James Crowell is an expert in extreme environment robotics who spent the first decade of his career developing and deploying polar, volcanic, and space systems at NASA, JPL, and research laboratories before founding Crow Industries in 2018. His team designs Fenris, a family of intelligent UGVs built for defense, mining, and eventually lunar and Martian surface operations, all from the premise that designing for environments with no GPS, limited comms, and no human access produces systems that outperform on the battlefield.
James breaks down why the U.S. Army is shifting toward smaller, distributed ground platforms, how Operation Jailbreak pushed Crow Industries to open its interfaces for interoperability, and why underground operations remain the unsolved frontier in ground robotics.
Topics discussed:
- Why Group 2 UGVs outperform larger platforms in distributed warfare
- Designing for zero GPS and limited comms from planetary constraints
- Opening interfaces through Operation Jailbreak for C2 interoperability
- Building America's robotic infantry through modular capability swapping
- The forward line of robots concept for keeping humans out of harm's way
- Underground operations as the unsolved frontier in ground robotics
- Mining oxygen from lunar regolith to build space transportation infrastructure
- Army acquisition overhauls accelerating procurement for small defense startups
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