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“I am not preaching technological defeatism.” –iRobot founder Rodney Brooks
Simple Solutions to Complex Problems
Forget the long-delayed promise of drone delivery. A fascinating report in the Washington Post tells how a pilot program by Starship Technologies(@StarshipRobots) is using boxy, cooler-esque robots to deliver meals from local restaurants in Washington, DC and Redwood, CA.
Starship’s six-wheeled bots, which navigate the sidewalks like pedestrians, are a marvel of simplified design. They travel at just four miles per hour, according to the Post, and a spec sheet we spotted describes a no-nonsense system that uses cameras, radar and GPS to navigate urban environments.
“The robot can operate through just about anything,” said Nick Handrick, head of operations for Starship’s D.C. office, told the Post. “If you had something in the way — a stick, a curb — it’s able to climb curbs.”
The company’s founders, who previously struck it rich at Skype, are hoping the robot will also be able to traverse legal obstacles. Autonomous drones like Amazon’s are subject to complex laws, but many states make the rules simpler for ground-based robots like the one Starship hacked together. The company says it’ll soon expand its pilot to Milton Keynes, England and the San Francisco Bay.
Rodney Brooks on Whether Your Hardware Startup Will Succeed
iRobot (@iRobot) founder Rodney Brooks (@rodneyabrooks) penned a terrific column for the latest issue of IEEE Spectrum about the rules of thumb he uses to predict new hardware projects’ capacity for commercial success.
The whole thing is worth a read, but Brooks’ key idea is that game-changing technologies are far simpler if peripheral design problems have…
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