Interview with Mario Tremblay, CEO of RobotShop

What motivated you, over 20 years ago, to create RobotShop, and what fundamental problem were you trying to solve at the time?

To understand the genesis of RobotShop, you need to go back to my past as a combat engineer in the Canadian Army. During a mission in the former Yugoslavia, I faced the terrifying reality of landmines. Enemy technology was evolving rapidly metal, light, vibration, pressure, and pressure-release sensors while we were still often clearing mines lying on the ground with just a bayonet. I remember thinking: “I need to get out of here before I lose my life.”

After leaving the army, I pursued studies in robotics engineering, keeping in mind the idea of creating swarms of small “kamikaze” robots for humanitarian demining. To learn and become an expert, I started building robots in my apartment.

My first prototype, in the early 2000s, wasn’t a deminer it was a “Cat Hunter”! Imagine a chassis made from a tackle box, BBQ wheels, a thermal sensor salvaged from a garage light, glued onto a stepper motor recovered from a printer that served as the tracking head. I even rigged a tactile bumper using a copper tube and a piezoelectric component taken from an old speaker to detect obstacles, all controlled by a microcontroller programmed in BASIC. The robot worked so well it relentlessly chased my cat I had to deactivate it to preserve the animal’s sanity (laughs)!

But this “Maker” experience, building robots constantly, revealed a real problem: sourcing parts was a logistical nightmare. Every component had to be ordered from different places around the world. I realized that for robotics to advance, creators needed a centralized source. RobotShop was born from this frustration: creating a single platform to make it easier for enthusiasts and engineers to build useful robots for the future.

How has RobotShop’s mission evolved as the robotics market matured, from education to industry?

At first, the non-industrial market was mainly education, research, and Makers, with a few domestic applications like robot vacuum cleaners. We liked to call ourselves “the Amazon of robotics,” a simple way to explain what we did. Our unofficial slogan was “robotics at your service,” meaning we wanted to bring robotics into people’s lives in a concrete and useful way.

Today, the sector has matured, and we’ve evolved with it. We are no longer just a robotics store; we’ve become a global platform offering robotic solutions. Our new slogan is: “Everything Robotics, infinite possibilities”.

We began offering commercial and professional solutions, supported by a growing network of integrators. From robot kits to humanoids, we offer it all, aiming to accelerate and expand our range. From discovering the right robotic solution to financing, deployment, support, maintenance, and purchase or rental that’s what RobotShop is becoming.

We also opened our first showroom in Mirabel, Canada, which is essentially a living lab where customers can visit us. We plan to replicate this physical presence extensively, not only in Canada but internationally.

Our ambition is to build a global ecosystem where any robotic project can come to life through RobotShop.

With your unique perspective, what does the market still underestimate most in robotics: technology, applications, or real adoption?

All of the above (laughs). Take, for example, how humanoid robots will arrive in real-world applications faster than people think. There is still a lot of skepticism, which I understand. People see videos of robots dancing or doing flips and ask: “Okay, but what’s the practical use?”

What is less visible are the exponential forces working behind the scenes. I’m talking about major advances in three areas that reinforce each other: artificial intelligence, GPU power, and mechatronics (the physical dexterity of robots). AI allows robots to understand, adapt, and reason. Next-gen GPUs enable ultra-fast real-time computation, even locally. And physically, robots are becoming more stable, fluid, and capable of manipulating their environment precisely.

The combination of these three factors is a complete game-changer.

Few people also realize that major automotive manufacturers are already involved. Several have signed agreements with humanoid robot companies to integrate them, in the short term, into their assembly lines. These same partnerships, backed by industrial power, will enable mass production. We are no longer talking about lab prototypes; we’re talking about general-purpose humanoid platforms capable of performing a wide range of tasks just like a human, and in some cases, better.

Security and data privacy issues? They will be addressed in parallel. There will be rapid iterations, updates, and standards emerging, as always with disruptive technologies.

The result is that when these robots are “good enough” to replace certain human tasks at scale, they will be produced, delivered, and deployed massively and very quickly. It won’t be a slow, gradual change; it will be a wave.

As with all major technological breakthroughs, we radically underestimate the adoption speed once everything aligns.

If you had to summarize in one sentence the mission you still pursue today with RobotShop, what would it be?

“Together, fostering a world full of robots that positively impacts our lives.”

FAQ – RobotShop and Innovative Robotics

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