Lem Fugitt, a man a pillar in the robotics community (owner of robot-dreams.com) has passed away.

[ithon]

Lem Fugitt is one of those people who you may not know but paved the way for robot tech news to become a hub in the robotics community giving professionals and amateurs alike information especially in english and japan speaking countries. He also had numerous things under his belt, here's his linkedin page. [url]https://jp.linkedin.com/in/lemfugitt[/url]

[url]http://makezine.com/2015/08/20/farewell-lem-fugitt-mighty-bridge-fallen/[/url]
[quote]The world of robotics is not a continent, with people easily moving from site to site. It is a vast ocean, filled with islands of specialization and unique cultures. Often these islands have little in common but the word “robot.” There are islands devoted to industrial robots, competition robotics, and art bots. There are places filled with people who will never build a robot, but yearn to know what’s happening on all those islands. There are small atolls with single inhabitants working to build their dreams, and monstrous islands where thousands compete to have their work seen by everyone. Humanoid robots, combat robots, service robots, robots that were built to hurt and those built to heal. There are even islands that have everything in common but actual geographic proximity. All of them segregated on their islands of solipsism.

Sometimes people would build a boat and sail to one or two other islands to connect with other robot people, but for the most part, we all stayed on our own pile of servos rising from the ocean floor.

But there was another way. A Mighty Bridge. A Bridge that connected all those islands to each other. The Bridge played no favorites, charged no toll, and made sure that every island was accessible. That bridge was named Lem Fugitt. This week, The Bridge fell. And our world is a far lesser place for the loss.[/quote]
[quote]Lem loved robots of all types, and made certain that the world had access to every island in our vast ocean. Whether it was an industrial robotics convention in Tokyo, a small artist’s studio in New York, a collegiate competition in Europe, or just sitting at home posting about stuff to his blog that he’d heard about, Lem was The Bridge to everyone else and between everyone else. In his eyes, we were all equal and so were our robots. A tiny event was as significant as the world’s largest robot competition. The 6 year old’s sumo robot was just as important as the multinational corporations’ ten million dollar android. They all mattered, and The Bridge wanted to make sure the whole world knew about each and every one.

He was, without a doubt, the world’s biggest fan of robots. All of us have our own private or shared islands where we focus on our little robotics niche. But Lem made sure we knew about each other. He didn’t do it for fame or for fortune or any other reason but to help us to help each other.[/quote]