about.html

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title: About Robot Rebuilt
permalink: /about/
cat: about
---

<div class="prose">

<h1>About Robot Rebuilt</h1>


<h2>The basics</h2>

Robot Rebuilt is a robotics company, based in the US, and incorporated in December 2010.  Its founders are <a href='/people/etorresj/'>Eduardo Torres-Jara</a> (president) and <a href='/people/paulfitz/'>Paul Fitzpatrick</a> (goat herder).

<h2>The team</h2>

Eduardo and Paul have been building and rebuilding robots 
a long time.  Here are some highlights of what they've been up to.

<ul>

<li>Eduardo developed <i>sensitive manipulation</i>, an approach to
robot manipulation that uses the robot hand itself as the dominant sensor.
It is said that, in battle, no plan survives first contact with
the enemy.  Likewise, in robotics, how you sense and react during
contact makes the difference between success and failure.
</li>


<li>Paul explored <i>manipulation-driven vision</i>, finding
all sorts of ways to use a robot's perception of its own body
as a tool for measuring the world around it.  
A clumsy grasp based on a mistaken plan can reveal everything
needed to get it right next time.  You just have to be watching.
</li>

<li>
Paul is lead developer for <a href='http://yarp.it'>YARP</a>,
a thin middleware used on everything from
humanoid robots with racks of servers, to tiny embedded systems.
He also works with the
<a href="http://datacommons.find.coop/">Data Commons Cooperative</a>
and has developed the
<a href="http://share.find.coop/">Coopy toolbox</a> for
collaborative data projects.
Then there's <a href="http://www.makesweet.com/">MakeSweet</a>,
which has nothing to do with data really.
</li>

</ul>


</div>