Joseph Lee Jones
Professional Experience
CTO
Franklin Robotics, Inc., Billerica, MA 6/15 to present
- Developing robots for agriculture and gardening.
CTO
Harvest Automation, Inc., Billerica, MA 11/06 to 6/15
- Architected HV-100—first practical autonomous mobile robot for the Nursery and Greenhouse industry.
SENIOR ROBOTICIST
iRobot Corporation, Burlington, MA 2/92 to 11/06
- Proposed and developed Roomba, robotic vacuum cleaner—first practical consumer robot.
- Developed software and sensory systems for industrial floor cleaning robot prototype.
- Developed software and sensory systems for Fetch, unexploded munitions retrieval robot, winner of the BUGS (Basic UXO Gathering System) competition in 1996.
- Developed software and sensory systems for Ursula, six-legged underwater walking robot.
- Developed software for Hermes, six-legged walking robot, used in interactive display at the Sony Wonder Museum, New York, NY.
- Developed wave mobility software for Kaa, multi-degree of freedom snake robot.
- Developed software for Grendel, miniature walking robot planetary exploration demonstration robot.
- Developed software and sensory systems for R2, R3, and Pebbles research robot products.
- Taught behavior-based programming course.
SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Denning Mobile Robotics, Wilmington, MA 6/91 to 12/91
- Proposed and developed robotic floor sweeper prototype.
RESEARCH ENGINEER
MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Cambridge, MA 11/82 to 9/91
- Designed and implemented grasp planning portion of task level planning system for robot manipulation. Conducted independent automatic assembly research project. Extensive experience with Lisp, Symbolics™ Lisp Machine, and MIT Lisp Machines.
- Implemented force control system in MACRO-11, wrote robot simulations. Selected and purchased hardware for experimental robotic arm project.
- Programmed Utah-MIT four-fingered anthropomorphic hand, experience with Unix and C.
- Instructed students in summer robotics intern program.
ENGINEERING PHYSICIST
Bates Linear Accelerator, Middleton, MA 3/78 to 6/81
- Designed and implemented computer control system for accelerator. Specified hardware and software components. Fortran, Basic, and Pascal programming, extensive MACRO-11 programming. Wrote interactive color graphic displays. VAX, PDP-11, and LSI-11 experience.
- Built and tested microwave electronics package for resonant cavity beam position monitors. Developed design criteria for fast-beam-kicker system, performed qualifying tests and data analysis for quadrapole focusing magnets.
- Supervised summer students, advisor to freshmen at MIT.
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2/78
Master of Science degree.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 6/75
Bachelor of Science degree in Physics.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 6/84 to 12/85
Continuing education graduate courses include: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Vision, and Knowledge Based Application Systems (expert systems)
IBM Robotic Assembly Institute 6/83
IBM AML Software Specialist Course (manipulator robots)
Publications
BOOKS
Robot Programming: A Practical Guide to Behavior-Based Robotics, Joseph L. Jones, Daniel Roth, TAB Robotics the McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004. (Available in English and Chinese.)
Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation, Joseph Jones, Anita Flynn, Bruce Seiger, AK Peters, Ltd. Natick, MA, 1993, 1999. (Available in English, French, German and Japanese.)
Handey a Robot Task Planner, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Joseph Jones, Emmanuel Mazer, Patrick O’Donnell, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1992.
Refereed Papers
Greiner, H., Angle, C., Jones, J.L., Schectman, A., Myers, R. “Enabling Techniques for Swarm Coverage Approaches”, 2nd International Symposium on Technology and the Mine Problem, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, April, 1997.
Rajiv Desai, Charles Rosenberg, Joseph Jones, “Kaa: An Autonomous Serpentine Robot Utilizing Behavior Control,” Proc. IEEE/RSJ International Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 1995
Angle, C. M., Brooks, R. A., Jones, J. L., “Robust Behavior Based Robots for Inspection”, Proc. 8th Annual INEL Computing Symposium, Idaho Falls, ID, Oct 1994
Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Joseph Jones, Emmanuel Mazer, Patrick O’Donnell, “Task-Level Planning of Pick-and-Place Robot Motions,” IEEE Computer, March 1989.
Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Joseph Jones, Emmanuel Mazer, Patrick O’Donnell, W. Eric L. Grimson, Pierre Tournassoud, Alain Lanusse, “Handey: A Robot System that Recognizes, Plans and Manipulates,” in Proc. IEEE Conf. Robotics and Automation, 1987
THESES
A Method for Measuring the Plasma Space Potential Using Ion Time of Flight, Master’s thesis with Professor Smullin, February, 1978.
A Magnetically Enhanced Electrostatic Ion Accelerator, Bachelor’s thesis with Professor Bekefi, June, 1975.
Other Articles
Joseph Jones, Ben Wirz, “RoCK Specifications: the Goal of a New Machine” Circuit Cellar Magazine, four-article series April through July, 2002.
Joseph Jones, “RugNav: A Scanning Sonar You Can Build,” The Robotics Practitioner, two-article series, Fall 1995, Winter 1996.
Rug Warrior Pro Assembly Guide, AK Peters, Ltd. 1997
Rug Warrior Assembly Guide, AK Peters, Ltd. 1995
Using the Puma System, MIT AT Lab Working Paper 271
Puma/Cougar Implementer’s Guide, MIT AI Lab Working Paper 272
BLOG
The Practical Roboticist, ThePracticalRoboticist.com
Invited Talks
The Entrepreneurs Experience or The Dirt on Roomba, MIT Club of Washington DC, Bethesda, MD, April 20, 2017
Harvey on the Farm, Case Study of an Agricultural Robot on the Farm, Workshop on Robotics in Agriculture, ICRA, Seattle, WA, May 30, 2015.
How to Move 7 Million Plants, A Case Study of Robots, Enterprise, and Technology, Northeast Robotics Colloquium, Providence, RI, October 11, 2014.
Small Robots for Agriculture, 20th Annual Industry Robotics Forum, Orlando, FL, February 21, 2013.
Practical Robots for Agriculture, Netherlands Office of Science and Technology conference: Robotic Innovations 2009, The Hague, Netherlands, November 5, 2009.
Robots at the Tipping Point: The Road to Roomba, IEEE/IFR Special Forum on “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation” at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain, April 20, 2005.
Robot Programming, Quantum Books, Cambridge, MA, January 14, 2004.
Roomba: Developing the First Practical Consumer Robot, Central New England Chapter of the Robotics and Automation Society, IEEE, Wellesley, MA, November 19, 2003.
Roomba: Developing the First Practical Consumer Robot, Symposium at the 2003 Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest, Hartford, CT, April 12, 2003.
Roomba Revealed, New England Palm Users Group, (NEPUG), Cambridge, MA, December 17, 2002.
How to Write Software for Mobile Robots, Fifth Annual Trinity College Symposium at the Fire-Fighting Home Robots Contest, Hartford, CT, April 18, 1996.
Robots and Explosive Contamination: The Development of an Autonomous Cleanup System, Symposium at the Forth Annual Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robots Contest, Hartford, CT, April 19, 1997.
Robots and Explosive Contamination: The Development of an Autonomous Cleanup System, Joint meeting of the IEEE Boston Section of Robotics and Automation Society and the Computer Society, Wellesley, MA, February 10, 1997.
How to Program a Robot, Florida State University Computer Science Seminar, Tallahassee, Florida, April 26, 1995.
Independent Products
- Rug Warrior, hobbyist robot kit for AK Peters, 1995
- Rug Warrior Pro, hobbyist robot kit for AK Peters, 1997
- RugUp, upgrade kit for Rug Warrior Robot, 1997
- RugEx, experimenters circuit board for Rug Warrior Pro robot, 1998
- RugIO, Input/Output kit for Rug Warrior Pro, 1998
- RugBat, Sonar Ranging kit for Rug Warrior Pro, 1998
Patents
US Patent #9,622,635, Autonomous floor-cleaning robot, April 18, 2017
US Patent #9,568,917, Methods and systems for automated transportation of items between variable endpoints, February 14, 2017
US Patent #9,582,005, Robot confinement, February 28, 2017
US Patent #9,446,521, Obstacle following sensor scheme for a mobile robot, September 20, 2016
US Patent #9,327,407, Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, May 3, 2016
US Patent #9,167,946, Autonomous floor cleaning robot, October 27, 2015
US Patent #9,147,173, Methods and systems for automated transportation of items between variable endpoints, September 29, 2015
US Patent #8,937,410, Emergency stop method and system for autonomous mobile robots, January 20, 2015
US Patent #8,915,692, Adaptable container handling system, December 23, 2014
US Patent #8,676,425, Methods and systems for maintenance and other processing of container-grown plants using autonomous mobile robots, March 18, 2014
US Patent #9,167,946, Autonomous floor cleaning robot, October 27, 2015
US Patent #9,128,486, Navigational control system for a robotic device, September 8, 2015
US Patent #9,104,204, Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, August 11, 2015
US Patent #9,043,953, Lawn care robot, June 2, 2015
US Patent #9,043,952, Lawn care robot, June 2, 2015
US Patent #9,038,233, Autonomous floor-cleaning robot, May 26, 2015
US Patent #8,954,193, Lawn care robot, February 10, 2015
US Patent #8,868,237, Robot confinement, October 21, 2014
US Patent #8,838,274, Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, September 16, 2014
US Patent #8,793,020, Navigational control system for a robotic device, July 29, 2014
US Patent #8,788,092, Obstacle following sensor scheme for a mobile robot, July 22, 2014
US Patent #8,781,627, Robot confinement, July 15, 2014
US Patent #8,781,626, Navigational control system for a robotic device, July 15, 2014
US Patent #8,763,199, Autonomous floor-cleaning robot, July 1, 2014
US Patent #8,761,935, Obstacle following sensor scheme for a mobile robot, June 24, 2014
US Patent #8,718,821, Navigational control system for a robotic device, May 6, 2014
US Patent #8,686,679, Robot confinement, April 1, 2014
US Patent #8,671,507, Autonomous floor-cleaning robot, March 18, 2014
US Patent #8,659,256, Robot confinement, February 25, 2014
US Patent #8,659,255, Robot confinement, February 25, 2014
US Patent #8,656,550, Autonomous floor-cleaning robot, February 25, 2014
US Patent #8,634,960, Lawn care robot, January 21, 2014
US Patent #8,565,920, Obstacle following sensor scheme for a mobile robot, October 22, 2013
US Patent #8,516,651, Autonomous floor-cleaning robot, August 27, 2013
US Patent #8,515,578, Navigational control system for a robotic device, August 20, 2013
US Patent #8,478,442, Obstacle following sensor scheme for a mobile robot, July 2, 2013
US Patent #8,474,090, Autonomous floor-cleaning robot, July 2, 2013
US Patent #8,463,438, Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, June 11, 2013
US Patent #8,428,778, Navigational control system for a robotic device, April 23, 2013
US Patent #8,412,377, Obstacle following sensor scheme for a mobile robot, April 2, 2013
US Patent #8,396,592, Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, March 12, 2013
US Patent #8,386,081, Navigational control system for a robotic device, February 26, 2013
US Patent #8,368,339, Robot confinement, February 5, 2013
US Patent #8,364,310, Robot having additional computing device, January 29, 2013
US Patent #8,095,238 Robot development platform, January 10, 2012.
US Patent #7,663,333 Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, February 16, 2010.
US Patent #7,636,982 Autonomous floor cleaning robot, December 29, 2009.
US Patent #7,579,803 Robot confinement, August 25, 2009.
US Patent #7,571,511 Autonomous floor-cleaning robot, August 11, 2009.
US Patent #7,557,052 Robot Navigation, July 28, 2009.
US Patent #7,430,455 Obstacle following sensor scheme for a mobile robot, September 30, 2008.
US Patent #7,429,843 Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, September 30, 2008.
US Patent #7,388,343 Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, June 17, 2008.
US Patent #7,240,396 Floor cleaning apparatus, July 10, 2007.
US Patent #7,196,487 Method and system for robot localization and confinement, March 27, 2007.
US Patent #7,188,000 Navigational control system for a robotic device, March 6, 2007.
US Patent #7,173,391 Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, February 6, 2007.
US Patent #7,155,308 Robot obstacle detection system, December 26, 2006.
US Patent #7,024,278 Navigational control system for a robotic device, April 4, 2006.
US Patent #7,013,527 Floor cleaning apparatus with control circuitry, March 21, 2006.
US Patent #6,965,209 Method and system for robot localization and confinement, November 15, 2005.
US Patent #6,883,201 Autonomous floor-cleaning robot, April 26, 2005.
US Patent #6,809,490 Method and system for multi-mode coverage for an autonomous robot, October 26, 2004.
US Patent #6,781,338 Method and system for robot localization and confinement, August 24, 2004.
US Patent #6,690,134 Method and system for robot localization and confinement, February 10, 2004.
US Patent #6,594,844 Robot obstacle detection system, July 22, 2003.
Award
IEEE/IFR Invention and Entrepreneurship Award, 2005, Roomba Discovery Robotic Floorvac
Organization
Member IEEE