WTWH Media and The Robot Report has announced the keynote lineup for the inaugural Robotics Summit & Showcase taking place May 23-24, 2018 at the Westin Waterfront in Boston, Massachusetts. The Robotics Summit & Showcase focuses the technical issues involved with the design, development, manufacture and delivery of commercial robotics and intelligent systems products and services.

Click here to see the Robotics Summit speaker lineup and agenda. Registration for the Robotics Summit & Showcase is open. Register today and save 20% with the Early Bird Registration Offer that ends on April 20.

Robotics Summit & Showcase keynote lineup includes:

Bipedal Locomotion and Autonomous Mobility
Damion Shelton, CEO, Agility Robotics

Developers of mobile robotics systems have a choice of technological approaches to support ground-based locomotion – wheels, tracks, and legged systems, among them. But only one class of locomotion – bipedalism – movement using two feet, is optimized for existing environments designed for human occupation and movement.

Damion Shelton, CEO of Agility Robotics, the developer of the Cassie bipedal robot, will describe the advantages of bipedal locomotion for autonomous mobility in unstructured, human populated environments. Possible use cases for bipedal robotics, as well as specific design, development and testing requirements for bipedal systems, will also be discussed.

Designing Mobile Picking Robots for E-Commerce Fulfillment
Adrian Kumar, VP Solutions Design North America, DHL Supply Chain

All e-commerce retailers, as well as third party logistics providers, understand that picking operations are a major contributor to the burgeoning cost of e-fulfillment. Increasing the level of automation in warehouses and distribution centers has proven to both decrease the costs of e-commerce fulfillment operations and improve efficiency.

DHL’s Adrian Kumar will describe how mobile service robots are supporting picking operations at fulfillment centers and warehouses, along with the processes to design, develop and install such systems. Real-world case studies will be used to highlight salient points.

Producing Commercial Class Robotics Systems: Challenges and Advanced Manufacturing Solutions
John Dulchinos, VP Global Automation and 3D Printing, Jabil

The development of commercial class robotics systems requires the mastery of multiple disciplines, and the resultant systems must be innovative, robust, and work as advertised. Yet even if these issues are addressed, many other significant, often unrecognized challenges related to product introduction and production must also be addressed.

John Dulchinos, VP, Digital Manufacturing for Jabil, the world’s 3rd largest contract manufacturer, will describe these go-to-market challenges, along with advanced manufacturing solutions that can be employed to best them. Topics include rapid prototyping, ensuring quality, designing for manufacturability, volume production, mass customization, supply chain management, fulfillment and more.

Robotics, Intelligent Systems and Transformational Innovation
John Lizzi, Executive Leader, Robotics, GE Global Research

Advancements in automation, robotics and intelligent systems, coupled with pervasive communication and deep analytics, make it possible for businesses to drive down costs, optimize performance and generate revenue.  However, as with any class of nascent technology, both the end-user and supplier communities are faced with rapid business change, continuous technological churn, and much uncertainty.

GE’s John Lizzi will describe the current state-of-the-art in robotics and supporting technologies, revealing the larger, repeating patterns of technological and business significance, while emphasizing the opportunities enabled by transformational innovation along the way.

Soft Robotics: Ongoing Research, Commercial Systems and Future Directions
George Whitesides, Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University
Principal Investigator, Whitesides Research Group, Harvard University

The unassuming term “soft robotics,” robotic systems that exist at the intersection of robotics technology and materials chemistry, has recently made its way from the rarefied environs of academic journals and scholarly symposia and into the mainstream. George Whitesides will describe ongoing soft robotics research at Harvard’s Whitesides Research Group, as well as commercial class soft robotics systems currently on the market or nearly so. Topics related to materials, sensing, control and actuation will be discussed, along with how inherently flexible soft robotics systems can be engineered to provide for novel capabilities and support task versatility.

Building Dynamic Robots
Marc Raibert, founder and CEO, Boston Dynamics

Raibert will give you an update on the company that makes those viral YouTube videos and go under the hood of its biped and quadruped robots that jump, run, balance and even do backflips. Raibert will give a status report on the robots and conduct a live demo of SpotMini, the company’s latest four-legged robot that handles objects, climbs stairs, and opens doors.

Speaking and Sponsorship Opportunities

For information on Robotics Summit & Showcase 2018 sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, download the prospectus and/or contact:

Mike Emich
[email protected]
508-446-1823

Scott McCafferty
[email protected]
310-279-3844

For additional information, please contact Dan Kara at [email protected] or Steve Crowe at [email protected].