Tales from history
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
I spent much of my early life terrified of public speaking. The thought of being the center of attention, acting on stage, or talking to a group of people filled me with primal dread. But at the MIT AI Lab,… Read More »Trial by Fire… Alarm
If I worked on non-robotic technology, say high-speed fiber optic communication systems, I expect I would rarely get advice from lay people. It’s hard to imagine meeting a poet or a lawyer at a party, describing that sort of work,… Read More »Armchair Roboticist
The first version of Roomba to hit the market was more popular than we developers had dared hope. An initial factory-order for 15,000 turned quickly into an order for 25,000 followed by orders for many, many more. The company decided… Read More »The Red Roomba Mystery
