Colin Ingres, founder of iRobot: Clean robots are shifting from intelligence to autonomy

21st Century Business Herald reporter Zhang Sainan reported from Shanghai

Recently, the fourth series of the "Eye View" Dialogue of Science and Technology Innovation Figures of the School of Management of Fudan University was held.

At the scene of the day's event, Dou Yifan, associate professor and deputy head of the Department of Information Management and Information Systems, School of Management, Fudan University, Kong Bing, founder and CEO of Suzhou Patner Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., and Le Jinxin, partner of Yuanhe Origin Venture Capital, connected colin Angle, chairman, CEO and founder of iRobot Company in Boston, USA, to collide ideas on topics such as the prospects of the global robot industry, the commercial landing strategy of cutting-edge technologies, and the relationship between people and artificial intelligence.

As an authoritative expert and industry pioneer in the field of home robotics, Colin Ingres gave a speech on the topic of "Co-creation", reviewing his 31-year entrepreneurial journey in the field of robotics.

Like many others, Colin first recognized robots, starting with science fiction movies. However, unlike many people, Colin was not attracted to the robots that looked particularly complex and cool, and what really shocked and excited him were the robots that carried out simple commands and solved specific problems.

In 1990, iRobot was founded in the field of space, and developed a variety of robots suitable for space and security. However, at that time, iRobot lacked a suitable business model, and actually did not have a high profit, but accumulated valuable experience for iRobot.

In order to find a stable and profitable path for enterprises, iRobot began to explore commercialization, cooperating with well-known large enterprises to launch commercial cleaning robots, robot dolls and so on. Through cooperation with large enterprises, iRobot not only obtained stable income, technical development and tempering, but also gained experience in successful commercial development.

The Roomba series of sweeping robots allows iRobot to truly enter the vision of individual consumers, and an important opportunity for the Emergence of the Roomba series is that iRobot and SC Johnson in the United States cooperate to develop robots to clean the floor of shopping malls. iRobot was inspired by the collaboration and began developing roomba. Roomba's body brings together iRobot's rich experience in making security robots, commercial cleaning robots and other products, and pioneered the use of a three-stage cleaning structure of side brush + roller brush + suction port, which greatly improves the cleaning ability and solves the practical problems in people's real life.

Colin believes that the idea of sweeping robots is not very innovative in itself, and the problem is how to properly combine the various elements to integrate a more reasonable product. iRobot has mastered efficient cleaning methods, production methods for complex machines and area detection methods, which are particularly important for product design and development.

Colin points out that in addition to product innovation, proper marketing and customer understanding are also necessary tools for startups to succeed. The robotics industry is facing the problem of insufficient intelligence, for which Collin said that iRobot will continue to create great products with imagination, making robots a better partner for humans.

Where will the future of cleaning robots go? In this regard, Colin believes that cleaning robots are changing from intelligence to autonomy, and future robots will understand our living environment and living habits, have the ability to learn independently, and learn how to communicate with people, so that robots can become better partners for humans.

Looking back at The domestic, Suzhou Petna Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is engaged in the development and application of commercial service robots, the company's founder and CEO Kong Bing believes that the research and development of artificial intelligence and robots need to be really close to the needs of users, the current Chinese market commercial robots are promising. The combination of artificial intelligence and robotics requires a comprehensive consideration of cost, technology, and user experience.

Regarding the rapid development of domestic robots, he pointed out that on the one hand, the vigorous development of mobile Internet and e-commerce systems has promoted the outbreak of consumer demand, on the other hand, the dividends brought by artificial supply in industrial and commercial systems have basically disappeared, and it is urgent to improve efficiency by automated or modern means. Therefore, at present, the demand of the whole country is to develop intelligently and digitally. He sees people-oriented as the most important driving force in the robotics industry, and user experience must be put first.

Le Jinxin, a partner at Yuanhe Origin Venture Capital, pointed out from the perspective of investors that on the 2B or industrial track, the venture capital investment in the robot industry is more difficult, and it is necessary to comprehensively consider factors such as innovation, cost performance, and market size; and the robot track of 2C, there are too many fast companies in "me too", and it is difficult to win without end-game thinking. Yuanhe Origin has made a large number of investment layouts from the underlying computing chip of the robot to the sensor device and industry applications.

Regarding the rapid iteration and trial and error of robot track entrepreneurship, he believes that the rapid adjustment of startup technology and products, multiple trial and error, is centered on the value of user experience. Trial and error without a goal is a waste, and the rapid iteration and trial and error of today's technology companies are based on strong infrastructure development, such as 5G communications, big data, AI, etc. Startups can adjust in time for users, supply chains, and business environments, which is not inconsistent with the long-term research and development of the robot industry. He stressed that investment is not only expensive to persevere, but also needs to find suitable entrepreneurs to grow together.

Finally, Colin Ingres argues that designing robots is a long journey, that for startups, small companies are often able to implement part of the solution, and systems that exist alone also have value, which is where opportunities for small companies lie. At the same time, with the rapid development of startups in the robotics industry, the development and integration of separate systems can be carried out by different companies to achieve a more complete solution, and the cycle can be further shortened through investment.

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