Episode 97 | Robots Tackle Harsh Worksites | James Emerick
In this episode I sit down with James Emerick, co-founder & CEO of Cosmic Robotics, to hear how his family’s four-generation construction roots and a detour into autonomous heavy equipment sparked a new kind of job-site robot. Cosmic’s first product, the “Cosmic 1A”, ifts and places solar panels in 100-degree deserts and icy plains, giving short-staffed EPCs a safer, drop-in replacement for back-breaking manual installs. We talk through the realities of outdoor perception, why a “slightly smarter piece of equipment” beats factory-in-the-desert grand plans, and how mobile manipulation on Earth can pave the way for building off-planet.
We Covered:
James’s path from eighth-grade “future engineer” to early employee at Built Robotics
Three criteria Cosmic uses to spot high-leverage construction tasks
Designing for millimetre-level accuracy amid glare, dust and 50 °C heat
Digital-twin spin-offs and why customers ask for them sooner than you’d think
The labour crunch on solar farms, and the case for tools that amplify crews rather than replace them
Humanoids, hype cycles and what really matters in field robotics
Episode Highlights:
00:00 Machine Minds Show Introduction
03:53 Build these 2 worlds of kind of construction
09:35 Few million solar panels
16:30 Finding where on that horizontal torque tube
23:06 Computer vision and perception, self-driving, mobile manipulation
30:50 Just building digital twins for the construction site
37:37 10 Year vision really doesn’t matter
42:16 Emerging technologies or movement
Where to Find the Guest:
Connect James Emerick — co-founder & CEO of Cosmic Robotics on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesemerick/
Connect Cosmic Robotics on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cosmic-robotics/?viewAsMember=true
Company Website: https://www.cosmicrobotics.com/
Further Reading & Resources:
TechCrunch profile: https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/16/cosmic-robotics-is-building-robots-to-speed-solar-power-deployments-for-data-centers/
The Robot Report funding story: https://www.therobotreport.com/cosmic-industries-gets-funding-to-automate-accelerate-solar-installation/
Machine Minds:
Samson Rose: https://samsonrose.com/
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/machine-minds/id1697983733
Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0
Let’s Connect on Social Media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/machinemindsshow/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregtoroosian/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/machinemindsshow/