Health Tech: Rongzhong Li On How Petoi’s Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness

An Interview With Dave Philistin

Creativity to sublimate the value of ordinary materials — I invented the robot from easy-accessible materials such as wood, high strength injection-molded plastic, and bootstrapped the company. I never had abundant resources along the way. So I had to find the most cost-efficient ways to solve difficult problems in a limited time. I believe ordinary materials can play in harmony with a clever design, and that creativity is more valuable than the price of components used. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rongzhong(RZ) Li.

Rz is the founder & CEO at Petoi, the maker of futuristic bionic robot pets for adults and kids. He’s a maker, photographer, poet, and interdisciplinary explorer. He received his physics Ph.D. and computer science master’s from Wake Forest University.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?

I grew up in a big family in China. My grandpa was an optimistic and retired accountant who loved painting, writing, and poetry. His children (my father and uncles) were gardeners, factory owners, and technicians. They provided me with a wide horizon even before I started school. I grew up with deep interests in natural science, literature, music, and handcrafting. I also did well in school work and entered Nanjing University, one of the top universities in China, to receive systematic training in theoretical Physics. I got my Physics Ph.D. and computer science master’s degrees from Wake Forest University. I taught at Wake Forest University for two years then started my current career as a robot maker.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

The most interesting part of my career is to see people use my products in different scenarios, and how the robot interacts with the surroundings. I once let the robot walk in front of a puppy. The puppy went shocked for a moment, then followed it and sniffed its tail wondering what species it was. It’s like a Turing Test for robot animals!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Right after I quit my faculty job, I went to Pittsburgh alone with only three months left on my visa. Mrs. Bernie Lynch, the founder of Factory Unlocked, offered me a consultant position and extended work visa, as well as a large space to develop my first robot. I launched a successful IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign and raised my initial $140,000 funds to turn a hobbyist robotics project into a product.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

There are many quotes that shaped my attitude towards life. The one most relevant to my career was a moto on my Ph.D. advisor’s door. It states: “You can do anything, but not everything”. It always reminds me to focus, and try to achieve perfection before switching between temporary enthusiasm.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

• Full-stack skills to create an integrated system.

I invented my first robot products all alone. I could just sit there quietly, but with all my knowledge in science, mathematics, engineering, and art internalizing for hours to find out the best design.

• Creativity to sublimate the value of ordinary materials

I invented the robot from easy-accessible materials such as wood, high strength injection-molded plastic, and bootstrapped the company. I never had abundant resources along the way. So I had to find the most cost-efficient ways to solve difficult problems in a limited time. I believe ordinary materials can play in harmony with a clever design, and that creativity is more valuable than the price of components used. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

• Dedication, patience, and persistence based on the faith in my career

In the first year, I spent 14 hours a day, seven days a week creating the OpenCat robot. It was just a toy for myself, but I knew how much knowledge and love was put into the project and I believed people would appreciate the efforts. For the following years, after the project was launched and went viral, I quit my job and founded Petoi to mass produce my robots. It was much harder than just the engineering work, but I believed my robots are bringing value to my customers. Their positive feedback helped me over the tough journey of entrepreneurship.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on our wellness. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve?

I aim to develop personal companion robots to improve human well beings.

Many people love pets. But they may not have the space, environment, or resources to raise a pet. Pets are very good companions to humans.

We believe robots can fill in the role of being companions to humans. Robot pets can be particularly effective as they can re-assemble pet-like behaviors and interactivity. Cute pet-like robots look less intimating than other forms of robots.

My company Petoi has developed affordable and interactive lifelike robot dog Bittle and robot cat Nybble. They don’t specifically target human well beings space. But because they are open source and programmable, robotics application developers can develop human well beings related applications with our robots.

We vision a future where everyone can own a companion robot.

How do you think your technology can address this?

Our technology specializes in lifelike quadruped (four-legged) robots.

The four legs on a quadruped are equivalent to four robotic arms installed inversely and have to collaborate both in spatial and time to make the smooth and stable motion, and avoid a collision. The robot should be free to patrol independently from power/control cables, which puts a higher demand for power, perception, and adaption.

The #1 barrier for the wide adoption of lifelike robot pets has been the price. They generally cost thousands of dollars. The low-end robot cats and dogs that cost under $100 actually run on wheels, so they cannot have realistic dog-like or cat-like limb movements, nor they can be customized.

Petoi has successfully developed robots to solve all complex challenges at a sweet price tag of between $200 and $350 in an easy-to-use package. Our users can further customize our robots with different sensors to enable more perception and sensing capability. Companion-like applications such as greeting to owners, reacting to owners’ gestures and commands can be developed easily.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

Last year, we were in a documentary about pets. The documentary team gathered a group of autistic kids and their families. They showed our robots to them and allowed them to take the robots home. To my surprise, the kids tend to spend a lot of time with the robot. They can focus on the robot even if it just repeats the same motions. They name their robots and tell their parents what they think about the robots are doing. It’s a good sign that they are willing to share their thoughts when it comes to the robot animal. They also think the robot is alive.

So I believe our technology can actually enable robotic companionship for human beings.

How do you think this might change the world?

Some of the people contacting me are service providers for Autism, like psychologists and hospitals. Some are companies that sell products to hospitals for treating autism. They want to add some features such as conversation, touch reaction to our robotic pets. These can actually be incorporated into our robots by interesting developers as our robots are programmable and support plugging sensors.

I’ve also seen research using robots to provide companionship to seniors.

We think of our robots like iPhones or Android phones where developers can build different applications on top of them. One of such applications can be enabling robotic pet companions to ease human loneliness.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

“Black Mirror” actually has a storyline about a robot dog chasing humans and killing them. Our robots are palm-sized, so I really doubt that they can do much damage to anything. We make our robots look adorable, so users are more willing to play and interact.

Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)

• to make it affordable to reach more people with a wide impact
• to create open-source technology to enable sharing and collaboration
• to create a platform to enable different applications
• listen to users and their feedback
• user experience is more important than pure technical breakthroughs alone

If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?

• find your passion and be really good at your trade(skills)
• learn technology, and develop technology that can impact a lot of people positively

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Elon Musk. As a technician, I admire his knowledge and skills. As an entrepreneur, I admire his vision and ability to really push the boundary of technology and expand human civilization into the universe.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Please follow @petoicamp on social media or subscribe to our newsletter at Petoi.com.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.