Robo Inc.: a startup with Plainview roots

Business Robo Inc.: a startup with Plainview roots By James Bernstein … Comments Posted on November 11, 2026 Robo Inc’s Cadet, a bi-pedal robot that answers questions Robo Inc. If you’re seeking a look at the future of Long Island, it may be inside a workaday building in a busy commercial strip in Plainview. Welcome to tomorrow at Robo Inc., its executives say. Here, they say, you will find robots that talk, others that are designed to stop by your bedside at a hospital and measure your vital signs, and still others that can climb stairs to deliver packages or vials for medical and biological uses. Robo’s chief executive officer is Teddy Haggerty, a 31-year-old college dropout who told the Press in a recent interview that he was making too much money in school working on cryptocurrency projects to continue with classes. Instead, he started a company designing helmets for safety purposes and switched in 2023 to designing robots. To date, Robo has developed 1,600 robots that it has sold to universities, businesses including Amazon, and research institutions such as Carnegie Mellon. The Reading Institute with Founder Dr. Katie Pace Miles Schneps Connects https://podcasts.schnepsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Dr.Miles_SchnepsConnects.mp3 Subscribe: RSS iTunes Spotify Stitcher Amazon Google Play Earlier this fall, U.S. Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), organized a roundtable discussion at another robotics company, Standard Bots, not far from his district office, to discuss the best ways to position Long Island as a national hub for robotics and advanced manufacturing in the country. “Robotics and advanced manufacturing are going to play an increasingly important role in our economy,” Suozzi said at the gathering.  “That will not only be because of their effectiveness, but because the industry creates high-skilled, high-tech jobs that have good wages for the people of Long Island.” Haggerty, of Cold Spring Harbor, said that when he was in high school, he was building drones. He does believe robotics could be an industry on the Island, with his company playing a key role. “We can help develop the future,” Haggerty said. His company’s workshop offers some startling sights. There is, for one, a robot called The Guardian. It talks and walks. This is a robot that could come by a patient’s bedside and take a pulse or a temperature and report the findings to a doctor. The Guardian also talks and had a conversation with a visiting reporter, who first introduced himself. “Hello James,” The Guardian responded. It then described what it is able to do. The reporter stood beside Frederick Feraco, Robo’s chief technology officer. The reporter and Feraco then talked among themselves, and interestingly, The Guardian butted in. “It’s listening,” said Feraco. “It does sometimes interrupt.” The Guardian is seen primarily as useful for the hospital industry, not by any means replacing medical staff, but assisting in routine duties such as taking vital signs. There is also The Forge, which, as demonstrated by Feraco, is able to climb and descend steps carrying 35 pounds. Forge and an assistant placed test tube vials on The Forge, and it centered them and went up and down without spilling a drop of water. And, also displayed to a visitor was The Cadet, a bipedal robot that is to be used to research and learn computer program development. Currently, there are only about seven companies on Long Island involved in the robotics industry, according to New York State Labor Department statistics. Evan Beard, the co-founder and CEO of Standard Bots, gave the keynote address at the roundtable. “The next era of manufacturing will be won by the countries that build their own robots, and we believe America should lead it,” Beard said. He called on government, businesses and investors “to make this region a home for American robotics.” Robo, which buys robots from China and integrates and programs them, says it is the largest seller of such devices in the world. Some state and Long Island industry officials believe a national hub for robotics could be built here. Amy Erickson, executive director of the Long Island Manufacturing Partnership at the State University at Stony Brook, told the roundtable that she saw “a tremendous opportunity for our small and mid-sized manufacturers to strengthen their competitiveness through the adoption of advanced technologies, particularly robotics.” But such machines, particularly those aimed at the medical industry, would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, industry executives say. Left unanswered at the roundtable was who would pay for them. If hospitals, costs would likely be passed on to consumers. They also may jeopardize the jobs of some medical staffers, who now take blood and perform other routine procedures. Martin Cantor, an economics official in the administration of Suffolk County Executive Pat Halpin in the late 1980s and early ’90s and now director of a think tank in Melville, expressed doubt Long Island could support a robotics industry, considering the high costs of electricity, land and taxes. He said the Island should first reduce its costs before talking about new industries. But Charles Goulding, an attorney in Oyster Bay who works in the high-tech and robotics industry, said the field here is “embryonic but growing.” “Maybe we’re a little late in this game, but we’re getting there,” Goulding said. For more business coverage, click here. About the Author All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines . Schneps Media does not endorse the views shared by readers in our comment sections.