Safety Third: Autonomous Revolution

Erik Reynolds sits down with Russell Nickerson, Partnership Engagement Liaison at MassRobotics , the world's largest independent nonprofit robotics hub, and founder of Collabots , an entertainment robotics consultancy with clients including Cirque du Soleil. Russell shares what he sees every day working with startups, corporate partners, and academia: the gap between a robot that works in the...

Phillip Hansel , CEO and Co-founder of AIOps , joins Erik Reynolds to talk about what happens when reinforcement learning shows up on the factory floor. Phillip spent more than a decade as a control systems engineer in oil, gas, and chemical processing, and now builds AI for the same kind of plants he once worked in. They cover the virtual operator, an AI agent trained to run a process the way a s...

Jordan Punch, Senior Functional Safety Engineer at Reynolds and Moore, joins Erik Reynolds to talk about what it takes to write a safety standard for AI from scratch. As a voting member of ISO SC42 JWG4, the working group developing ISO/IEC TS 22440, Jordan has spent the past two years helping shape the first international standard for AI functional safety. They cover the committee draft process a...

Erik welcomes back Sensory Robotics' Chris Edwards , Founder and CEO, and Mark Gagas , COO, one year after their first appearance on Safety Third: Autonomous Revolution. In the year since their first appearance, Sensory Robotics completed verification and validation of the SR1 system under UL 1740 after 19 months of work, navigating standards that were not written for their technology. The system...

In this episode, Erik Reynolds talks with Dr. Ricard Picas Prat, Advanced Solution Engineer at Novanta Inc., about functional safety for dynamically stable robots. Ricard brings a background spanning academic research, hardware engineering, and years of leading SIL 3 and PL E functional safety certifications at what is now Novanta's servo drives division. They cover how classical safety functi...

In honor of Reynolds & Moore's 10 year anniversary, co-founders Erik and Missy Reynolds sit down with producer Ginny Spellman to talk about how the company got built and how the functional safety industry has changed over that time. They cover the founding story, the culture Erik and Missy wanted to build from day one, and what it took to grow from a one-person consultancy to a global team...

Paul Schmitt , Director of Engineering at Reynolds & Moore, joins Erik Reynolds to explore what the safety community still has not solved: how robots decide what to do. Paul brings decades of experience across Ford, iRobot, and autonomous trucking to a conversation about the behavior layer in physical AI. They cover human-robot interaction research, including a study on how pedestrians actuall...

Bodo Seifert , Principal Automotive Functional Safety Engineer and Practice Lead at TÜV Rheinland , joins Erik Reynolds to share what certification bodies actually see when companies come in for assessment. They cover the organizational and technical red flags that assessors look for, and why good engineering practice and a formal safety case are not the same thing. Bodo draws on experience across...

In this episode of the Safety Third Podcast, Erik Reynolds speaks with Dr. Werner Krauss, head of the research division for automation and robotics at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA ), where he has spent 15 years bridging academic research and real-world industrial deployment. They cover the real engineering challenges behind deploying humanoid robots in...

Erik welcomes back Josiah Rohne, Staff Systems Engineer at Fennec Engineering , to discuss ASAP, Fennec's full-lifecycle functional safety platform, and the shift from fragmented tools to a single connected workflow. ASAP connects risk assessment, requirements, design, testing, and the safety case through shared traceability, while Fennec Engineering also develops dedicated test environments f...

Erik sits down with Cameron Gieda, Executive and Business Development leader at FORT Robotics, to discuss the commercial strategy required to move safety technology from lab prototypes to real-world deployment. They explore the stakeholder stack, explaining why the success of an innovation often depends more on aligning IT, finance, and operations than on the engineering itself. Cameron breaks dow...

In this episode of Safety Third: Autonomous Revolution, Erik talks with Anita Dodia, Laboratory Manager at RMAI, about how testing, inspection, and certification are evolving for AI-enabled safety systems. They explore why traditional functional safety standards struggle with black box AI models, and what it really means to validate systems that are probabilistic, non-transparent, and shaped by co...

Erik sits down with Patrik Feth, Professor of Computer Science at International University of Applied Sciences (IU) and AI Officer at NewTec, to discuss what it actually takes to move artificial intelligence from research into real world safety critical systems. The conversation explores the “valley of death” in technology deployment and the need to bridge the gap between traditional functional sa...

Natalya Lopareva, co-founder and CEO of Algorized, joins Erik to talk about non-visual human sensing and why true perception goes beyond cameras for the future of robotics. From detecting breathing and heartbeats through walls to creating a real-time safety bubble around people in industrial environments, this conversation explores how machines can understand human presence through a head to head...

In this episode, Erik Reynolds sits down with Roberta Nelson Shea, Global Technical Compliance Officer at Teradyne Robotics, covering Universal Robots and MiR, and ISO convener for TC 299, for a wide-ranging conversation on how safety evolves across robotics, automation, and emerging technologies. Drawing on decades of experience and her role in shaping standards such as ISO TS 15066 and ISO 10218...

Erik talks with Jens Müller, founder and managing director of Müller & Partner Sachverständige (M&P Experts) and longtime robotics safety specialist, about how safety fits into innovation for robots, mobile systems, and emerging humanoids. They dig into why standards matter, how to think about safety from the very first concept, and what startups and investors should know about compliance...

Erik talks with Ashley Weis, Senior Technical Writer and Project Coordinator at Reynolds and Moore, who also leads the company’s cybersecurity efforts. They explore how documentation, coordination, and clear communication support the safety lifecycle and help teams manage complex projects from the start. Ashley discusses her path into safety from chemical manufacturing and shares how functional sa...

Erik talks with Dr. Chris Boyer, Associate Professor of Practice and one of the founding faculty of the new Resource and Energy Engineering program at the University of Texas at Arlington, and Principal at Amber Waves Energy. They explore how innovation and safety shape the future of energy, from hydrogen and solar to large-scale battery storage and the changing architecture of the power grid. Chr...

Host Erik Reynolds talks with David Felio, President and CEO of The Realtime Group, about how regulation and standards are shaping the future of AI in safety-critical systems. They discuss California’s SB 53, what it could mean for physical AI, and how emerging standards like ISO/IEC TS 22440 are guiding risk assessment and certification. The conversation also touches on engineering culture, medic...

Returning guest Marcel Stieber joins Erik to explore how safety can move beyond the background and become a defining product feature. Drawing on his journey from robotics functional safety to leading battery and product safety for a global fleet, Marcel shares how reliability, cost, and risk intersect in the devices people rely on every day. They discuss what certification labels really mean, why...

In this episode of Safety Third: Autonomous Revolution, Erik talks with his longtime friend Ryan Batchelor, a a military officer in the United States Navy and founder of Crux Leaders LLC, about what it takes to lead when the pressure is on. Ryan shares stories nearly 3 decades of flying with the Navy, managing complex operations, and building teams that work when the stakes are high. The conversat...

Eugene Demaitre, Editorial Director at WTWH Media, joins the Safety Third Podcast: Autonomous Revolution Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of robotics, AI, and automation. From robot safety standards and the rise of humanoids to public perception and policy gaps, Eugene shares insights from his years covering the industry. He and Erik dig into what it takes to design for trust,...

Patrick (Pat) Barry joins Erik Reynolds on the Safety Third: Autonomous Revolution Podcast to share his journey from carrying Stinger missiles in the Army to overseeing compliance at Mobile Industrial Robots. They talk about early lessons in functional safety, navigating complex standards, and how new technologies like AI and advanced sensing are changing the game. Pat shares stories from the fiel...

In this episode of Safety Third: Autonomous Revolution Podcast, Erik talks with Chris Quick, founder of RealBotics and co-author of Robotic Safety Systems: An Applied Approach . They dig into what it really means to bootstrap a robotics company, the realities of applying safety in remote-controlled systems, and how human oversight can play a critical role in a world leaning on AI. Chris shares the...

In this episode, Erik interviews Torrey Smith, co-founder of Endiatx, who shares his journey from a unique childhood to the forefront of medical technology with the development of PillBot, a steerable robot designed to navigate the human body. Torrey discusses the inspiration behind his work, the challenges of bringing innovative medical devices to market, and the potential impact of early detecti...