And the biggest moment for me there was getting to do robotics classes where the robots competed against other ones, but not with a remote controller with automation. So, all you did with the robot is you push power and then it had to go and try to win the competition without you being able to intervene. And that really captured my imagination for the potential of autonomous robots.

And then from there, my third most memorable moment was around 23 years old. I found for the first time a job that I loved from what I started working at age 12. I did not love my jobs and of course they were maybe not as good or interesting ones. And so, when I was 23, being able to find one that I really enjoyed showing up to, that was a really big moment for me.

And then the fourth most memorable one is when I joined Luxonis. I have been so lucky to get to be a part of a team here, and that really brings me to the fifth one, which is today and being able to work with our customers is so rewarding and being able to have our technology create the future of computer vision and artificial intelligence.

It’s such a special time and I really cherish all of it. So those are my those are my five starting from the beginning.

Host: Yeah, that’s quite impressive. Thank you for sharing. So, let’s move ahead with our next question. Computer vision and artificial intelligence are two emerging technologies. How have these breakthroughs impacted sectors like robotics and automation?

Bradley: For decades, robots have been very successful in controlled environments. So, if you go to a automotive factory even 30 years ago, you would have seen robots helping with a number of tasks. These are tasks where the conditions are always the same, the lighting is the same, the parts always in the same spot, the temperature is the same, and you can the robot can be programmed to take the part from point A to point B, manipulate the part and then do it a thousand times a day where robotics have really failed to meet up to their potential is the physical world that us humans operate in each day.

And you notice this when you go out in the world, you don’t see that many robots. There’s not a robot that’s delivering packages to my house with a drone. There’s not a robot that’s delivering my DoorDash meal to my to my front door. There’s not a robot that’s cleaning dishes in a restaurant. And the reason those have been held back has been that they haven’t been able to adapt very well to an average, ever changing physical world that humans can.

And this is really where advancements in computer vision and artificial intelligence have changed the industry. So, it’s now possible that in this ever-changing physical world that robots can actually adapt and thrive in that environment. And that’s what makes physical AI so exciting at this time.

Host: Yeah, totally agreed. Artificial intelligence and computer vision have totally advanced robotics like anything. So next up, for a skeptical developer choosing a combine stack or hardware and software, give three uncompromising reasons to pick Luxonis.

Bradley: We have very high conviction in this, and it’s why we decided to actually build our own hardware and do our own firmware into our own software. The three reasons I would advocate for one is, is that our software is actually optimized to run on our hardware, not just maybe an API that doesn’t work very well. The second is, is that we are a one stop shop, so you can complete everything that you’re needing to do in your project with us rather than you need to have several different providers and trying to cobble all together.

And then the third is that because we control and manage the entire stack means we can quickly fix it and we can quickly improve it. So, we have a team of 80 engineers and it covers the entire staff. And so, if something needs to get fixed today, we could actually do that rather than relying on some third party or some vendor that would make it much more difficult for us to do that.

Host: Yeah. Luxonis is surely leading the tech industry when it comes to combining hardware and software. So, moving further, which challenges can disrupt seamless manufacturing even for bigger firms. And what tactics would you suggest for tackling them?

Bradley: There’s been major supply chain disruptions over previous decades, but in particular over the last six years, it’s affected everybody, whether it’s bigger, big or small companies. And so if you look in the last few years, anything really can disrupt that, whether it’s COVID-19, it’s wars, it’s changes in tariff policy. They yeah, they affect all of us. What I would say our approach is, is to focus on only what we can control and not worried about some of these outside factors that are outside of our control.

So, Luxonis doesn’t have a lobbyist, we don’t have a political analyst, we don’t have anything like that. We don’t really spend any time worrying about it. But we do focus on something that we call our two-supplier vision, and that’s that we have at least two nodes in every aspect that’s required to be able to deliver physical hardware to our customers.

And so, we work really hard to be able to have that. And it makes it so that if there’s any issue and one node of the supply chain that we have a redundancy that we can go with. So that’s been our focus. And approach. We try not to get too caught up in the various headlines and challenges that come with trying to be able to produce and deliver physical goods today.

Host: That’s a strategy, truly strategic approach to tackle all the manufacturing challenges. So, moving ahead, pick two industries where robotics is winning and two where it is failing and which metrics should companies measure to assess the successful deployment of robotics?

Bradley: My vote for robot year would probably be Waymo, the amount of scale that you’re seeing for autonomous driving in the United States is remarkable. And the other area that we at looks honestly the most is probably warehousing. So, it’s moving goods in and out of warehouses and, you know, around warehouses. That’s where we see robots probably reaching the most scale in the United States.

And we really advocate, advocate for us clear return on investment. The clients that we work with, they’re not just trying to pilot things and explore things. They actually want to be able to deploy things at scale. And to do that, it requires clear return on investment for the project. So, I think that’s the most important metric for being able to scale with these types of systems.

Host: Yeah, assessing ROI is surely a metric by, you know, evaluating the effectiveness of any strategy. So next up, what does the future of computer vision hold? And give us two possibilities that can impact the industry remarkably?

Bradley: Remarkably, yeah. The future is so exciting. We really love that we have this opportunity to help create it, our small part in it. I think the biggest thing that we’re seeing more of that we’re going to see increasingly a lot more of is self-improving systems. And the legacy was that a system had to really be managed closely, and there was a really difficult process to be able to get it to improve.

And in many cases, it was hard to make it not just get worse over time. And the future is going to be that these systems understand what their objective is and then they’re able to recursively improve over time, which gets really exciting. And I think that the end result of that capability is really AGI for the physical world.

And what I mean by that is that you have robotic systems that are going to be able to exceed humans in every possible physical task or project that’s in the physical world.

Host: Yeah, computer vision is going through major transformation, I must say, and the future holds significant possibilities. Technologies like AI entering the industry. So, thank you, Bradley. Joining us today, the insights you have shared on computer vision and artificial intelligence are truly valuable for us and our viewers. Thank you so much.

Bradley: Thank you.

Host: That wraps today’s conversation. Thank you, everyone, for tuning into this episode of ExtraMile by KnowledgeNile. Stay tuned with us for more insightful discussions with industry leaders and experts.