The Missing Link Between Your Robot and the Real World.
Products
Advanced Product for Embedded Physical AI
Built so physical AI systems can sense, react, and move reliably, from prototype to production. We engineer ultra-precise, low-latency hardware designed to handle the intense, real-time computational demands of next-generation intelligent machines.
Featured Components:
Specialty Robotics & Inertial Sensors: High-fidelity data capture designed for precision tracking, environmental awareness, and tight feedback loops.
EtherCAT Communication Boards: Ultra-low latency, deterministic communication interfaces that ensure seamless, real-time synchronization across your entire robotic architecture.
Our Services
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H4 Lab designs and builds advanced electronics for robotics and physical AI, from early-stage prototyping to production-ready hardware. We work with startups, research labs, and system integrators who need deep technical expertise and fast execution.
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Custom PCBAs, GaN motor drives, power electronics, and high-speed signal integrity, engineered to survive the thermal, mechanical, and EMI demands of real robotic platforms.
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Deterministic, production-ready firmware for motor control, multi-sensor fusion, real-time communications, and safety-critical applications, written to IEC 61508 standards where it counts.
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Custom EtherCAT devices, Distributed Clock synchronization, and multi-axis topologies across 20+ joints. We've debugged the edge cases most teams never see coming.
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Full system-level electrical architecture for humanoid platforms, torso, pelvis, limb electronics, and joint-level power distribution backed by hands-on experience building commercial humanoid robots.
H4 Lab : Who We Are
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H4 Lab is a Montréal-based hardware engineering company building certified embedded subsystems for humanoid robots and physical AI systems. We design the sensing, communication, and safety-critical electronics that robotic platforms depend on
We started building this hardware because we needed it ourselves and it didn't exist. That's still the standard we design to.
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We focus on EtherCAT and specialize in designing compact, cost-efficient sensing and communication hardware for robotics. We achieve this by leveraging the latest advances in motor control and inertial sensing silicon, combined with deep expertise in electrical and firmware engineering. Our products are built around open industrial standards like EtherCAT and FSoE, enabling deterministic real-time control and functional safety in demanding physical AI systems.
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In 2023 H4 Lab grew out of a frustration shared by anyone who has actually tried to build a humanoid robot: the hardware you need doesn't exist off the shelf.
Our team brings together backgrounds in automotive functional safety, university robotics research, and hands-on humanoid development. Working with a dozen early-stage robotics companies who needed to iterate fast, we saw the same gaps appear over and over, and built the products to fill them.
Blog
Why We Built the QCAT - The EtherCAT Switch for Mobile Robots
What is EtherCAT ?
At H4 Lab, we design the electronics for some of the most advanced mobile robots in the world. This experience has taught us that as robots leave the factory floor and enter unstructured environments, their internal communication needs change drastically. This is why our products, including the QCAT106, rely on the EtherCAT protocol.