Time to Innovate
by Dan Danknick
( dan@teamdelta.com)
When we originally architected
SERVO Magazine four years ago,
there were bookend columns: Mind/Iron
formed the mooring from which the various articles in the magazine could anchor
and Appetizer which would be an unstructured opinion piece that varied in content.
I have enjoyed seeing our vision grow into
a place where people throughout the
robotics industry could share their views
and enjoin readers to new ideas, while
spurring them to act. I’m taking advantage of that maturity to cover a number of
topics and I hope one speaks to you.
What are you working on these
days? It doesn’t matter if you’re a student
in the middle of rural eastern Texas (I’ve
been out there and spoken to them) or a
well paid engineer working in a metropolis. You should be working on something
in your spare time! Fifteen years ago, I
earned most of my patents at Canon R&D
in southern California. My Japanese boss
would end every company meeting with
the solemn exhortation “Work hard!” At
first, I was somewhat taken aback at such
a statement. But I soon learned that not
only was the phrase a call to future
success in a Japanese way of thinking,
but in the culture of the producer, it was
something to be savored. Hard work =
success = future reward. Hey, that’s the
whole basis of capitalism as we enjoy it
here in the USA! And guess what? We
have all the tools readily at hand.
Consider this: The demand for
self-contained subsystems will always be
present in the robotics field. This is
because there is no singularly good
robotic solution to the myriad challenges.
I remember brightly walking into PARC to
interview Mark Yim about self-configuring
robotics. Four hours later I walked out,
discouraged. Mark had told me that the
conclusion of his research was that pur-pose-specific robots would usually be
more successful and cheaper. Part of this
was due to a trait of human nature that
requires the collection of a minimum
amount of situational information before
action is taken. That high threshold,
explained Mark, was enough to rule out
truly general-purpose robots like the self
aligning cubes (read more in the August
Answers from
page 50
2004 issue of SERVO). So what we are left
with are semi-intelligent subsystems for
sensing information or expressing output
tied to a central processor by a standardized interface. Think of every USB peripheral you have that plugs into your desktop.
Same idea. (Google “Mark Yim” to see
what he is up to these days at U of PA.)
I see quite a few résumés at my day job
and I usually flip to the end for the good
stuff — where applicants list the bits that
don’t fit in the time retarded “job experience
list.” I want to know what sets this person
apart from everyone else that has put in
their time at a 9-5 gig. And quite honestly,
I’ll be much more interested in the 3.0 GPA
undergrad that spent a summer building
dune buggies at a local off-road shop than a
grad student that lists a bunch of profs they
worked for. If I’m staffing a project to
design a recon robot that can be tossed
through a second floor window without taking any damage, knowing that you always
heat treat chromolly steel after welding
trumps a Quicksort library written in Python.
Welcome to “How The World Works.”
SERVO is the robotic world’s version of
YouTube. Sure, they grabbed the catchy
“Broadcast Yourself™” moniker, but we
preceded that with the open invitation to
publish and share your work with a huge
number of people just like yourself. Are you
working on something new and interesting?
Consider writing it up for publication. At the
very least you will get paid for it, while at
the most you might get some input and
become the next Sky Dayton of robotics!
One final thought, from a great
writer and philosopher: “It is the innovators who carry mankind forward.”
Consider your strengths and play to
them, while attending to your weakness-es. The opportunity to learn and
contribute has never been equaled in
human history. Don’t miss out — refuse
to idly watch, and go innovate! SV
SERVO 09.2007 79
