Iván Hernández Dalas: A guide to Day 1 of the 2026 Robotics Summit & Expo

Robotics Summit logo.

The Robotics Summit & Expo is here! The show is bringing together over 5,000 developers focused on building robots for aerospace and defense, healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, and other markets.

We’ll be kicking things off at 9:00 a.m. ET at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston with two back-to-back keynotes in Room 253 ABC. The first is called “Building the Next Era of Robot Autonomy.”

That panel will feature insights from Aaron Parness, the director of applied science at Amazon Robotics; Anders Beck, vice president of AI robotics products at Universal Robots; Hamid Montazeri, the senior vice president of software and AI at Locus Robotics; and John Wall, the president of QNX.

The second panel, “The State of Humanoids,” will start at 10:00 a.m. It will include Al Makke, the head of humanoid robotics in North America for Schaeffler; Mike Nielsen, the chief marketing officer at RealSense; Aaron Prather, the director of robotics and automation systems programs at ASTM International; Alberto Rodriguez, the director of robot behavior for Atlas at Boston Dynamics; and Pras Velagapudi, the chief technology officer at Agility.

Also at 10:00 a.m., the Robotics Summit & Expo show floor will also open.

There, you can find the Engineering Theater, where talks start at 10:15 a.m., and the RBR50 Showcase. MassRobotics will be hosting its Startup Alley, Form & Function Challenge, and Physical AI Accelerator. Attendees can even play pickleball with Tennibot.

Day 1 morning breakout sessions

Breakout sessions will start at 11:30 a.m. upstairs from the show floor. Today’s summit breakout talk schedule is:

  • Improving Robotic Joint Design with the Use of Servo Actuators: Eugene Niselson, the sales engineering manager at Harmonic Drive, will lead this session in room 252 B.
  • Robotics Commercialization: Beyond the Breakthrough: This panel session will be at 11:30 a.m. in Room 254 A. It will include David Galati, the co-founder and CTO of TITAN Robotics, Dave Petrosky, the CEO of RedZone Robotics, Jennifer Apicella, the executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, and John Blitch, the president of Blitz Solutions.
  • Building Scalable Robot Systems That Learn, Adapt, and Earn Trust: John Black, the chief technology officer of Brain Corp, will start this session at 11:30 a.m. in Room 252 A.
  • Scaling Soft Wearable Robots from the Lab to the Market: Another 11:30 a.m. session, Conor Walsh, the Paul A. Maeder Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, will talk in Room 254 A.
  • Beyond the Demo: An Under-the-Hood Look at Scaling Autonomous Robots: Teddy Ort, the senior vice president of robotics software and AI at Symbotic, will speak at 11:30 a.m. in Room 251.
A Spot robot from Boston Dynamics at the 2025 Robotics Summit & Expo.

A Spot robot from Boston Dynamics at the 2025 Robotics Summit & Expo.

Day 1 afternoon breakout sessions

  • Building from Both Sides: Actuator-Based Solutions for Bridging the Sim2Real Gap: Ben Hallworth, a systems engineer of robotic drive systems at maxon, will present at 1:45 p.m. in Room 252 B.
  • Building Warehouse Robots People Actually Want to Work With: Anthony Jules, the co-founder and CEO of Robust AI, will kick off this session at 1:45 p.m. in Room 251.
  • The Robot MCP Ecosystem: Building an Open Bridge Between AI and Robotics: Rohit John Varghese, the director of systems engineering and product at Contoro Robotics, will speak at 1:45 p.m. in Room 254 A.
  • Building the Data Flywheel for AI-Native Robots: This panel session will start at 1:45 p.m. in Room 252 A. It will include insights from Ram Devarajulu, vice president of deep tech innovations at Cambridge Consultants; Nic Fischer, chief technology officer of Agtonomy; Axel Krieger, the chief robotics officer and co-founder of Semaphor Surgical; and Benji Barash, the co-founder and CEO of Roboto AI.
  • Best Practices for Force-Torque Sensing in Surgical Robotics: Robert Brooks, the CEO of ForceN, will present at 1:45 p.m. in Room 254 B.
  • Reliable Field Robotics Actuation, Motion Control in Harsh Environments: Kevin Picard, an application engineer at Kollmorgen, and Anthony Smith, an engineering director at Thomson, will begin their discussion at 2:45 p.m. in Room 254 A.
  • Balancing Hardware and Software for Real-World Success: Ted Larson, the co-founder and CEO of OLogic, will share his insights at 2:45 p.m. in Room 254 B.
  • Protecting Innovation in Robotics: IP Strategies that Work: Andrew Tibbetts and Roman Fayerberg, both shareholders at Greenberg Traurig, will talk at 2:45 p.m. in Room 252 B.
  • Let’s Build an Embodied AI Robot Together: Chris Matthieu, vice president of the developer ecosystem at RealSense, will share his experiences at 2:45 p.m. in Room 252 A.
  • When Robots Don’t Sleep: The Path Toward Lights-Out Warehouses: Jan Zizka, the co-founder and CEO of Brightpick, will begin this session at 2:45 p.m. in Room 251.
  • Physical AI Showcase: In this session, startups from the Physical AI Fellowship, powered by AWS, NVIDIA, and MassRobotics, will show off their work. It will also feature speakers from WiRobotics, Burro, Haply Robotics, Deltia, Terra Robotics, Luminous, Config, Telexistence, and Roboto AI, starting at 4:15 p.m. in Room 252 A.
  • Emergent Robotics: AI at the Edge of Hardware Innovation: Steve Ricketts, the vice president of business development at Fictiv, and Kevin Brisebois, the founding partner of BrightLNK, will present at 4:15 p.m. in Room 254 A.
  • From Prototype to Perimeter: 10 Years of Legged Robotics in Action: Gavin Kenneally, the co-founder and CEO of Ghost Robotics, will kick off this session at 4:15 p.m. in Room 252 B.
  • From Design to Scale: The Ecosystem Powering Robotics Innovation: This panel session will be at 4:15 p.m. in Room 251. It will feature Rob Murphy, an account manager at Hawk Ridge Systems; Evan Hochstein, a business manager at Stratasys; and Jon Bon, the general manager of fused filament fabrication at Markforged.
  • How to Successfully Design Hospital Logistics Robots: This panel session will include David Crabb, the founder and CEO of Rovex; Spencer Krause, the president and CEO of SKA Robotics; and Peter Seiff, the CEO of Aethon. It will start at 4:15 p.m. in Room 254 B.

What’s happening in the Engineering Theater?

A full talk from the 2025 Robotics Summit.

The Engineering Theater will be on the show floor at the Robotics Summit & Expo. Credit: Jeff Pinette

There will be eight talks in the Engineering Theater on the showfloor on the first day of the show. They include:

  • Trusting the Machine that Builds the Machine: Sjoerd van der Zwaan, the chief product officer at Solid Sands, will lead this session at 10:15 a.m.
  • A Data Mine Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Documentation Is Your Most Valuable — and Least Accessible — Data Source: Mai Bui, the co-founder and CEO of Quarter20, will speak at 11:00 a.m.
  • What it Takes to Deploy Robots to Real Worksites: Dan James, a senior program manager of tech at Uber, will start this session at 11:45 a.m.
  • Beyond Autonomy: Memory Challenges for Humanoids in the Physical AI Era: Saideep Tiku, the principal systems architect at Micron Technology, will present at 12:30 p.m.
  • Why Autonomy Fails Between Model and Metal: Brian Geisel, the chief innovation officer of Geisel Software, and the founder and CEO of Symage, will kick off this talk at 1:15 p.m.
  • Advanced Functional Safety for Humanoids: Florian Weisshardt, the head of Synapticon Intelligence, will discuss this topic at 2:00 p.m.
  • Building Powerful and Efficient Robot Motors through Smart Multi-Phase Technology: Hengchun Mao, the founder and CEO of Quantentech, will start at 2:45 p.m.
  • AI-Based 3D CAD for Simulation-Ready Asset Generation: Suntae Kim, the co-founder and chief technology officer of NdotLight, will be onstage at 3:30 p.m.

Stick around after the talks end

The 2025 RBR50 Awards Gala.

After the expo floor closes at 5:00 p.m., we’ll hold a Mix & Mingle Networking Reception with drinks, light appetizers, and time to connect with other Robotics Summit attendees and speakers in Exhibit Hall C.

At 6:00 p.m., the ticketed RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards Dinner will start. The evening will honor winners of the Robot of the Year, Startup of the Year, Application of the Year, and Robots for Good categories and more.

Guests will enjoy dinner, drinks, and an exclusive conversation with Steve Crowe, chair of the Robotics Summit and executive editor of The Robot Report, with Aaron Parness, director of applied sciences at Amazon Robotics, and Bhavana Chandrashekhar, senior manager of applied science at Amazon Robotics. The conversation will explore Amazon’s latest robot, Vulcan — named RBR50 Robot of the Year — and the keys to its development and rollout. Attendance is limited to RBR50 ticket holders.

The post A guide to Day 1 of the 2026 Robotics Summit & Expo appeared first on The Robot Report.



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