About Tandy Trower

After 28 years at Microsoft,  I resigned to pursue what may be one of the greatest and most important opportunities for applying emergent personal robotics: assistive care. With an increasing demand for healthcare and spiraling costs, fueled in part by a growing senior population (who are also living longer), and commensurate increasing shortage of caregivers, digital technologies can play an important part in addressing these challenges. Within this ecosystem, personal care robots can help address physical, cognitive, and social loss of function, and enable individuals to better manage their wellness and quality of life in the same way that PC technologies and the Web can extend and enhance information access, productivity, and general well-being.

Q. When did you start building robots?

A. That depends on what you want to count as “building robots”. I recall at an early age building what I consider robots with things like Tinker Toys and Erector sets, inspired by Robby, the robot in Forbidden Planet and other sci-fi movies, as well as the Tom Swift series of books. I probably casually tinkered with simple kits throughout my adolescent and educational life. But it was not until around 2004 that I really started getting involved with robots again. This time it was driven from talking with leaders throughout the robotics industry who kept telling me that robotics was getting closer and closer to a consumer reality. While we still aren’t quite there yet other than interesting toys and gadgets, I could see that the wave is coming.

Q. What teacher had the greatest impact on you and why?

A. Hmmm…that would be difficult to single out a specific teacher, but I always enjoyed science and math the most and many of my instructors over the years probably had an important impact on me, likely because of the opportunity to understand how things worked. Remember also that I grew up in what was considered the Space Age or space race with Russia, when technological achievements were being showcased on TV. And while not a school teacher, one of my favorite TV shows was Mr. Wizard, and Disney’s Tomorrowland and science museums like the Franklin Institute were some of my favorite places to visit. 

Q. Your focus now is assistive robotics. How many years away do you think we are until robots in the home are commonplace?

A. It depends on how you want to measure it. In one perspective, we are already living with robots today. Our cars and appliances are increasingly robotic in that they incorporate technology that senses the environment around them and adjust operating behavior. We also have interesting products like the iRobot Roomba and a wide variety of toys that are robots. However, to me this is just a very early peek at what is coming and we have yet to see a true multi-purpose home robot that is truly useful. That’s partially because while the technology is increasingly affordable and available, the industry still struggles with defining useful function at the right price. Marketing people call that the “value proposition.” From film and fiction, people have big expectations for robots, beyond what can realistically be delivered yet, and likely that will continue for at least 15-20 years.

Another issue is definition of the user experience. Most people assume you can just talk to robots, but speech technology still isn’t as reliable a keyboard or a mouse. So robotics really needs a paradigm shift like PCs had with graphic user interfaces (GUIs) that integrate multiple input modalities to create a natural and compelling experience. To me, interfaces for robots are still like when I first learned how to program a computer using punchcards. That said, the goal for my company is to press forward in those areas and deliver assistive care robots in the next 3-5 years. These robots will empower people who need assistance with daily living to be more independent and continue to be active contributors in the lives of their family, friends, and community, even when facing challenges from chronic diseases, disability, or aging, in the same way that PCs, smartphones, and tablets can enable anyone to be informed, communicative, or interact with others beyond their physical limitations.

Q. What’s the one thing about you that few people know?

A. In the 13 years of my secondary education years (counting kindergarten), I switched schools 11 times (though only once at mid-year).  My father served in the U.S. Army for 26 years, so we moved often. However, looking back, it was a great experience in that I got to meet people from many places and had to learn to make new friends and adjust to new experiences.

Q. If you could live in any other time, when would that be?

A. I don’t think I would trade living in another time, considering how fast technology continues to advance and the opportunities I have had to participate in this advancement. But there might be a few times that, if I had a time machine, I would like to visit; like perhaps when Einstein first presented his theory of relativity or when the Wright brothers had their first flight. As amazing as it may have been to have lived at those times, information about those events never traveled as fast as it does today. And, finally, perhaps I’d like to visit 10 years in the future to see the impact of what I’m doing now and how quickly robotics technology advances. 

Editor’s Note: During his last years at Microsoft, Tandy Trower served as General Manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group, which produced Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio software, a Windows-based environment for robot control and simulation aimed at academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers.