Warren “Chuck” Whitaker has probably built more unique robots than any other human. In the past 40+ years he has designed and fielded robots for mining, subterranean rescue, space, agriculture, nuclear cleanup, self driving cars, pipe inspection, construction and more. He has also mentored 100’s if not 1000’s of future roboticisits.
As he gets ready to transition to his next stage in life he gave a presentation (I wrote this post at the end of 2024 and forgot to publish it…) about the many robots he has worked on. However I am going to focus on his first and last slide that he presented.
Chuck started his talk by presenting some of his background skills that he felt gave him the skills that set him up for success.
- Surveying – Not a common skill for most people entering robotics but is immensely useful during testing and developing. Surveying help with ground truthing and evaluation robot performance. Many people over the years have learned surveying from Chuck for robotics work (myself included).
- Mining – Many skills for learning to operate outdoors in remote areas and setting up field work.
- Drafting – The ability to draw ideas, sketch robots, and ultimately design robots.
- Slide rule, Calculator, Punch Cards (Computing) – Check stressed the importance of back of the envelope calculations to aid with developing concepts and designs.
- Economics – Understanding the economics of a situation can help determine the value of robotics in that task/domain.
- Technical writing – Writing grants for funding, documenting work and field reports are all an important part of developing robots.
- Social Skills – Knowing how to work with people is critical since it takes many different people to build a robot and the need for interacting with sponsors and the public.
Closing the talk was some final thoughts and lessons for all
- Be Prepared
- Develop great skills
- Continue to educate
- Great fieldwork is important
- Research work is demanding but very rewarding
- There is always more to do
- CMU is an awesome place to work
- Have fun
