I’m Joe Jones, a roboticist with 30+ years experience in the industry. I’m one of the inventors of Roomba (the robotic vacuum cleaner from iRobot), am an author of three books on robotics, and am a founder and former CTO of Harvest Automation, a startup company developing new robotic products for agriculture and other applications. Currently I’m working to start a new company, Franklin Robotics.
I was a member of the research staff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Lab (now CSAIL) for nine years before becoming iRobot’s first full-time hire. At iRobot I spent nearly 15 years designing and building robots. I’ve been privileged to have a close-up look at both the academic and commercial sides of robotics.
After three decades, robots still fascinate me. They have the potential to solve critical problems and enhance our lives in many ways. Only a tiny portion of robots’ potential has been realized—I’m working to expand that.
My hope is that this blog can cast some light on the history of robots, why they have been such a long time coming, and how developers can speed up the cycle.
@JoeRobotJones