Cosmic Robotics: Installing Solar in Earth's Harshest Worksites
The construction industry is grappling with a significant labor shortage, particularly in the demanding field of solar energy. As the demand for clean energy soars, the challenge of building large-scale solar farms in remote, harsh environments has become a critical bottleneck. A new kind of robotics company is stepping up to address this problem, not by replacing human workers, but by creating tools that make them safer and more productive. Cosmic Robotics is pioneering a new path for technology, focusing on building practical and reliable robots for the toughest worksites on Earth.
On Episode 97 of The Machine Minds Show, host Greg Toroosian, founder of Samson Rose, sits down with James Emerick, co-founder and CEO of Cosmic Robotics. They discuss how James's family's deep roots in the construction industry and his experience with autonomous heavy equipment sparked a new kind of job-site robot. They discuss the realities of outdoor robotics, the current labor crisis in the solar industry, and why a "slightly smarter piece of equipment" is more valuable than a grandiose "factory-in-the-desert" plan.
A Path from Blue-Collar Roots to Hard Tech
James Emerick’s journey into robotics began with a clear vision to become an engineer that he formed in the eighth grade. After studying mechanical engineering and robotics in college, he became an early employee at Built Robotics, a startup focused on autonomous bulldozers and excavators. This four-year experience gave him invaluable firsthand knowledge of building hardware and software and deploying robots in the field. He later worked at the Autodesk research facility, where he focused on adaptive robotics for construction. It was here that he fully realized that in a dynamic construction environment, unlike in a fixed factory setting, robots need to adapt to constant change. This experience, combined with his background, led him to define the core principles of his own company.
When he met his co-founder, Lewis Jones, they went on a road trip to a massive solar farm in the California desert. There, they observed workers in 100-degree heat repeatedly lifting heavy, 80-pound solar panels. It was this observation that solidified their mission to build a robot that would make this dangerous and physically demanding work safer and more efficient.
Why Cosmic Robotics?
The origin of the name Cosmic Robotics reflects the distinct but complementary visions of the two co-founders. While James is grounded in a family history of construction on Earth, Lewis's lifelong ambition has been to build a city on Mars. They realized that the greatest challenge to a multi-planetary future is not transportation, but building a livable environment once you arrive. The name Cosmic embodies the belief that the same technology used to accelerate construction on Earth is the very same technology that will eventually be used to expand civilization beyond our home planet.
The Cosmic Approach: A Pragmatic Solution to a Burning Problem
The solar industry is currently facing a significant labor crunch. Due to the massive scale of solar projects and the physically taxing nature of the work in remote locations, contractors say they could be doing two to three times more work if labor were not an issue.
Cosmic Robotics aims to solve this problem with its first product, the Cosmic 1A. The company uses three core criteria to identify these high-leverage problems: first, they find a "burning problem" that needs to be solved today; second, they focus on repeatable, scalable tasks with standardized parts, which resembles a manufacturing process; and third, they design the technology as a "drop-in replacement," a tool that can be easily integrated into how construction crews currently perform their work.
This philosophy is the foundation of the Cosmic 1A. Rather than trying to build a rigid "factory-in-the-desert," their robot is designed to be a "slightly smarter piece of equipment" that acts as a force amplifier for existing crews. It handles the heavy, repetitive, and dangerous task of lifting and placing solar panels, allowing human workers to focus on more complex tasks. This approach fits seamlessly into the modular and scalable nature of the solar construction industry and helps human workers perform their jobs faster, more effectively, and most importantly, safer.
Digital Twins and the Realities of Outdoor Robotics
One of the surprising developments for Cosmic Robotics has been the immediate customer demand for digital-twin capabilities. While their primary product is a physical tool, the Cosmic 1A is equipped with GPS, cameras, and other sensors that can digitize the construction site in real-time. This creates a digital twin of the site, which can then be used by project managers and site engineers to drive insights, intelligently route equipment, and adapt to real-time changes on the ground, such as rerouting traffic or equipment due to delays, mud puddles, or other unexpected events.
Designing a robot for this purpose is incredibly challenging, especially when operating in the outdoors. The robots must deal with a variety of harsh environmental conditions, including glare, dust, snow, rain, freezing cold, and extreme heat.
Furthermore, the computer vision required for tasks like picking up solar panels is difficult because the panels are metallic and made of glass, which creates issues with glare.
Despite these obstacles, millimeter-level precision is required to place the panels onto the racking. This necessitates an advanced AI platform to accurately detect bracket locations and perform the installation. Cosmic’s proprietary AI platform, Particle, processes this real-time sensor data, providing actionable insights for everything from quality assurance to workflow management.
The Business of Building Field Robotics
The hardest part of building in field robotics, according to James, is not the technology itself but the harsh reality of the field. James explains that you have to be in the real environment to discover all the edge cases that cannot be simulated in a lab. This reality has shaped the company's core philosophy. James states that the rock or foundation that Cosmic Robotics always comes back to is the need to put a reliable piece of equipment into their customers’ hands as soon as possible. This is the only way to prove a product's value in the long run.
The company attracts investors and customers by being agile and proving its value. While they have an ambitious ten-year vision to expand their mobile manipulator platform to different verticals and eventually enable multi-planetary construction, they prioritize delivering a reliable, useful tool in the present. This pragmatic approach of focusing on a minimum useful kernel of features is key to their strategy. By delivering on their promises, they build trust and gain the ability to expand their feature set and scale.
A Look to the Future: Talent, Humanoids, and Physical AI
James offered several insights into the future of robotics, touching on talent acquisition and emerging technologies. He believes that the trend of humanoids, while "cool" and a "capital magnet," is currently a hype cycle similar to the one that surrounded self-driving cars. He notes that even with amazing humanoids, specialized equipment will still be necessary for jobs in construction. He hopes that this trend will ultimately draw new talent to the robotics industry who may later become interested in solving real-world, immediate problems like those at Cosmic Robotics.
He also offered insight into his hiring philosophy. When looking for new employees, James and his team look for candidates who "want to do something and not be someone." This mindset is crucial for a company building real hardware and software. It reflects a desire for individuals who are willing to roll up their sleeves and take ownership of their work with humility, rather than being focused on titles or credentials. This conviction and ability to think for oneself are important qualities for the hands-on work required to succeed at Cosmic Robotics.
Looking ahead three to five years, James is most excited about the emerging technology of physical AI. He explains that we are at an inflection point where high-fidelity sensor data from real-world environments can finally be used to perform tangible tasks, leading to a deeper understanding and application of data from the physical world. He also stated that if he had a magic wand to improve any aspect of robotics, he would use it to improve simulation technology, as it would make initial testing of robots much more efficient.
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Listen to the full conversation: To hear the complete, engaging conversation of Greg Toroosian with James Emerick, listen to Episode 97 | Robots Tackle Harsh Worksites | James Emerick here.
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Learn More About Cosmic Robotics: Explore Cosmic Robotics' mission and technology on their official website. Read more about their funding in the TechCrunch profile and The Robot Report funding story. Send a message to James Emerick and Cosmic Robotics.
Connect with Greg Toroosian: Follow Greg on LinkedIn to stay updated on his insights and upcoming episodes of The Machine Minds Show.
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