A guide to Day 1 of RoboBusiness 2026

Right this moment marks the beginning of RoboBusiness 2026! This yr, we’ll be celebrating the twentieth anniversary of RoboBusiness with the group that made it potential and waiting for extra years of collaboration and development.

The occasion will begin on the Santa Clara Conference Heart at 9:15 a.m. PT with the opening keynote, “The Subsequent 20 Years of Robotics.” As RoboBusiness marks its twentieth anniversary, business leaders will mirror on the breakthroughs that outlined the previous twenty years and discover the applied sciences, markets, alternatives, and challenges that may form the subsequent 20 years. This yr, all keynotes will happen within the theatre on the second flooring.

This discuss will embody Rodney Brooks, the co-founder and CTO of Strong AI; Jonathan Hurst, the co-founder and chief robotic officer of Agility Robotics; and Ken Goldberg, the William S. Floyd Jr Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley.

At 10:00 a.m., the RoboBusiness show floor will open. There, attendees can discover fascinating robotics demonstrations, the Engineering Theater, and the Startup Alley.

The day will shut with one other keynote discuss, “Past the Demo: AI in Manufacturing Robotics” at 4:30 p.m. It would embody insights from Bhavana Chandrashekhar, the senior supervisor of utilized science at Amazon Robotics; James Davidson, the chief AI officer at Teradyne Robotics; Ali Raja, vp of information facilities at ABB Robotics; Ram Devarajulu, vp of deep tech improvements at Cambridge Consultants; and Jon Battles, the vp of know-how technique at Cobot.

After the ultimate keynote, head again to the exhibitor corridor for the Networking Reception introduced by Harmonic Drive. The reception will embody drinks, gentle appetizers, and time to attach with different RoboBusiness 2026 attendees and audio system.

Registration for the present is out there on website.

Morning breakout session schedule

RoboBusiness 2026 breakout sessions will begin at 10:30 a.m. upstairs from the present flooring. They embody:

• Designing Knowledge Applications for People, Not Robots: Aaron Bromberg, the top of robotics and bodily AI at Instawork, will clarify what it takes to seize usable information from actual employees on actual shifts, and what he has discovered placing digital camera techniques into industrial environments at scale. This discuss will likely be in Room 209/210.
• Startup Bootcamp Half 1: The Fundamentals to Finest Practices: Colleen Anderson, the director of group and occasions at MassRobotics; John Lanza and Jennifer Audeh, companions at Foley Hoag; and Brooke Fritz, a accomplice of tech transactions at Foley Hoag, will present greatest practices for robotics startups. The session will likely be in Room 207.
• Designing the Robotics Ecosystem for Outside Autonomy: On this session, Mel Torrie, the CEO of Autonomous Options Inc., will clarify why the intersection of autonomous autos and superior robotics will additional revolutionize discipline deployments. It would happen in Room 206.
• The Humanoid Invoice of Supplies: De-Risking the Multi-Billion Greenback Bottleneck: Michelle Solar, the founding father of Core Matter Labs, will strip away the advertising and marketing hype to reveal the stark financial and geopolitical realities of the bodily AI provide chain. The session will likely be in Room 203.
• Built-in Drive Actuator Design: Combining Gearheads, Motor, Drive and Sensors for Smarter Movement: Marcel Almonte, a mechatronics purposes engineer at Harmonic Drive, will train attendees how built-in actuators can cut back engineering effort by simplifying system integration, minimizing cabling complexity, shortening testing and commissioning, and accelerating time to market. His session will begin at 10:30 a.m.

Periods beginning at 11:30 a.m. embody:

• Why Meals is Bodily AI’s Hardest Drawback & Most Promising Catalyst: Rajat Bhageria, the founder and CEO of Chef Robotics, will discover what makes meals such a demanding benchmark for bodily AI. This session will likely be in Room 209/210.
• Startup Boot Camp Half 2: Challenges & Finest Practices for Working with Company Companions: Joyce Sidopoulos, co-founder and chief of operations at MassRobotics; Ben Waters, co-founder and CEO of WiBotic; and Colm Prendergast, senior director and head of the Rising Tech Hub at Analog Units, will present actionable methods for efficiently collaborating with company companions. The session will happen in Room 207.
• Deployment Over Demos: Constructing Danger-Conscious Basis Fashions for Security-Essential Environments: On this fireplace chat, Andrey Konchenko, the top of product at FieldAI, will describe how a physics-first basis mannequin designed particularly for bodily AI can handle long-standing autonomy challenges in robotics. This discuss will likely be in Room 206.
• A Joint-by-Joint Information to Humanoid Movement: Yoshi Umeno, the worldwide director of enterprise improvement for robotics at Kollmorgen, and Reginald Duffus, the supervisor of software engineering at Kollmorgen, will present a sensible framework for evaluating movement companions, highlighting complete options and co-engineering assist to simplify the trail from prototype to quantity manufacturing. It is going to be in Room 203.
• Tactile Sensing Options for the Bodily AI Period: This panel will embody insights from Eric Utley, an purposes engineering supervisor at Protolabs; Ron Zukerman, the director of enterprise improvement and innovation at VPG; Andrew Gosline, a senior mechatronic techniques engineer at Simplexity Product Improvement; and Dorota Shortell, the CEO of Simplexity Product Improvement. These specialists will focus on how tactile sensing is evolving. It would happen in Room 204.

Plan your afternoon at RoboBusiness 2026

At 12:15 p.m., Bhavana Chandrashekhar, the senior supervisor of utilized science at Amazon Robotics, and Joyce Sidopoulos, co-founder and chief of operations at MassRobotics, will begin the Ladies in Robotics Luncheon. This ticketed occasion will embody a hearth chat between the 2 tech leaders. It presents a possibility for ladies within the business to type connections, deepen relationships, and champion elevated feminine illustration in robotics management.

RoboBusiness 2026 beakout periods will resume within the afternoon. Periods beginning at 1:15 p.m. embody:

• From Fashions to Machines: Constructing the Open Infrastructure for Bodily AI: Nagesh Puppala, the final supervisor of bodily AI and robotics at Intel, will discover the infrastructure required to maneuver bodily AI from prototype to manufacturing in real-world robotics techniques. The discuss will likely be in Room 209/210.
• State of Robotics Investments: Sanjay Aggarwal, a enterprise accomplice at F-Prime Capital, and Betsy Mulé, a principal at F-Prime, will unveil the agency’s annual “State of Robotics Investments” report, highlighting the newest funding traits, rising know-how classes, and the sectors attracting probably the most investor curiosity. The session will happen in Room 207.
• Closing the Functionality Hole: A Management Framework for Scaling Area Robotics: Kenrick Tjandra, the robotic deployment lead of Elevate Robotics, will present attendees with a choice rule for allocating engineering capability, a vocabulary for 2 hidden failure modes, and the pre-mobilization gates that preserve discipline packages from stalling. He’ll clarify the self-discipline that separates a demo from a system that scales. His discuss will likely be in Room 206.
• Past the Pilot: What It Takes to Put Humanoids to Work in Manufacturing: Dr. Weiwei Chen, the founder and CEO of EmbodyX, will share what the corporate has discovered deploying humanoids in actual manufacturing environments. This RoboBusiness 2026 session will likely be in Room 203.
• How Robotics and Bodily AI are Reworking Modular Knowledge Heart Building: Ali Raja, the vp of information facilities at ABB Robotics, will discover how robotics, prefabrication and modular building can work collectively to streamline supply, cut back strain on scarce labor and scale information middle capability. The discuss will likely be in Room 204.

Talks beginning at 2:15 p.m. embody:

• Bodily AI Doesn’t Have a Knowledge Drawback; It Has a Deployment Drawback: Rudy Cohen, the co-founder and CEO of Inbolt, will reframe the place bodily AI really pays off. Cohen stated this occurs not in larger fashions, however in closing the loop at servo frequency and collapsing the months of fixtures, wiring, and retuning that make each deployment a six-figure challenge. This may happen in Room 209/210.
• The Economics of Robotics: Is This Enterprise Viable? Jack Pearson, an funding principal at RoboStrategy, will supply a set of psychological fashions for judging whether or not a robotics enterprise can create actual worth and seize it in a means that lasts. The session will likely be in Room 207.
• Classes Realized Constructing Dependable Outside Robots: This panel will characteristic insights from Ben Waters, co-founder and CEO of WiBotic; Vibhor Sood, co-founder and VP of engineering at Burro; Derek Chase, the vp of robotics and AI at Nextpower; and Ben Choster, the founding father of Catalyze Robotics. The panel will show how engineering selections influence reliability, uptime, operational effectivity, and complete value of possession. It would happen in Room 206.
• A Crash Course in Pressure & Torque Sensing for Humanoids: Robert Brooks, the founder and CEO of ForceN, will summarize learnings from working with lots of world’s high humanoid corporations over the previous three years. His discuss will likely be in Room 203.
• Purposeful Security for Humanoid Actuators: Jordan Schaeffer, the supervisor of enterprise improvement at Novanta, will discover how secure movement, torque management, fault detection, and actuator-level security capabilities may help cut back threat whereas sustaining efficiency. The discuss will happen in Room 204.

RoboBusiness 2026 talks beginning at 3:30 p.m. embody:

• How Agentic Coding Empowers Lean Groups to Construct Sooner: Anthony Jules, the co-founder and chief innovation officer at Strong AI, will discover how AI brokers are remodeling the robotics improvement lifecycle proper from the preliminary design part. The discuss will likely be in Room 209/210.
• The RaaS Playbook: Pricing, Service & Scale: This panel will embody insights from Rick Faulk, the CEO of Locus Robotics; Invoice Sales space, who leads know-how gross sales, advertising and marketing, and enterprise improvement at Roboworx; and Alex Linde, the chief product officer at Aescape. The audio system will present attendees with sensible methods for constructing sustainable RaaS choices that ship worth for each robotics suppliers and their prospects. The panel will happen in Room 207.
• Designing Dexterous Studying Robots for Outside Labor: Brent Shedd, the founder and CEO of AgRobotics, will ship a practitioner-level framework: What’s working, what’s arduous, and what a practical path to industrial deployment really appears like. The discuss will likely be in Room 206.
• Can Humanoids be Protected? Benjamin Twombly, the founder and CEO of Essential Programs Evaluation, will share insights into each the continuity and the evolution of security considering because it adapts to clever, human-like machines working in dynamic, real-world contexts. His session will happen in Room 203.
• What AI-Outlined Automation Appears Like in Manufacturing: François Giguére, the chief know-how officer at Vention, will give attendees a framework for evaluating AI-defined automation in their very own operations. The discuss will likely be in Room 204.

Engineering Theater talks

On the present flooring, we’ll be operating talks within the Engineering Theater all through the day. The talks embody:

• Sensor Options for Humanoids: Instruments to Construct the Future: Uma Krishnamoorthy, the senior director of core know-how at InvenSense, will discover sensing options enabling immediately’s humanoid improvements. Her discuss will begin at 11:00 a.m.
• The Robotic Out of the Cage. Superior Purposeful Security for Humanoids: Jan Kaiser, the top of selling at Synapticon, will focus on how certifiable security structure will lay a path in the direction of real-world deployments for humanoids. The discuss will begin at 11:45 a.m.
• From First Flash to Area Restore: Servicing Robots From a Pill: Reed Giovannetti, co-founder and CEO of DeviceNexus, will work via the engineering questions behind conserving robots operating, on the bench and within the discipline. This session will start at 12:30 p.m.
• Simulation Mentioned Go. The Binary Mentioned No: Holding Robots Inside Their Necessities within the AI Period: Stojan Gancev, the VP of R&D at Aurora Labs, will focus on the significance of reasoning straight from the structure, from the compiled binary sitting on the goal processor, fairly than trusting evaluate and simulation to catch what they structurally can not see. It would begin at 2:00 p.m.
• Shared Areas: Navigating Challenges for Indoor Robots: This RoboBusiness 2026 panel session will embody insights from Aaron Edsinger, co-founder and CEO of Hello Robot, and Matt Anderson, co-founder and CEO of A&Okay Robotics. The 2 will focus on how fixing navigation challenges will likely be essential to reaching broad shopper acceptance and large-scale deployment. It would begin at 3:30 p.m.

Register now and assist us have a good time 20 years of RoboBusiness!

The submit A information to Day 1 of RoboBusiness 2026 appeared first on The Robotic Report.