When Helen Greiner was ten years old, her parents took her to watch a movie in the “Star Wars” franchise. She credits this outing, and her love of the character R2D2, for inspiring her lifelong love of robots. After graduating high school, Greiner earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in computer science. While at MIT, she worked closely with Rodney Brooks and Colin Angle in the Artificial Intelligence Lab—this trio would later form iRobot in 1990.
The company specializes in consumer robotics, perhaps most notably the Roomba, an automatic vacuum device that social media has proven to be a popular dance partner for house cats worldwide as well as an effective house cleaning tool. iRobot also worked closely with the U.S. military on a few projects, including robots specializing in searching through combat debris and SUGVs, which perform surveillance, reconnaissance, and other functions in high-risk situations.
Last year, she became Chief Executive Officer of Tertill Corporation, a Massachusetts-based startup centered around creating robotic gardening solutions. "I was thinking about the outdoor space and all the things that... should be done robotically," Greiner said. Interest in home gardening has increased dramatically over the past few years, especially since the pandemic confined many people to their own property for an extended period of time.
Between iRobot and Tertill, Greiner worked with NASA and the U.S. Army, even being sworn in as a Highly Qualified Expert (HQE) for Robotics, Autonomous Systems & AI for the Army (ASA(ALT)). She has won many accolades over her career, including the Global Leader of Tomorrow and Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum; the Prestigious Pioneer Award from the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI); the New England Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young; and the DEMO God Award and DEMO Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also inducted into the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame.