The global drone market is projected to reach 260 billion USD by 2030 [1]. Are you curious about the technology driving this revolution?

I recently sat down with Wolfgang Hönig, professor for multi-robot coordination at the TU Berlin, for an in-depth discussion on the future of robot drones. In our podcast episode, we discuss

- When will drone package delivery become a Reality?
- How to overcome the complex physics of drone flight
- Coordinating swarms of drones for maximum efficiency
- Why bird-like drones could be a game-changer
- How to build a cutting-edge drone research lab
- How drones can revolutionize search and rescue operations

Check out our full conversation below!

Content
00:35 Research Goals
01:17 Motivation to do Robotics Research
01:58 Early Life in Dresden
03:20 First Programming Experiences
05:20 From Computer Science to Embedded Systems
06:36 Master Thesis with NVIDIA
07:38 Software Engineer at NVIDIA
09:11 Lessons Learned at NVIDIA
10:17 Favorite Coding Environment
10:43 Largest Company in the World in 2025
11:25 From NVIDIA to Academia
12:26 Meeting His Wife
13:17 Difficulty of Getting into a PhD Program
14:08 Moving to Los Angeles
15:09 Multi-Robot Coordination Lab
16:21 PhD work on Drones
17:06 Virtual Reality and Drones
18:02 Motion Planning for Multi-Robot Teams
19:22 Main Challenges for Motion Planning on Drones
20:35 Understanding the Physics of Multiple Drones
22:13 Motion Planning for Drones
25:46 Combining Planning and Learning
27:32 Drone Racing
29:22 Applications of Large Swarms of Drones
30:30 Where is my Package Delivering Drone?
33:46 Bird-like Drones
35:10 Advantages of Bird Designs
36:10 How to Build a Drone Lab
38:27 Demonstrations in the Drone Lab
39:31 Difference between Drone Lab and Real World
40:39 Drones in Warfare
41:59 Drone Search And Rescue
42:52 Larger Drones for Search and Rescue
44:59 Civilian Applications of Drones
46:35 Drone Lifetime and Battery Requirements
48:07 Connections to Material Science
49:35 Current Research Projects
50:36 Most Impactful Paper Ever Written
51:42 Next Career Milestones
52:15 Prerequisites to do Drone Research
52:58 Value of H-Index Metric
53:58 A Typical Day in Wolfgang's Life
55:03 Weekly Events in the Research Groups
55:32 Personal Definition of Success
57:01 Mentors
58:09 Counterbalance to Professorship
01:00:08 Life Lessons Learned

• [1] https://www.sphericalinsights.com/reports/drone-market

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3wLmvai2GLfgcbyDlYtWm8?si=_hf8o__eQn-OjGlLMKsILA
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wolfgang-h%C3%B6nig-multi-robot-coordination-drone-physics/id1812910570?i=1000708579725
• Wolfgangs Personal Website: https://whoenig.github.io/
• Wolfgangs Lab: https://imrclab.github.io/
• Lab Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsFZxMGOnS8pC6DSeRVnDLg

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How do you build a robotics company?

Join me in my latest podcast episode, where I talk with Sean Murray, co-founder and director of robotics engineering at Realtime Robotics.
Our topics include:

- His past as a chemical engineer
- Motion planning on a chip
- The challenges of starting a robotics company
- The importance of early feedback in product development
- Hiring and retaining the right people
- How academic and industrial motion planning differs
- The next 10 years of industrial robotics

Please enjoy!

Content
00:37 From Montana to Berlin
01:18 Born in Texas
02:26 First Contact with Computers
03:10 Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
04:10 Interests in Bioinformatics
05:37 Reservoir Engineering
07:31 Challenges in Reservoir Engineering
11:12 PhD in Computer Science
13:05 Benefits of having a different background
14:09 Goals in PhD
15:33 Robot Motion Planning on a Chip
18:53 Process of Starting a Robotics Company
20:29 Vision of First Product
21:56 Not what the industry wanted
22:57 First Customer
23:38 How to acquire Funding
24:50 Biggest Challenge to start Realtime Robotics
25:50 On Culture and Hiring
26:38 Philosophy of Hiring People
28:02 Retaining Good People in a Startup Environment
29:23 Building Technical Expertise and Retain it
30:31 Prerequisites to work at Realtime Robotics
31:40 Critical Skills in a Startup Environment
32:35 Differences between Academic and Industrial Motion Planning
35:22 Resolver for Workcell Optimization
38:19 Significance of Early Feedback
40:25 Current Challenges in the Robotics Industry
41:27 Balancing Shortterm and Longterm Goals
42:13 The Next 10 Years
43:28 AI in Robotics
44:44 Impact of Large Language Models in Robotics
45:40 Advice for your younger Self
46:39 Value of Pivoting Faster
47:17 Automation and Fears of Unemployment
49:05 Which jobs will become Obsolete?
49:32 Could Basic Universal Income Unemployment?
51:35 Exercises to Balance out Sitting on a Desk

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3lJBV0in1MDvWrmm61DyWi?si=_idjSqaoR-iWG9PDdjEFdQ
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sean-murray-how-to-build-a-robotics-company-robot/id1812910570?i=1000706674729

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Imagine tiny robots moving through your bloodstream, breaking down blood clots, repairing damaged cells, or delivering targeted drugs to tumor sites.

This isn't science fiction---it is the real-world potential of microrobotics, a field on the verge of revolutionizing robotics research and transforming medicine as we know it.

In episode #3 of my podcast, I sit down with leading expert Brad Nelson, Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zürich, to explore the fascinating world of robots at the smallest scales.

Content
00:38 Beginnings of Microrobotics: Manipulation at Small-Scale
02:45 Grand Challenges in the Field: Small, Intelligent Machines
03:27 Medical Applications of Microrobots
04:08 Regulatory Challenges: Sterility
05:08 Personal Motivations: From the Space Program to Microrobotics
06:43 First Robotics Project: Assembly Workcells and Force Control
09:00 PhD in Robotics: Microscopic Robots
10:14 Curiosity and Forces at the Smallest Scales
12:06 First Interest in Medical Robotics
15:13 Two Leading Causes of Death: Heart Attacks and Ischemic Strokes
16:09 Move Micro Robots: Magnetic Field Control
18:11 From Blockage to Relief: CTs, Nanoparticles, and Microneedles
21:25 Detection of Strokes: Face, Arm, and Speech Test
23:06 Formation of Blockages
23:55 Prevention of Blood Clots: Smoking, Diet, and Exercise
25:28 Femtotools: Force Sensors at Small Scales
27:19 Aeon Scientific and Nanoflex Robotics
28:03 Magnetic Fields: Dangers and Weak Fields
29:36 Effects of High-Frequency Magnetic Fields
30:18 From Research to Product: Challenges and Lessons learned
32:49 Building Exceptional Teams: Passion, Teamwork, and Uncertainty
34:11 Ideal Research Student: Excitement, Collaboration, Hard Work
35:39 Structure of Daily Work Days
37:18 What is the Smallest Scale for Robots?
39:40 The Limit: One Micrometer
40:21 Alternatives to Magnetic Fields for Actuation
41:11 Applications outside the Medical Field
43:08 How realistic is the movie Transcendence?
45:00 Current State on Transporting Drugs through the Body
47:09 Micro-robots in the Brain: What can we already do?
48:18 What Bradley is most proud of
48:45 What do you need to break into Micro-Robotics?
50:31 How to create a good interdisciplinary team?
51:59 How do LLMs affect the field of Micro-Robotics?
54:00 Current Research: Robotics Capsules and Teleoperations
56:34 Time in United States Peace Corps: Botswana and Teaching Math
58:56 Moving from Minnesota to Switzerland
01:00:52 Why Robotics is Amazing

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/522KaV5Os08rHJUNTjaRhn?si=0jgsp-7HRcacRZlCxyCW7Q
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bradley-nelson-microrobotics-in-medicine-andreas-orthey-3/id1812910570?i=1000706674728
• Bradley Nelson Website: https://msrl.ethz.ch/the-lab/team/Brad_Nelson.html

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Steve LaValle is one of the pioneers of robot motion planning. I got the rare opportunity to talk with him in my podcast series on robotics.

Topics included his work on the Planning algorithms book, development of the rapidly-exploring random tree algorithm, minimal sufficient robot brains, doing motion planning research with his son, and his new life in Oulu, Finland. Please enjoy!

Content
00:40 Early Childhood
04:59 Getting into University
07:27 Life at University
10:13 Symbolic vs Visual Mathematics
11:11 Getting into Phd Program
12:12 How to get into MIT for students
13:09 Advice from Phd Advisor
14:17 First Paper
16:30 Options after Phd
17:47 Advice to Phd Students
19:19 Postdoc in California
21:46 Demo for Bill Gates
22:52 Becoming Professor at Iowa State
23:34 Developing RRT
26:21 Reason of longterm success of RRT
28:34 Sampling-based vs. Randomized
30:30 Could RoboticsGPT deprecate motion planning?
31:53 Value of motion planning research
33:07 Information spaces
34:10 Minimal sufficient robot brains
35:37 Writing "Planning algorithms"
40:33 Managing and organizing references
42:08 Deprecated parts of the book
43:16 Challenges in writing more books
44:19 Unpublished RRT book
44:28 Reading and favorite books
45:50 Reading Ayn Rand
46:53 On joining Oculus VR
50:51 Virtual reality research
52:24 Killer application for VR
52:54 Facebook buys Oculus
53:31 Control over time is most important
54:20 Meeting Brett Leonard
55:30 Huawei
57:16 On being successful
59:30 H-Index as performance indicator
01:00:16 Metrics for academic career
01:01:36 Time allocation
01:02:28 Tired phase of career
01:03:26 Advice to younger researchers
01:04:40 Fascination with Finland
01:07:46 Learning Finnish
01:08:12 What Steve misses about the US
01:08:55 Benefits from Saunas
01:10:18 Future aspirations of lab
01:11:21 Research with Alexander LaValle
01:13:15 Robotics applications for daily life
01:14:04 Gardner hype cycle of deep learning
01:15:18 Value of material science for robotics
01:16:12 Closing comments

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1tuJ6w35CCIkyXjsviFTtc?si=tKfYa5MXQXKFmnUivc5C4g
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steven-m-lavalle-robotics-research-virtual-reality/id1812910570?i=1000706674834

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I recently talked with James Kuffner at the ICRA conference in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Topics included getting into Stanford, his contributions to robot motion planning, robotics in japan, the google self-driving car project, Woven city, and his advice on becoming successful.

Content
00:00 Introduction
01:24 Background
02:38 Getting into robotics
04:55 Programming at 12 years old
05:52 Getting into Stanford
07:30 Robotics at Stanford
12:19 From computer vision to motion planning
13:59 RRT-Connect algorithm
20:31 Is research in motion planning still valuable?
22:48 Will LLMs deprecate planning?
26:23 Timeline for truly intelligent robots
28:10 Breakthroughs required for AI
32:30 Cloud robotics
34:47 Going to Japan
37:04 Technological progress and craftsmanship in Japan
39:34 Work culture in Japan
43:49 Professor at Carnegie Mellon University
46:03 Collaborations at CMU
47:25 Self-driving project at Google
51:53 Coding mastery at google
53:51 Code search tool
55:09 Vi versus Emacs
56:27 Full self-driving
58:44 Who is ahead in self-driving technology?
01:01:06 Achieving level 5 autonomy
01:04:51 Behavior of robot cars and the median driver
01:06:30 Impact of self-driving on labor
01:10:37 Biggest problems for society
01:13:36 Woven City by Toyota
01:15:41 Job loss after Fukushima earthquake
01:18:01 A city from scratch
01:19:29 Climbing mount Fuji
01:20:42 Inventor garage
01:23:11 Startup incubator and beyond
01:23:57 Success definition
01:26:18 Daily habits
01:27:59 Pulling all-nighters
01:30:00 Advanced Shakespeare
01:30:58 Advice for early career researchers
01:31:59 Value of books
01:32:31 Linus Pauling: Change fields every 7 years
01:33:37 Next big project
01:34:34 Influential books
01:36:59 The value of biographies
01:38:23 Personal goal of 50 books per year
01:39:43 Biggest contribution to science

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/75jmWRsM7K2XkCiZr0zsNP?si=JauAqp1FQ5Ol19UPr1HHug
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/james-kuffner-toyota-woven-city-robotics-in-japan-google/id1812910570?i=1000706674948

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• 49:16 James wants to add that the CMU car went 7.32 miles and not about 17 miles in the first DARPA grand challenge.
• 1:24:13 The success quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson and not E. Pugh. The original quote is: "What is success? To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate the beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch Or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson