A shovel. Put one in the hands of a single worker, and you will solve a single problem. Train that worker to use an excavator, and you can solve more problems far more quickly and efficiently.
That simple conceit has allowed robotics entrepreneur Kevin Albert ’03 to storm the beachhead of an industry that is rife with shovels — those effective yet inefficient manual labor tools used by many skilled and unskilled workers.
His company, Canvas, is redefining the construction marketplace with robotic solutions. The company landed on the Forbes Artificial Intelligence 50 list, and its drywall-finishing robot earned top honors in the 2022 Pro Tool Innovation Awards. That robot will soon be seen at construction sites across the country.
Time at Lehigh
I was a mechanical engineering major and graduated in 2003. My focus was dynamic systems and control systems. After completing my ME degree I decided to stay for a fifth year and completed my electrical engineering degree as well.
Lehigh provided a fundamental spark for me. I was being challenged and took classes that motivated me, like system dynamics and electrical circuits. The professors gave us hard problems to solve, it was hand-on, and it was clear how what we were learning could be applied to the real world. Ultimately, that motivated me because it helped me connect the work we were doing with better technology that would be useful for everyone. It was a real seminal moment for me.
Two professors wrote strong recommendation letters for me when I decided to go to graduate school.
Hello, Course 2
I attended MIT for my master’s degree in mechanical engineering, or course two as they call it. I was interested in studying those things that got me up in the morning. I started with electromagnetic waves and then began working in robotics. I was excited to learn the way things move.
I began to work on snake robots. It was hard stuff — the dynamic control systems and elasticity. Every engineer has a nemesis. I can now definitively say that snake robots are my nemesis — that project I would never want to work on again.
Boston Dynamics and Beyond
I decided not to pursue my Ph.D. and instead went to Boston Dynamics, again following my motivation. Ironically, I was put on a snake robot project. After a year, I joined the BigDog project. I was a greenhorn, so it was a great opportunity for me to learn code and apprentice with strong mentors on a main company project. I worked on algorithm design for both walking and running.
In 2012, I left my job. My wife and I decided to take some time to travel the world. I was deciding if I should apply to Ph.D. programs. I really wanted to make robots into tools people could use. We landed on the West Coast, and I began running a lab, building it from the bottom up.
The focus was inflatable robots, which ended up inspiring the movie Big Hero 6. I then worked on several robotic projects for the military and NASA with a goal of improving adaptability, accuracy, and calibration.
Inspiration for Canvas
Toyota has robots paint each vehicle. But if surfacing a larger project like an aircraft carrier, the robots fail to scale up. So either people do that work or the project is machined in smaller batches. Many products, like tanks, bridges, and buildings, face the same problem.
When I looked at the long list of manual tools still needed for larger-scale repetitive projects, many were in the construction industry. It felt like it was an enormous untapped opportunity. Canvas was born and is working to bring robotic tools like our drywall-finishing robot to an industry that often faces a skilled labor shortage.
Robot Names
We have a big food culture at Canvas, so all of the robots have been named for herbs and spices. The current version is Basil. It is operated by a worker who does the thinking — placing it where it should go, telling it what to do, and operating its systems. Basil handles the repetitive tasks — one mud, one dry, one sand — cuts labor costs, and accelerates schedules. The robot makes the work more accurate and the workers more productive.
Company Now
We have more customers than we have machines with orders in every state. So we are busy building the product and company. We have 50 employees at Canvas. As the CEO, I think I have earned an MBA as my focus has shifted from robotics to fundraising, EBITA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization], customer experience, sales, and marketing. But we are still in active development as we consider what other tools we could put in the hands of this robot and how to scale this for residential construction.
Advice
It is important to pursue what motivates you. Don’t be afraid to try as even things that don’t work open up the next opportunity. Bash your head against something, rise up, learn, and pivot. Keep pulling the thread until you find the opportunity.