Patrick Sobalvarro is the Co-Founder and CEO of Veo Robotics, a company that creates the brains for superhuman industrial robots.
Patrick has more than twenty-five years of experience in computer vision, robotics, and industrial automation. Prior to founding Veo Robotics, he was the first Entrepreneur in Residence at Siemens Venture Capital.
Patrick was also President of Rethink Robotics, creators of collaborative manufacturing robots, and founded and led the computer vision startup IntelliVid to its acquisition by Tyco International.
Originally trained as a computer scientist, Patrick holds a Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in Computer Science from MIT.
I was impressed with how Patrick was able to explain the nuances of what he does to someone outside the industry like myself. He is humble and knowledgeable which makes him a great teacher. In this episode we talk about how robots are similar to the plow-horse from the early 20th century, how Tesla automated their factory too much leading to disastrous results, computer vision, A.I., what he looks for in new-hires, and his No-Jerks policy.
In this episode, we talk about in order:
- Insights from computer vision in stores (min. 5:30)
- What defines a robot? (min. 9:30)
- Industrial robotics overview (min. 14:15)
- Tesla overreaching (min. 19:30)
- Handoff between robots and humans (min. 24:30)
- Removing robots from their cages (min. 33:00)
- The “Moses Vest” (min. 37:45)
- Computer vision (min. 39:00)
- Computing power required (min. 40:30)
- AI/machine learning (min. 42:00)
- Future of industry (min. 47:15)
- As CEO what qualities he looks for in new-hires (min. 49:45)
- No-Jerks Policy (min 51:30)
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