RoboBusiness: Generative AI’s impact on robotics

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Top row, from left to right: Pras Velagapudi, Jeff Linnell, and Ken Goldberg. Bottom row, from left to right, Amit Goel and Ted Larson. 

Generative AI is revolutionizing the software industry, but how can this breakthrough be applied to robotics? At RoboBusiness, which takes place October 18-19 in Santa Clara, CA, a keynote panel of robotics industry leaders will discuss the applications of Large Language Models (LLMs) and text generation applications to robotics. It will also explore fundamental ways generative AI can be applied to robotics design, model training, simulation, control algorithms and product commercialization.

The panel will include Pras Velagapudi, VP of Innovation at Agility Robotics, Jeff Linnell, CEO and Founder of Formant, Ken Goldberg, the William S. Floyd Jr. Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley, Amit Goel, the Director of Product Management at NVIDIA, and Ted Larson, the CEO of OLogic. 

Velagapudi has previous experience at Berkshire Grey, where he was previously the Director of Engineering and Vice President of Mobile Robotics. He also has over nine years of experience as a Carnegie Mellon University faculty member and project scientist. He specializes in industrial automation, robotic manipulation, multi-robot systems, AGV/AMRs, human-robot interaction, distributed planning, and optimization. 

Before founding Formant, Linnell served as Head of Robotics at Google X. He previously founded Autofuss, a design/production company, and Bot & Dolly, an engineering studio specializing in automation, robotics and film, which were acquired by Google in 2013.

Goldberg is co-founder and Chief Scientist of Ambi Robotics and Jacobi Robotics. He co-founded the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) Lab and the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. Goldberg and his students have published 400 peer-reviewed papers and 10 US patents. Goldberg’s artwork has been exhibited internationally and he founded the Art, Technology, and Culture public lecture series in 1997. He has presented over 600 invited lectures worldwide.

Goel leads the product development of NVIDIA Jetson, the most advanced platform for AI computing at the edge. He has more than 15 years of experience in the technology industry working in both software and hardware design roles. Prior to joining NVIDIA in 2011, he worked as a senior software engineer at Synopsys, where he developed algorithms for statistical performance modeling of digital designs.

Larson is a computer software and electronics expert with 30+ years of experience designing and building commercial products. Prior to OLogic, he founded an internet software company called the Urbanite Network, a web server content publishing platform for media customers, and grew the company to over 70 employees, and raised over $10 million in private equity and venture capital. Prior to Urbanite, Larson held positions at Hewlett-Packard, Iomega, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Ted has both a BS and MS in computer science from Cal-Poly, San Luis Obispo.

RoboBusiness is the leading event focused on developing commercial robots. There will be 60-plus speakers, 100-plus exhibitors and demos on the expo floor, networking receptions, the Pitchfire Robotics Startup Competition and more. You can check out the current list of speakers, to which more will be added.

RoboBusiness will be co-located with the Field Robotics Engineering Forum, an event focused on successfully developing robots that operate in wide-ranging, outdoor, dynamic environments.

Also co-located with RoboBusiness is DeviceTalks West, the premier industry event for medical technology professionals, currently in its ninth year. Both events attract engineering and business professionals from a broad range of healthcare and medical technology backgrounds.