From one prototype to thousands: the hard jump to manufacturing
Robert Playter recounts turning Boston Dynamics from a research lab into a manufacturer, Simone Giertz describes going from a single build to mass-produced products, and Marc Raibert and Russ Tedrake discuss cost and the business of robotics. Their accounts show that making a robot work once and making it a product are different skills.
Why is making thousands different from making one? Show answer
Scale brings rare failures, the cost of every part, suppliers, quality control and the need for a market large enough to pay for it all.
How does Boston Dynamics find rare failures? Show answer
It runs fleets of Spot robots on autonomous missions around its offices day and night, logging more than a thousand hours a week.
What is Robert Playter's sales arithmetic? Show answer
If you only sell hundreds you will commercially fail. You need applications broad enough to sell thousands or tens of thousands.
Why does Boston Dynamics sell to industry and not to consumers? Show answer
A customer whose plant must keep running can afford a robot costing a hundred thousand dollars or more. The home comes later.
How did research engineers respond to manufacturing work, according to Playter? Show answer
They treated quality, cost and manufacturability as another kind of problem to solve. He also hired people inspired by those problems.
How did Simone Giertz redesign her calendar for production? Show answer
She replaced 365 physical toggle switches, too expensive at scale, with capacitive touch on a carefully designed circuit board.
What risk does Giertz face that a one-off builder does not? Show answer
A bad batch of 10,000 units, which is a frightening loss for a business she funds herself.
Why did Boston Dynamics' early surgical simulator fail? Show answer
Surgeons liked it but expected to be paid to teach with it. The technology worked and the paying buyer was missing.
What does Marc Raibert say about breaking robots? Show answer
Budget for it. Pay for spare parts and a repair crew instead of keeping a gold-plated robot on the shelf.
What does Russ Tedrake call the real challenge? Show answer
Validation: gaining enough confidence in a complex system to ship it into anybody's kitchen.
Why was the Handle robot dropped? Show answer
It was graceful but too slow at picking boxes, so it gave way to Stretch, a strong arm on a pallet-sized base.
Why does Playter say profit matters to an engineer? Show answer
Without a profitable business, somebody else ends up steering the company.