Welcome to A Day in the Life of a Roboticist, our new series featuring robotics professionals from around the world. In each profile, you'll get a glimpse into their daily work with robots, learn about their career paths, and hear their advice for anyone interested in the field of robotics.
To kick off the series, we asked two of Amazon’s leading roboticists to share what it's really like to work with robots every day. In this profile, meet Annaleah Ernst, a Senior Software Development Engineer at Amazon, who works on motion planning for fully autonomous, people-safe warehouse robots—pushing the boundaries of automation in real-world environments.
How did you first get interested in robotics?
When I was a kid, I joined a Lego robotics team with my arch nemesis. After a very brief attempt to work together, we had to split up responsibilities — he got building and programming, and I got research and writing. I didn’t think too much about robots again until freshman orientation in college. The engineering department promised laser cutting, CAD, and little robots. I had always loved making things, but I had no idea how to incorporate technology into my projects. I jumped in with both feet. It was grueling at first. I was learning everything from the ground up. Robotics courses were simultaneously the most frustrating and most fun — the agony of debugging paired with the ecstasy of being followed around by a robot you programmed yourself. I was hooked.
What does a day working with robots look like for you?
My day to day has changed a lot in the past eight years. When I first joined, I spent my days learning controls from my advisor, running tests on the floor, and implementing quick solutions to our most pressing problems. We were hacking together prototypes with disparate libraries and bolting our laptops to the backs of our robots. It was messy, frustrating, and fun. These days, we've graduated into a real product. I don't get my hands on as much of the system as I used to, but there's a lot more support. Having real debugging tools and a dedicated QA team has been game changing. I have a lot more time to work on design, future direction, and technical mentorship of the other members of my team. My teammates are amazing scientists and engineers, and our weekly trajectory planning sync is a highlight of my job. There, we get to tackle the most pressing issues facing our team, as well as process improvement and blue sky proposals for how we can really raise the bar in motion planning. It's scheduled for an hour, but we almost always run over — time flies when you're having fun!
What are your favorite things about working with robots?
I love seeing my work moving in the real world. There's an act of pure creation in robotics, of logic and intention bundled onto servos and circuit boards. With motion planning, you're directly affecting robot behavior. I love the little personalities that emerge and develop with each code change. How tuning a parameter can make your robots appear skittish or aggressive. It's been amazing to see Proteus go from a prototype with more than its share of rough edges to the courteous, cute, and efficient little guys we have wandering around the warehouse today.
What advice would you give someone hoping to start a career in robotics?
There's no single right background for someone starting their robotics journey. If you're just starting your education, you don't need a strong STEM background, but you do need to be willing to grind through the foundational classes (which, in my experience, are the hardest part of robotics). For software developers, make sure you learn to design software as well as you code. For research scientists, think about uncertainty and the effect of imperfect systems on your algorithms. Robotics in the real world is messy.
Once you start your job, document document document! Make sure you're writing down your ideas, writing design docs, writing white papers, etc. This has two major beneficial effects: 1) It helps you make sure that you and your colleagues are on the same page, and 2) It creates a paper trail that will really helpful for advancing your career. It's an important tool for building consensus, and it will make your ideas stand out.
Can you describe something about robots that surprised you?
We like to think of robots as infallible — they're supposed to be better than people at almost everything. The truth is that the Venn diagram of what robots are really good at and what people are good at are almost entirely non-intersecting. If we pick the right jobs for our robots, we'll also be freeing up people to work on the creative and complex things that they excel at.
What in your view is the biggest challenge for future robots?
Overgeneralization. Robotics at its most powerful is specialized — if you try to make a robot that does everything, it's more likely you'll end up with pile of gears that does nothing. That's the real power of robotics: We don't need just one type of robot to do everything — we can develop the best form factor for the job, and do that job really, really well.
