Automated with Brian Heater

Robotics has a habit of compressing timelines in theory and stretching them out in practice. Few people are better positioned to talk about that gap than Vincent Vanhoucke, whose work spans the early days of deep learning at Google and the ongoing challenge of scaling autonomous systems at Waymo. Vincent Vanhoucke, distinguished engineer at Waymo and former leader at Google Robotics and Google Bra...

True Ventures was an early investor in key robotics startups like Diligent and Bear Flag, thanks, in part, to Rohit Sharma’s thoughtful eye. The venture partner discusses how the firm determines early stage successes and charts his family’s journey from India farm to Palo Alto boardroom.  From ag robotics and humanoids to long investment timelines, founder empathy, and why optimism matters in...

‘‘Twas the night before Automated and all through TRI, not a robot was stirring, just Erin McColl and I. We watched several YouTube videos with great glee, for the latest in AI and autonomy.”  Welcome to this end-of-year special where host Brian Heater and Toyota Research Institute’s Erin McColl break down the most compelling robot videos of 2025. What’s real, what’s hype, and what actually m...

Ahead of Disney’s Avatar: Fire and Ash’s release, we’ve got one hot conversation with Ben Procter. The film’s production designer, who previously worked on the Transformers series and Prometheus, discusses how real-world robots influenced the sequel’s autonomous systems and mechs. From Avatar’s crab suits to swarm construction robots, this conversation dives deep into how real robotics, industrial...

For more than 30 years, University of Massachusetts Lowell professor Holly Yanco has been a leading mind in human-robot interaction. It seems the rest of the automation industry may finally be catching up with her decades of research. Professor Yanco delves into the complexities of human–robot interaction, from telepresence robots and robot trust to assistive tech, exoskeleton advances, and the ch...

For Grace Brown, a humanoid robot future is a hopeful future. Andromeda’s Abi is designed to build connections in an increasingly isolated world, focused on older adults in care facilities. It’s a group that is a prime target for transformative technologies, but is too often overlooked. In this episode, she talks about designing Abi, the robot bringing real connection back into aged care, the jaw-...

In 2018, Dusty Robotics quite literally got in on the ground floor of automating the $2 trillion U.S. construction industry. Founder and CEO Tessa Lau discusses the ups and downs of those early days, and what it means to go from engineer to executive. We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org . You can find the transcript and more episodes of...

AI Go-to-Market Lead for Energy & Utilities at Google AI, Dianne Eldridge, knows how to communicate with executives. The automation vet is also an expert at cutting to the heart of the matter in conversations about industry, society, and her own personal journey.  In this episode, Dianne shares her remarkable journey, from surviving a three-family apartment in Beijing to becoming an execu...

Ken Goldberg is a great resource to have on speed dial when those complex robotics questions emerge. As a longtime U.C. Berkeley professor and cofounder of Ambi Robotics, he’s familiar with the promise the category holds and the vast amount of work and data it will take to bridge that gap. From Ambi Robotics’ data flywheel and the “robot data gap” to why personal use of humanoids may remain decade...

A crush on a fictional astromech droid at age 11 set Helen Grenier down a path toward cofounding iRobot, the most influential consumer robotics firm of the early  21 st century. Since then, Grenier has served as CEO of garden weeding robotics company, Tertill, and defense drone firm, Cyphy Works.  We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automat...

What began as a University of Illinois engineering project has grown into a startup aimed at improving lives. Psyonic CEO Aadeel Akhtar discusses the company’s journey from human prosthesis to humanoid manipulation. We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org . You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm .  Un...

Amazon Robotics' Chief Technologist discusses his journey from undergraduate aeronautics to helping the world's largest retailer deploy one million robots. He shares how Amazon is reinventing automation through human-machine collaboration, scalable AI, and a culture that values curiosity over hype. From early lessons at MIT to leading one of the world’s largest robotics teams, Tye Brady explains w...

As a long time Amazon VP, Brad Porter knows what it takes to deploy industrial robots at scale. Now doing the same with his own company, Cobot, Porter delivers a dose of reality to the hardware hype cycle. We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org . You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm .  Unlock full...

Apptronik CEO Jeff Cardenas has remained one of the more transparent and pragmatic executives in the humanoid robotics race. Here he takes on the Austin company’s Google partnership, safety, and what scaling really looks like. We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org . You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm...

Perhaps no one has done more to promote industrial robot safety than Roberta Nelson Shea. For decades, Universal Robotics’ global technical compliance officer has been a tireless advocate for maintaining automation safeguarding for human workers. This episode explores how robot safety standards have evolved and why they’re critical to the future of automation. From cages and compliance to collabor...

When I want an automation reality check, I go to Rodney Brooks, one of the past century’s most influential roboticists. The Robust. AI CTO cofounded iRobot and Rethink Robotics after spending a quarter-century teaching the subject at MIT. His annual scorecard is an important progress report for AI and automation hype cycles. In this episode, we talk about humanoid robots, AI hype, and the future o...

Just over a decade ago, NVIDIA got out of mobile processing and into robotics. Deepu Talla helped lead the risky push that is now paying off in the form of the chipmaker’s Jetson platform. The industry veteran explains how a company best known for its gaming graphics cards became a ubiquitous fixture on next-gen robotics.  We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach...

When we recorded this episode, Melonee Wise was the chief product officer at humanoid pioneer, Agility Robotics. After kickstarting her career as employee number two at Willow Garage, Wise cofounded and ran Fetch Robotics for the next decade. As for where she’ll be when you read this podcast description — who can say where the Robot Ninja will strike next? We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts...

Few alive have left as large a mark on robotics as Marc Raibert. After founding and running Boston Dynamics for three decades, the former MIT professor went on to create the RAI Institute. These days, Raibert is exploring physical AI, general purpose robotics, and the occasional guitar tube amplifier. We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org...

Robotics, AI, and automation are reshaping the world around us. Meet top minds from NVIDIA, Boston Dynamics, Agility, MIT, AWS, Apptronik , and more, one long-form conversation at a time. Here's a sneak peek of what's to come on Automated with Brian Heater. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.