Keynote Presentations

Opening Keynote Address
A representative from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will officially kick off RoboBusiness on Wednesday, April 15 at 8:15AM by welcoming the international robotics community to Massachusetts. The Commonwealth will then discuss the rapidly emerging robotics industry, with an emphasis on Massachusetts’ position as the leading center of robotics innovation in North America.

Massachusetts recognizes the opportunities the growing robotics industry represents for economic expansion, employment and technological advancement throughout the world, but particularly in the Commonwealth. In the fall of 2008, an industry report was published by the Mass Tech Leadership Council titled ‘Achieving Global Leadership: A Roadmap for Robotics in Massachusetts.’ According to that report, more than 2500 people, in more than 80 companies, are employed in the Massachusetts robotics sector. In addition, annual robotics sales from Commonwealth robotics companies exceed $942 million.

Personal Robotics: Getting Some Perspective
There have been many opportunistic projections about the personal robotics market, and while progress is being made, we still see very limited delivery of actual products. From observing and participating in the emerging new robotics industry, Tandy Trower, founder of Microsoft’s robotics initiative, shares a perspective on what are important and compelling opportunities and markets for robots and why, and what still must be overcome to birth these applications.

How Robots Make War More Survivable
No one can accurately predict what the robot-inhabited battlefield of the future will look like in five, 10 or 20 years. But we can make some educated guesses, based on the technical history of military equipment and the boom in smart weapons and virtual presence technology. Join Vice Admiral Joseph W. Dyer (U.S. Navy, Ret.) for an informative and entertaining presentation about robots that are making a difference on the battlefield by increasing situational awareness, speeding missions and protecting those in harm’s way. See the challenges that must be tackled to advance the development of military robots – as well as their tremendous potential. Get insight into the types of missions that future robots will perform and the autonomous behaviors being developed that will make warfare more survivable. Plus, learn how and why UGVs and UAVs working together will play a vital role on the battlefield of the future..

Oases for Life in Distant Oceans - Robotic Exploration on Earth and Beyond
More than half of planet Earth is covered in water more than 3000m deep - and some of the unique geologic settings found at the bottom of those deep oceans may not only hold the keys to the origins of life on Earth, but also provide important clues on how best to search for life elsewhere in our solar system.  In this inspiring keynote session, Christopher German, Chief Scientist for Deep Submergence at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), will explain how he has been using the most advanced robotic systems available - both at WHOI and elsewhere - to revolutionize how we explore and investigate systems in Earth’s deep oceans with ever greater efficiency.  He will also explain how WHOI is working with NASA to capture the lessons learned during deep ocean exploration to help guide future space / astrobiological exploration.

The Next Generation of Smart Robots
Roomba, Robosapien, and Lego NXT represent the first generation of successful consumer robotic products which have shown significant market success.  While these products have provided acceptable solutions for floor cleaning, entertainment and education, they have significant functional and performance limitations.  The next generation of robots, which utilize advanced technologies to provide dramatic improvement in functionality and drive wider market adoption, are just entering the marketplace. For example, Wow Wee Robotics’ $300 Rovio represents a new generation of products which utilize disruptive robotic technologies, such as fully autonomous navigation, to provide superior performance.  In this keynote session, Paolo Pirjanian, President and CEO of Evolution Robotics, will discuss low-cost component technologies that enable the next generation of robotic products, ranging from autonomous toys that can chase and race like in video games, to smart vacuum cleaners that can clean a home up to 10 times faster than a random cleaner.

Industrial Mobile Robotics
Today, Global 1000 businesses take for granted their highly automated manufacturing operations and their completely software driven corporate infrastructure.  Connecting these two worlds is their supply chain operations, which are still almost entirely powered by human physical labor, much the same way as it was done 50 years ago.  In this keynote presentation, Seegrid Corporation’s CEO Scott Friedman will describe the nascent landscape of automation and robotics in supply chain management.  He will focus on emerging robotic technologies; reviewing specific technical details. He will also focus on product innovations, painting a clear picture of how and by “who” the work will be done in the years to come.

Networked Controlled Robots
The recent progress in computation and hardware has provided the age of robotics a great leap forward. Today, robots are having a major impact in industry and everyday life, from exploring Mars to mapping coral reefs to assisting drivers and assembling cars.  In this keynote presentation, Daniela Rus, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Associate Director, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, will discuss the challenges of building brains for bodies to create mobile autonomous systems that can interact intelligently with the physical world. She will focus on recent progress in Autonomous Mobile Networks, which are distributed ad-hoc networks of robots that can sense, actuate, compute and communicate with each other using point-to-point multi-hop communication. The nodes in such networks include static sensors, mobile sensors, robots, animals, and humans. She will also describe how such systems combine the most advanced concepts in perception, communication and control to create computational systems capable of large-scale interaction with the environment, extending the individual capabilities of each network component to encompass a much wider area, range of data, and control capabilities.

Key Business Development and Investment Opportunities in the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Industry
Robotics commercialization continues apace, with some sectors and technologies finding more success than others.  In addition, ongoing robotics research and technological innovation, along with governmental economic development initiatives, ensure that new investment and commercialization opportunities will continue to present themselves.  Again, however, the question becomes, “What products, technologies and markets are winners”?  In this keynote presentation, Robotics Trends’ President Dan Kara will review and analyze the key ‘high impact’ technological and research advancements, along with international business and governmental initiatives, all with an eye to the opportunities they offer to the robotics, investment and business communities.