Spinoff story

Rovers Pave the Way for Hospital Robots

A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.

About this technology

Overview

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory provided funding for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop capabilities for robotics like Rocky 7. After developing the operating system, Daniel Theobald started working at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Vecna Technologies. Today, Vecna's QC Bot incorporates systems based on the NASA work and is being used to ease logistics at hospitals. The technology has contributed to 20 new jobs.