Innovation is a Team Sport
This article draws inspiration from an article titled "Innovation is a Team Sport," published in 2008, coinciding with the beginning of my innovation journey with Zebedee, the world's first handheld mobile mapping system. The article reads:
Despite the enduring myth of the lone genius, innovation does not take place in isolation. Truly productive invention requires the meeting of minds from myriad perspectives, even if the innovators themselves don't always realize it.... The best innovations occur when you have networks of people with diverse backgrounds gathering around a problem,"
I could not agree more and would like to share my own experience.
Consider the analogy of a soccer team: a team comprising various positions that require diverse skills such as forwards (or strikers), midfielders, and defenders (or goalkeepers), all led by a captain. In the same way, an innovation team consists of research scientists (the forwards), hardware and software engineers (the midfielders), and product and business development experts (the defenders).
However, just like a soccer team is more than the players on the field, an innovation team requires additional members such as coaches (or project leaders), owners (or research directors), lawyers, consultants, managers (in areas such as intellectual property and human resources), market analysts, and others.
Although individual talents are important for innovation, the team's success depends on its culture, which must be developed and nurtured through strong collaboration among all team members, especially the captain, coach, and owner. Additionally, the innovation team needs supporters, akin to soccer fans, such as early adopters or believers.
In my case, the SLAM team evolved and grew over a number of years.
Starting with Elliot Duff ,? Peter Kambouris ,? Paul Paul. Flick . Robert Zlot , Mike Bosse , Gautam Tendulkar and then? Jonathan Roberts , Brett Granbois, Brett Wood, Tom Lowe , Pavan Sikka , Ross Dungavell , Fred Pauling followed by Paulo Paulo Vinicius K. Borges , Stefan Hrabar , Christian Richter , Peyman Moghadam , Mark Cox , Gavin Catt
Over the years, I have played a number of roles, starting with project leader, team leader, product developer, coach and owner.
Using this analogy, projects can be likened to games. Commercially funded projects are akin to away games, where the team's performance is tested against real-world challenges. On the other hand, strategically funded internal projects are similar to home games, allowing the team to consolidate and improve their performance in a familiar environment.
The Robotics and Autonomous Systems Group (formerly the Autonomous Systems Lab) has been playing with LIDAR mapping for 25 years.
In the last project, the team successfully demonstrated a 3DSLAM technique leading to the publication of a paper [1]. As a result, the team began exploring alternative acquisition designs (for handheld underground) which ultimately led to the development of the Zebedee patent [2] and subsequent publications [3].
Over the next 3 years, we played a few extra games:
The Northparkes Decline Mapping project was undoubtedly the team's most significant achievement, successfully mapping 17km of decline in just two hours.
This milestone reinforced our belief in the strength of our team. However, it also presented a significant challenge: the demand for our technology was increasing rapidly, resulting in an overflow of projects and clients.
Our SLAM code was fragmented and bespoke for each project. The key researchers did not have the time or resources to bring things together.
We?needed funds to create a single code-base - a single product. So I applied for CSIRO TAF funding - Technology Acceleration Fund - which funded an additional software engineer to productise the code.
The issue of managing multiple projects and clients also affected other researchers, highlighting the need to coordinate their efforts. As a solution, we applied for CAT5 capability funding and received an additional $2.35M.
The primary goal of this project was to develop generic 3D navigation algorithms suitable for use in various industries. The IP generated from this initiative is viewed as a technology platform that spans multiple business domains and is overseen by a cross-divisional/flagship panel that convenes monthly.
This project funded the:
At the end of 2012 we signed a license agreement with?3DLM. In the agreement, a new company called?GeoSLAM would be formed.
To support this license we created a project.
To fund additional research, GeoSlam applied for AGP funding (Accelerated Growth Partnership) of $2M. Additional funding to fund new SLAM work.
The RTP project also funded:
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Two of these technologies (Heatwave and Hovermap) moved into CSIRO's Accelerator program.?At the same time, the research program co-invested in a number of?commercial?projects with Boeing:
This co-investment has led to a new product called.
In 2020, the 2nd Generation Real-Time Distributed SLAM called Wildcat, was licensed to a number of early adopters - Automap, Emesent, BIA5, ADR, Stealth Technologies
In 2021, Wildcat was deployed in the DARPA SubT challenge coming second.
In 2022, our JV company GeoSLAM was sold to Faro for ~$70M.
More than a team sport, innovation is about changing the market.
new or changed entity, realizing or redistributing value. ISO 56000:2020(en)
For many of these early years, the surveying industry did not believe in SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping). To them software was a dirty word. But today, software is a critical tool for creating accurate real-time maps.?
This acquisition signals the end of a long journey - a journey of acceptance - where our technology is finally accepted by the mainstream surveying industry - and it affirms our belief that our technology could change the world. That it could become a Critical Technology.
Awards
Postscript
2023 Larry Marshall at AFR Entrepreneur Summit
Speech delivered by CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall to launch his book, 'Invention to Innovation: How Scientists Can Drive Our Economy' at the AFR Entrepreneur Summit in Sydney.
But science tells us – as it has told us throughout history – that we can invent the answers we need as long as we don’t stop at invention, but go on to turn invention to innovation.?
To do this
They needed access to specialised scientific equipment that’s beyond the budget of a startup to buy, as well as access to researchers with specialised expertise – including our very first LiDAR Zebedee.
References
[5] CSIRO Annual Report 2014-15 - Taking 3D laser mapping to the world - P55
[6] CSIRO Ministerial Briefing 2016 - The Zebedee system is now being used by more than 25 multinational organisations for efficiency and productivity gains.
总经理
11 个月good example
Digital Director
1 年A formidable record of the impressive work and accomplishments you and your former colleagues achieved, Elliot.