Robots to Reclaim Lumber: Bringing Circularity to the Construction Industry with Andrew Gillies from Urban Machine

Sep 28, 2023

Andrew Gillies, Co-Founder and CTO at Urban Machine, discusses their mission to reclaim wood waste in the construction industry through robotic technology. They explore the challenges of recycling lumber, the benefits of reclaimed lumber, and the potential scale of their operation. Andrew also shares his background as an engineer and entrepreneur in the robotics field.

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Episode notes

Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Replicating Gecko Foot Adhesion: Blending Fabrication Techniques and Exploring Radical Approaches

01:37 • 4min

From Educational Robots to Construction Automation

05:08 • 6min

Sustainability issues in waste lumber disposal and recycling

10:59 • 10min

Reclaiming Waste Lumber for Clean Timber Products

21:14 • 14min

Potential Scale and Hardware Implications

34:49 • 7min

Inspiration from a Startup and Advice for Making an Impact

41:31 • 3min

In this episode of Hardware to Save a Planet, Dylan welcomes Andrew Gillies, Co-Founder and CTO at Urban Machine, a company focused on converting wood waste into premium lumber products.

Join us as we delve into Urban Machine’s sustainability drive of protecting virgin lumber in forests using robots and sustainable power to reclaim and recycle wood waste into value-added lumber products. Learn more about the company’s business model and the hardware behind the solution. Listen to the episode and get inspired to positively impact the planet by finding your own tangent in the climate space.

Andrew is an engineer, entrepreneur, and team builder with a Ph.D. in biomechanical engineering from UC Berkeley. Before Urban Machine, he co-founded Dash Robotics, where he developed and shipped hundreds of thousands of consumer robots. Andrew has also worked on robotics for agriculture, solar power, and solar panel cleaning. As the Co-Founder and CTO at Urban Machine, Andrew is on a mission to convert the 37 million tons of wood waste from construction and demolition into high-volume, locally sourced, premium lumber products valued at $18 billion annually.

Episode resources

Andrew Gillies on LinkedIn
Urban Machine website
Dylan Garrett on LinkedIn
Synapse website

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