CEO of CyPhy Works Helen Greiner speaks onstage during day one of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 at Pier 70 on September 21, 2015 in San Francisco, California.Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch via Wikimedia Commons
Helen Greiner is an American engineer and roboticist – a person that creates robots. She helped create iRobot, a company that makes robots that help people with everyday jobs. Their most famous robot is the Roomba, a robot vacuum cleaner. The Roomba moves around the house using special sensors to make sure it doesn’t bump into furniture or fall down the stairs. Helen Greiner’s work has made her a leading expert in the world of robotics.
What made Helen love robotics?
Helen Greiner was born on December 6, 1967, in London, England. When she was five years old, her family moved to New York in the United States. As a child, Helen loved science! She often played with her brother’s electronics and spent as much time as she could on the family computer.[1]
When Helen was eleven, she watched the movie Star Wars and was amazed by R2-D2, one of the robots in the film. She loved R2-D2 because he had a personality and could communicate without speaking. He thought he was much more than just a machine.[2] After that, Helen knew she wanted to work with robots when she grew up.
Helen later went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she studied mechanical engineering and computer science.
iRobot
At MIT, Helen met Rodney Brooks and Colin Angle. In 1990, they created the company iRobot because they wanted to make robots that were able to move around and help people, just like R2-D2![3]
iRobot became famous for making the Roomba, a small, round vacuum cleaner that can move around and clean the floor all by itself. The Roomba was first sold in 2002, and since then, more than 50 million Roombas have been sold around the world.[4] In 2010, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, added the Roomba to their Robots Hall of Fame because it was a whole new type of robot – one that people could use at home.[5]
Besides robots to do jobs in people’s homes, iRobot also made robots for the military. One of them, called the PackBot (a small robot with a shape similar to a tank), was used to help check that damaged buildings were safe for people to enter.[6]
CyPhy Works and Work with the U.S. Army
In 2008, Helen started another company called CyPhy Works, which focused on making a type of robot that can fly called a drone. Some drones were made for the military to use, while others were made for doing everyday jobs. Helen was the CEO (boss) at CyPhy Works for 11 years.[7]
In 2017, Helen left CyPhy Works to help the U.S. Army create and use robots to help keep soldiers safe.
Awards and Honors
Helen has won lots of awards for her work in robotics over the years. She was recognized as one of America’s Best Leaders in 2005 by the Kennedy School at Harvard in partnership with U.S. News & World Report. In 2014, President Barack Obama chose her to be a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE).[8]
Conclusion
Helen Greiner is an expert in robotics. Her work has not only changed the way that people can use robots to help with everyday jobs but keep soldiers and other people in the military safe when they are in dangerous places. She is a true inventor hero!
[1] Encyclopedia of World Biography. Helen Greiner Biography. [Online] Available https://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ge-La/Greiner-Helen.html. 2005.
[2] TEDx Talks. Re-Imaginer of Robots: Helen Greiner at TEDxBoston. [Online] Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ApUxGhDqMc. 2013.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Robots Guide. Roomba. [Online] Available https://robotsguide.com/robots/roomba. 2024.
[5] Robots Hall of Fame powered by Carnegie Mellon. Roomba. [Online] Available http://www.robothalloffame.org/inductees/10inductees/roomba.html. 2010.
[6] Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2005.
[7] Ibid.
Page created on 2/1/2025 1:32:18 AM
Last edited 2/1/2025 1:36:59 AM
