Nicholas Wettels

Chief Executive Officer @ Sensate Robotics

About

Nicholas Wettels is a researcher and entrepreneur in the robotics and electronics space. His goals are to devise and commercialize new robotic solutions commercial and government customers to foster better robotic manipulation, autonomy and signal processing. Nick has written several Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant and other types of similar proposals. Nick is also a Navy Reserve Commander. His research interests include: static and dynamic force sensing techniques, multi-fingered manipulation, reach and grasp controllers, sensor fusion (vision/ EM + tactile), object property extraction, machine learning.

Country

United States

City

Los Angeles

Industry

Research

Skill

Robotics, Navy, Program Management, Electronics, Sensors, Matlab, Security Clearance, Systems Engineering, Leadership, Research, Machine Learning, Defense, Biomedical Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Programming, Management, Engineering Management, Algorithms, C++, C

Experience

Chief Executive Officer

Sensate Robotics

2025-7 - Present · 1 yr 3 mos

Los Angeles, CA

Combining touch and vision sensing for better object handling. We can image the internals of things we hold!

Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Voyager Technologies

2021-2 - 2025-9 · 4 yrs 8 mos

El Segundo, CA

Machine Learning expert to develop novel algorithms to process synthetic aperture radar imagery for a variety of customers - formerly EMSI - now Voyager Technologies.

Adjunct Assistant Professor

University of Southern California

2012-1 - 2025-8 · 13 yrs 8 mos

Greater Los Angeles Area

Instructor for Undergraduate and Graduate Biomedical Engineering Courses: BME-101 Introduction to Biomedical Engineering BME-650: Measurement and Instrumentation

Reserve Submarine Officer

US Navy

2006-11 - 2023-3 · 16 yrs 5 mos

San Diego, CA

Rank: Commander R&D Liaison for Unmanned Systems and Anti-Submarine Warfare Specialist

Director Of Research & Development

OnRobot

2018-6 - 2020-6 · 2 yrs 1 mo

Greater Los Angeles Area

OnRobot: Your One-Stop-Shop for end of arm tooling and other robot peripherals. OnRobot LA (formerly Perception Robotics) develops and manufactures the Gecko Gripper and conducts R&D on PolySkin tactile sensing technology.

CEO

Perception Robotics

2012-2 - 2018-6 · 6 yrs 5 mos

Greater Los Angeles Area

Perception Robotics develops bio-inspired robotic grippers and systems for grasping objects. Our two unique technologies are a super robust pressure sensitive elastomer (PolySkin) that can inexpensively be shaped into most any form and a gecko inspired gripper for handling large, flat objects on Earth as well as space.

Post-Doctoral Researcher: Robotic Actuation and Sensing Group

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

2013-2 - 2014-2 · 1 yr 1 mo

Pasadena, CA

Robotic design of gripper system for ISS and satellite maintenance. Velocity-based path planning and programming for autonomous surface ship.

Tenor 2

Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera

2012-9 - 2014-1 · 1 yr 5 mos

Greater Los Angeles Area

Tenor for LA Met Opera Choir

COO

SynTouch, Inc.

2008-7 - 2012-1 · 3 yrs 7 mos

Downtown Los Angeles

Small tech company that seeks to leverage understanding of human tactile sensing and haptics for better prosthetic and robotic limbs.

GSRP Research Fellow

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

2010-6 - 2010-8 · 3 mos

Houston, Texas Area

Researcher for Dr. Ron Diftler as part of NASA GSRP Fellowship on Robonaut 2 project. • Tested B robot’s phalange sensors for drift, hysteresis, repeatability and calibration prior to ISS launch; generated particle filters for object and force tracking with tactile data • Developed reach and grasp algorithms with SwissRange finder data