Then, the lights went off and music rumbled on.
They were all about to be given away to enter the real world for free.
The now out-dated research-lab-startup hybrid was one of the most influential forces in modern robotics.
Larry Page at Willow Garage in 2009
Google alone acquired three of the robot companies produced by Willow.
Not-so-modest beginningsScott Hassan, founder of Willow Garage is a big-picture thinker.
Back in 2012, he was one of the first people to invest in mysterious augmented reality Magic Leap.
While Hassan was working on an Integrated Digital Libraries project at Stanford, he met Page and Sergey Brin.
He ended up programming much of the original search engine that ultimately became Google.
Its address 68 Willow Road eventually motivated his new companys name.
We had this vision that came together through the people who were there, Cousins says.
Everybody brought something to the table.
I wanted the robot revolution to get here sooner, he tells Business Insider.
Sharing was what was important, Hassan tells Business Insider.
We wanted to build something that could run on any other kind of robot anywhere else in the world.
The company had Silicon Valleys move-fast attitude, but a motto of impact first and return on capital second.
It soon became like a badge of honor in the robotics community by spending time at WG.
But it was also just a really great place to be.
It was like a playground funded by a billionaire.
Like many Silicon Valley companies, Willow had fresh, communal meals prepared on site every day.
The company started looking for opportunities in the market for autonomous bots and educating the team about entrepreneurship.
Google took over three of the four-profits as part of its aspiring robotics buying spree.
(This proved good news for everyone, as Willow employees had stock in each spin-off.)
One particular idea caught the eye of Hassan.
That meant Hassan was financing two companies from that point on.
Willow Garage was shelling about $20 million a year.
And what happened next was, everyone started companies.
Id put my heart and soul into the organization Id hate to lose it, Cousins says.
I wanted to see if we could keep it alive.
All the remaining team members joined together to work on one product from February 2013 until August that year.
Cousins achieved to get someone eager to finance the new idea.
Were out there building new things, stronger than before.
And, his sights as always are pinned on the future.
In the next few years youre going to see an explosion of robotics, he says.
Its all happening right now.
The rest of this decade is gonna be pretty crazy.
By 2021, people are going to have robots all over their lives doing all these different tasks.
More than $150 million venture capital funding went to businesses last year that use Willows ROS.
Source: Business Insider
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source: www.techworm.net
