Our team has developed a patent-pending process that enables simple processors (or no processors at all) to complete complex tasks. We have been working on ideas to allow printer-like machines to be a replacement for wallpaper in that they could reproduce designs directly on the wall as well as reproduce great works of art. We realized that we could use our technology to allow the machine to self-position itself on every wall in a room and eventually every room in a house.
The invention at the heart of these machines is a control system that functions without computation to produce autonomy. This allows us to create machines that are functionally autonomous without computers or with very low computational requirements. The use of these systems is easy to understand and the mathematics required to program the control system is intuitive. This system drastically reduces the cost of autonomy and will move the state of the art in autonomous robotics from the “vacuum tube” age to the “maker-space” age in a single generation.
Our first efforts are directed toward construction task such as coating applications. We envision further development into the construction industry to automate construction task earlier and earlier in the building process. Future applications will be pursued in the home and marine environments. The complexity of our machines will evolve over time based on R&D and customer-community input.
The construction industry is our primary market focus. However, each new product for the construction sector will have applications in the home market as well. Our products will be increasingly customizable and available in a variety of configurations for entry into the commercial and home markets. Our systems are designed to allow for the users of our products to explore new utilizations by introducing their own instructions sets, hardware and electronic components. We see machines such as this as attractive products for the hobby community because of their low cost and ready-for-modification features. We plan to enable a community around sharing such customizations between construction, home, and hobby users. We cannot predict what such a community will produce with this type of machine. However, we predict that machines like these, which are essentially terrestrial drones, will be more popular than quad-copters in all market sectors.
What is a WorkBuddy?
A WorkBuddy is a system designed for a specific use case in the construction environment. These systems will be introduced at revolutionarily low price points compared to cost of autonomous systems from other providers. At the heart of these systems is our patent-pending computationless autonomous controller which provides for automatic homing, positioning and workface detection.
This system will be licensed to manufactures of products like brick laying machines and CNC machines to add features such as automatic homing, positioning and workface detection.
WorkBuddy will introduce our system in the form of an autonomous room painting machine. The “Paint-Pro Alpha” is capable of painting a room completely unattended. This system will enter the market in 2019 targeting Painting Contractors. The price will be comparable to a pickup truck and will return to the customer a three year return on investment. The final product in the painting line will be capable of reproducing 360 degree photographs in a room or multiple rooms.
The next line of products that will be introduced by WorkBuddy will be an autonomous roofing machine capable of nailing tar-paper and shingles on roofs. WorkBuddy plans to take on construction, one task at a time.
WorkBuddy’s Inspiration and Vision
In the woods of Marietta, Georgia stands a newly built house on an ordinary clay hill at the end of an ordinary dirt driveway. This ordinary house contains the ordinary arrangement of ordinary rooms but contains one extraordinary element in one of those rooms. The ceiling of the parlor has been plastered with the precision and care of a person accustomed to working with their hands over a lifetime. This particular plastered ceiling is also extraordinary because you will not find the same pattern in the entire county of Marietta, Georgia. This particular pattern will not be found on any ceiling of any house in the entire State of Georgia. If a person where to find this pattern anywhere else in the world it would be found scattered among the old homes of the Gulf Coast between the boundaries of Mobile Bay and Escambia Bay. This pattern is the product of one man that lived and worked in the area. The nephew he trained eventually built the home in Marietta, Georgia. This ceiling pattern inspires us.
Uncovered in the ruins of Pompeii are fabulous frescoes produced by crafts-people. The only way people can produce such beautiful things is to have heavy burdens lightened. However, actual construction methods have changed very little since Pompeii and the burden to the workforce has multiplied many times over. Added to this mix are the burden of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Together this mix has worked to produce a modern architecture that is bland by classical standards. Relieving the burden of crafts-people will make the world a more beautiful place.
WorkBuddy is seeking a world where builders are crafts-persons and respected as artist.
WorkBuddy values
The WorkBuddy value statement is “Be good.”
Building anything worth while is not easy. Focusing on mottos and words while actions are required will never be our priority. However, after thinking back on the words spoken to my son’s as they left the house each day, “I love you” and “Be good” , I began to ponder the value of those words. The words “love you” convey what I can give to them, the words “Be good” were simply a prayer.
Those two simple words convey the three rules of living well.
Be in good relation to yourself.
Be in good relation to others.
Be in good relation to the bounty of life.
That sounds like a perfectly acceptable company value statement.