Robohub.org
ep.

069

podcast
 

Robots Podcast: Harvest automation with Joe Jones


by
14 January 2011



share this:

In today’s episode we look at a new market in robotics with huge potential, agriculture. With us, Joe Jones, co-founder of Harvest Automation and father of the Roomba.

In addition, you might have noted that we’re starting the new year with an upgrade to our website. Our partner, robots.net, will now provide us with news. You can access each episode’s news items, along with many others, via the website’s new NEWS tab, which replaces the former Forum. We think that this will increase both the quality and accessibility of our news content, and look forward to your comments in the improved comments section under each post.

Joseph Jones

Joe Jones is a robotics visionary with 24 years in the field. As proof, he was the first employee of iRobot, where he invented the Roomba that has sold over 3 million units. He also spent 9 years in robotic research at the MIT AI Lab, authored three books on robotics, and holds 15 patents. Today we have him on our show to talk about Harvest Automation, company that he co-founded with a team of robotics experts and ex-iRobot employees. Tapping into the huge agriculture market, Harvest will start by deploying thousands of robots to nurse potted plants. To give you an idea, here’s a short video.

The nice thing with agriculture robots is that incremental improvements to the robot can open a huge range of new applications. With that in mind, Harvest hopes to eventually deploy robots in real fields, doing all the large-scale dirty work challenging today’s farmers.

Finally, Jones also gives us a glimpse at the market and some of his secrets to bridge the gap between academia and business.

Links:


Latest News:
For the latest news from CES, have a look at our new NEWS tab.



tags: ,


Podcast team The ROBOTS Podcast brings you the latest news and views in robotics through its bi-weekly interviews with leaders in the field.
Podcast team The ROBOTS Podcast brings you the latest news and views in robotics through its bi-weekly interviews with leaders in the field.


Subscribe to Robohub newsletter on substack



Related posts :

Robot Talk Episode 146 – Embodied AI on the ISS, with Jamie Palmer

  27 Feb 2026
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Jamie Palmer from Icarus Robotics about building a robotic labour force to perform routine and risky tasks in orbit.

I developed an app that uses drone footage to track plastic litter on beaches

  26 Feb 2026
Plastic pollution is one of those problems everyone can see, yet few know how to tackle it effectively.

Translating music into light and motion with robots

  25 Feb 2026
Robots the size of a soccer ball create new visual art by trailing light that represents the “emotional essence” of music

Robot Talk Episode 145 – Robotics and automation in manufacturing, with Agata Suwala

  20 Feb 2026
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Agata Suwala from the Manufacturing Technology Centre about leveraging robotics to make manufacturing systems more sustainable.

Reversible, detachable robotic hand redefines dexterity

  19 Feb 2026
A robotic hand developed at EPFL has dual-thumbed, reversible-palm design that can detach from its robotic ‘arm’ to reach and grasp multiple objects.

“Robot, make me a chair”

  17 Feb 2026
An AI-driven system lets users design and build simple, multicomponent objects by describing them with words.

Robot Talk Episode 144 – Robot trust in humans, with Samuele Vinanzi

  13 Feb 2026
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Samuele Vinanzi from Sheffield Hallam University about how robots can tell whether to trust or distrust people.

How can robots acquire skills through interactions with the physical world? An interview with Jiaheng Hu

and   12 Feb 2026
Find out more about work published at the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL).



Robohub is supported by:


Subscribe to Robohub newsletter on substack




 















©2026.02 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence