Meet the Dexory Team: Rhodri, Senior Electronic Engineer

Can you briefly introduce yourself and provide an overview of your role within the company?

I'm a senior electronics engineer. I work on the hardware part of Dexory’s solution, on the electronic systems that form part of the robot. There are two main parts to the robot's electronics: the base and the tower, but ultimately everything needs to be thought of as a system because everything needs to come together in the end.

Could you describe a typical day or week in your position?

I wouldn't say that we've got a typical day in electronics development. Our work often happens in stages, so often you need requirements capture first, followed by the design of the electronics, and then the build and testing of the product to make sure it works well. It can take a lot of time, but we try to condense it down because we have to iterate very quickly. We also have to be very responsive to unpredictable problems that are happening on deployed robots or those in production. This often takes priority.

So week on week, the duties change as well as where I work. I need to work on the physical electronics most of the time so I go to the office quite a lot. But when I have to do detailed design and calculations, I like to work from home to stay focused.

What do you find most fulfilling about working for Dexory? Is there a particular aspect of your role that you enjoy the most?

I like designing electronics the most! Larger companies often have established designs and you can find yourself stuck working on an old design or making a small modification to an existing design. Working in a smaller company is much different: it’s more dynamic. There are always requests for some kind of new concept, or new designs to be made. That means you get a lot of exposure to testing new ideas, and iterating through them quickly.

If you were the CEO of the company for a day, what fun and unconventional changes would you implement?

I would definitely implement napping pods. We’d need to have a time limit on them obviously, so people can't just stay in them all day aha! A 10-minute nap in the afternoon goes a long way!