport it

All from inside SOLIDWORKS.

Built around real manufacturing

Grounded in what matters on the shop floor.

SolidBot is developed from an approximately 8,000 sq. ft. industrial facility in Greenville, Pennsylvania, with CNC manufacturing capabilities and live robotic cells used for development, testing, and validation.

SolidBot isn't being designed around graphics-only demonstrations or idealized robot cells. The software is being developed alongside the same kinds of robots, tooling, fixtures, positioners, manufacturing equipment, and real-world constraints it is intended to work with — and whether the robot will actually do what the simulation says it will.

Greenville, Pennsylvania — ~8,000 sq. ft. facility with CNC and live robotic cells.

Development stays grounded in

Robot configuration
Tooling
Reach
Motion
Clearance
Fixtures
TCP accuracy
Programming workflow
Process behavior

The team

Two sides of the same problem.

Industrial robot programming sits at the intersection of two very different disciplines: understanding how robots, fixtures, tooling, welding equipment, positioners, and manufacturing processes behave in the real world — and building software capable of accurately representing those systems, solving robot motion, maintaining a reliable digital twin, and producing repeatable results as the platform grows.

Erik Shafer

Prototyping, Product & Robotics

Erik brings more than 25 years of experience in robotic automation and systems integration.

For 20 years, he owned and operated Industrial Robotix, a FANUC, Yaskawa, and Lincoln Electric authorized systems integrator with in-house manufacturing and CNC capabilities. His work has included robotic welding cells, material handling systems, positioners, custom automation equipment, manufacturing, installation, troubleshooting, and field service.

Erik is also the inventor and owner of GreaseBots, LLC, developer of a patented multi-point greasing system for industrial robots.

At SolidBot, Erik leads product direction, robotic process development, prototyping, cell realism, welding and material-handling workflows, and integrator-facing product definition. His experience spans multiple robot manufacturers and real production environments, giving SolidBot a practical perspective that isn’t built around a single robot brand or simulation platform.

Gary Salatino Jr.

Software & Production Core

Gary brings more than 20 years of experience in information technology, cybersecurity, systems engineering, and production technology environments.

At SolidBot, Gary leads the production software architecture, robot kinematics, digital-twin correctness, validation systems, and the engineering foundation behind the platform.

His focus is making sure the core of SolidBot remains stable, predictable, maintainable, and scalable as additional robots, tooling, processes, and capabilities are added.

Prototype functionality is selectively integrated into the production codebase through a disciplined development and validation process, with an emphasis on maintaining a shared architecture rather than creating one-off implementations for individual robots or applications.

Why SolidBot exists

Program the robot in the assembly.

Modern robotic cells are often designed in CAD long before robot programming begins. The robot is there. The fixture is there. The tooling is there. The parts are there. The geometry already exists.

Then, when it is time to program the robot, much of that information has to be transferred, recreated, imported, or rebuilt inside another software environment. We believe there is a better way.

Use the CAD model as the foundation

Teach from real geometry.
Build robot paths where the manufacturing process was designed.
See the robot move inside the actual cell.
Validate the result before sending anything to the controller.

Engineering before eyecandy

If it fails validation, it doesn't export.

A robot moving correctly on a screen is only part of the problem. For offline programming to be useful, the underlying motion has to be trustworthy — robot geometry, kinematics, configuration, coordinate systems, tooling, reachability, motion behavior, and the generated program all have to agree.

Simulation shouldn't just look right. It should earn the right to become a robot program.

Built for where we're going

FANUC is the starting point, not the ceiling.

SolidBot is being designed to expand across robot models, tooling, processes, and applications without turning the production core into a collection of one-off solutions. The goal isn't simply to build another robot simulator — it is to make the CAD assembly itself a practical robot programming environment.

Robot and cell configuration
EOAT and fixture setup
TCP calibration
Teach Pendant workflows
CAD-driven robot teaching
Path generation from CAD geometry
Robot motion simulation
Robotic welding
Touch sensing
Weave and seam tracking
Material handling
Auxiliary axes
Positioners
Robot program generation

Current and planned areas of development.

Early-access waitlist

Join the SolidBot early-access waitlist.

Tell us which FANUC robot, controller, process, and SOLIDWORKS release you use. We'll use that information to evaluate technical fit, prioritize development, and identify candidates for early-access reviews.