Melonee Wise
Chief Product Officer Of Software And AI at KUKA
San Jose, California, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolMelonee Wise is a seasoned robotics product and technology leader with over two decades designing, building, and commercializing autonomous systems, and 17 years of formal industry experience culminating in C-suite roles at Agility Robotics and KUKA. She co-founded Fetch Robotics and led it to a $305M acquisition, has deployed 1,500+ robots across 26+ countries, and repeatedly translated research-grade platforms (PR2, TurtleBot) into shipping products. Equally comfortable in firmware and high-level system design, her open-source work includes ROS drivers and perception test automation (notably contributions to TurtleBot, libfreenect, and laser_filters) that underline a hands-on commitment to quality and reproducibility. Her background in mechanical engineering and nonlinear dynamics informs a practical systems view that bridges hardware, controls, and AI-driven product strategy. Colleagues know her for turning need-finding insights into pragmatic robot architectures and for scaling teams and platforms from prototype to global deployment.
17 years of coding experience
20 years of employment as a software developer
glenbard south high schoolMS Mechanical Engineering, MS Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Github Skills (26)
wiimote10
c-language10
robotics10
python10
testing10
c1110
c1710
googletest10
kinect10
sys10
embedded10
cprogramming-language10
ros10
diagnostics10
sens9
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
turtlebot/turtlebot
Feb 2011 - Jun 2012
The turtlebot stack provides all the basic drivers for running and using a TurtleBot.
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:170 commits, 1 comment in 1 year 3 months
Contributions summary:Melonee primarily contributed to the backend functionality of the TurtleBot stack. They added and modified Python scripts within the `turtlebot_node` directory. The commits involve changes related to the robot's operating mode, sensor data, and integration with the Create robot, including code for battery monitoring and diagnostics.
driver
ros-drivers/joystick_drivers
Sep 2009 - Mar 2012
ROS drivers for joysticks
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:52 commits in 2 years 6 months
Contributions summary:Melonee primarily contributed to the `wiimote` driver within the `joystick_drivers` repository. Their work involved modifying the Wiimote node, including dependency management, topic name changes, and incorporating timestamping for the joy messages. The user also addressed performance issues and integrated features for rumble and LED control, demonstrating expertise in interacting with the Wiimote's hardware features and publishing joystick data. These changes likely involved direct interaction with hardware and the ROS framework to improve Wiimote functionality.
ros-driver
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