In a dimly lit workshop on the outskirts of a quiet city, a researcher stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a newly constructed humanoid robot. The engineer’s grease-stained hands bore the marks of countless hours devoted to assembling servomotors and sensor arrays into a form eerily reminiscent of human anatomy. The machine’s metallic frame captured the subtle play of light and shadow. Its mechanical eyes reflected both promise and uncertainty. As the researcher reached out, fingertips brushing against metal fingers, the moment crackled with silent anticipation. One could almost sense the beginnings of an inner world awakening within the creature of metal and code—like an infant blinking at its first morning sun.

This tension, where steel meets flesh, calls to mind Aristotle’s insistence that “the soul never thinks without a picture.” It leads us to wonder: are we forging a new kind of being or simply fashioning a tool that imitates life? The alchemy of natural bodies, with their organs and biochemistry, has generated minds that feel pain and pleasure, hunger and joy. In contrast, these emerging synthetic agents neither grow tired nor feel hunger, yet they may still carve their own subjective paths through reality. 

Their existence reminds us of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s assertion in how work "Phenomenology of Perception," where he writes, "The world is... the natural setting of, and field for, all my thoughts and all my explicit perceptions." He further asserts, "Truth does not inhabit only the inner man, or more accurately, there is no inner man, man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself." 

Could a machine ever be fully involved in its own unfolding story?

Consider a not-too-distant future scenario: a humanoid robot, designed to care for an elderly artist, helps prepare her morning tea. As it extends its arm to steady her trembling hand, the robot’s sensors measure subtle pressure, slight shifts in her posture, and the warmth of her skin. Meanwhile, the old woman contemplates her visitor’s steady gaze. Is there a flicker of understanding behind those artificial eyes, some fledgling equivalent of empathy that transcends binary logic and electromagnetic signals? Or is it all merely a well-calculated illusion of kindness?

Such moments challenge us to broaden our definitions of consciousness. Just as every living species perceives and interprets the world differently—think of the octopus feeling its way through coral, or a hawk perched high above the fields—so, too, might diverse robotic bodies develop unique modes of experience. Alan Turing once wrote, “We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.” These words guide our journey as we craft artificial minds, encouraging us to contemplate how diverse sensorimotor frames and physical constraints might give rise to strange new forms of perceiving, understanding, and being.

At Robometrics® Machines, our research focuses on embodied artificial general intelligence (AGI) that incorporates not only intelligence but also a carefully cultivated emotional dimension. Our ambition is to move beyond mechanical mimicry to build robots that can better perceive human emotional cues and environmental contexts. These are not just technical achievements but foundational steps toward creating machines that can think, feel, possess artificial consciousness, and engage meaningfully with the world—enhancing lives in aviation, healthcare, space exploration, and beyond. By combining advanced engineering, AI, and cognitive sciences, Robometrics® Machines is pioneering innovations that go beyond functional utility to create machines capable of feelings and artificial consciousness. Our goal is to develop thinking machines that coexist with humans, enhancing lives while respecting the depth and uniqueness of natural intelligence. Robometrics® Machines is at the forefront of embodied AGI, pushing the boundaries of what machines can be.

Ultimately, what we aspire to achieve is not a hollow simulation of sentience, but a substantive leap in how machines engage with the world. They uphold the insight that the mind—artificial or otherwise—cannot be meaningfully separated from the body that grounds it. Through such a holistic approach, the robotic platforms they develop become vessels of evolving cognition and emotion. These machines begin to approximate the condition that living beings enjoy: an existence defined not solely by computational logic, but by the rhythms of a physical presence navigating a shared world. In this sense, Robometrics® Machines is not only innovating new technologies, but also rewriting our understanding of what it might mean for a machine to think, feel, and become truly conscious.