Francesco Ferro, CEO of PAL Robotics, discusses the company’s humanoid and service robots, its retail deployments, and how he has built the business with Andreas Orthey on the Andreas Orthey Podcast.
After studying telecommunications and computer vision in Italy and France, Ferro moved to Barcelona to start PAL Robotics with a friend. Their first project was a bipedal robot that could walk to a chessboard and move pieces for a UAE client. Ferro says the team chose humanoids partly because people’s tools and buildings are designed for human bodies.
The REEM-B project prioritized load carrying, autonomous navigation, and perception over running, with work on stereo vision, LiDAR calibration, and sensor fusion. PAL Robotics later developed REEM-C as its first robot for sale, then built TALOS with LAAS in Toulouse. TALOS used EtherCAT for faster control and torque sensors in its joints, and PAL sold seven units at about €900,000 each.
Ferro is skeptical of forecasts that humanoids will number in the billions, saying useful applications still need to be proven. He questions why factories would use legs when a wheeled robot can handle flat floors, while noting that legs make more sense on stairs or uneven ground. Around 2010, PAL chose to develop both wheeled and legged platforms.
PAL created TIAGo as an affordable, modular mobile manipulator aimed at researchers, with one or two arms and options for connecting sensors. Retail became another business unit, using mobile robots with RFID or cameras to scan stores. Ferro says sales made up more than half of company income over the previous five years, and Decathlon had 200 PAL robots across 15 countries taking inventory.
Ferro describes a CEO role shaped by travel, financial oversight, and shifting daily demands. He relies on transparent communication, trust in his directors, and weekly meetings to prioritize work and delegate issues. He also uses endurance training to clear his mind, and says he values the freedom of operating without investors and the engineering team PAL has built.
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Francesco Ferro, CEO of PAL Robotics, joins host Edgar Guerrero in Barcelona to discuss service robots, their uses in industry and care, and what it will take to bring them into daily life.
PAL Robotics CEO Francesco and technical director Luca Marchionni show host Wyoming their robots at the company’s Barcelona site, discussing public-facing assistance, mobile manipulation and humanoid research.
Francesco Ferro, CEO of PAL Robotics and president of euRobotics, discusses his motivation for robotics and his goals for the European robotics ecosystem and association.
Ales Ude of JSI discusses humanoid robots, imitation learning, and torque control in an interview with PALRobotics.
Alex Fon, retail RFID business manager at PAL Robotics, shares lessons from RAIN in Action 2026 and describes how PAL Robotics’ StockBot adds inventory visibility to warehouse operations.
Albert from PAL Robotics and Olivier Stasse, a robotics researcher and head of the robotics department at LAAS-CNRS, present PAL’s robots and research partnerships at VivaTech 2026 in Paris, with Maximilian operating the Kangaroo.
