Welcome to Episode 4 of The Robot Report Podcast, where each week Robot Report editors Steve Crowe and Eugene Demaitre review the latest robotics, automation and intelligent systems news and announcements, and interview leading roboticists, leaders of innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community.
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In this episode, Gene and Steve speak with representatives of 6 River Systems and Gatik, two companies that were recently named named RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award winners by our sister publication Robotics Business Review.
This is the second straight year on the RBR50 list for 6 River Systems, which last year was acquired by e-commerce giant Shopify for nearly $500 million. Chris Cacioppo, Co-founder & CTO, joined the podcast to talk about the acquisition and how integration has gone. Chris also discusses how to build robots people are comfortable working around, creating a culture of innovation, mobile robot trends to watch, and the impact of COVID-19.
Gautam Narang, Co-founder and CEO of Gatik, also joined the podcast to discuss autonomous vehicles. Gatik is solving middle-mile logistics using Level 4 autonomous vehicles. Gautam discusses how Gatik landed a partnership with Walmart while in stealth mode, its hybrid approach to Level 4 autonomy, restricting its vehicles to the right-most lane and more. We also discussed the changing investment landscape around autonomous vehicles and why level 5 autonomy is at least 10-15 years away, if it can even be solved.
Podcast Timestamps
0-1:32: Podcast Introduction
1:32-23:10: Conversation with Chris Cacioppo, Co-founder & CTO of 6 River Systems
24:00-55:09: Conversation with Gautam Narang, Co-founder & CEO of Gatik
Wish to Be a Guest?
If you would like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of The Robot Report Podcast, or have recommendations for guests, please contact Steve Crowe or Eugene Demaitre. For sponsorship opportunities for The Robot Report Podcast, contact Jami Brownlee.
