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The Pransky interview: Brennard Pierce: world class robotics designer and serial entrepreneur
Industrial Robot ( IF 1.8 ) Pub Date : 2021-09-02 , DOI: 10.1108/ir-08-2021-0166
Joanne Pransky 1
Affiliation  

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned entrepreneur regarding his pioneering efforts in starting robotic companies and commercializing technological inventions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The interviewee is Brennard Pierce, a world-class robotics designer and serial entrepreneur. Pierce is currently consulting in robotics after exiting from his latest startup as cofounder and chief robotics officer of Bear Robotics. Pierce discusses what led him to the field of robotics, the success of Bear Robotics, the challenges he’s faced and his future goals.

Findings

Pierce received a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Exeter University. He then founded his first startup, 5TWO, a custom software company. Always passionate about robotics as a hobby and now wanting to pursue the field professionally, he sold 5TWO to obtain a Master of Science, Robotics degree from the newly formed Bristol Robotics Lab (BRL) at Bristol University. After BRL, where he designed and built a biped robot that learned to walk using evolutionary algorithms, he joined the Robotics Research team at Carnegie Mellon University where he worked on a full-size humanoid robot for a large electronics company, designing and executing simple experiments for balancing. He then spent the next six years as a PhD candidate and robotics researcher at the Technical University Munich (TUM), Institute for Cognitive Science, where he built a compliant humanoid robot and a new generation of field programmable gate array-based robotic controllers. Afterwards, Pierce established the robotic startup Robotise in Munich to commercialize the omni-directional mobile platforms that he had developed at TUM. A couple of years later, Pierce left Robotise to cofound Bear Robotics, a Silicon Valley based company that brings autonomous robots to the restaurant industry. He remained at Bear Robotics for four years as chief robotics officer. He is presently a robotics consultant, waiting for post-COVID before beginning his next robotic startup.

Originality/value

Pierce is a seasoned roboticist and a successful entrepreneur. He has 15+ years’ of unique experience in both designing robotic hardware and writing low level embedded and high level cloud software. During his career he has founded three companies, managed small to middle sized interdisciplinary teams, and hired approximately 100 employees of all levels. Pierce’s robotic startup in Munich, Robotise, was solely based on his idea, design and implementation for an autonomous mobile delivery system. The third company he cofounded, Bear Robotics, successfully raised a $32m Series A funding lead by SoftBank. Bear Robotics is the recipient of the USA’s National Restaurant Association Kitchen Innovation Award; Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards; and the Hospitality Innovation Planet 2020 Award.



中文翻译:

Pransky 采访:Brennard Pierce:世界级机器人设计师和连续创业者

目的

本文的目的是提供由《工业机器人杂志》的乔安妮·普兰斯基 (Joanne Pransky) 进行的“问答采访”,作为一种方法,将一位杰出的机器人行业工程师转为企业家的技术、商业和个人经验相结合,讲述他在创业方面的开创性努力。机器人公司和技术发明的商业化。本文旨在讨论这些问题。

设计/方法/方法

受访者是世界一流的机器人设计师和连续创业者 Brennard Pierce。皮尔斯作为 Bear Robotics 的联合创始人兼首席机器人官从他最近的初创公司离职后,目前正在从事机器人技术咨询。Pierce 讨论了是什么让他进入机器人领域、Bear Robotics 的成功、他面临的挑战以及他的未来目标。

发现

Pierce 在埃克塞特大学获得了计算机科学学士学位。然后,他创立了自己的第一家初创公司 5TWO,这是一家定制软件公司。一直对机器人技术充满热情,现在想从事该领域的专业工作,他卖掉了 5TWO 以获得布里斯托尔大学新成立的布里斯托尔机器人实验室 (BRL) 的机器人科学硕士学位。在 BRL 之后,他设计并制造了一个使用进化算法学习行走的双足机器人,他加入了卡内基梅隆大学的机器人研究团队,在那里他为一家大型电子公司开发了一个全尺寸的人形机器人,设计和执行简单的实验用于平衡。在接下来的六年里,他在慕尼黑工业大学 (TUM) 认知科学研究所担任博士生和机器人研究员,在那里他建造了一个兼容的人形机器人和新一代基于现场可编程门阵列的机器人控制器。之后,Pierce 在慕尼黑成立了机器人初创公司 Robotise,将他在 TUM 开发的全方位移动平台商业化。几年后,Pierce 离开 Robotise,共同创立了 Bear Robotics,这是一家总部位于硅谷的公司,将自主机器人带入餐饮业。他在 Bear Robotics 担任了四年的首席机器人官。他目前是一名机器人顾问,在开始他的下一个机器人初创公司之前等待后 COVID。Pierce 在慕尼黑成立了机器人初创公司 Robotise,将他在 TUM 开发的全方位移动平台商业化。几年后,Pierce 离开 Robotise,共同创立了 Bear Robotics,这是一家总部位于硅谷的公司,将自主机器人带入餐饮业。他在 Bear Robotics 担任了四年的首席机器人官。他目前是一名机器人顾问,在开始他的下一个机器人初创公司之前等待后 COVID。Pierce 在慕尼黑成立了机器人初创公司 Robotise,将他在 TUM 开发的全方位移动平台商业化。几年后,Pierce 离开 Robotise,共同创立了 Bear Robotics,这是一家总部位于硅谷的公司,将自主机器人带入餐饮业。他在 Bear Robotics 担任了四年的首席机器人官。他目前是一名机器人顾问,在开始他的下一个机器人初创公司之前等待后 COVID。

原创性/价值

皮尔斯是一位经验丰富的机器人专家和成功的企业家。他在设计机器人硬件和编写低级嵌入式和高级云软件方面拥有 15 年以上的独特经验。在他的职业生涯中,他创办了 3 家公司,管理着中小型跨学科团队,并雇佣了大约 100 名各级员工。皮尔斯在慕尼黑的机器人初创公司 Robotise 完全基于他对自主移动交付系统的想法、设计和实施。他共同创立的第三家公司 Bear Robotics 成功筹集了由软银牵头的 3200 万美元 A 轮融资。Bear Robotics 是美国国家饭店协会厨房创新奖的获得者;快公司世界改变创意奖;以及 2020 年酒店业创新星球奖。

更新日期:2021-09-20
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