Helen Greiner, iRobot & Tertill

“I believe that robots will have the ability to do the work that’s either boring or too dangerous for humans one day.”
Helen Greiner

Helen Greiner, co-Founder of iRobot and current CEO of Tertill, shared the story behind her title with us on Saturday, July 17th and Sunday, July 18th 2021

Helen’s goal since she was 11 has been to create robots. Her career has been her dream come true. She cofounded and served as Chairman and President of iRobot Corporation for 18 years.

During this time, iRobot:
– Revolutionized cleaning with the introduction and sale of millions of Roomba Vacuuming Robots. This was the first wildly successfully robotic consumer product and it has become a cultural icon.
– Delivered the first robots in combat, rugged systems to remediate IEDs. These PackBots are credited by the US Army with saving the lives of hundreds of soldiers and thousands of civilians.
-Demonstrated a cocoon delivered behavior controlled robot to government that resulted in the initiation of the MARs rover program
– Explored the Great Pyramids and saw into a tunnel and chamber that no one has accessed for 5,000 years!

Helen also founded CyPhy Works, a drone company that delivered persistent drones flying for many hours, days, weeks at a time autonomously. We had them deployed in Iraq and Syria with Army and Special Forces where they saved lives. CyPhy was sold to NASDAQ[FLIR].

Helen likes delivering robot products that surprise and delight customers with utility, intelligence, and price.

SUE SAYS

Helen’s love of mechanics and engineering was innate from the very beginning. While she didn’t always feel as though she fit in with the other girls growing up, she pursued her dream anyway to one day build a robot just like R2D2. She is the finest example of living life on her own terms.