Former Lindsay man looks to create ant armies to help humanity build

How GRAM’s insectoid robots could reshape the future

Ulys Sorok has always been interested in technology. The now 22-year-old spent his pivotal high school years between the ages of 14-18 in Lindsay, a place he thinks of as his hometown. He would spend hours hanging around the airport, talking to people and looking up at the stars. “I would find myself in a ranch a couple of miles north just testing and toying around with electronics and fixing machines, or building and blowing up munitions,” he said.

After attending I.E Weldon, Sorok spent some time working at different businesses learning more about what technology could make possible. “That brought me to my life’s mission of making humanity galactic,” Sorok said, underscoring his belief that space could become a new frontier for humankind.

During this time, he was able to learn more about self-replication technology – machines that can build everything, including themselves. “My (self-imposed) mandate was to understand why humanity hasn’t birthed this technology yet, and what critical challenged were behind barring its creation.”

Now he’s based in El Segundo, California and has founded the Galactic Resource Advanced Mechanism Technologies company, GRAM. “You’re seeing this movement of super young kids with crazy ideas that are building crazy technologies in this small part of the world. I don’t think I would’ve gained an appreciation for what this represented had I not come from a town like Lindsay,” Sorok said.

GRAM is working on building robotic insectoids. They’re autonomous six-legged machines that look like large mechanical ants. “The goal is to create a deflationary effect on this cost of capable labour by having our robots be deployed into our own supply chains to help build more robots,” he said.

While everything is in the early stages right now, Sorok says once completed the robots will be primarily good at three things.

“It can climb up surfaces like an actual insect might,” he said. Right now, the prototypes are able to climb up steel, with the end goal of all materials being climbable. Sorok choose to start testing their ability with steel by thinking back to the grain silos and the metal bridges of the Trent Severn Waterway.

The insectoids will also be able to use its front two limbs for handling tools and objects, much like a praying mantis would, he said. Finally, “they’ll work really well together, kind of like a colony of ants,” he said. The end product will be robots that not only build more of themselves but will also be beneficial in welding and construction.

Sorok is optimistic about what GRAM will do. “Right now, we’re building a team. We’ve established a core team of some of the world’s best scientists, researchers and engineers.” At the same time, he’s also trying to stay grounded until the robots are finished. “It’s not a big deal until it’s a big deal.”

He looks back to those days of experimenting and blowing things up as well as the quieter moments. “I spent a lot of time tending to my mother’s garden. There’s a lot of physical labour involved,” he says, and he sees his work now as growing a new kind of life.

While he’s living in the big city now, Lindsay stays in his heart, and he hopes that the youth from Lindsay today will feel the same way if they search for new horizons. “The future is not something that just happens to you. It’s something you build. Never think that coming from a (small) town…is a disadvantage in any way, shape, or form,” Sorok said.

His younger brothers, Neo Sorok and Harsh Gadkari still live in Lindsay. They spent part of this past summer working with Sorok on the prototypes of his robots. It makes him excited for new innovations that will come out of Lindsay.

“(My brothers) are bringing together a group of young teens who are excited about STEM and they want to build something cool, but more importantly something useful,” he said with plans to sponsor some of the projects they want to tackle.

He encourages everyone to get involved in their community in any way they can. Whether it’s getting involved in local issues or simply knocking on a neighbour’s door to see if they need any help.

As for what the future holds, Sorok clearly is aiming high, but he promises to not forget where he came from. “My hope is to give back as much as I can to the town that has given me everything. I will.”