If you haven't heard of it before, TechCrunch is a fairly popular news outlet and organization based in Silicon Valley that is mainly focused on technology. Every year, they hold an event devoted to robotics. CEOs of major robotics companies and industry experts speak on panels and show off their new technology. This was my first time attending a TechCrunch Robotics event, and it definitely won't be my last. As I was looking through the event's agenda, I became particularly excited when I saw that Boston Dynamics (the company that makes the kinda creepy robot dog thing: robot dog video) was going to be demoing their new robot, and that Skydio's (company that makes the also kinda creepy autonomous drone: autonomous drone video) CEO was going to be talking about the company's latest drone. The event was presentation-based, focused on a panel of speakers that usually consisted of CEOs of robotics companies or industry experts. There were also various booths outside the presentation theater where the companies could demo their products and advertise. There were many different subjects that were talked about, from artificial intelligence powered robots in agriculture to self-driving cars (event videos). Some of the discussions that I found pretty interesting were about self driving big rigs and then of course, Skydio's autonomous drone. Starting with the big rigs, a company called Embark wants to use self-driving technology only for the long and boring highway part of a trucking haul, and then let a human driver start and finish the job for a few miles. I think this is a brilliant idea, because the truckers need to be present to deliver the goods, but don't want the stress of driving for many hours on the highway. The CEO of Embark explained that the company won't actually be stealing jobs, because there is a shortage of truck drivers right now in the U.S. Next, Skydio's CEO talked about what went into the technology of the autonomous system used in the company's latest drone, the Skydio R1. The CEO of Skydio mentioned that he began flying RC model airplanes at a young age and became interested in the hobby. As an MIT student, he worked on a project that used a lidar system and several cameras to autonomously fly a model airplane around a parking garage. From there, he brought together a team to apply the same idea to a quadcopter. Over many years, the company developed AI software and a camera system that would allow the drone to not only avoid obstacles, but track a person and follow them at high speeds. The Skydio R1 that came out recently has 13 cameras that allow the drone to basically be "uncrashable" in conjunction with the incredible AI processing software. I found this talk inspiring, because I enjoy flying my custom-made drones that looks just like one of Skydio's early prototypes, and I could see myself being interested in this field of work in the future. There were plenty of other interesting discussions, but I would probably write a whole novel about all of them. I hope to attend this event next year, and can't wait to see everything that will be there. See some photos and videos that I took here. If you are interested in that autonomous drone, check out Casey Neistat's video about it here.
