Robots, technology, how robots use technology
The internet and VCs love humanoid robots. Will they return the love? Cleaning a floor might be accomplished using a complex humanoid robot with say 75 degrees of freedom to push a manual vacuum. Or the job can be done with a… Read More »Humanoid Robot Blues
Where are all the robots? In my early career I had expected that behavior-based programming, the idea that made Roomba possible, would quickly lead to an avalanche of other robot applications. That hasn’t happened. And even in the case of Roomba, 16 years… Read More »Top Ten Things I Want Robots to Do
After trying and, sadly, failing to get our warehouse robot concept adopted by the industry, Harvest Automation retreated to serving our existing agricultural customers. Thirty or so nursery and greenhouse businesses across the US, plus a couple in foreign countries, needed spare… Read More »Harvest Automation Grape Cart
Robots will grow our food. Or so futurists have predicted since the Art Deco era. And the vision is beguiling. In principle, robot farmers could control weeds without herbicides, they could maximize yields by attending to the needs of each plant individually, and they could… Read More »Robots Like Asparagus
[Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4] Around 2012, six years after Harvest’s founders left iRobot in search of the next big thing, we reached a perplexing impasse. We’d discovered an application that aligned wonderfully with robots’ abilities, we had built a robot… Read More »Harvest Automation, Part 3
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
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