John Burley joins Q-Bot from CMR Surgical to advance the use of robotics, digital and AI in the retrofit and construction sectors

Q-Bot, the technology company that uses robotics and AI to insulate people’s homes, has appointed John Burley as Chief Technology Officer.  John’s career spans surgical robotics, satellite control and strategic consultancy.

John brings to Q-Bot extensive technical and operational leadership experience. His career to date includes five years at CMR Surgical, one of the UK’s fastest growing medical device start-ups.  At CMR, John helped the company to bring Versius, their robotic surgical system, into operating theatres around the world. He set up and developed their field service capabilities, technical support, service training, and robotic repair centres in UK and India. He also sits on WBR Field Service advisory board and speaks publicly about field service leveraging digital technology. 

John’s experience at CMR Surgical will be especially valuable to Q-Bot as it develops and expands the use of robotics within the retrofit and building sector.

After CMR, John moved into the sustainability ‘cleantech’ space through a series of consultancy engagements, including work on the autonomous robotic assembly of a space-based solar power station with Space Solar in Harwell.

He has also worked at Airbus and Inmarsat (ViaSat), managing spacecraft operations from launch to end-of-life, maintaining them and recovering them from emergencies.

Professor Peter Childs FREng, Chair and co-founder of Q-Bot (and founding head of the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College, London) said: “We are delighted that John has joined Q-Bot. His extensive experience of robotics and technology transfer – both in the medical and space sectors – will be hugely valuable as we further develop our technology for home insulation and in time building inspections. By using our specialist robots, we are accelerating the insulation of people’s homes, helping households reduce their energy bills, improving a home’s air quality and reducing a property’s carbon emissions.”

In London alone, there are around 500,000 homes – hard to treat homes with suspended floors – that would benefit from using Q-Bot’s floor insulation. It is estimated that roughly 80% of these homes have an energy performance of EPC D, or below.

John Burley said: “It’s super-exciting to have joined Q-Bot. It’s a fast-growing robotics innovator with a track record of over 10-years in reducing carbon emissions, and crucially making homes warmer and cheaper to run.  The opportunity to use my robotics experience with a company in the growing clean/climate tech sector and with an ambition to revolutionise the retrofit and construction industries with robotics, digital tools, and AI were two key reasons for my choosing to join Q-Bot.”

Q-Bot’s floor insulation technology is quick, hassle-free and cheaper than other forms of insulation; it is verified by the Energy Saving Trust and the Residential Property Surveyors Association.  Independent tests undertaken by Leeds Beckett University point to a 24% heat loss reduction in homes that have Q-Bot insulation, and in a separate study it has been shown that Q-Bot insulation reduces running costs for properties with heat pumps – by as much as 30%.

As well as insulating people’s homes by using its robots, Q-Bot wants to provide new services for the inspection, maintenance and upgrade of buildings, without the cost and disruption of traditional methods. To do this, Q-Bot is growing its “robot-as-a-service” model (RAAS) and expanding placements of its technology via its partners in the UK and Europe.

With John’s arrival at Q-Bot, Tom Lipinski, who co-founded Q-Bot with Professor Peter Childs and had been Chief Technology Officer, is now the company’s Chief Scientific Officer.

For further information, visit www.q-bot.co

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