This Startup Is Tackling One of the Biggest Challenges in Robotics – Inc.

If a robotone day helps you make breakfast or change a diaper, there's a good chance PickNik Roboticshad a hand in it.

The Boulder, Colorado-based company develops software thatmakes robotssmarter, allowing them tomake better decisions and perform tasks moreintelligently.

Hardware is the easy part when it comes to robotics. "There are a lot of companies thathave been providing decent robot arms for a couple of decades now," says PickNik founder and CEO Dave Coleman. "The real challenge is making them smarter."

Tackling this difficult problem has mined a huge business opportunity.PickNik earned $2.2 million in revenue in 2020, giving it a three-yeargrowth rate of 966 percent and helping it land atNo. 505 on this year's Inc. 5000 list. Coleman says the company'sclients have included NASA, Google, Amazon, androbotics upstarts like Kindred and Plus One Robotics.

Coleman interned at robotics startup Willow Garage back in 2010. The young company employedmany of the industry's brightest minds:Early staffers went on to found companies likeSavioke, which makes bots for the hotel industry, and Zipline, a manufacturer of drones meant todeliver blood and other medical supplies to remote areas.

"That was really the starting point of my whole career," says Coleman, "being surrounded by all these amazing roboticists."

During his time at Willow Garage, Coleman worked on creatingopen-sourcesoftware that poweredrobotic arms. After the company folded in 2014, he continued developingthe platform, earning money by consulting for clients on how to use it in conjunction with their robots. Demand was so great that he decided to form a business based on the software the following year.

Picking up toys is less of a chore when you live with a PickNik-powered robot. Photographs by Ross Mantle

When combined with PickNik's platform,a robotic arm that previously used to, say,pick up and put down components in factories suddenly is able to better negotiateits environment. Abot can be trained toavoid humans or make decisions about whichpieces of equipment to move and which to leave alone.For the company's various clients, PickNik's software helps machinesefficiently and safely perform a variety of tasks likepicking fruits and vegetables, prepping meals, assisting with surgeries, and working on underwater oil and gas rigs.

PickNik's platform is hardwareagnostic, so it can be used with off-the-shelfarms as well as custom-built ones. That's proven beneficial to the company, helpingensure itcan work with clients in a wide variety of industries from manufacturing to farming.The 30-employee startupstill offers open-sourcesoftware, but italso has a premium offeringthat includes additional functionality, more customization, and support from its employees.

"How can someone who doesn't have a computer science degree or an engineering degree successfully control a robot and do all sorts of cool stuff with it?" says Coleman. "That's what our product offering does."

PickNik hasn't taken any venture capital, though it has won grants from State of Colorado, NASA, and other grant-givers.The company is working with NASAona robotic vehicle that could be used tounload cargo and perform other tasks in the new space station. Coleman says that not taking venture capitalhas allowed PickNikto test the waters in excitingmarkets -- like space -- without having topromise massive returns to investors.

"We're having fun," says Coleman."As long as we make money, we're happy, even if this isn't aunicorn company."

The way things are going, though,it might become one anyway.

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This Startup Is Tackling One of the Biggest Challenges in Robotics - Inc.