The Promise of Robotics

Remember that amazing robot you were promised when you were a kid? You know, the one that would fold the laundry, clean the toilets, do your homework? On TV and in the movies, such machines have been with us for quite a while, from Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still to R2-D2 in Star Wars and T-800 in The Terminator. Along with flying cars and teleportation, it seemed just a matter of time before we all would have our own reliable robot. 

So what happened? It's 2007. Where's my RoboButler?

There was a little problem. Turns out that real-life robots are, well, dumb. They can weld just fine and lift and push and even see and talk. They're great when it comes to chores that are monotonous, dirty or dangerous. But like many of us, they don't cope well with change.

"The nice thing about robots is they just don't break down mechanically," says Walt Weisel, CEO of Fort Myers-based Innova Robotics and Automation. However, "They suffer from brain problems."

It's Weisel's business to fix that. He's building a better robot brain.

"The brain of the robot is software. We don't particularly care what the robot can do. If you want motion, we can make it happen," he says.

His company has been operating in Fort Myers in one form or another since 1991, and so far it's a business still based largely on promise and optimism. Weisel estimates the company was more than $5.5 million in the red in 2006. Still, he remains convinced that Innova is on the verge of something big.

"This company is a gold mine for technology, employment and growth," he says.

industry has always been about selling the future, and there has always been something about seeing a machine perform lifelike tasks that sparks wonder. Weisel recalls the precise moment when he was seduced.

It was 1966. Joseph Engelberger, the acknowledged father of robotics, appeared on The Tonight Show with the Unimate, a small, one-armed robot.