One arm today · multi‑arm tomorrow

Your Third Hand

An autonomous robotic assistant for test and verification — steady, sub‑millimeter, and tireless.

Target pad
TP1
Net
+3V3
Contact
Best
Hold probe on TP1 · +3V3
The problem

Two hands have limits. Hardware shouldn't.

Humans performing repetitive inspection and probing tasks is a bottleneck. High‑value engineers and testers spend hours on the bench — hunting for test points on dense boards, locating components under magnification, positioning probes without slipping — when they could be designing, debugging, and shipping. Soldering test wires onto pads frees your hands for the scope, but repeating that on every board and every net doesn't scale.

Tertius takes over the tedious work — so your team can focus on design and debug.

2 hands
one person — probing ties up both hands; operating test equipment has to wait
Strain
hands and focus — contact quality falls off over long sessions
The arm

Built for the bench,
designed for precision.

Every joint, sensor, and actuator built for repeatable bench work.

PCB · DUT SIGNALS Arm 1 - Probe SIGNALS Arm 2 - Probe VISUAL INSPECTION Arm 3 - Camera

One controller · shared coordinate frame · independent roles per module

Sub‑millimeter precision

Micron‑level positional accuracy for dense boards, fixtures, and microscope‑assisted work.

Modular, swappable end effectors

Hot‑swap tool tips — probe holders, test clip mounts, inspection cameras — with zero reprogramming between swaps.

Modular arms — scale to multi‑arm

Add modules as workload grows — parallel probing, hold-and-inspect, or dedicated roles per arm.

TPs placed
0/5
Clearance
Scanning layout for DFT…
Design for test

DFT at layout.

Before fab, Tertius scans your layout — flags nets without direct access, checks probe clearance against your rules, and recommends test point placement while you still have room to fix issues.

Test points land on accessible copper, clear of keepouts and tall parts — aligned to the nets your bring-up plan actually needs to probe.

Auto TP placement Net access flags Probe clearance Layout‑time DFT Keepout checks
Active net
Probed
0/5
Click a net label in SCH
Cross-probe · select a net label
Bench automation

Automation at bring-up.

On the bench, probe from your EDA data — click a net in the schematic and the arm moves to that pad on the board. Schematic, layout, and bench stay linked so you are not hunting coordinates by eye. Try it in the panel

Import Gerber, ODB++, or IPC‑2581 to build automated probe sequences and verification routines. No manual programming required; script or override only when you need it.

Schematic cross-probe PCB ↔ bench sync Probe sequence gen Pass/fail logging Gerber / ODB++
Functional verification

Verification suites from your design.

Tertius reads your schematic and layout to build functional test suites — I2C device presence, SPI exercises, rail integrity, clock waveforms, and more. No hand-written harness for every board spin. Run a suite in the panel

Suites stay linked to real nets and components. Re-run after every build without re-authoring scripts from scratch.

Test suite generation Protocol checks Waveform verification Power integrity Pass/fail logging EDA-derived
Tertius · verification builder
SCH · A1 0 suites
Test suites Generated from schematic & layout
    Awaiting schematic scan…
    Runs
    0
    Tertius σ
    Same pad · 10 repeat touches
    Lab precision

    Repeatable runs. Clear results.

    Less time repositioning probes — more time interpreting what the measurements mean.

    PCB inspection Fixture probing Test automation Debug Microscope work Verification
    Tertius · bench assistant Session
    You
    Probe the I2C bus on U1 and capture traffic — display it in hex for me.
    Tertius
    On it. Routing probes to SDA (TP6) and SCL (TP7) on U1. Arming logic capture at 400 kHz
    Tertius
    Locked on bus. 48 frames captured — hex dump below.
    00: A5 03 12 00 FF 2A  ·····*·
    08: B1 40 7E 00 00 00  ·@~···
    10: C0 50 12 34 56 78  ·P·4Vx
    ── ADDR 0x50 W · ACK · STOP
    SDA · TP6 SCL · TP7 400 kHz
    Awaiting instruction
    Conversational AI

    Talk to your bench.
    Not your coordinate system.

    Describe what you need in plain language — probe nets, trigger and capture waveforms, read rail voltages out, dump bus traffic in hex. Tertius maps intent to probe placement, instrument config, provides near-instant results. No script to write first; override when you want to.

    Your schematic and layout stay in the loop, so “the I2C bus on U1” resolves to real pads and nets — not a hunt through menus.

    Natural language Bus capture Hex / trace views Net-aware context Hands-free bench
    EDA in
    probe schematics directly — cross-probing to the real world
    Repeat
    same placement, every run; reproducible test results
    Data out
    analog captures, logic waveform decode, and pass/fail — log everything

    Ready for your third hand?

    Join the waitlist for early hardware access and development partnerships.

    No spam. Just updates on our development progress.