KEY POINTS:
At intermediate school, Toby Collett spent a lot of his time building electrical circuits.
Years later he leads a team that can claim a world-first in robotics - a forklift that operates itself.
The former University of Auckland student has been named the Young Engineer of the Year in the 2008 New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards.
Mr Collett led a development team that successfully designed, commercialised and sold a vehicle automation system in under 14months.
This forklift drives and moves equipment by itself. It has the potential to be widely used in a number of industries which involve hazardous environments, avoiding the deaths and injuries associated with the machines.
Lead software engineer at Inro Technologies, which began in 2004, Mr Collett has an engineering degree, PhD in robotics and a total of eight years' study under his belt.
Speaking to the Herald before he knew of his win, the understated 27-year-old said the award would be good not just for him but the company he helped start.
"It's nice to get recognition for where the company's got to," he said. "The good thing about being part of a start-up company is that I've been able to do a lot more and be involved in different parts of the process which is a real bonus."
And the $2000 prize money won't hurt either.
Mr Collett said the possibilities for robotics were endless. There was already the technology for doctors in one country to carry out remote surgery on a patient on the other side of the world but, being dependent on the internet, wasn't at a point where it could be relied on.
He said robotics would make their way into people's homes in the not-too-distant future - but would initially be small systems inside household appliances in a similar way to computers.
Grant Sargent, engineering manager at Inro, said much of the company's success was down to Mr Collett's approach.
"I remember the very first customer we went to see, and we were all wandering around saying how hard it was going to be, and Toby was off in the corner telling the guy how it should be done," said Mr Sargent.
The company aims to make its mark on the world stage shortly, taking the technology it has developed to customers around the world - showing them just how it's done.
