How 1996 Showed Me The Future of Robotics

Supply Chain
Written By Rick Watson

Robotics is having its day. It brings a smile to my face to see. Why?

Really the first stop in my career, back in 1996, was at an Intelligent Robotics Lab (IRL) in 1996 as a Master's Student in Electrical Engineering.

One of my Lab Directors went onto Amazon later in his career. Others went to IBM's Watson and others went into AI research.

The IRL was a super-cool place led by an even more amazing founder, Kazuhiko Kawamura. Dr. K had the vision that one day humans and robots would work cooperatively together.

Doesn't sound that interesting? Well. His thinking goes back to the early 1980s. Just think about that for the moment. In 1980 the Sony Walkman was invented.

DHL ordered 2,000 picking robots designed to make their warehouse more efficient. These were made by a company called Locus Robotics, founded by Bruce Welty after he noticed in 2014 that once Amazon acquired Kiva Robotics, another generation of robotics was clearly not on the horizon. So he needed to do it himself. Again, it's nice to see robotics on the rise.

Dr. K (who just turned 80 right before the pandemic!) should be proud of his legacy!

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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