2023
Python, ROS, Robotics
I worked at J&J for a little over three years in their surgical robotics R&D department on the upcoming OTTAVA system. I had no real background in robotics, but my Python and software experience was valuable enough for them to bring me onboard. Over my time there I proved my worth, picking up controls engineering work and system benchmarking, and I was fortunate to travel to the Silicon Valley office in Santa Clara many times to work with some very cool technology. I'm not allowed to share many details, but I promise it was some of the most interesting work I've ever contributed to.
The office in Santa Clara, can't take pics inside!
My day-to-day at the Cincinnati office was mostly developing automation for robotic testing and sifting through the enormous datasets those tests produced. My main job was turning that data into meaningful visualizations for the mechanical and design engineers to analyze. Often I'd work with those engineers to help them understand the software side so they could build their own visualizations with Python. Many of them became genuinely good coders, writing their own scripts to get what they needed. I'm so proud 🥲
While I wrote a lot of code at J&J, I ended up doing far more hands-on work than I expected. I wrote ROS-based Python scripts to command and home the robotic arms, helped execute the tests themselves, and scrubbed up for several animal labs. I certainly won't miss the smell of those labs. The trips out to Santa Clara were hands-on too: we used optical motion capture systems that took a lot of configuration, and manually drove the robot's movements for benchmarking.
I made great friends at J&J and still stay in touch. I enjoyed working with robots and hope to return to the field someday. Who knows, maybe if I ever need surgery they'll use OTTAVA on me. If so, I won't be worried, because I know how bright the people who designed and built it are.
