Reliability challenges in harsh environments

From climbing robots inspecting boiler tubes to AI-powered platforms optimizing the world’s most critical assets, Gecko Robotics is redefining how we understand and maintain the infrastructure that powers modern society.

Ed Bryner, Chief Technology Officer at Gecko Robotics, joins Greg to unpack how his journey from hands-on engineer to technical leader has been shaped by a deep focus on applied engineering, mission-driven teams, and building technology directly in the real world. With roots in robotics competitions, defense work, and industrial systems, Ed brings a uniquely grounded perspective on what it takes to move from prototype to production in some of the harshest environments on earth.

We explore how Gecko is building a vertically integrated stack from robot to cloud, why infrastructure health data is the missing layer in industrial decision-making, and how continuous inspection is unlocking entirely new ways to operate, maintain, and extend the life of critical assets.

In this conversation, Greg and Ed get into:

• Ed’s path into robotics, from a family of engineers to high school competitions that sparked a passion for building at the intersection of hardware and software
• The founding story of Gecko Robotics, starting with a wall-climbing robot designed to inspect boiler tubes and eliminate dangerous manual inspections
• How Gecko evolved from a robotics company into a data and AI platform creating “health records” for industrial infrastructure
• Why infrastructure inspection has historically been so challenging, from scale and complexity to reliance on manual, high-risk human labor
• The power of multimodal data collection, combining ultrasound, LiDAR, and visual data to create high-fidelity digital twins of critical assets
• What it means to build and deploy robots in extreme environments like power plants, submarines, and refineries and why lab-only development fails in the real world
• How continuous data collection, even while assets are operating, is transforming maintenance cycles, planning, and operational availability
• A real-world example of reducing unplanned outages from 12 to zero using Gecko’s inspection and analytics platform
• The shift from static reports to interactive, software-driven decision tools that connect operators, engineers, and executives around a shared source of truth
• The challenge of reliability in robotics and what it takes to build systems that survive dirty, high-risk industrial environments
• How Gecko structures its teams around vertical integration, bringing hardware, software, and domain experts together to accelerate innovation
• Why “orientation” and getting engineers into the field is critical to shortening development cycles and building products that actually work
• The balance between experimentation and scaling and Gecko’s philosophy of proving value with a few customers before expanding broadly
• How advances in AI and developer tools are accelerating experimentation and enabling engineers to work across the full stack
• Ed’s long-term vision of improving the health, lifespan, and sustainability of the world’s built infrastructure

For anyone building in robotics, industrial automation, or physical AI, this episode is a deep dive into what it really takes to deploy technology in the real world and create lasting impact on the systems society depends on every day.

Learn more about Gecko Robotics: https://www.geckorobotics.com/

Connect with Ed Bryner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardbryner/

Connect with Greg Toroosian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregtoroosian/