{"id":17011,"date":"2026-06-09T18:01:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/founders-on-the-frontiers-of-space-and-robotics-show-off-their-gadgets-and-tell-the-stories-behind-them\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T18:01:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:01:55","slug":"founders-on-the-frontiers-of-space-and-robotics-show-off-their-gadgets-and-tell-the-stories-behind-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/founders-on-the-frontiers-of-space-and-robotics-show-off-their-gadgets-and-tell-the-stories-behind-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Founders on the frontiers of space and robotics show off their gadgets and tell the stories behind them"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1260\" height=\"909\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7473-1260x909.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-932460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7473-1260x909.jpeg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7473-768x554.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7473-1536x1108.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7473-2048x1478.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesell talks about his company\u2019s LaserWeeder system with a model of Starfish Space\u2019s Otter Pup spacecraft sitting on the table in the foreground. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Four founders of companies on the tech frontier got together this week at a Seattle conference for a show-and-tell about the hardware at the heart of their businesses. And like any good show-and-tell, their talks touched on strategy as well as gadgetry.<\/p>\n<p>For example, consider the laser-powered weed zapper pioneered by Seattle-based <strong>Carbon Robotics<\/strong>. The LaserWeeder system takes advantage of optical sensors and artificial intelligence to identify and target the weeds among the crops as the robotic rig is pulled through a field.<\/p>\n<p>Carbon Robotics\u2019 founder and CEO, Paul Mikesell, held up one of the LaserWeeder\u2019s scanners during Monday\u2019s DeepTech session at the downtown office of K&amp;L Gates. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have it set up so this camera can see exactly what the laser shooting this way is going to hit, and every time we turn on that laser, the same pixel area in the camera is going to explode and blow up,\u201d he said. \u201cThis device reminds me of a lot of science and technology that we had to tackle, but also, there\u2019s a lot of pain that went into this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1260\" height=\"796\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mikesell-1260x796.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-932464\" style=\"object-fit:cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mikesell-1260x796.jpeg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mikesell-768x485.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mikesell-1536x971.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mikesell-2048x1294.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesell points out features of the LaserWeeder system\u2019s optical scanner. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>  Related<br \/>\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Paul-Mikesell-with-LaserWeeder-G2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;\"><br \/>\n  Carbon Robotics raises $20M as LaserWeeder maker plans secretive new \u2018AI robot\u2019 for farms<\/p>\n<style>\n  @media (max-width: 600px) {\n    aside.callout { float:none !important; max-width:100% !important; margin-left:0 !important; margin-right:0 !important; }\n    aside.callout .callout-img { display:none !important; }\n  }\n<\/style>\n<p>The company\u2019s engineers had to figure out how to target weeds precisely based on imagery that was distorted by the camera\u2019s viewing angle. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty incredible feat to get that right, and once we got it right, we\u2019re just banging off them all the time,\u201d Mikesell said.<\/p>\n<p>Mikesell said he\u2019s often asked about his strategy for selling LaserWeeders through farm-implement dealerships. \u201cWe decided to go direct every time, all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so we have a global team of sales reps and service support people. What that means is, we maintain the customer relationship. We know what things are being used for, how well it\u2019s working, what are their challenges. And the customers know how to get a hold of us directly instead of going through a dealership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s looking forward to the day when artificial intelligence can speed up the process of hardware design.  \u201cI\u2019m surprised by the lack of an AI tool in there, but I think it\u2019s also because, you know, software engineers wrote the software that made the AI, so they\u2019re much more comfortable with it,\u201d Mikesell said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe actually did hook Claude up to an oscilloscope and got it to produce firmware that was proving out what we needed,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s just going to continue to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1260\" height=\"998\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Link-1260x998.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-932465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Link-1260x998.jpeg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Link-768x608.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Link-1536x1216.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Link-2048x1621.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Starfish Space co-founder Austin Link talks about the Otter Pup spacecraft model that\u2019s beside him. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>  Related<br \/>\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Otter_Pup-1260x709.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;\"><br \/>\n  Starfish Space shifts its sights to Australian satellite for docking test<\/p>\n<style>\n  @media (max-width: 600px) {\n    aside.callout { float:none !important; max-width:100% !important; margin-left:0 !important; margin-right:0 !important; }\n    aside.callout .callout-img { display:none !important; }\n  }\n<\/style>\n<p><strong>Starfish Space<\/strong> co-founder Austin Link\u2019s gadget for the show-and-tell was too big to lift off the display table. It was an engineering model of Starfish\u2019s Otter Pup spacecraft, one of which is currently in the midst of an orbital satellite docking test.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe actually ran a pretty exciting test over the weekend, which I can\u2019t tell you about yet,\u201d Link said.<\/p>\n<p>Otter Pup is designed to prove out technologies that will be used on Starfish\u2019s full-scale Otter spacecraft for inspecting or maneuvering other satellites in orbit. \u201cHumans have done this before, but every time we\u2019ve done it before, it\u2019s really expensive,\u201d Link said. \u201cYou look at a Northrop Grumman satellite that did a similar mission. They made $65 million by extending the life of a satellite. It cost $400 million to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Starfish aims to use innovations in computer vision and robotics to make satellite docking more affordable. That means the Tukwila, Wash.-based startup has to do more with less.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis satellite has just a single thruster on board, and the force that that thruster creates is the equivalent of a house fly sitting on your hand,\u201d Link said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tiny amount of force, so you have to apply it very thoughtfully over time. You have to predict what\u2019s going to unfold with the physics and ultimately come together and dock. And that\u2019s our big challenge as a company, not just with a demonstration satellite, but eventually with our full-size Otter.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1228\" height=\"1260\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Boots-1228x1260.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-932466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Boots-1228x1260.jpeg 1228w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Boots-768x788.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Boots-1498x1536.jpeg 1498w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Boots-1997x2048.jpeg 1997w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1228px) 100vw, 1228px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Overland AI CEO Byron Boots holds up a sensor pod for autonomous vehicles like the one shown above him. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>  Related<br \/>\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/overlandAI-1260x840.jpg\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;\"><br \/>\n  Overland AI raises $100M to meet military demand for autonomous ground vehicles<\/p>\n<style>\n  @media (max-width: 600px) {\n    aside.callout { float:none !important; max-width:100% !important; margin-left:0 !important; margin-right:0 !important; }\n    aside.callout .callout-img { display:none !important; }\n  }\n<\/style>\n<p><strong>Overland AI<\/strong> builds autonomous off-road vehicles, including a 3,000-pound tactical vehicle that can transport supplies, drones or even anti-drone weapon systems for warfighting units.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not super-easy to get one in this room, but I wish I could have brought it,\u201d said Byron Boots, co-founder and CEO of the Seattle-based startup. \u201cInstead, what I did was rip the sensor pod off one of these vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The sensor pod is equipped with stereo cameras and a lidar ranging system, all of which are hooked into an onboard computer. \u201cThis is from something called our SPARK Kit, which allows you to take any vehicle and make it autonomous,\u201d Boots said. \u201cIt actually hangs up over the head of where someone would sit on a vehicle like this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even though \u201cAI\u201d is part of the company\u2019s name, Overland AI\u2019s focus has widened from just writing the software to building the hardware as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn order to move fast, we decided we just needed to do that ourselves and own that full vertically integrated stack,\u201d said Boots, who is a professor of machine learning and robotics at the University of Washington as well as a startup CEO. \u201cIf you do that, you can then literally hand this robotic system with an autonomous stack on it to a user, and they can just start using it. You don\u2019t have to wait for someone else to integrate with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1260\" height=\"914\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Feilden-1260x914.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-932467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Feilden-1260x914.jpeg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Feilden-768x557.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Feilden-1536x1114.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Feilden-2048x1485.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ezra Feilden, Starcloud\u2019s co-founder and chief technology officer, holds up an NVIDIA H100 GPU. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>  Related<br \/>\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Starcloud-1-deploymet-horizontal.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border-radius:4px;\"><br \/>\n  Starcloud raises $170M for space-based data centers, hits $1.1B valuation<\/p>\n<style>\n  @media (max-width: 600px) {\n    aside.callout { float:none !important; max-width:100% !important; margin-left:0 !important; margin-right:0 !important; }\n    aside.callout .callout-img { display:none !important; }\n  }\n<\/style>\n<p>Redmond, Wash.-based <strong>Starcloud<\/strong> made its mark at the intersection of AI and space operations last year when it became the first company to train a large language model in Earth orbit. For this week\u2019s show-and-tell, the company\u2019s co-founder and chief technology officer, Ezra Feilden, brought an Nvidia H100 GPU \u2014 the same type of AI chip that was used for last year\u2019s in-space demonstration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very high power density. These GPUs were designed to sit and have a nice easy life inside a data center. They were not designed to be strapped to a rocket and launched into the vacuum of space, and then be run for five years without any maintenance or any TLC,\u201d Feilden said. \u201cSo, that\u2019s part of what we do at Starcloud. We ruggedize GPUs and other IT hardware such that they survive the launch, and then they can operate continuously in space without any mechanical intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Orbital data centers are attracting a rising tide of buzz because they could get around some of the big problems created by the rapidly growing hunger for AI data processing capacity: for example, limits on available electrical power, and concerns about land and water use.<\/p>\n<p>Data processing in space brings its own challenges, however. How many solar-powered satellites will be required to handle the load? How will they be connected? And how will they be able to get rid of the waste heat produced by all those high-powered AI chips? Feilden and his colleagues at Starcloud are working to address those challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Feilden said his company is scaling up operations at a new facility in Woodinville. \u201cWe\u2019ll be deploying dozens of satellites that we build from that facility in the next couple of years, scaling up to thousands of satellites per year, which is the number that we need to hit to have a meaningful impact on the terrestrial data center industry with what we\u2019re doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Starcloud isn\u2019t the only company with big ambitions for orbital data centers. SpaceX, which is just days away from the world\u2019s biggest initial public offering, envisions putting a million data center satellites in orbit. But SpaceX could be as much of a partner as a competitor. Last month, Starcloud struck a deal to use SpaceX\u2019s Starlink mini laser terminals on its own satellites. And Starcloud is counting on new launch vehicles, including SpaceX\u2019s Starship mega-rocket, to drive down the cost of putting satellites in orbit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe strongly believe that\u2019s happening very soon,\u201d Feilden said. \u201cThis decade, certainly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Starfish Space\u2019s Austin Link was intrigued by that perspective. He noted that Feilden and his colleagues are working with a business model that assumes launch costs will decline significantly. \u201cWe assume that launch cost is what it is today, and we don\u2019t make any changes in our models when we\u2019re designing products,\u201d Link said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really interesting contrast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The schedule of events for Deep Tech Week Seattle continues through Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesell talks about his company\u2019s LaserWeeder system with a model of Starfish Space\u2019s Otter Pup spacecraft sitting on the table in the foreground. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) Four founders of companies on the tech frontier got together this week at a Seattle conference for a show-and-tell about the hardware at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4330,4331,4332,4320,4333,4334,4335,442,496,4329],"class_list":["post-17011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-agtech","tag-carbon-robotics","tag-deep-tech","tag-deep-tech-week","tag-lumen-orbit","tag-overland-ai","tag-robotics","tag-satellites","tag-starcloud","tag-startups"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}