Stanley Innovation’s VP of Operations Jason Walker will lead a panel of industry experts in a discussion of how to accelerate robotics initiatives during the upcoming Robotica 2016 summit.

The event, sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International (AUVSI) New England, takes place June 6-9 at 31 Andrews Pkwy, Devens, MA 01434. The annual event brings together unmanned and robotic systems companies to showcase their capabilities and technologies to a broad audience of end users and developers.

Attendees are encouraged to use the hashtag #Robotica2016 on social media.

As the moderator of a June 7 informative session on Robotics Initiatives, Walker will lead a discussion on ways to accelerate the development and use of robots that work beside or cooperatively with people — emphasizing the importance of partnering with robotics companies like Stanley in order to get a head start on your robotics initiative.

“We want the audience to walk away feeling like they have an understanding of the effort required to accomplish a robotics initiative,” said Walker. “We want the audience to feel like they know what kinds of questions to ask, and what kinds of answers to expect. And most importantly, we want people to know that there has never been a better time in history to start a robotics initiative, because there has never been as many tools, partners, or enabling technologies as there is today.”

Walker said Tuesday’s discussion will focus on the key elements of every robotics initiative, which include:

• Time
• Money
• Scope
• Strategy
• Cost

Panelists expected to join Walker include:

Matt England, Vice President, Government Systems, CyPhy Works

• Matt brings a lifetime of experience in getting robots out of the labs and into the field for DOD and government organizations. He was involved in fielding the Raven, Puma, PackBot, Talon, and many other technical and robotics initiatives.
• Matt will give us the DOD / government perspective on robotics initiatives.

Hanumant Singh, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University

• Professor Singh built robots at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute for 26 years. He created an AUV that can dive to 15,000 feet and stay down for 24 hours. He has taken the robot three times to Antarctica to study the thickness of sea ice. He’s currently working on AUVs that work in teams and operate autonomously for extended periods of time.
• Professor Singh will give us the academic perspective on robotics initiatives.

Dan O’Brien, President, Gibson Engineering

• Dan and Gibson Engineering help companies of all types and sizes to automate various tasks, processes, or entire operations. By acting as an integrator, they have insight into a huge cross section of customers and a huge cross section of various robotics and automation products.
• Dan will give us the industrial perspective on robotics initiatives.

Harald Quintus-Bosz, co-founder and CTO of Cooper Perkins

• Harald and Cooper Perkins provide design, engineering, and prototyping services for established companies and startups alike. They have done the early prototyping for some of the most famous consumer robots in the world.
• Harald will give us the consumer product perspective on robotics initiatives.

Daniel Villemaire, President, C&M Machine Products

• Dan is the president of a company that is very highly automated and a marvel of efficiency. In addition to the automation that is already in place, Dan is currently in the process of evaluating how the latest robotic technologies can be deployed to further automate their factory.
• Dan will give us a customer’s perspective on robotics initiatives.

The panel takes place on June 7, from 2:05-3:15pm in Salon A. Stay tuned for updates on Stanley’s involvement in Robotica 2016, including key takeaways from the annual robotics summit.