About
I'm currently a Robotics Engineer at Acumino and a PhD student at the University of Glasgow.
I started off as a wannabe Race Engineer in Formula SAE at the University of Auckland, and later became a camera specialist with Toyota GAZOO Racing (Formula Regional Oceania). This led to an opportunity with the New Zealand Rally series, with my first event being alongside the World Rally Championship. Formula racing is crazy, but rally is another whole level of insanity.
Realizing that motorsports, at the end of the day, is for entertainment, I tried Fisher & Paykel Healthcare as an intern working on medical devices. It was cool to see Auckland, New Zealand on the global stage for medical devices, with design and a significant portion of manufacturing occurring locally. This still didn't do it for me though.
In my final year at uni, I realized automation and robotics was where I wanted to be. Crown Equipment Corporation allowed me to work on autonomous lift trucks as a Systems Engineer. This provided me with the chance to work with industrial hardware, PLCs, and real-time control languages like C++. It gave me my first overseas work trip, having me based in New Bremen, Ohio USA for a few months. Quite the change, quite the place, what an experience... Beer league baseball, golf, and ten-pin bowling kept me busy.
I began to feel unfulfilled in my spare time, so I picked up a Master's thesis to finish what I started with my Honours project. This led to a year of madness - spending my evenings, weekends, and remaining sanity in the labs, muddy ponds, creeks, and the Manukau Harbour! In the middle of all this, I transitioned from Crown to Acumino, a startup co-founded by my supervisor at the time, which has led me to the craziest adventures I could never have imagined... Sneak peaks of these can be seen on the adventures page.
The Master's thesis resulted in two first-author publications to IROS - the first being a finalist for Best Application and the second receiving Best Paper Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics in Memory of Motohiro Kisoi. After partially mentally recovering from my Master's, I started my Partnership PhD with Acumino and the University of Glasgow in Biomedical Engineering. This thesis will let me close a book within my family and be the creator of many, many more adventures and chaos...
Projects
Autonomous Robotic Trimaran
A 3D printed, waterjet-powered autonomous boat designed for environmental inspection and monitoring. This open-source platform combines advanced navigation systems with environmental sensors for marine research applications.
Formula SAE Electric Racing
Race Engineer for the University of Auckland Formula SAE Team, developing high-performance electric race cars. Achieved 5th place overall in the electric division at FSAE Australasia in Melbourne.
AI-Powered Robotics Research
Development of dexterous manipulation systems and humanoid robotics at Acumino. Working on next-generation AI-powered robot workers for addressing labor and skill shortages in various industries.
Publications
An Autonomous, 3D Printed, Waterjet-Powered, Open-Source Robotic Trimaran for Environmental Inspection and Monitoring (2024)
Reuben O'Brien, et al. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
On the Development of Waterjet-Powered Robotic Speedboats: An Open-Source, Low-Cost Platform for Education and Research (2022)
Reuben O'Brien, et al. IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics.
Other publications
See full list on Google Scholar.
Teams & Affiliations
New Dexterity
Research group focused on robotics and dexterous manipulation.
Acumino
Company specializing in AI-powered robotics and automation.
University of Glasgow
PhD Student, Biomedical Engineering.
University of Auckland
MEng, Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering.
AraraLab
Research group focused on robotics and artificial intelligence.
Contact
The easiest way to contact me is via LinkedIn.