AGR | Committed Team

Our Mission

Our mission is to solve the crushing labor problem faced by farmers today, by making small robots like Wall-E a reality and enabling anyone to farm from an Ipad. To do this, we are starting with a collaborative robotic platform, Burro. Burro follows anyone just like a dog, and can autonomously run cargo around, relieving people of strenuous tasks which add little value, so that they can focus on more valuable work.

Our team includes robotic startup veterans with deep experience in computer vision and machine learning, as well as entrepreneurs with direct experience selling and marketing ag machinery with some of the world's largest firms. We get up every day excited to build the future, where robots do all tedious tasks outdoors.

Our Team

Charlie Andersen

CEO

Charlie grew up on a 191 acre working fruit, vegetable, and livestock farm. This experience lead him to believe that all tedious farm labor should be automated, and simultaneously to understand the many challenges that robots face in agriculture. He founded Augean Robotics after gaining experience with Case New Holland, John Deere's largest competitor, where he reported to the head of the North American operating unit and worked on special projects across sales, marketing, manufacturing, and distribution. He received a BA from Amherst College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Deniz Ilhan

Co-Founder & CTO

Deniz has over a decade of experience in Robotics, specialized in embedded sensorimotor system design, power electronics, robotic platform development, system integration, and autonomous behaviors. He received his PhD from University of Pennsylvania's GRASP lab where his research focused on task encoding and behavior development for autonomous robots in outdoor settings. He grew up in a fruit & vegetable farming town in Turkey, and has spent years building commercial robots in several startups including COSY, where he was the lead roboticist.

Terry Scott

Co-Founder & Chief Robotics Officer

Terry leads the development of a unified technical vision, architecture, and autonomy roadmap with Augean Robotics. Prior to Augean, Terry worked as a robotic software developer with COSY, and as a design engineer/project manager with a large manufacturer supplying African railroads. Terry received his PhD from University of Oxford's Robotic Institute where his research focused on computer-vision-based autonomous navigation and mapping, and a BSc in Electro-Mechanical Engineering from University of Capetown. He grew up in South Africa where he gained a love for machinery and robotics.

Vibhor Sood

Co-Founder & Robotic Software Engineer

Vibhor builds Burros and his software controls them. He develops many of the computer-vision approaches to localization and autonomy with Augean Robotics. Prior to Augean, Vibhor worked as a researcher at Lehigh's Vader Labs where he specialized in accurate infrastructure free outdoor localization, and as a software engineer at Samsung. He received a Masters in Electrical/Electronics Engineering from Lehigh University, and a bachelors degree in Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering from Manav Rachna International University in Faridabad, India.

Anthony Markowitz

Mechatronics and Robotics Engineer

Anthony designs and builds the mechanical skeletons of Burro, and also supports the development of computer vision based localization. Prior to working with Augean, Anthony developed firmware and user software for 3D printers at a bioprinting startup. Additionally, Anthony's experience includes researching autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UASs) at NASA Ames Research Center and working on research and development for SpaceX's Starlink satellite project. He received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University and is a current Venture for America fellow.

Meghna Gummadi

Deep Learning and Robotics Engineer

Meghna develops high resolution deep learning based on data generated by Burro. Prior to Augean Robotics, Meghna spent time with Textron Aviation, and also worked as a researcher at University of Pennsylvania where she developed autonomous capabilities for legged robots. She received her Masters in Robotics from University of Pennsylvania, where she focused on artificial intelligence and deep learning, and a bachelors in electrical and electronics engineering.

Our Advisers

Camillo J. Taylor

CJ is a professor at University of Pennsylvania's GRASP lab, which he joined in 1997. His research interests focus on computer vision and robotics. His current research include work on self-localizing embedded smart camera systems and their applications to problems such as automated surveying systems, ad-hoc surveillance systems, three-dimensional reconstruction and mobile robot localization. He received his A.B. degree in Electrical Computer and Systems Engineering from Harvard College in 1988 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University in 1990 and 1994 respectively.

Simo Kamppari

Simo has a passion for all things technical, and has spent time at McKinsey, and Oracle. He is currently a partner at the Synetro Group where he invests in companies and provides operational support to help them succeed. He received an MBA from Harvard and has two degrees in EE/Computer Science from MIT.

John Spletzer

John is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Lehigh University where he heads up the VADER Laboratory. His research focus is field and service robotics in unstructured, outdoor environments. John received his PhD from the GRASP Laboratory at UPenn, and has 20 years of experience in the robotics field. He has also been involved in local robotics startups, including serving as CTO of Love Park Robotics which was acquired by industrial sensor company IFM earlier this year.