Our following robots here at PFF may seem simple at a glance but a lot goes into making them! From studying human behavior, to designing and manufacturing parts, to developing the software used to power our robots, and everything in between, our engineers stay busy.

We recently did a Q&A with Kevin, one of the engineers on our Robotics Software team, to learn about what he and his team do here at PFF. Keep reading to learn more!

What do you/your team do at Piaggio Fast Forward?

I work on the robotics software team, which is responsible for the internal logic and decision making in our robots. Everything from detecting and following a person, to the basic wheel control and self-balancing is handled by our team.

What is your favorite part about your job?

I love having the autonomy to solve big problems in the ways that I see fit, and having my own gitamini robot at my desk to easily and quickly iterate on new code.

How does your job impact gita's capabilities?

I'm specifically working on new autonomous behaviors, so my work will directly lead to gita being able to do more things, and hopefully improve some of the things it already does.

What excites you most about the work we do at PFF?

I think it's a really cool design constraint to make robots that augment and are used with people, rather than purely autonomous. In some ways, it makes it easier to have a person to follow around, but it adds a whole layer of perception needed to recognize and keep track of them.

What teams do you work closest with/in what capacity?

I work mainly with other members of the robotics team, as well as our SQA team to help them test our stuff effectively and make changes based on their feedback. I also work with our smart behaviors and design teams to plan out future work and make sure we're all on the same page. I work with other software teams to plan more integration-type tasks.

What is your favorite thing about our robots?

I like that it only has the two wheels and self-balances, instead of having a third wheel for stability. Small casters tend to get caught up on uneven surfaces, so just having the two large wheels makes gita more robust to different terrain.

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