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Michael Rand

MSEE GT, Founder/CoFounder of Future Networks, Aretta Communications, SIP.US, SIPTrunk.com, Telvero telecommunications companies. Interests lie in communications, home automation, autonomous control systems, SCUBA diving, and fast cars.

17 articles

Peaceful dawn scene of a Black woman in her 50s relaxing with tea on her suburban home porch as a quadruped security robot and smart home sensors provide calm background reliability.
Robots 101·June 6, 2026
The home that hums: finding peace of mind in background reliability

Learn how home robots and sensors deliver quiet confidence and background reliability. Reduce worry, protect your home from afar, and enjoy true peace of mind.

Michael Rand
Hyper-realistic view of a healthy home with a raised environmental baseline: clean hardwood floors maintained by a daily robot vacuum, fresh indoor air supported by a HEPA purifier, and a neatly mowed backyard cared for by a robotic mower. A family and golden retriever enjoy the calm, effortless cleanliness that domestic robots make possible every day.
Robots 101·June 5, 2026
The air you forgot about: raising the baseline of a healthy home

You are walking barefoot through your living room. The floor feels clean. Not "I vacuumed on Saturday" clean. Clean the way it felt when you moved in.

Michael Rand
Photorealistic scene showing a woman in her mid-30s standing in a lived-in living room of a modern home with an open floor plan, holding her phone while looking thoughtfully at a new robot vacuum still in its box on the floor.
Robots 101·June 4, 2026
Your first robot: getting started and building realistic confidence

Thinking about buying your first robot? Discover what really happens when you bring one home — the honest first weeks, real challenges, and why it’s worth it.

Michael Rand
A detailed, wide-angle, photo-realistic photograph of a modernized and sophisticated suburban home interior with a women in her 50s taking measurements.
Robots 101·June 4, 2026
Ready before they arrive: preparing your home for the support you will want

Prepare your home for robots before you buy. Learn simple upgrades, better wifi, clear floors, and smart placement that help your robot vacuum and mower succeed

Michael Rand
A peaceful early morning scene in a cozy suburban backyard and living room viewed through open sliding glass doors. A happy young mixed race family (parents in their late 30s and two children) sits relaxed at a wooden outdoor table enjoying breakfast and laughing together under warm golden sunrise light. In the background, a robot lawn mower quietly trims the grass on a modest lawn, while a robot vacuum can be seen through the open doors cleaning the living room floor.
Robots 101·June 4, 2026
What becomes possible: when robots work together

Learn how robot vacuums, mowers, and smart systems are creating affordable household staff for regular families.

Michael Rand
A wide, atmospheric shot of a modern home interior at dusk. A robot is shown in the center of the living room, standing still, with its mechanical arm extended toward a small childs stuffed teddy bear on the rug. The lighting is warm and domestic, emphasizing the integration of the machine into the home setting rather than a sterile lab environment.
How Robots Work·May 27, 2026
Meet the "hands": The frontier of a robots reachable world

We want robots capable of handling different items across various contexts, effective enough to pick something up, move it, and set it down without breaking it.

Michael Rand
A warm, inviting photograph of a living room in the late afternoon. A sleek, modern floor-cleaning robot is seen in the distance, silently cleaning near a bookshelf.
How Robots Work·May 26, 2026
The science of the scrub: how robots actually clean

Cleaning is a fundamental chore, yet it remains one of the most mechanically complex tasks we assign to machines.

Michael Rand
A small pancake shaped robot evaluating uneven terrain to determine if it can proceed.
How Robots Work·May 26, 2026
Wheels, Legs, Treads: How robots navigate the home landscape

Somewhere in your house right now, a robot is staring at the edge of a rug and running the numbers on whether today is the day it finally makes it across.

Michael Rand
A conceptual 3D cutaway of a smart home showing robots connected to home automation systems and smart appliances via mesh network. The image also shows a data-stream visualization between all devices.
How Robots Work·May 25, 2026
How your robots talk to the rest of the home

Explore how you robot communicates to become a reliable member of your household responsive to the home’s overall flow of life.

Michael Rand
Robot on staris
Robot Proof Home·May 21, 2026
The Vertical Frontier: Designing for Stair-Climbing Robots

A robot sees stair and experiences a software-level existential crisis. This is the unfortunate reality of the modern home: it was built for knees, not treads.

Michael Rand
Robot in a room with no WiFi looking at a house plant.
Robot Proof Home·May 7, 2026
Why your robots need full home WiFi coverage

Modern home robots depend on WiFi for command and awareness: navigation updates, task confirmation, status streaming to an app. Cut the WiFi and they're lost.

Michael Rand
Dog shaped robot looking at objects on the floor in a home.
How Robots Work·April 30, 2026
Object Recognition: How AI Knows a Shoe from a "Pet Accident"

Examines the mechanical and digital process that allows a robot to read the room, and make decisions like if it sees a shoe or a "pet accident".

Michael Rand