Ben Blumer
Robotics Engineer
15 years ago, while I was working as a researcher in quantum information theory, my little sister asked me to build her a robot dog. I figured: "Why not?". After finishing her mobile robot, I was hooked. Since then, I've published award-winning robotics research, developed motion-control algorithms for robots in operating rooms & factory floors, built a framework to coordinate two robot arms in high-speed high-accuracy tasks, and founded a VC-backed construction-tech startup.
I'm available for employment and contracting opportunities. Contact me!
I love taking ownership of a project from start to finish. I founded ShapeMeasure to automate measuring and cutting in construction and grew the company to 15 employees, $500K+ run rate, and thousands of delivered sales.
I've developed robotics software in C, C++, Python. Using tools such as ROS, OpenCV, Numpy, git, Eclipse, Visual Studio Code, and Docker. I have experience developing in Linux and Windows. Checkout my free and open-source software contributions.
I've tackled research-grade problems in quantum information, human-robot interaction, and robot motion planning. I've also secured over $650K in research grants. See my publications and patents.
I love getting my hands dirty with electro-mechanical prototyping. I have experience with microcontrollers, basic circuit design, sensors, and actuators. I've designed and built ESCs, mobile robots, and 3D printed / laser cut widgets for robot manipulators.
The process of creating a point cloud, interpreting it to determine as-built conditions, finding the required construction materials, and generating instructions to automatically cutting them. Certain unique embodiments of this system that facilitate ease of use and acurracy are also covered. View the full patent here.
We had our humanoid robot, Charlie (PR2), hand out drinks. Charlie tried looking people in the eye, looking at the space she was bringing the drink to, and staring at the table. We used a lightcurtain to measure how long it took people to reach for the proffered beverage. We also asked how people felt about the experience. View the full paper here.
Frame by frame video analysis of the study in Meet me where i'm gazing. This allowed much richer understanding of how a robot's gaze can affect human's feelings about interacting with them. View the full paper here.
I wrote a numerical simulation to solve differential equations representing how a quantum system would 'diffuse' over a graph during a quantum walk. These results were analyzed to determine which qubit gates could be built from such a system to facilitate quantum computing. I build a special hashing structure to catalogue the smallest graph structure to implement each gate. View the full paper here.
Raised from funding sources including NSERC, MITACS, and the Canadian Space Agency.
Atlantic first-place medal for computational physics: The numerical computation of single-qubit gates implementable through quantum walks on graphs
Third-place presentation (of 150): The numerical computation of single-qubit gates implementable through quantum walks on graphs
Best full paper (of 150+) Meet me where i'm gazing: how shared attention gaze affects human-robot handover timing
Best startup
Interesting work opportunity or collaboration? Send me a line! benjaminaaronblumer@gmail.com
My resume is available as a PDF here.