Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Heavy equipment electrification can fail before the battery is even fitted.
If the machine wastes 75% of its input energy, bigger batteries simply magnify the problem.
My guest is Hiten Sonpal, CEO of Rise Robotics, working on an alternative to conventional hydraulics for heavy machinery. The operational issue is bigger than emissions: legacy hydraulic systems bring energy losses, maintenance failures, oil leaks and unpredictable downtime into equipment that companies are simultaneously trying to electrify, digitise and eventually automate.
That matters because ports, logistics operations, mining, construction and agriculture are all under pressure to reduce operating costs and emissions without sacrificing uptime or capacity. Electrification can become prohibitively expensive when inefficient machinery demands larger batteries, more charging capacity and more grid infrastructure. And if equipment remains largely analogue, the industrial AI story has another problem: there is too little operational data to train autonomous systems properly.
Three things changed how I looked at this. Hiten argues that typical hydraulics can be roughly 25% efficient, meaning around three-quarters of the input energy is lost. He describes an approach that could, in some applications, halve the required battery size even while increasing equipment cost upfront. And the maintenance story may be more commercially significant still: instead of discovering a failed hose or valve after production stops, instrumented systems can indicate degradation before failure. That same digital foundation enables drive-by-wire, digital twins, teleoperation and eventually semi-autonomous machinery.
This is for supply chain, logistics, manufacturing and operations leaders responsible for equipment uptime, fleet economics, industrial automation or decarbonisation.
If you’re electrifying or automating physical operations, I’d like to hear which constraint is proving harder in practice: batteries, infrastructure, legacy equipment or data.
Resilient Supply Chain: resilientsupplychainpodcast.com
Subscribe for practical conversations on supply chain resilience, operational risk, technology and sustainability.
Follow the podcast so you don’t miss future episodes.
CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Predictive Maintenance Teaser
00:35 Show Intro and Context
02:24 Meet Hiten Sonpal
02:59 What Is Beltdraulic
04:10 Why Hydraulics Fail
06:22 Electrification and Efficiency
08:23 Retrofit and Design Fit
09:40 Engineering Breakthroughs
10:55 Tradeoffs and Materials
12:18 Pilot Results Speed Gains
13:36 Why Heavy Machines Lag
17:04 Pricing and Climate Impact
19:57 Downtime Business Case
20:12 Prognostics Customer Stories
22:24 Drive by Wire to Autonomy
25:23 AI Hype Reality Check
27:25 Community Crowdfunding
28:43 Next Decade and Sectors
31:25 Lightning Round
32:28 How to Get Started
32:50 Fun Champion Question
33:40 Shop Tour and Products
35:41 Guinness Record Explained
37:25 Wrap Up and Links
Heavy equipment electrification can fail before the battery is even fitted.
If the machine wastes 75% of its input energy, bigger batteries simply magnify the problem.
My guest is Hiten Sonpal, CEO of Rise Robotics, working on an alternative to conventional hydraulics for heavy machinery. The operational issue is bigger than emissions: legacy hydraulic systems bring energy losses, maintenance failures, oil leaks and unpredictable downtime into equipment that companies are simultaneously trying to electrify, digitise and eventually automate.
That matters because ports, logistics operations, mining, construction and agriculture are all under pressure to reduce operating costs and emissions without sacrificing uptime or capacity. Electrification can become prohibitively expensive when inefficient machinery demands larger batteries, more charging capacity and more grid infrastructure. And if equipment remains largely analogue, the industrial AI story has another problem: there is too little operational data to train autonomous systems properly.
Three things changed how I looked at this. Hiten argues that typical hydraulics can be roughly 25% efficient, meaning around three-quarters of the input energy is lost. He describes an approach that could, in some applications, halve the required battery size even while increasing equipment cost upfront. And the maintenance story may be more commercially significant still: instead of discovering a failed hose or valve after production stops, instrumented systems can indicate degradation before failure. That same digital foundation enables drive-by-wire, digital twins, teleoperation and eventually semi-autonomous machinery.
This is for supply chain, logistics, manufacturing and operations leaders responsible for equipment uptime, fleet economics, industrial automation or decarbonisation.
If you’re electrifying or automating physical operations, I’d like to hear which constraint is proving harder in practice: batteries, infrastructure, legacy equipment or data.
Resilient Supply Chain: resilientsupplychainpodcast.com
Subscribe for practical conversations on supply chain resilience, operational risk, technology and sustainability.
Follow the podcast so you don’t miss future episodes.
CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Predictive Maintenance Teaser
00:35 Show Intro and Context
02:24 Meet Hiten Sonpal
02:59 What Is Beltdraulic
04:10 Why Hydraulics Fail
06:22 Electrification and Efficiency
08:23 Retrofit and Design Fit
09:40 Engineering Breakthroughs
10:55 Tradeoffs and Materials
12:18 Pilot Results Speed Gains
13:36 Why Heavy Machines Lag
17:04 Pricing and Climate Impact
19:57 Downtime Business Case
20:12 Prognostics Customer Stories
22:24 Drive by Wire to Autonomy
25:23 AI Hype Reality Check
27:25 Community Crowdfunding
28:43 Next Decade and Sectors
31:25 Lightning Round
32:28 How to Get Started
32:50 Fun Champion Question
33:40 Shop Tour and Products
35:41 Guinness Record Explained
37:25 Wrap Up and Links
