By tenth grade, I had it figured. I’d been captivated by science and technology since before I could remember. My formative years were spent experimenting, building electrical and mechanical things, and dreaming of traveling in space. Thinking carefully about how I might best… Read More »The Myth of the Planned Career
Projects don’t follow straight lines. I’ve never participated in a development that proceeded logically along preplanned steps from beginning to end. Always there are false starts and dead ends. Roomba was no exception. The product eventually purchased by millions of customers differed in several… Read More »Roomba and the Cutting Room Floor
Startup Starting a company is fun. In the early days possibilities are limitless, enthusiasm is at apogee, and the confounding problem soon to torment the team are largely hidden from view. I love being involved in a startup! (As long as someone else… Read More »Tertill: Under the Shell
[Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4] Harvest’s situation was different from Roomba’s. We on the Roomba team thought the fact that we all had floors and understood how to clean them gave us a huge advantage. It meant that without conducting customer… Read More »Harvest Automation, Part 2
By spring 2015 my company, VC-backed Harvest Automation, was in an awkward situation. Our market was not growing fast enough and our attempted pivot wasn’t getting good traction. But in neither case, did it appear that a clever technological innovation could rescue… Read More »Hatching Tertill
After four decades in the industry I’ve been involved with more than a few robots that didn’t pan out. Truth be told, most of the robots I’ve worked on never lived up to my grand hopes. Here are three from my time… Read More »(Some of) My Robot Misses
Weeds harm plants. That was our company Tertill Corporation’s mantra, relentlessly repeated to potential customers. And it’s true; weeds can and do rob crop plants of nutrients, moisture, and sunlight. This leads to lower yields and poorer quality produce in weedy gardens. Our robot… Read More »Tertilnator
[Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4] After leaving iRobot in November 2006, three colleagues and I founded Harvest Automation, Inc. Over several years we researched a new application, secured funding, and built a robotic product that worked as we intended. Founding In… Read More »Harvest Automation, Part 1
With great expectations my coauthor, Tom Fitzgerald, and I sat down for a meeting with iRobot’s CEO. The time was early 2003 and, since just before Roomba’s launch the previous year, Tom and I had been working on a book titled Making… Read More »Dancing with Roomba, A History
Having Roombas built in an offshore factory was by no means as simple as emailing a folder of design files to our contract manufacturer. Much information needed to be exchanged between the parties, much training needed to occur, and many kinks… Read More »Define Bed