Joe Jones is a son of rural America.  Growing up in southwest Missouri, rarely distracted by the pastoral beauty of the Ozark hills, he focused on science and technology.  From his earliest days, those subjects fascinated him and he delighted in trying to build electrical and mechanical contraptions of all sorts.

In high school, a thoughtful teacher urged him to apply to MIT. Once there he majored in physics. Only later did he discover his true passion: robots. This came about after circumnavigating the globe for a year and then finding a position on the research staff at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab (now CSAIL) upon his return. 

Following nine years at the Lab, and a brief sojourn at a struggling local robot company, he joined iRobot as their first-full time hire.  There he worked on many robots, ultimately leading to Roomba. Leaving iRobot, he started two robot companies: Harvest Automation, which builds robots for agriculture, and Tertill Corporation the maker of a weeding robot for home gardens.

Dancing with Roomba is his first work of narrative nonfiction.  His three earlier books delve into the technical aspects of robotics