When was four years old, living in Austria, his father bought him a Matador construction set鈥攅ssentially wooden blocks with holes, pegs, and pulley wheels. For one particular project, with his dad鈥檚 supervision, he built a wooden man who could be controlled by a crank if all of the pieces were put together correctly. To the preschooler鈥檚 delight, when he turned the crank, the man danced.聽
鈥淚 knew exactly how this was built, where every piece went and why,鈥� recalls Moravec. 鈥淚t was made of inanimate parts. But when it was all put together, it became quite animate! It knew it wasn鈥檛 a person, but constructed correctly, it could be person-like!鈥澛�
By fifth grade, he had graduated to tin cans on wheels powered by batteries. By high school, robot arms programmed with computers. By grad school he was playing with parts left over from NASA and constructing robots capable of navigating obstacle courses via TV camera sensors. And by the time he came to Carnegie Mellon in 1980, running one of the four founding labs of the , he was already one of the world鈥檚 foremost experts at making inanimate objects person-like.聽聽
He also had a reputation as a 鈥渇uturist,鈥� writing books and giving presentations about what the distant future might be like and what capabilities mobile robotics and artificial intelligence might possess.聽
By the year 2000, computing power had become good enough and affordable enough that Moravec could finally consider commercializing his self-navigating robots. He spoke to a CNET reporter about how he believed that, with the existing technology he had developed, he should be able to produce, on a commercial scale, customizations to things like industrial forklifts in warehouses that would allow them to do their jobs autonomously. Literally by attaching his sensors and hardware, he could create unmanned robotic heavy lifters from existing industrial vehicles, optimizing workflows and productivity while decreasing injury risks and costs.聽
Scott Friedman, an entrepreneur who had just sold a startup of his own, was looking to invest in a new project. He read the CNET article and recognized Moravec鈥檚 name. As a teenager in the 1980s, he had come across one of Moravec鈥檚 early books and had voraciously soaked up his vision of the incredible power that robotics might have in the distant (now present) future.聽
Friedman called the 麻豆村 research professor. 鈥淲hat would you need to get this done?鈥� he asked him. They got it done.
Today, , the name of their co-founded startup, manufactures these industrial robotics, which are already in operation in warehouses and factories across the country. In addition to selling robotics, they鈥檙e exploring relationships with industrial equipment manufacturers such as Toyota-Raymond. They believe that the sensory technology they鈥檝e developed鈥攚ith millions of miles already logged in warehouses and factories鈥攔ivals Google鈥檚 self-driving cars.
Fast Company is duly impressed. The international business magazine recently named the Carnegie Mellon spinoff one of 鈥淭he World鈥檚 Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Robotics.鈥�
鈥擝radley A. Porter (DC鈥�08)
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