Sept. 22, 2020

The Future of Commoditized Robotics

The Future of Commoditized Robotics

Futurist Trond Arne Undheim interviews Tom Ryden, Executive Director of MassRobotics, the biggest co-working space and robotics community in the US.
In this conversation, they talk about what's happened over the past decade, where is the robotics field n...

Futurist Trond Arne Undheim interviews Tom Ryden, Executive Director of MassRobotics, the biggest co-working space and robotics community in the US.

In this conversation, they talk about what's happened over the past decade, where is the robotics field now (from R&D, to standardization, to big company implementation, the role of robots in contemporary factories, and consumer applications). They discuss the changing form factors, the pivotal role of AI and IoT towards a "Cambrian explosion" in robotics. What are the hottest startups? Where are we going in the next decade?

The takeaway is that the future of commoditized robotics just took a major leap forward with COVID-19, as pilots became huge deployments and the automation of manufacturing suddenly became a survival strategy not a future proofing strategy. Next, we might see an uptick in collaborative robots, so-called co-bots. 

After listening to the episode, check out MassRobotics, and Tom Ryden's online presence:

The show is hosted by Podbean and can be found at Futurized.co. Additional context about the show, the topics, and our guests, including show notes and a full list of podcast players that syndicate the show can be found at https://trondundheim.com/podcast/. Music: Electricity by Ian Post from the album Magnetism. 

For more about the host, including media coverage, books and more, see Trond Arne Undheim's personal website (https://trondundheim.com/) as well as the Yegii Insights blog (https://yegii.wpcomstaging.com/). Undheim has published two books this year, Pandemic Aftermath and Disruption Games. To advertise or become a guest on the show, contact the podcast host here. If you like the show, please subscribe and consider rating it five stars.

Tom Ryden Profile Photo

Tom Ryden

Thomas Ryden is the Executive Director of MassRobotics. MassRobotics is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help create and grow the next generation of robotics and smart connected device companies.

Prior to joining MassRobotics Mr. Ryden was the founder and CEO/COO of VGo Communications, Inc. While at VGo Mr. Ryden oversaw the development and launch of the market leading VGo telepresence robot. Previously, Mr. Ryden was Director of Sales & Marketing at iRobot Corporation. Under his leadership iRobot secured over $300M in contracts and revenue from its government and industrial products increased from $2M to over $80M annually. In addition, Mr. Ryden held roles in program management, overseeing the development of some of iRobot’s most successful products

Mr. Ryden is on the board of directors of AUVSI New England and serves at the co-chairman of the robotics cluster of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.