Gen-Z Roboticists In The Age of ChatGPT

This past Wednesday I had the good fortune to host my firm’s sixty-fourth Idea Dinner on the challenges and opportunities facing the automation industry. Part of ff Venture Capital‘s mission is partnering with corporates to bolster our portfolio’s reach and contribute to the broader innovation ecosystem. In this spirit, I … Read More

ffVC’s Drones & Robotics Summit: Automation Is The Recession Hedge

Chicken Little blog missives have inundated Medium’s site lamenting the stock market’s decline. Since joining ff Venture Capital’s partnership this summer, I’ve been awestruck by the level of optimism that permeates the organization. While others are now constricting their activity; ffVC is plowing ahead by closing its seventh fund and … Read More

The Impact of AI-Enabled Smart Cities

I’m the type of traveler that explores new cities by getting lost, to the chagrin of Google and Apple maps. As more urban centers become connected with AI, resulting in an increasing number of pedestrians looking down, few are left to discover hidden haberdasheries and coffee houses. This was the … Read More

Robot Stomachs: Powering Machines With Garbage And Pee

The Seinfeld idiom, “worlds are colliding,” is probably the best description of work in the age of Corona. Pre-pandemic, it was easy to departmentalize one’s professional life from one’s home existence. Clearly, my dishpan hands have hindered my writing schedule. Thank goodness for the robots in my life, scrubbing and … Read More

The Year Of The SPAC And What It Means For Hardware

CBS MarketWatch declared 2020: The Year of the SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation). A record 219 companies went public through this fundraising vehicle that uses a reverse merger with an existing private business to create a publicly-listed entity. This accounted for more than $73 billion dollars of investment, providing private … Read More

Oklahoma’s Burgeoning UAV Ecosystem

For too long I have flown over the middle of the United States ignoring the creativity of my fellow citizens below. Covid-19 changed everything, grounding planes, and forcing me on a cross-country adventure. To my surprise, the I-35 corridor that stretches from Dallas, Texas through Oklahoma City is one of … Read More

My Podcast With The Robot Report

Welcome to Episode 14 of The Robot Report Podcast, which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us every Wednesday for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community. Listeners can subscribe to The Robot Report Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Play and YouTube. Please subscribe to the podcast … Read More

The Cambrian Intelligence Case Study And The New Normal – Virtual Offices, Schools, And Manufacturing

The stock market plummets, schools and houses of worship shutter, businesses order employees to stay home – all because of microscopic droplets. As Corona takes on a new meaning, beyond a cold one, global anxiety of the virus has unified the world in fear. If there is one silver lining this … Read More

Don’t Worry About Coronavirus, There’s A Bot For That…

Sitting in New York’s former Engineer’s Society, I spoke with Oleg Kivokurtsev of Promobot and discussed his latest service bot creations that are being deployed across the globe in hotels, office buildings, and hospitals. Fay-Louise Hayden of VentureOut (his New York mentor) shared a vignette of her experiences last month as the imposing humanoid diagnosed … Read More

Augean Robotics: Mechanizing Food Production From Farm To Table

It spanned over 120 feet and took up a considerable area inside the already overpacked robotics section of the Las Vegas Convention Center, leaving many to wonder, ‘What on earth is a tractor doing at CES?’ Ever the since the acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup Blue River Technologies for … Read More