The Brevard Technical Journal

Lifelong Passion
James Spencer's inventive ideas are foundation of Intelligent Machine Concepts

By Anne Straub
Brevard Technical Journal

When other 9-year-olds were reading comic books or working on their multiplication tables, James Spencer was, well, a little bit ahead. He was building robots.

"It's been a lifelong passion," the entrepreneurial engineer said of his fascination with robotics. One of his early creations won recognition in a corporate science talent search. It also put his parents back about $10,000. "It was a serious machine. If you saw a picture of it, you'd ask, what science fiction movie did this come out of?" Spencer said.

Spencer continued in the field during college at Brown University, where he built a robot as an independent study project. In one demonstration, he controlled the robot remotely, driving it across a stage to pick up a can, then travel to the other side of the stage and drop it into the trash.

The idea of getting paid to work with the technology as an adult makes him about as happy as teen building robots in the family garage. The difference is that now he's building a company he founded to improve the contribution of robotics to automation.

Spencer, 35, is chief executive of Intelligent Machine Concepts, a Titusville maker of high-speed vision inspection systems for the food and beverage industry. He and co-founder Jeffrey Hooker launched the business in 1994, after Spencer left his position as supervisor for the robotic applications development lab at Kennedy Space Center.

Intelligent Machine Concepts got its start providing robotic solutions to Fortune 500 companies that wanted to make their automation systems more efficient. Intelligent markets an ability to give robots senses so they can measure and interpret data rather than simply perform repetitive functions.

For example, when Nike wanted to use robots to assemble footwear, the inconsistency of the pieces presented a problem. Because not every molded sole is exactly the same, a traditional automation process could result in excessive mess and waste when cementing the sole to the shoe. Intelligent vision technology and custom lasers, however, could help a robotic system measure the pieces and apply the cement in the right place.

The business plan had a serious limitation: Each robotics solution the company produced was tailored to a particular customer and so had limited marketing potential. To grow the company, the leadership team switched gears in 1996. Intelligent used an infusion of venture capital to create a product with wide application to the food and beverage packaging industry.

It started with cans -- particularly the ends of cans, where defects are more likely to be - and produced a system that can check for defects at high speeds with more accuracy than current systems, which use a manual sampling process. Under that system, technicians take a sample of product and measure for defects. By the time problems are found, the automated system might have run into problems down the line.

Intelligent's system measures every can produced, cutting down on the amount of good product a company throws away because it was misidentified as faulty, and preventing defective cans from slipping through an inadequate system and contaminating other product.

The company is focusing on metal cans and has started working in labeling. It also has identified other industries as potential future markets. Intelligent has 18 full-time employees.

Company responsibilities have reduced Spencer's involvement in the local chapter of the National Technical Association - but only temporarily. He remains on the board of the Space Coast chapter of the organization, where he has volunteered since 1990.

The group aims to increase minority students' participation in the sciences by offering hands-on programs and workshops at four centers in Brevard County.

Spencer's involvement has included teaching robot assembly classes to teenagers. He also donated two of his own robots to the group, including one that stands about 5'6'' and weighs in at 200 pounds. It moves by remote control on looped tracks, like those on a military tank.

"James is just gifted all the way around," said Eric Green, an engineer and president of the local chapter of the group. In addition to working with the children, Spencer helped the group by developing administrative software, writing proposals and making presentations. "He's got a gift for gab. He can communicate at all levels."

"He's definitely a kid person," Green added.

Spencer and his wife of 13 years, Jacqueline, have two children: James, 9, and Jessica, 5.

He continues to feed his fascination for technology with science fiction by favorites like Isaac Asimov and Ben Bova. His enjoyment of working with children in science reflects Spencer's awareness of his own childhood fascination with space.

"I remember being 6 years old and lying in my little toddler bed. I was contemplating the idea of infinity. I was projecting my mind beyond my house, my neighborhood, and further into space," Spencer recalled. "I was thinking about space from a very early age."

Spencer grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. His father was a dentist, his mother a teacher in the New York City school system. Spencer attended Brooklyn Technical High School with a pre-engineering major.

After graduating from Brown, he worked for Bell Laboratories, and then learned about a position in robotics design engineering at the space center. He joined Boeing Co. at KSC in 1989 and calls the job his destiny.

"It had my name all over it," Spencer said. "They could have had me pay them, and I think I would have shown up."