Episode
Colin Angle: iRobot
37:51
Published: Thu Sep 19 2019
Description
Colin Angle is the CEO and co-founder of iRobot, a robotics company that for 29 years has been creating robots that operate successfully in the real world, not as a demo or on a scale of dozens, but on a scale of thousands and millions. As of this year, iRobot has sold more than 25 million robots to consumers, including the Roomba vacuum cleaning robot, the Braava floor mopping robot, and soon the Terra lawn mowing robot. 25 million robots successfully operating autonomously in people's homes to me is an incredible accomplishment of science, engineering, logistics, and all kinds of entrepreneurial innovation. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on iTunes or support it on Patreon.
Chapters
Colin Angle, CEO and co-founder of iRobot, talks about the success of their robots in real people's homes and the future potential of robotics, including the new Terra lawn mowing robot.
00:00 - 03:35 (03:35)
Summary
Colin Angle, CEO and co-founder of iRobot, talks about the success of their robots in real people's homes and the future potential of robotics, including the new Terra lawn mowing robot. He believes that the three laws of robotics may not be relevant for decades to come.
EpisodeColin Angle: iRobot
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
iRobot aims to create tools that will assist home maintenance, making it a safer and healthier place to live in.
03:36 - 14:22 (10:45)
Summary
iRobot aims to create tools that will assist home maintenance, making it a safer and healthier place to live in. In the future, homes may become part of a system that maintains itself and cares for the people that reside in it.
EpisodeColin Angle: iRobot
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The challenge of building skin for robots has been tackled by focusing on strategies to duplicate the human skin's ability to sense.
14:22 - 22:55 (08:33)
Summary
The challenge of building skin for robots has been tackled by focusing on strategies to duplicate the human skin's ability to sense. Thankfully, today's technology such as 3D CAD tools has allowed for cheaper and more efficient ways of building robots.
EpisodeColin Angle: iRobot
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Vision-based navigation in robots is much more capable and affordable as compared to laser-based navigation.
22:56 - 36:00 (13:03)
Summary
Vision-based navigation in robots is much more capable and affordable as compared to laser-based navigation. The technology trend of visual object recognition and machine learning has made it possible to build an affordable and capable robot.
EpisodeColin Angle: iRobot
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker discusses the importance of emotion in social situations and how it will play a bigger role in the future of robotics as robots get smarter.
36:00 - 37:34 (01:33)
Summary
The speaker discusses the importance of emotion in social situations and how it will play a bigger role in the future of robotics as robots get smarter. The conversation ends with a question about Captain Picard for a hypothetical interview with Data, the intelligent robot from Star Trek.