Machina Labs, a leader in advanced manufacturing that combines AI and robotics for the rapid production of metal structures, today announced it has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in partnership with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, a Department of Defense (DoD) Manufacturing Innovation Institute based in Pittsburgh, PA.

The multiyear award will expand Machina Labs’ flagship RoboCraftsman™ platform with advanced AI and machine learning capabilities tailored to DoD sustainment modernization needs. The program will initially focus on automating tool path generation for airframe skins and panels, which are critical to maintaining fleet readiness, while laying the foundation to extend these capabilities across additional sustainment applications.

“This award underscores RoboCraftsman’s role in the DoD’s sustainment modernization strategy,” said Edward Mehr, CEO and Co-Founder of Machina Labs. “Our mission is to deliver a portable manufacturing solution that can operate closer to the point of need, even in contested logistics environments. This enables mission-critical components to be produced faster, more efficiently, and without dependency on traditional tooling.”

The program will apply AI and machine learning, combined with data generated on RoboCraftsman platforms, to automate tool path generation for airframe production. Airframes are a critical sustainment challenge, where long delays in sourcing qualified parts have grounded aircraft and limited readiness. The broader vision is clear: RoboCraftsman is being developed as a flexible, deployable manufacturing solution capable of producing structural components for a wide range of defense platforms — from aircraft and missiles to vehicles and weapon systems.

For DoD stakeholders, these new capabilities are expected to help reduce Mission Impaired Capability Awaiting Parts (MICAP) ratios, shorten production timelines, and improve availability of critical aircraft. More broadly, the enhancements reinforce Machina Labs’ strategy to scale RoboCraftsman’s AI-driven, software-defined manufacturing platform across defense, aerospace, automotive and industrial markets.