Rethinking Defect Detection in Modern Manufacturing with Matt Puchalski
From autonomous vehicles to factory floors, a new wave of vision technology is transforming how manufacturers think about quality. Bucket Robotics is at the center of that shift, bringing simulation-driven inspection systems to an industry long reliant on manual checks and outdated tooling.
Matt Puchalski, founder and CEO of Bucket Robotics, joins Greg to share how his experience in self-driving cars shaped a fundamentally different approach to quality inspection. Instead of relying on expensive hardware or months of data collection, his team is using CAD-based simulation to generate training data instantly, unlocking faster deployment, lower costs, and more scalable automation.
We explore why quality inspection remains one of the most painful bottlenecks in manufacturing, how legacy vision systems have failed to keep up, and what it takes to build robots that actually work outside of polished demos.
Highlights:
Matt’s journey from Georgia Tech and Michelin to autonomy startups and ultimately founding Bucket Robotics
Why quality inspection is still one of the most manual, inconsistent, and frustrating parts of manufacturing
The core insight behind Bucket: applying self-driving car vision systems to factory environments
How CAD-based simulation replaces months of data collection with minutes of synthetic training data
The “sim-to-real” challenge and why perception in changing lighting and environments is harder than it looks
Why most vision systems fail in production and how Bucket is designed for real-world robustness from day one
Lessons from early market assumptions, including why medical device manufacturing was not the right starting point
The economics of inspection: balancing cost, speed, and accuracy across high-mix and high-volume environments
What makes a strong customer fit, from ambiguous defect definitions to expensive rework caught too late
Common objections from manufacturers burned by legacy vision systems and how simulation changes the equation
Why labor shortages and supply chain reshoring are accelerating demand for automated quality solutions
Hiring for empathy in robotics and why understanding the end operator matters more than credentials
The importance of engineers who ship, not just prototype, and why early adopters beat bleeding edge thinkers
Hard-earned hiring lessons, especially the need for teams willing to travel and work onsite with customers
Where robotics is overhyped today, especially around deployment at scale versus polished demos
Why lightweight, lower-cost robotic systems are unlocking a new wave of practical automation
Matt’s view on the future of manufacturing: a hybrid human and robotic workforce rather than full autonomy
Founder reality: why building a company can feel easier than operating autonomous vehicles, but far more isolating
The long-term vision for Bucket Robotics as the “cloud computing moment” for manufacturing quality systems
Matt's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-puchalski/
Bucket's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bucketrobotics/
Matt's email: matt@bucketrobotics.com
Bucket's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Bucket_Robotics
Connect with Greg Toroosian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregtoroosian/