Erik Reynolds sits down with Russell Nickerson, Partnership Engagement Liaison at MassRobotics, the world's largest independent nonprofit robotics hub, and founder of Collabots, an entertainment robotics consultancy with clients including Cirque du Soleil.

Russell shares what he sees every day working with startups, corporate partners, and academia: the gap between a robot that works in the lab and one that survives the real world. They dig into UX failures, E-stop recovery on a live stage, why demo day is when robots find new ways to fail, and the overlooked infrastructure problem nobody is talking about, the shortage of integrators and repair shops that can keep robots running long after deployment.

They close on what separates the startups that reach deployment from the ones that don't, and why Russell believes the answer has less to do with the robot and more to do with the customer.

Join Reynolds & Moore at MassRobotics in Boston this October:

• R&M Physical AI & Safety Summit, October 13, 1:00-5:00 PM EDT. Free to attend. Register here.

• Understanding ISO/IEC TS 22440: Artificial Intelligence – Functional Safety and AI Systems, a two-day in-person training in partnership with RMAI, October 14-15. Seats are limited. Register here.

Check out MassRobotics: https://www.massrobotics.org/

Check out Collabots: https://collabots.net/

Check out our work: https://reynolds-moore.com