Ultra-violet disinfection keeps people healthy and it’s an exciting application for robotics, but the process could cause a health risk as UV light is dangerous to humans. In this talk, a DreamVu technical expert will explain how omnidirectional 3D vision systems can be used to not only identify the presence of people, but to also identify how far away people are from the light based on accurate depth information. Added functions will also be explored such as how long UV...

Surgical robotics is the ‘sexiest’ medical device technology of the past decade, with a scope and breadth that continues to penetrate almost all medical specialties. Ongoing research, technological advances and wider adoption will continue to propel the surgical robotics sector forward, which is forecasted to reach $13.7 billion by 2026 at a very healthy CAGR of 10.4%. Still, debate continues about the utility of surgical robots for multiple procedures, and there are some concerns whether the next generation of surgical...

The first generation of robotics systems, which emerged over the second half of the last century, largely consisted of immobile, single task robots that have little interaction with humans or the world around them as they performed repetitive, industrial tasks while encaged within safety barriers. This was followed by two decades of rapid robotics innovation, resulting in robotics systems capable of operating in open, dynamic environments, often working in close approximation to, or directly with, humans. But what comes next?...

Manufacturers of aerospace parts, heavy machinery, and other industrial equipment require large automated manufacturing systems for painting, surface-finishing, inspection, and more. These systems often employ a gantry outfitted with an industrial manipulator to extend the work envelope over many meters. Due to their sheer size and associated costs, these systems must perform multiple operations to ensure adequate return on investment. Automating these large, multi-process-systems has challenges including motion planning for redundant kinematics, calibration of 3D scanning sensors, environment management, user-interface,...

As with terrestrial robotics systems, the addition of increasing levels of autonomy, empowered by artificial intelligence, has resulted in maritime platforms with greater capabilities and wider applicability, enabling new applications and entirely new business models in the process. In this far ranging and inspiring session, Nicolaus Radford, President and CEO of Houston Mechatronics, a developer of autonomous robots for deep ocean applications, will describe the growing opportunity for commercial class, unmanned maritime systems, including applications and markets. He will also...

By 2021, the intelligent automation market is expected to be $2.9 billion with a compounded annual growth rate of seven percent between 2020 and 2025. Manufacturers have benefited from the success of purpose-built robotics that automate specific tasks with higher reliability, less repetitive stress injuries and lower costs. Consumers and businesses today are relying more and more on automation that make lives easier and efficient. However, innovators and engineers often struggle with the design process and real time collaboration, including...

Keynote Session: The Future of Robotics: Research to Commercialization It's an exciting time to be in robotics. The $100+ billion global robotics sector has been growing by leaps and bounds. Industrial robots are no longer the exclusive domain of heavy industry or huge factories. A new generation of robotics systems, collaborative robots in particular, have expanded the customer base for robots to include mid-sized and even small businesses for manufacturing, materials handling, fulfillment, and beyond. The Covid-19 pandemic has raised...

After almost a decade of effort from a multidisciplinary team of researchers and collaborators with backgrounds in robotics, functional apparel design and movement science, soft wearable robots have now left the lab and being deployed across a range of exciting application areas. This talk will give an overview of how this technology has matured and give examples of its commercial use through collaborations with industry partners. Our long-term vision is for ubiquitous soft wearable robots that can be worn all...

One thing is clear from the past 6 months: Manufacturing as we know it must change. In the wake of severe supply chain disruption caused by COVID-19, on the heels of a trade war with China, OEMs are seeking alternatives to the old way of doing things for a more resilient future. 87% of manufacturing leaders surveyed1 confirmed a high-priority digital transformation initiative, and 99% declared that increasing supply chain resilience is a top focus. In contrast, however, only 14%...

What does it take to build a successful surgical robotics company? It is not enough to identify an unmet need in the operating/procedure room that a surgical robot could satisfy. For example, can you stand out if you have chosen to develop for one of the overpopulated surgical robotics subspecialties? Do you have a defensible patent position with a long strategy to strengthen it? Or do you know for certain how you will make money in the regulated world of...

Keynote Session: Advanced Actuation as a Robotics Capabilities Enabler Today’s innovative robot designs require actuators that are highly functional, featuring position sensing and an integrated servo drive, without sacrificing package size or torque density. Robot design engineers are continuing to work at an unprecedented pace, and they are constantly exploring ways to increase the diversity and potential of robots while accelerating time to market. In this informative session, Brian Coyne, VP Engineering at Harmonic Drive LLC, will examine how an...

Gatik was founded in 2017 with a mission to deliver goods safely and efficiently using autonomous vehicles (AVs). The company focuses on business to business (B2B), short-haul logistics for the retail industry. Gatik’s fleet of Class 1-6 AVs moves goods from micro-fulfilment centers and dark stores to pick-up points - retail stores, distribution centers and offices - known as the middle mile, helping customers meet consumer demand for real-time goods, increase road safety and meet an unprecedented expectation for contactless...

Keynote Session: 2PM EDT A Great New Dawn of Real-World Robots is Being Driven by Megatrend Pulls and Technology Pushes In complex engineering fields there is rarely one single breakthrough that changes everything. Robotics is a complex engineering field. It seems reasonable to expect, therefore, that the directions of robotic developments will be driven to a large degree by market pulls rather than particular scientific advances. Mega trends that are inexorable are one source of changes in market pull. We...

While the role of robotics in healthcare has been fairly well established over the last few decades, recent advancements in technology and social acceptance of collaborative applications has accelerated the development of new medical uses and adoption. Now, robots are supporting a wide variety of healthcare applications ranging from rehabilitation to surgery and on to cancer treatments. In fact, in some segments of the healthcare industry, lacking a robotic system could is a competitive disadvantage. But what does today’s opportunity...

Traditional manufacturing is akin to assembling furniture in a dark room – lots of fumbling, a high chance of injury, and a low probability of a successful outcome. Limited visibility into supply chain partners and components managed remotely via emails, spreadsheets, and late night overseas phone calls lead to time and cost overruns with lesser quality products. COVID-19 has only amplified this pain by preventing travel and boots-on-the-ground oversight. Common efforts to improve transparency – hiring more supply chain managers,...

In this session, Ricardo Tellez, CEO of The Construct, will describe one of the key roadblocks preventing robotics innovation to proceed more quickly, namely, the lack of benchmarking when developing different robotics solutions. It is often impossible to reproduce results that others have achieved or compare results. Even if the code is published on a Git, comparison of results is very difficult because the testing conditions for each robotics system is different. In this presentation, attendees will learn how the...

In this insightful session, Ash Sharma, Managing Director of Interact Analysis, an international market research and advisory services company focused on the industrial and supply chain automation sectors, will discuss the market potential for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for solution providers, as well as the benefits accrued to end-user companies from their use. Drawing on several recent research projects and reports that Interact Analysis has conducted in industrial and warehouse robotics, Ash will discuss where the market is going, and...

The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, a national consortium of 250+ member organizations focused on advancing the state of robotics in manufacturing, have engaged in over 50 projects that focus on moving innovative technologies forward to be used by manufacturers of all sizes in the United States. In this keynote session, several members of the ARM Institute will review the strategies behind project selection, as well as the projects themselves. Project outcomes in all areas of manufacturing – from...

In this engaging presentation, Paolo Pirjanian, CEO at Embodied, will discuss how the relationship between humans and machines is evolving, including how robots and robotic technology can be applied for social good. Specifically, he will review the development of Moxie, a companion for children designed to help promote social, emotional, and cognitive development through everyday play-based learning and content. He will describe how machine learning was employed so that Moxie platform could perceive, process and respond to natural conversation, eye...

Steve Macenski, Open-Source Robotics Lead, Samsung Robotics Since 2007, Robot Operating System (ROS) has changed the way robots are built. In an effort to improve ROS to be appropriate for commercial and industrial solutions, Open Robotics released ROS 2 in 2018 supported by leading companies such as Samsung, Microsoft, and Amazon. ROS2 provides strict messaging guarantees, security, and modern tools for deterministic robot behavior. ROS 2 provides for higher-quality, robust solutions for many aspects of robotics development and deployment including...

Scott Denenberg, VP of Engineering and co-founder, Veo Robotics Flexibility and judgment, human capabilities that cannot be matched by robots and automation, are essential qualities for meeting the manufacturing demands for faster product cycles and shorter production runs. As a result, humans will continue to be crucial to the factories of the future, but they will not be working alone. Transforming factories means physically bringing together humans and robots. With safe human-robot interaction, manufacturers can replace the traditional assembly line...

Juan Aparicio Ojea, Head of Advanced Manufacturing Automation, Siemens As manufacturing moves from mass production to mass customization, there is a strong need for more flexible automation and intelligent machines. Autonomy, understood as the evolution of automation combined with artificial intelligence and digitization, promises to solve this problem. But nothing comes for free – autonomous machines will require a powerful brain, which may reside on the cloud or at the edge. In this powerful session, Siemens’ Juan Aparicio will present...

Satyajit Sinha, Research Analyst, Counterpoint Research One class of edge products, rarely mentioned in the typical IoT discussions and analyses, also provide for actuation. That is, they are robotic devices. Like other ‘connected’ IoT devices, robotics systems are open to security threats, which can be one roadblock to their widespread deployments. In this session, Counterpoint Research’s Satyajit Sinha will discuss current and future cyber security threats to networked robotics systems, highlighting their vulnerabilities in the process. He will also describe...

Autonomous vehicles promise to transform personal mobility and potentially reshape communities. This technology will impact long haul transportation, last mile delivery, and commerce through self-driving vehicles. In this session, Nuro's Head of Robot Operations, Andrew Clare, will explore some of the non-passenger applications of autonomy, discussing robot operations, and how Nuro is tackling the challenges associated with designing vehicles and putting forth a consumer-facing service.

Robotics systems are being introduced into the world of logistics at an increasing rate. While some robotics systems and the companies employing them have achieved their goals, many other deployments have been unsuccessful. Some of these failures are due to technological issues, but more commonly, humans are the primary source of deployment problems. In this insightful and informed presentation, FedEx’s Aaron Prather, who has successfully deployed robotics applications within FedEx (and has seen other initiatives go off the rails), will...

Bossa Nova Robotics is one of the leaders in the retail robotics sector, providing large retailers with inventory-scanning robots that move up and down aisles, tracking inventory supply levels via computer vision and artificial intelligence to keep items available for customers. After a number of pilot projects, the company recently announced expansion of several programs, providing more than 1,000 robots through various partnerships. In this informative keynote, Sarjoun Skaff, CTO and co-founder of Bossa Nova, will provide highlights of the...

In this session, Rian Whitton, Senior Analyst at ABI Research will analyze one of the biggest opportunities for providers of robotics technologies – the retrofitting of manual vehicles used in a wide variety of industries to support autonomous navigation. The session will include data on shipments and revenues, as well as overviews of well-known providers of autonomous navigation solutions including Brain Corporation, BlueBotics, Built Robotics and Outrider. Ongoing opportunities will also be discussed. Topics include: Form Factors Passenger Vehicles, Field...

Demand for split case or each-case picking, where individual items are picked from bins or open cartons, is increasing rapidly, presenting additional challenges to warehouses already straining under ever tightening schedules, increasing customer demand and labor shortages. As a result, companies are turning to technological advances to streamline their warehouse processes and increase productivity. In this informative session, attendees will learn how collaborative robots and other fulfillment center automation systems helped Lockheed Martin improve their operational efficiencies, while also empowering...

Despite the huge success of “startup escalation” models featuring shared infrastructure, prototyping and strategic capabilities, robotics startups still have a significant challenge to find the right investors especially on the pre-revenue stages. There is a clear funding gap for robotics startups as most VCs have been either focusing on 1) software investment with their standard valuations, rounds sizes, and exit potential outputs/metrics, or 2) biotech/life science opportunities which also have their own established investment metrics and framework. Robotics investment falls,...

Due to its business-friendly licensing, active community and impressive feature set, Robot Operating System (ROS) has become a de facto standard for robotics systems development for research groups, startups, and large companies around the world. One of the most popular components within ROS is MoveIt, a widely used software platform for advanced robotics manipulation platform, including mobile manipulation. Yet despite its popularity, many challenges must be overcome for MoveIt to achieve both fast computations and planning for complex global motion....