Hollywood likes to imagine robots as mechanical copies of ourselves - which is a terrible idea. Colin Angle More Quotes by Colin Angle More Quotes From Colin Angle The reason it has taken so long for the robotics industry to move forward is because people keep trying to make something that is cool but difficult to achieve rather than trying to find solutions to actual human problems. Technology can be extremely expensive if you don't focus. Colin Angle technology taken moving In the beginning of Roomba, we all took turns answering the support line. Once, a woman called and explained that her robot had a defective motor. I said, 'Send it back. We'll send you a new one.' She said, 'No - I'm not sending you Rosie.' Colin Angle robots support lines The way that the robotics market is going to grow, at least in the home, is that we'll have a number of different special purpose robots. Colin Angle special home numbers The utility of the robot needs to come first. It's business model over technology. Colin Angle robots technology needs One of the big things coming out of healthcare reform is a thing called the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act (CLASS) which is a mechanism to reimburse people staying at home for technology and services that allow them to stay at home. Colin Angle technology home class There are so many opportunities to make a bad decision in building a robot company on top of all the normal ways that entrepreneurs screw up that it is incredibly difficult to truly create value because it is so cost-sensitive. Colin Angle entrepreneur decision opportunity Around the late 1990s, I'd become convinced that one of the killer applications of robotics came from connecting robots to the Internet. The idea of solving generalized artificial intelligence was still far away, but heck, I could rent brains by hiring operators. iRobot was the name of the company and one of our most ambitious projects, iRobot LE. Colin Angle names brain ideas "Star Wars" was the right movie for me. I watched the MSE-6 droid leading the stormtroopers where they needed to go when they were under attack, and that got my attention much more so than C-3PO and R2-D2 because we could actually build that. Colin Angle stars attention war I believe one day nano-robots will play an important role in medicine. Colin Angle medicine play believe The ideal vacuum cleaner would be one you never see. It needs to not just be a cool gadget, but a product that cleans your floor correctly. I can imagine people having a cupboard full of robots that only come out when you need them to fulfil a specific purpose. Colin Angle vacuums robots people In the original 'Star Wars' movie, there is a small toaster-sized and shaped robot on the Death Star that guides Stormtroopers to where they need to go. I always liked that robot because I could imagine how to build it - and it served a real purpose. Colin Angle stars real war I think, people are generally willing to imagine robots of all shapes, as humanoid robots are not practical. Colin Angle robots people thinking Its going to be interesting to see how society deals with artificial intelligence, but it will definitely be cool. Colin Angle being-cool artificial-intelligence interesting When I was building robots in the early 1990s, the problems of voice recognition, image understanding, VOIP, even touchscreen technologies - these were robotics problems. Colin Angle technology voice understanding My very clear vision for the ideal Roomba is one you never see and you never touch. Our research priorities are explicitly focused on the Roomba of the future that will deliver on the promise of automatically cleaning your floor. Colin Angle priorities vision promise That's exciting because to create new value in the robot space quickly, you need to stand on the shoulders of other technological developments. Colin Angle technological-development robots space Building robot versions of people is very expensive. Colin Angle robots building people I grew up mostly in Schenectady, N.Y. From an early age, building and creating things was a real passion for me. Colin Angle creating-things passion real The answer is navigation, manipulation, and implementation of more sophisticated intelligence. The idea that a robot will become more aware of its environment, that telling it to "go to the kitchen" means something - navigation and understanding of the environment is a robot problem. Those are the technological frontiers of the robotics industry. Colin Angle understanding mean ideas At the World Cup, there is a constant risk that you might find a bag or some object that has been left behind, and no one is quite sure what it is. To bring in a full bomb-disposal team for each item can be very time-consuming. The PackBot can go over rough terrain, climb stairs, pick things up, and also be operated from a safe distance. Colin Angle distance risk team
