Charles Deguire is the passionate visionary behind Kinova, a leader of the modern robotics revolution. The organization is experiencing systematic growth by driving robotic adoption in multiple end markets, such as medical, industrial, and academics while making sure to keep a human-first approach. His mission is clear: empower individuals and organizations with better tools, robotic tools, to serve humanity’s most pressing needs. From people with disabilities to surgeons, and machinists to factory workers, Charles and his team help them to accomplish more by using robotic solutions.



The businessman’s achievements earned him several awards, such as the Governor General’s Innovation Awards, which is recognized as the highest innovation distinction in Canada. He is actively participating in the Canadian innovations ecosystem, connecting students and citizens to robotics and entrepreneurship. Motivated to share his passion, Charles is equally dedicated to robotics democratization on a global scale, reflected by a large majority of Kinova’s partners and customers being international.




Tell us a bit about Kinova, for those people who may not have heard of Kinova Robotics and how you got started in assistive robotics?





You are located in Montreal, and in a robot innovation and automation hotspot. There is lots of great technology coming out of MTL such as Kinova, Mecademic, Robotiq to name a few. How important is innovation to you and your business?





Charles, you have made deep inroads into the medical and surgical market with customers like Johnson and Johnson. This must have been a game changer for Kinova?





You are now a player in the industrial cobot market. Can you tell us a bit about the applications that your are targeting?





There are a lot of competitors in the market. What does Kinova (robot model) Link6 bring to collaborative side of the robot business?





How important is being AI ready?





You are manufacturing in North America, so service and support, spare parts are all local. This gives you a big competitive advantage, yes?





Where do you think the future for collaborative technologies will go?





One of the big challenges for any company today is attracting talent, how are you addressing this challenge?





Have we forgotten anything?





What do you like to do when you are not inventing and driving innovation?





How can people get in touch with Kinova to find out more information?




To find out more about Kinova or you would like to reach Kinova Robotics you can find more information here.



Enjoy the podcast. Thanks for subscribing, thanks for listening.



Regards,



Jim



Jim Beretta
Customer Attraction Industrial Marketing & The Robot Industry Podcast



Thanks to our partners: A3 The Association for Advancing Automation and PaintedRobot.



If you would like to get involved with The Robot Industry Podcast, would like to become a guest or nominate someone, you can find me, Jim Beretta on LinkedIn or send me an email to therobotindustry at gmail dot com, no spaces.



Our sponsors for this episode are Ehrhardt Automation Systems. Ehrhardt builds and commissions robotic turnkey automated solution