Oded Medina
Chief Scientist & Co-Founder
“My connection to Dig Robotics starts with a lifelong passion for machinery. As a child, sometimes I’d miss my bus just to keep watching the excavators at work. To this day, one of the perks of my job is when I get to operate an excavator in the field.
I hold a degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Master’s in Electrical Engineering, and a PhD in Robotics. My academic research covers modular and medical robotics, electronics and sensors. I’ve developed robotic bronchoscopes that allow doctors to navigate the lungs precisely using smart joysticks, and climbing robots that scale poles like caterpillars.
Teaching is another part of who I am. When I stand in front of a classroom and explain a structural problem, I join theory and reality, describing how we solved the issue on a live site.
I’m excited by the advancements in robotics. Smart humanoid robots are emerging, and I believe we’ll soon see them in homes, just like washing machines. For $6,000, you’ll be able to buy a humanoid robot that emulates your actions and performs household tasks.
An excavator is an immensely powerful machine. It’s easy to use it inefficiently, but working efficiently and precisely is much harder - and Dig addresses that problem. Dig’s vision is ambitious. Today, our solution serves human operators; in the future, it will form the backbone of fully autonomous excavators.
What we do at Dig can sound deceptively simple, but the challenge never ends: Measuring where the bucket is in space, how much volume it’s lifting, mounting delicate sensors in a harsh environment, and designing algorithms that make sense of it all.
I design and refine our algorithms, along with our programmers, and constantly think about how to make the system more accurate, reliable, and efficient.
What makes Dig excel, beyond the technology, is the team. Most of our people are mechanical engineers, and they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty. When we go out to the field, an engineer who normally designs algorithms is suddenly crawling under machines, covered in grease.
I’m married to an English teacher and have five daughters. My oldest, who is sixteen, was accepted into an academic program for gifted students. She’s incredibly technology-oriented and hands-on, a real handywoman.
My long-standing collaboration with Noam, Dig’s Co-Founder and CEO, goes back to when he first approached me at the university with a previous startup. We experimented together, sharpened ideas, and with Dig, we found the right problem to focus on."
