Software engineer career progression: - Intern - Junior engineer - Senior engineer - Staff engineer - Farmer Why is this?

If you didn't know

Good news! Robotics is hard. For robotics startups, this means: * Less competition since most people give up * More problems with markets that don't have solutions * More brownie points for doing something really hard It's a great time to start a robotics company.

The comical thing is if a student has access to a tool that evaluates for AI, they can iterate to get an AI to pass for human in the AI test. Imagine the prompt: "Add in an occasional grammar or spelling mistake."

Robotics has been an oddity in academia and industry for decades. I think we're hitting our stride. The next 10 years are going to be big.

Even if we achieve AGI, robotics will still be hard. I think manufacturing will be and remain the bottleneck for the foreseeable future.

I'm a dad!

Not always, but robotics is a different beast

5 reasons you should pick a career in robotics:

I'm loving it here on 𝕏

I'm sold on robot competitions for getting kids into robotics. One question: Do they have similar competitions for adults? If not, why not? I'd do it.

Robotics is big 🏔️ As an engineer, you can focus on * Hardware * Software * Machine learning * Simulation I'm mostly software. But I'm looking to pickup a new area. What aspects are you focusing on (or not)? And why?

My puppy and chickens certainly do stupid things - but at least they don't ask dumb questions!

How I'm feeling

What are the main skills needed to be a strong roboticist for the next 10 years?

I often think joining a robotics startup is better for grads than starting one out of school. Mainly because robotics is so hard. Thoughts?

What advice do you have to someone who wants to start a robotics company?

It's a right of passage

If you know, you know.

I've been seeing a lot of this lately. I'm not sure this will work out well in the long run.

If you were building a campus for the robotics startup community, what are some things that would make it great? Machinery, courses, events, housing options, everything is fair game.

What advice do you have for someone looking for a job in robotics?

Would love to be wrong about this.

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It has been 11 years since I started in robotics! Here's my path so far 🤖 - Worked with a small team making quadrotors establish formations with onboard sensors and compute (James Conrad's lab at @unccharlotte) - Directed @Robohub's podcast for about 6 years and 150 episodes or so (did about 100 interviews) - Worked on autonomous landing and camera calibration at @sensefly as an intern. - Worked on fast computer vision algorithms for person and landmark detection for autonomous cars and blimps (Ed Olson's lab at @UMich) - Built a fast, 2D rigid body simulator for legged locomotion and then made the simulator support reinforcement learning to optimize gaits (David Remy's lab at @UMich) - Put robots in people's homes to help them with following healthy behaviors, like doing rehab exercises (Maja Mataric's lab at @USC) - Worked on having a humanoid demonstrate and guide rehab exercises at @1x_tech as an intern (picture below) - Worked on ROS 2 (led Humble release) and a number of client projects, including @NASA's VIPER project, @nvidia, and Space ROS at @OpenRoboticsOrg. - Hosted @sense_think_act podcast for 36 episodes Now I'm working on motion planning at and doing my own robotics podcast. It's amazing how far robotics has come in this time, and I'm looking forward to the next 11 years 🚀

My favorite robotics companies have boring robots with well established tech It becomes more about market fit than tech risk

How I've been feeling lately:

I'm bullish on robotics, but skeptical of the hype

Robotics is magic 🪄 Code changes the physical world. And it's just starting.

Why have I been missing lately? My wife and I are expecting our first kid in May! The first trimester was rough. I really fell off X and the podcast. I'm hoping to find a better balance going forward. Here's a photo of our baby girl looking like Iron Man.

I didn't want to use ROS. It's * Complex * Tough to learn * Pollutes my system dependencies So, I tried building my own. In grad school, I spent six months building a robot application for a deployment with message passing based on ZeroMQ. At some point, when doing robot motion, I started to wish I had ROS's visualizer, Rviz. Then, when I was making something similar to ROS Bag to record and playback data, I gave in. I switched to ROS. I get it. ROS can be painful and frustrating, and there is much to learn. But it has many of the tools you'll need to build any robot application. You may not even know you need them when you start. It's also battle-hardened through wide adoption in the robotics community and is used on tons of robots each day. Then I went to work at Open Robotics to work on ROS, but that's another story...

Talking about robots on Spaces? I'm thinking about starting to host a regular space on X to talk about robots. It could be that we all share what we're working on, maybe with some speakers or a short interview. Would you be interested? 👀

I love finding robotics companies that have done this 🚀

How I felt before learning ROS 2. (I did try to build my own)

I'm not, not saying that I'm thinking about it. What would it look like for you?

It seems like AI and machine learning will create a revolution in robotics 🚀 What are some of the best ways to learn about this? Who are some of the best people to talk to?

As robotics matures, roles are getting more specialized. This means you don't need to be a general roboticist anymore (although it helps)

Seems right to me 🤷‍♂️

I'm launching a jobs board for robotics startups to go along with the Audrow Nash Podcast. It's free to post and view jobs. (You can also sign up for email updates.) I'm starting this because a lot of companies reach out asking for help hiring and a lot of job seekers reach out asking which companies to go to. Hopefully this will help the robotics community grow faster during this exciting time. We already have some great companies posting jobs, including @goformic, @luxonis , @rerundotio , and @BotBuilt_. I'll put links below, if you're curious.

No robotics space this week. I’ll be celebrating my wife’s birthday 🥳 We’ll pickup next week on Thursday at our regular time 🤖

On Unitree: “Single purpose demos" 😂 with @KyleMorgenstein at a secret robotics event

If you had $1M to invest in robotics companies, who would you invest in?

Where's the robotics community on X? I made a list of people making great content and contributing to discussions. Who'd I miss? 👀 nitter.app/i/lists/17159038188424…

There's an amazing robotics community forming between San Antonio and Austin, Texas. I think this is one of the most exciting things I've seen from our community and I'm looking forward to helping how I can.

How do you think we can get more kids involved in robotics?

How much AI do you think is used here? I suspect not very much. It's interesting how far we can get with classical methods.

For those who have been looking 👀

ROS + Rust + Python + Pixi New robotics stack?

I have a feeling robotics is going to fundamentally change in the next few years. Exciting times ahead 🚀

Gosh, my robotics education already feels obsolete

New episode! Rethinking Robotics: Electric Sheep's Journey to Safer, Smarter Machines With @MurtyNag and Mike Laskey from @sheeprobotics.

How are they dealing with aging demographics? It's not as bad as some other places in Europe, but it doesn't seem great either.

Robotics doesn't seem to have a good continuous integration or delivery story. Have you found a good way to do CI/CD?

I think people involved in robotics today will be remembered like the early pioneers in computers in the 1980s.

What sim-to-real gap?

I tried posting robotics podcast clips on Instagram. Here's how it's going...

There seem to be a new generation of robotics companies that are very market focused. I think we'll see a number of big winners in the next 5 years or so.

How it's been feeling lately

Great robotics tooling opportunities: - CI/CD - Data annotation/curation - Human-in-the-loop - Updating fleets - Handling lossy networks - Configuration management What else? 🤔

I plan to have several interviews with small and large investors in robotics. I want to see what they look for, what they avoid, and how they think about robotics. What questions would you like asked? 🤔

This is very, very exciting 🚀 I'm excited about this new and open-source visualizer for robotics, especially as Foxglove has recently become closed-source. (and it's written in Rust! 🦀)

In university, we built robots 🤖 But most decisions were made for us, so most of the problems were solved: * Hardware * Drivers * Protocols * Libraries to use * Models for simulation I'm trying to build simple robots myself and I'm seeing there's a lot to it. Any advice?

I think robotics tooling around data is going to explode in the next 5-years. Now is a good time to start building 🚀

Who are some great robotics PhD students to follow? 👀

99% reliable is not enough. Robotics companies quickly find that edge cases, those 1-in-10,000 events, are the biggest problem in scaling their business. There are three approaches: 1. Hardcode a new rule for each edge case 2. Put a human in the loop when you hit an edge case 3. Use AI to try and reason about edge cases I've seen a lot of companies taking approaches 1 and 2. I'm starting to see companies trying 3. This is going to be exciting 👀

Why do you think robotics companies get caught in the trap of thinking the technology is an end in itself and not solving a problem with a great market?

A new trend in robotics: Selling software to solve a specific robotics problem. This is a great for startups: you can focus on market fit, not undifferentiating technology. A great example is @PolymathRobots for autonomous navigation. What other companies are doing this?

What are some great robotics startups outside of major tech hubs?

Could be. Maybe we also see that being at a desk all day isn't that satisfying and want difficult, but outdoors and with our hands

It feels like robotics is changing. It's changing from a software problem to a data problem. To do well, what skills do you think will be important? Any thoughts on how best to learn them?

I think there's a lot of potential here 🚀

I think one of the great use case for AI in robotics is making cheap sensors act like expensive sensors. It’ll also make robotics companies easier to start and make robots more accessible to makers.

What robotics companies could you start with a shoestring budget?

🚨 New episode 🚨 An Exciting Vision of American Manufacturing with Robotics and AI How do we bring manufacturing back to the United States? What role do robotics and AI play in this vision? You'll like this interview if you're interested in the future of manufacturing in the United States and how robotics and AI are shaping it. With @EdwardMehr from @MachinaLabs_. Time codes 👇 0:00 Start 0:29 Episode intro 1:51 Introducing Edward and Machina Labs 7:33 AI in manufacturing 15:19 Using data for better models than physics-based models 18:51 Capturing data + modeling 34:45 About Machina Labs 39:15 Machina Lab's funding 45:11 Being in LA 47:16 Why make a company that is 10x better than alternatives 58:43 What if you weren't venture funded? 1:02:53 Or growing quickly 1:10:26 Humanoids: challenges + Elon Musk 1:20:54 AI trends: transformers + hallucinations 1:35:32 Thoughts on manufacturing 1:42:15 Advice to get involved in manufacturing

Robotics companies spend huge amounts of time and money building undifferentiated tools. There are lots and lots of opportunities here 👀

We think of robots having an iPhone moment. I think that's wrong. I think robots will have a home appliances moment. Like how we all have dishwashers, washing machines, and microwaves, we'll all have a few single purpose robots. Eventually, maybe we'll have some general robots

Manufacturing is coming back to the US. I think we need to invent new ways of doing things, not just bring the existing methods here. I don't think we have the people to keep doing things as they've been done.

LLM agents don't seem to work well yet. They * write a Python script, but it errors * browse the web, but can't parse its format * call an API, but the request is wrong They have problems when things aren't what they expect. This is why robotics is hard, too. That long tail..

What advice do you have for a new college freshman interested in robotics?

🚨 New episode 🚨 The State of Robotics report in 2024: Early Days, but Great Potential What are trends in robotics investment? You'll like this interview if you're interested in the macro trends in robotics and how investors see the space. With @S_aggarwal25 from @FPrimeCapital. Time codes 👇 0:00 Episode intro 2:13 Introducing Sanjay and F-Prime 4:40 Sanjay's background 11:31 Investing in Autonomous Vehicles then industrial robots 15:29 F-Primes portfolio of robotics companies 26:55 A new type of robotics founder 28:21 Humanoids 35:04 F-Prime's State of Robotics report 39:29 Macro forces for declining investment cash 46:32 Why are companies not IPO'ing lately? 48:51 High interest rates and how that effects the VC business model 55:02 Challenges in raising B & C investment rounds 1:04:31 Why we're in the early days in robotics 1:09:23 Will labor shortages affect robotics investments? 1:12:00 How reliable should systems be? + Human-in-the-loop 1:17:20 Common pitfalls to avoid for your robotics company 1:20:27 How to make your company VERY attractive to investors 1:23:36 Biggest challenges in robotics 1:25:44 Opportunities for new robotics companies 1:27:53 How would you start a new robotics company? 1:32:12 How to pick a good investor for your series A? 1:34:39 Trends in the robotics industry 1:40:28 Future of robotics

I got a TurtleBot 4! I'm going to make it do some simple inspection tasks around the house. The goal is to run for weeks without failing. I have one more week of traveling (been traveling for two weeks already), and then I'll finally get to start hacking 🤖

We talked for an hour about standards in robotics. I’ve found my people. Great space, everyone. Next one will be in two weeks! nitter.app/i/spaces/1YqxoDqEbNkKv

Who’s interested in a European-time friendly robotics space? 🤖🇪🇺 When is the best time? Maybe Tuesday or Thursday around 8pm CET?

I'm seeing a lot more robotics companies that are strapping sensors and compute on existing equipment, like vehicles, and automating them. I like this trend.

What do you see people reinventing over and over in robotics? 🛞 Bonus: why do you think there's no good, shared solution?

The 7-step playbook to start a robotics company:

What robotics simulator do you like best? Would love to hear why in the comments.

I think we're going to see a lot of "robot technician" jobs being created in the next few years. 📈

🚨 New episode 🚨 (This time with working time codes!) Easy Autonomous Navigation for Industrial Vehicles: Because People Keep Asking for It "Can I pay you to automate this?" Stefan Seltz-Axmacher kept getting asked the same question about automating industrial vehicles, so he co-founded Polymath Robotics. You'll like this interview if you're interested in the challenges and opportunities for mobile robots in industrial spaces. With Stefan Seltz-Axmacher and Ilia Baranov from @PolymathRobots. Timecodes 0:00 Start 02:47 Introducing Stefan, Ilia, and Polymath Robotics 04:33 Let's stop reinventing the wheel 23:11 Is your code open-source? 26:34 Why focus on mobile robots? 29:20 Stefan's experience starting Starsky Robotics 33:45 A good task to automate - and not get lit on fire 36:29 Integrating with sensors 39:15 Approaching the problem from another side than most robotics startups 42:57 Ambitions for Polymath Robotics 47:58 Running a different kind of business with fewer hats 50:22 Stefan's bank run t-shirt campaign 54:30 How Polymath plans to grow 57:14 How Polymath uses machine learning 1:01:30 Big and expensive vehicles are easier to automate? 1:07:45 Thoughts on AI and Machine Learning 1:15:40 Making safety-certified systems 1:27:12 Live demo! 1:31:52 Web tools and robotics 1:38:57 Automate It podcast 1:49:57 Advice for getting involved in robotics 1:54:27 Stefan's former startup experience and path to Polymath 2:00:54 Thoughts on side projects 2:04:50 What Stefan and Ilia are excited about in robotics

I think robotics can be thought of as the story of us trying to understand what is simple and getting it wrong most of the time.

What stops you from doing robotics side projects? 🤖

What area of robotics are you most interested in that's not being covered enough? 👀

Robot art? I'm looking for art for around the house. Anyone know any great artists making art with robots in it?

What questions do you have about robots in agriculture? 🧑‍🌾🤖 I have an interview with a big robotics company in ag this week.

I love the idea of complex robot behavior properly packaged and accessible behind simple REST API endpoints.

🚨 New episode 🚨 Making Disruptive Tech Not Disruptive: Exciting Uses for Robots on Farms Can something shake up an industry and not disrupt the people working in it? Bluewhite Robotics is trying to do just that. You'll enjoy this interview if you're interested in robots in agriculture or the ethics of disruptive technology. With Ben Alfi from Bluewhite Robotics. Time codes 👇 0:00 Episode Intro 1:09 Introducing Ben Alfi and Bluewhite Robotics 3:53 Outfitting a tractor with Bluewhite's tech 8:52 What types of jobs are they automating? 11:12 How do you do localization? What sensors do you use? 18:41 Adding sensors to the tractor's tools + levels of support 23:36 Being a full solution for agriculture companies 25:14 Sending data to the cloud 31:43 Configuring their robot's behavior + onboarding 34:54 Working with farm equipment dealerships 38:01 Spiral development 40:32 Scaling their operation 44:46 How large is the tractor market? 48:14 Labor shortages and people not wanting to be farmers 56:43 Future of unmanned tractors 1:07:14 Data as a Service + Fellowship 1:13:21 Blending into the agruculture culture 1:17:58 Making systems safe 1:21:48 Recent Series C investment round 1:23:48 Working with the community 1:29:26 Episode outro

Why is the web dev community so much larger than the robotics community? 🤔 What can we learn from them?

Ten years. That's how long I've been podcasting. First with Robohub, then Sense Think Act, now my own thing. For the first two podcasts, it felt like putting content into the void. We'd get downloads but would never hear anything back from our listeners. I tried to connect with our listeners. I tried * surveys * offering to have calls with listeners * asking them to email us But nothing got much response. Now, enter X. What a great community here. I'm blown away by the thoughtful discussions that happen here. I'm hooked. I look forward to sharing what I'm learning and learning with you all. Let's make a thriving robotics community on X together 🦾

Ever wondered what happens when robotics experts gather in a secret location? Join me for fascinating conversations recorded at a stealth robotics event between Austin and San Antonio. I talk with - Kyle Morgenstein (@KyleMorgenstein), PhD student at UT Austin on making legged robots safe in human environments - David Venegas (@davidlikesrocks), Head of Operations at Durin (@durinmining), who's automating critical tasks in mining exploration - Barrett Ames (@cbames), co-founder of BotBuilt (@botbuilt_), whose robots are revolutionizing home construction You'll like this interview if you're interested in how robotics is solving real-world problems across different industries and the challenges of bringing automation to traditional fields. Find it on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Links in comment. I recommend listening at 1.5x

A strong and usually internal customer support plan seems to be a big differentiator of the best robotics companies