• Driverless Everything, Except Cars

    As we prepare for the busiest travel days of the year, it is time to reflect on how far transportation has progressed since the horse & buggy. This past week the number of cities testing autonomous taxis grew to include Boston, with MIT upstart nuTonomy. Equally important to the driverless ecosystem is… Listen ⇢

  • What The Election Means For Robotics

    Since the beginning of the republic, Presidents have had a great deal of influence on promoting innovation. A year after Alexander Graham Bell spoke the first words on the telephone to Mr. Watson, Rutherford B. Hayes installed a phone in the White House. One hundred and thirty years later, President Bush was… Listen ⇢

  • A Stronger Healthier Cyborg

    Last month, the the world had its first sneak peak to the future of sports at the sold out inaugural cyborg Olympics. The Cybathlon included 66 teams from around the planet, including many with disabilities, competing for gold in 6 different events that ranged from robot exoskeletons races (shown below) to timed brain-computer interface events.… Listen ⇢

  • Maybe Humans Are The Problem

    Election 2016, or as it is better known, “humans are dangerous”  it is time to elect a robot is approaching! While we are at least a century away from handing over the White House to a humanoid, our car keys are ready to go. Last spring, Wanis Kabbaj, a transportation thought leader… Listen ⇢

    Maybe Humans Are The Problem
  • Climate Change and Biomimicry Robots

    What do Van Gogh, Thoreau, and de Mestral (the inventor of Velcro) have in common? All three great innovators were inspired by nature to create their magnum opus. This week, the Biometry Institute was holding its annual conference to display and explore how future innovations would be further advanced by mimicking nature’s majesty. Recent examples heralded by the Institute include:… Listen ⇢

  • How Close Are We To Westworld?

    As I sat at the edge of my seat watching HBO’s remake of the 1970s robot series, Westworld, I found myself strangely sympathetic to the robots vs. the “deplorable” human guests. After turning off the TV, I lay awake wondering how close we are from 3D printing humanoid robots capable of entertaining our… Listen ⇢

  • The Power Of The Robotic Cloud

    Last week at RoboBusiness, I was fortunate to hear James Kuffner, CTO of Toyota’s Research Institute (TRI), present his vision of a million connected robots. If this premise sounds scary, I’m sorry.  Halloween is just around the corner. Seriously, it is worth digging into in greater detail. According to Kuffner, connectivity speeds are… Listen ⇢

  • The Roboticist’s Moral Imperative

    It’s time to address the elephant in the room – jobs. First, I must confess that I was wrong to casually dismiss this issue in past posts. More than the technology itself, for automation to be successful, we need it to enhance (not destroy) human society. If one-third of the workforce is… Listen ⇢

  • Conquering Indoor Navigation: The Autonomous Warehouse

    One click, and the next day it’s at my door courtesy of Amazon Robotics. Since acquiring, Kiva Systems in 2012 for $775 million, the retailer has led the way for automated fulfillment centers. Logistics represents a $30 billion market opportunity in the next few years as technologists look to conquer indoor autonomous… Listen ⇢

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My goal for this book is to help you at a pivotal point in your ideation process and, at the same, introduce you to a cadre of potential mentors. Through interviews with some of the most respected luminaries in this field, I aim to help fortify your resolve to follow your passions and build a billion-dollar company. The chapters of this book have been organized like field guide, as if you are setting out on a trip in the wild. Just like it’s essential to satiate yourself before scaling mountains, fast-tracking your innovation into the hands of early adopters is vital for achieving success on Main Street.

“Oliver Mitchell is among the world’s leading thinkers about robots and robotics. He is also one of the world’s leading visionaries about how humans think about robots, invest in robotics, and build robotics companies. …. The reader gets to be the beneficiary of Oliver’s creation of a new knowledge ecosystem.” – Dan Burstein, New York Times bestselling author of 15 nonfiction books, and Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Millennium Technology Value Partners.

“This book … [draws] from interviews with industry experts who share firsthand experiences from real-world ventures, the author distils invaluable lessons from both their successes and failures. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to my students and colleagues involved in robotics research and education as an exceptional resource for guiding their entrepreneurial pursuits.” Katsuo Kurabayashi, Professor and Chair, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, USA.