In Episode 229 of The Robotic Report Podcast, hosts Steve Crowe and Mike Oitzman recap the foremost robotics information of the week.
Kevin Damoa, cofounder and CEO of Glid Applied sciences. | Credit score: Glid
Our visitor on this present is Kevin Damoa, founder and CEO of Glid Applied sciences. He’s a mechanical engineer, operations govt, inventor, and veteran of the U.S. navy. He has developed applied sciences which have enabled area exploration and the deployment of unpolluted mobility options similar to hydrogen-powered airplanes.
Damoa’s profession started within the U.S. Military at age 17, when he served in South Korea for 2 years earlier than being forward-deployed to Iraq with the third Armored Cavalry Regiment. After leaving the U.S. Military after his second tour in Iraq, he joined the U.S. Air Pressure, the place he served as a logistics officer and firefighter, supporting California’s Cell Air Fireplace Preventing Programs (MAFFS) unit for 12 years earlier than retiring in 2018.
From 2012 to 2015, Damoa served because the flight module logistics supervisor at SpaceX, growing the logistics methods, applications, and equipment used to move the rockets from manufacturing to launch web site. After a quick stint at Northrop Grumman, the place he served as an integration program supervisor on the F35 fighter jet platform, Damoa went on to be an govt and an early founding worker at a variety of startups.
He based Glīd Applied sciences in 2022. The corporate is growing a clear power road-to-rail automobile utilizing autonomous applied sciences.
Damoa holds an MBA in challenge administration from Keller Graduate Faculty of Administration of DeVry College and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Embry Riddle Aeronautical College.
Present timeline
- 8:12 – Information of the week
- 26:12 – Kevin Damoa, founder and CEO, Glid Applied sciences
Information of the week
NHTSA to research Waymo after AV hits a baby
On Jan. 23, a baby ran throughout the road from behind a double-parked SUV towards an elementary college in Santa Monica, Calif., in keeping with the Nationwide Freeway Transportation Security Administration (NHTSA). When the kid emerged from behind the SUV, a Waymo autonomous automobile (AV) struck her.
Waymo claimed that its know-how detected the kid as quickly as she emerged from behind the parked automobiles. The corporate stated its automobile braked exhausting earlier than contact was made, and the kid sustained minor accidents.
Waymo stated it instantly referred to as 911, and its automobile moved to the facet of the street to attend for legislation enforcement to reach. The corporate additionally famous that it voluntarily contacted the NHTSA on the identical day and that it plans to totally cooperate with the investigation.
Fauna introduces Sprout humanoid growth platform
Standing at 107 cm (42 in.) and weighing 22.7 kg (50 lb.), Sprout is designed to be inherently secure. | Credit score: Fauna Robotics
Fauna Robotics stated it engineered Sprout’s bodily kind issue for approachability. The robotic is designed to be small in order that it’s unintimidating, notably for kids.
Sprout additionally has a devoted security subsystem that screens real-time situations to implement constraints throughout all mechanical and software program ranges, defined the corporate.
It designed the robotic initially as a bodily/embodied AI growth platform for analysis laboratories.
Sprout serves as a high-performance, scalable platform powered by the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin for superior notion and decision-making.
The robotic affords builders a streamlined expertise via steady APIs and containerized companies that help the whole lot from low-level motor management to high-level autonomy, Fauna defined. Through the use of shopper electronics manufacturing processes and a low half rely, the corporate stated its design ensures that Sprout can scale effectively from analysis labs to mass-market manufacturing.
