Hope you've all had a great holiday season and found some time to fit in a little garage work. Unfortunately my work has continued to interfere with getting back to SusieQ. Though this has little to do with our common ground, Mustang restoration - I thought you all might find it a bit interesting.
My company designs and builds mobile robots. Big ones, little ones - in between ones. We also 'robotize' vehicles. Bulldozers, cars, trucks, utility vehicles, lawn mowers, 50 ton land mine destroyers - if it has a gas pedal and steering wheel, we can turn it into a robot.
But in late October, we landed a job a bit outside our normal scope of work. We hooked up with an ad agency that asked us to design and fabricate a robotic couch for Conan O-Brien's show in New York City. It was an intense 3 week build that had more 21 hr days in it than I cared for but when you are having fun, sleep is typically irrelevant. TBS required the ad agency to produce a 'making of the couch' video as part of the contract. So we were followed around the shop like those guys on Orange County Chopper - which though intense, didn't result in any chairs being thrown through windows or doors being kicked in. Here's a link to the video. I'm the old guy with the grey beard.
Couch Video
Immediately after this 3 week firestorm, our waterjet arrived and we rolled straight into infrastructure upgrades to support it. Accomplished quite a bit over the Holidays and got the building-in-a-building completed and water/heat/electric plumbed in. Just down to getting the step-up transformer wired in. Here's a shot of the building-in-a-building. The car is actually just behind my back in this photo. Once we get up and cutting, I'm hoping to give her a little time. Until then we have to keep the bills paid.
I not only find your work interesting, I find it awesome! I'm a software dev by profession and I've always been into robotics. Also, I'm into CNC and G-Code programming and have a homebuilt CNC router (in addition to my newer Mustang-related hobbies). Anyway, cool couch and excellent video. Thanks for sharing. I'd kill to do what you do for a living.
ReplyDeleteOh man that is cool business! Can't wait to see your water jet in action. I have fostered quite the intimate relationship with the mammoth water jet @ Chrysler as part of my "day job" and find them fascinating. Tease us MORE!
ReplyDeleteAh...the waterjet! I purchased a 5 axis WJ when I worked for Trane Co. in LaCrosse, WI. It's a great tool and we found more uses for it than imaginable. Cool video on the "love" seat. Makes me miss working in production. Thanks for sharing.
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