Today’s guest is Owen Nicholson, the CEO & Co-Founder of Slamcore, an innovative company specializing in pioneering embedded software that harnesses data from multiple sensors to enable products to intelligently perceive and navigate their intricate environment and fusions SLAM, data, and artificial intelligence to go beyond what’s possible for the automation and robotics industry.
A Shift in the Scenery
Owen Nicholson comes from a background as a project manager, capable of working with brilliant founders and government institutions alike. He has been involved in various technological projects and recently worked at the Dyson Robotics Lab at the Imperial College London. Here, he was introduced to the vision SLAM (Simultaneous localization and mapping) work, a basis for what Slamcore would be in the next years.
Spatial Awareness
Toddlers are introduced to many concepts as they grow up, one of the most essential things for their development, however, is spatial awareness, being able to recognize our surroundings and the space that our body occupies, how we can move from one place to another, it’s key to our nature. But what if robots could do something similar? What if robots could improve their precision levels to perform the tasks businesses need?
Diversity Inside out
Slamcore is on its way to transforming the way industrial vehicles work, thanks to the application of spatial intelligence in their programs. And while it’s certainly true that its products have a huge role in this, their applications have few to no limitations, especially for factories and warehouses where large quantities of objects have to be moved. It’s the diversity of his team that Nicholson highlights as one of the main core strengths of Slamcore. Aligning people from various disciplines and walks of life to the same vision is bound to make wonders.
Nothing is more exciting than seeing something out there in the field and knowing that you contributed to it.
Different Products Same Ethos
Yes, robots are great, but beyond their impressive capabilities, there’s always a strategic purpose. Why was developed it? What are the expectations? How well can it work with the rest of the projects/people/software? Those are the questions driving Slamcore success. The solutions Nicholson and his team create are born out of a single foundation, so manual vehicles and fully automated systems can work integrated.
The Three Questions
Founders and businesses might have brilliant ideas to offer to the world if they aren’t explained properly however, if their solution cannot be understood by the people who could be interested, silence is what you get. For Slamcore, this is fixed by relying on the basics of spatial intelligence. Position, where I am? Perceive, what are the objects around me? Map, what’s around me? Their software gives robots and programs the ability to not only formulate these questions but more importantly to actually solve them
The Bombyx Chapter
Just when you are wondering, if someone is going to be interested in your products, comes Facebook knocking at your door. Too good to be true? Ask Nicholson because that’s pretty much the story of how Facebook literally filled out the contact form for Slamcore. The project?
A robot named Bombyx would deploy aerial fiber solutions to remote communities so villagers could have access to the internet and yes, Facebook as well. Interestingly enough, there was a great demand for Bombyx not just in Africa or Asia, but in Europe and America as well.
A future Happening Now
Among the many exciting things that are happening and will happen soon for Slamcore is the development of Slamcore Aware, a mix of combined hardware and plug-and-play product. The fun part about that is that businesses can get it installed and running in a day, minimizing possible bottlenecks and lowering the barrier for entry-level companies.
Be Passionate but Careful
When we asked Owen what sort of advice he would give to young tech entrepreneurs, he stressed the importance of never losing the motivation to keep going, as building something effective for the market is a long journey, especially for those who come from the academia, but at the same time, he asked young people to keep in sight concepts like intellectual property and equity close to their minds and business decisions.
You don’t want to develop the next software marvel just to lose it to a poorly reviewed contract.
Besides that, he assured us, that while the effort might look as something imposing when you are starting, the reward at the end is even bigger.
