Government Robotics Design Challenge Proposal Process
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The document summarizes robotics knowledge, skills, technologies, materials, components, platforms, and products. It discusses consumer robotics, military robotics, and the government issuing design challenges. It also outlines the "supply" and "demand" sides of robotics including knowledge, technologies, materials, components, platforms, products, end uses, and different scales of open source vs proprietary approaches. Finally, it discusses opportunities to connect complementary parts of the robotics field into a sustainable network.
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Government Robotics Design Challenge Proposal Process
- 3. Government Issues Design Challenge Company Puts together Proposal Government Selects Finalists Finalists Create Prototype and Show to Government Contract Awarded
- 4. Knowledge, skills, Science Technologies Materials Components Platforms Products • Industry Knowledge • Tech Knowledge (engineering, physics, etc) • Electronic Systems • Software Architectures • • • • • Sensors heads • Robotic Arms • Mobile Platforms • Roomba • Roomba 400, 500, 600, 700, etc. • Roomba Create • Scooba Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) Machined Metal Motors, Etc. Sensors
- 7. End Uses for Consumer Scale of Siloing vs. Open Source The happy medium (herding cats) Proprietary robotics software and hardware People who solve their own problems (the Hacker persona) People who want problem solved (Pain, $$$)
- 8. “Supply” Side Raw Material Knowledge, Skills, In tellectual Concepts, “ Science” Technologi es (applied knowledge) Materia ls (iron, etc) Compone nts “Demand” Side Components Companies/Ind ustries End The Primary Organizing Company (Robotics Company) Distributors User becomes R&D and Retail Industry Knowledge Tech Knowledge Viable ideas Influencers We invent for fun. Futuristic thought leaders. Sponsored materials and tech, platforms Demonstrable ROI needed Platf orms Produ cts, S Beta Product, subject to Kaizen ervices, Solution s Open Source Community The “Social Stack” “Demand” Side Total “Social” and “Commercial” Value “Demand” Side
- 9. The Bridging Opportunity How can we connect complementary pieces of the puzzle to form a sustainable self improving network here? Form + Function = Baxter
Editor's Notes
- Over the last two decades the robotics industry has exploded! Seeing innovation in from the battlefield to our own living rooms. Robotic development and deployment has a base in not only technical know how, but also in customer acceptance of the product. This has made it very critical for robotics companies to understand the key end users and influences within their markets.Within the manufacturing force robotics has changed the face of assembly for cars , electronics and more. Even more recently the Robot Baxter has been trying to break down the high cost barriers that have been preventing smaller manufacturing processes to be automated.After products are manufactured robots provide fulfillment of shipping and warehouse management. This trend can be confirmed by Amazon’s recent acquisition of Kiva robotics for $775 M, showing that this is a market and will only expand more.An of course we cannot forget the industries somewhat obsession with humanoid robots….
- In order to fully show how General Robotics can play in this ecosystem, it is necessary to how the company currently operates. Within General Robotcs there are two divisions, Consumer Robotics and Military Robotics. These divisions have some knowledge transfer but a lot of the development is relatively siloed. Luckily our engineers get the opportunity to grow their knowledge within our well funded military division and bring that knowledge to our still growing consumer robotics division.It is also important to note that both consumer and military robotics play in different types of markets. The military robotics market is very controlled as requirements and contracts are set by the government to be “fulfilled” by us as a contractor of sorts. However, the consumer robotics market offers much more of a playground in its emergent market that allows for new ideas to be created and challenged by the public.
- While our military robotics division brings in much of our revenue it is a division that has a lot of risk associated with it. The process of getting awarded a contract starts with the gov issuing a design challenge, then we must create a proposal (at our expense). The government then reviews these proposals, picks finalists and sets a date to have the finalists show off their prototypes. We then create a prototype(at our expense) and effectively compete for the contract. In the end the contract is awarded based on the demo day and a lot of internal politics. These contracts have lead to the creation of some of the most advanced robotics today. From bigdog the militaries mule to the talon bomb disposal robot.But these contracts are only for a set period of time and we have house that our military projects are not always very cross salable products for additional revenue. With the current government instability we have been seeing the effects of the sequestration and many of our competitors have been forced to lay of large amount of their workforce. We still are receiving contracts but really want to see how we can innnovate and capture market opportunities throughout our company.
- Our current process begins with the knowledge that we have gained through our companies and employees past. This knowledge not only includes specific industry knowledge but also very technical knowledge with a focus on engineering and physics, among other things. This knowledge is then used to create proprietary electronic systems and software architectures that have been iterated for some products but not for all. These systems are created with a combination of raw materials and full subsystem components that blend together to facilitate a full robotics system. Some of these materials include printed circuit boards, custom machined metal pieces, motors, drivetrains and sensors. This combination of custom and standard materials is very specific to creating these systems and some may say is what makes this market stand out.The components and products that we produce are integrated to create unique robotic solutions for the masses. In our development for the consumer robotic platform has not come without detailed consumer research and feedback from the end user. The creation of our robotic platform has served as a base unit for multiple differentiated products. An easy recognizable platform that can be seen in the market today is iRobots Roomba which serves as a base unit for many models which can handle different carpet conditions, pets, clean tile or wood and even has a custom base that is programmable by the user.However, these robotic systems and platforms have a very high pricetag for development and it is very siloed within each and every company. We have seen from other aspects of our ecosystem that there are better ways to see things develop.
- For example with out component supplies we have seen a growing movement in the form of Open source. Open source technology is based around the idea that a company can create a basic platform that they share all of the information and development behind it with the public. The public can then choose to utilize this product and create with it. Some of the time these products have seen tremendous growth and have fostered the creation of great communities that exist to support and develop with this open source platforms. The community effectively serves not only as a support structure but also as an R&D development team. However for many of the open source platforms the companys see this community as a way to create new things and gain detailed customer insight without addition costly market research.For example in the technical field we have seen open source technology grown in software, electrical hardware, processors as well as hardware creation.A great example of software open source within the robotics community is the Robotic Operating System or ROS, which is a standardized robotic control system that was developed by Willow Garage for the intent to speed robotic development by reducing the amount of time that would be required to interface different aspects of the robot , sensors, motors, etc. Willow Garage served as creating the original platform and has continued to develop modules for it on the complex PR2 Robot. However, the community around ROS has grown as it has been adopted by startups, colleges and hobbiest alike. New modules are created and shared everyday and the development cycle for many robots is starting to decrease.While ROS has seen success in both the hobby and professional market, we can step back and look at two systems that have expanding the hobby market tremendously. The first of which the arduino created the ability for anyone to learn how to program and control simple devices. They created a basic processing board that also had all of the supporting electronics and software to build on, right out of the box. The community around the arduino has exploded and now there are multiple versions and addons that have been created. These were create within the community and have helped startups grow and inventions become realized. The arduino allows any hobbiest to add electronic control to their ideas and has eliminited that knowledge hurdle that many R&D firms hold so dear. The only issue that we have seen with this open source revolution is that is it not a professional product. It serves perfectly for hobby style devices, but when there is an attempt to move into comercial products there is still a large gap.The other of these two hobby open source systems is the Maker Bot desktop 3d printing system. This started years ago with a completely open source 3d printer that allowed low quality 3d prints to be made at home or in a small office at the fraction of the cost of many larger printers. This has grown into a humongous community that sharts designs for printers and parts to be printed through the makerbots library. This library called the thingiverse has over a million parts on it and is growing every day. The 3d printing market was on lock down, but the creation of the first makerbot broke that barrier and now there are hundreds of hobby grade 3d printers based on its desing. One of which is now even available to be purchased in stapples. Both of these hobby open source devices created a massive community that helped to troubleshoot, develop, support and grow the demand for these products. Even with a lower price tag or not as complex solutions they were able to grow into industry drivers and become common names within the hobby industry. Their brands are so strong that is it hardpressed to find someone who cannot recongize the name.Our suppliers have found the use of open source, but seem to stop at hobby, I wonder how much this community aspect could help us….
- We looked again at that community aspect and how it could be applied to larger scale more integrated systems.This lead us to the FIRST For inspiration and recognition of science and technology Robotics competition. A elementary and high school competition that empowers students to work on creating robots of different sizes and complexity to solve a task or play a game to save a task. They work in teams to create everything from the software to the hardware to even Printed circuit boards. However, the creation is not what is so amazing about this competition. The community that it has formed around the globe is what stands out.Each of these teams needs to work with other teams, mentors and engineers from companies to solve complex problems and learn. Everyone is in the competition to learn and works with other teams to win. The community also encourages students to go to college and pursue more technical degrees. And the fact that this community is so sucessful has been recognized by large companies around the world.The FIRST robotics competition is sponsored by large donations from companies like Johnson and Johnson, GM or BAE systems. Who help mentor teams and share their knowledge to high shoolers that will then use that knowledge in college and beyond. Many of these companies see students grow and then come and work for them after college. This community acts as a training program for some companies and even it they do not go to those companies they have learned valuable lessons about engineering in the real world from their mentors and that knowledge transfers to reduce their learning curves in their jobs.Other sponsors see this community with a different value. These sponsors such as National instruments, rockwell automation and PTC give FIRST hardware and software for discounted to free costs. While these donations are there to help teams create it also shows them what is used in industry very early on. Many of the students get used to using those companies products and the community exists to troublshoot and teach the use of these prodcuts. This is a great value to the students and the companies alike, as during and after their college career they have systems that they are familier with and that they will continue to use over and over again. When they go into the workforce they will use the same systems and their companies will be able to pay the full price, driving incredible following and increase revenues.We have seen how community and Open source can really grow and drive knowledge and loyality, but again how do we capitalize on this…
- Slide 5. The end useIn the space of end users our end goal is to establish a marketable value proposition to consumers who are unaware of the ways in which robots can solve their daily pains. The big gap between proprietary siloed systems and open source may be solvable via pull from non technical consumers who begin to witness proof of concept firsthand. The influencers will be academics and technically savvy tinkers who are able to demonstrate their expertise in a pragmatic household or hobbyist setting. Barriers between the emergent and control networks could exist for a number of reasons, and these inhibit standardization of parts and OS which could make the collective intelligence driven process of bringing new ideas to market that much smoother, driving human advancement at an unprecedented pace. Finding just the right amount of standardization to allow for collective creativity to flourish is the big challenge in discovering the happy medium between corporate driven programs and the existing open source communities. Both sides have yet to be sold on the idea of meeting halfway.
- Slide 6 EcosystemAs we look at the ecosystem map, it becomes clear that this industry has some barriers between money and collective intelligence. How will we bridge this gap? The key may lie in convincing key stakeholders of the value a new network will have to them. Rewarding each party for their investments will be a tightrope walk between different value systems and motivations for creating and innovating. Proof of concept will not lie merely in an effective finished product but in establishing a platform that will reward all parties involved in a manner that each feels appropriately compensated. If the existing silos do not take advantage of the viral buzz that new emergent innovative structures are bound to create, they will eventually be undercut by ruthless new players. The money will come from people who don’t care about money, whereas the players bound by bureaucracy will drown under the weight of their own financial behemoth. It’s the same old story: either ride the wave or be crushed by it.
- Our challenge is to find examples of where connecting existing infrastructure with the masses will be perfected. How can we develop personae that agree to joint ventures in the name of human advancement and sustainable enterprise? Will this require global regulation to prevent opensourceweaponized robot militaries? What sort of platform will reduce costs and offer user friendly tutorials for standardized building? We want to seek to foster the best incremental innovations by building off the systems that already exist and connecting them, just as machine builders see and forge connections between complementary parts and functions invented previously. No ideas take flight in a void.