Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Sebastian Zambal is a leading researcher at the intersection of robotics and industrial quality inspection, with a focus on automating the inspection and assembly of advanced composite materials. His work spans robotic system integration, trajectory planning, and computer vision for nondestructive testing. Zambal’s major contributions include developing a photometric stereo sensor for vision-based surface inspection of coated composites—a critical advancement for industries where manual inspection of complex 3D structures is impractical. He also pioneered methods for robotic coverage path planning for ultrasonic inspection of free-form shapes, enabling automated quality control for carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). His research on training neural networks using domain-randomized simulations addresses the data scarcity challenge in nondestructive testing, while his work on 3D robot pose estimation from 2D images advances multi-robot perception. With over 40 citations across his most-cited papers, Zambal’s impact is evident in his practical, industry-ready solutions. Notably, his DrapeBot project introduces a smart workcell for human-robot cooperative assembly of carbon fiber parts, demonstrating his commitment to bridging automation with human expertise.