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”—lifts 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

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/

Guest info
James Emerick — Co-Founder & CEO, Cosmic Robotics
LinkedIn (personal): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesemerick/
LinkedIn (company): https://www.linkedin.com/company/cosmic-robotics/?viewAsMember=true
Website: https://cosmicrobotics.com/

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregtoroosian/