For fleets of robots to grow in warehouses, factories, and other environments, they need to earn user trust. The opening keynote at the 2026 Robotics Summit & Expo will discuss “Building Reliable Robots at Scale.”
The panel of experts from Amazon Robotics, Locus Robotics, QNX, and Universal Robots will share their insights in Boston’s Thomas M. Menino Convention and Exhibition Center at 9:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 27.
The industry leaders will describee how they architect performance across control, perception, and networking. They will also explain how certified processes for safety-relevant systems can compress time to market.
In addition, attendees will discover practical trade-offs when combining ROS 2 with hard real-time workloads. The panelists will draw examples from their distinguished careers in commercial and industrial robotics.
Attendees will learn about concrete patterns for building and validating reliable robotics hardware, software, and systems as this year’s Robotics Summit gets under way.
About the experts
Anders Billesø Beck is vice president of AI robotics products, at Universal Robots, where he leads the global AI product strategy for the Teradyne company’s collaborative robot platform with a focus on innovation, adaptability, and the AI ecosystem. He is widely recognized as a pioneer in flexible and collaborative automation, with more than 20 years of experience advancing product development, new applications, and smart manufacturing.
Previously at Universal Robots, Billesø Beck served as vice president for technology, guiding the development of cobot platforms, AI, safety, and the UR+ developer ecosystem. He was also vice president for strategy and innovation, shaping the future of human-robot collaboration and next-generation UR products.
Beyond his executive responsibilities, Beck is an active voice in the robotics community. He serves on the board of Odense Robotics, Denmark’s national robotics cluster, and is a frequent speaker at global industry events, including NVIDIA GTC, Automatica, Digital Tech Summit, and multiple podcasts.
Beck will also be speaking about “Productionizing AI in Robotic Systems” on Day 2 of the Robotics Summit.
Jasmine Lombardi is chief customer officer at Locus Robotics. She brings more than 25 years of experience in customer success, professional services, software development, project management, global systems implementation, and business operations. Lombardi leads a team of over 110 customer success professionals across North America, Europe, the U.K., and Australia.
Prior to Locus, Lombardi held senior leadership roles at Barracuda Networks, Intronis, Aspen Technology, Mzinga, Prospero Technologies, and PAREXEL International, where she built a strong foundation in delivering customer value and operational excellence.
She has earned numerous awards, including Mass High Tech’s 2014 Women to Watch, CRN Women of the Channel and Power 100 (2016), and a Gold Stevie Award for Customer Service Leader of the Year (2016). Most recently, she was honored as one of the Top 50 Women Leaders in Boston for 2024. Jasmine holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore, a Master of Science in Information Systems from Boston University, and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
Aaron Parness is director of applied science and AI at Amazon Robotics. His teams in Seattle and Berlin build robotic work cells to increase the speed of delivery and reduce the cost of order fulfillment for Amazon customers. Specializing in high-contact and high-clutter applications, Parness has led advances in giving robots a sense of touch.
His work in AI and machine learning enables Amazon’s robots not only to understand their environment, but also to intelligently reason over that environment and predict the outcomes of different actions that they could take.
From 2010 to 2019, Parness worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he founded and led the Robotic Rapid Prototyping Laboratory, specializing in grippers and wall climbing robots. He has received Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New” award in 2012, the National Academy of Engineering’s Gilbreth Lecture Award in 2020, and multiple best paper awards. His Google Scholar listing has more than 3,500 citations, with an h-index of 27.
Parness received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2009, advised by Mark Cutkosky. He earned a BS in mechanical engineering and a BS in creative writing from MIT in 2004.
Aaron will also discuss the development of Amazon’s Vulcan robot in a fireside chat with Steve Crowe at the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards Dinner.
John Wall is president of QNX, responsible for the direction and overall activities for BlackBerry’s QNX division. He oversees all go-to-market activity and the planning, design, and development of QNX’s portfolio of products, including design consulting and custom engineering.
Previously chief operating officer and head of product, engineering, and services at QNX, Wall has been an integral member of the BlackBerry QNX team since 1993. He has held a variety of roles within the organization, including vice president of engineering and services.
A frequent speaker and known industry expert in the general embedded software industry, John is a graduate of Carleton University in Ottawa and holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
Moderator Eugene Demaitre is editorial director for robotics at WTWH Media, which produces Automated Warehouse, The Robot Report, the Robotics Summit & Expo, and RoboBusiness. Prior to working for WTWH, he was an editor at BNA (now part of Bloomberg), Computerworld, TechTarget (now part of Informa), and Robotics Business Review.
Demaitre has participated in conferences worldwide, as well as spoken on numerous webinars and podcasts. He is always interested in learning more about robotics. Gene has a master’s from the George Washington University and lives in the Boston area.
About the Robotics Summit
Registration is now open for the Robotics Summit & Expo, the world’s leading technical event for commercial robotics developers. The event is produced by The Robot Report and WTWH Media.
The show will have more than 50 sessions in tracks on artificial intelligence, design and development, enabling technologies, healthcare, and logistics. The Engineering Theater on the show floor will also feature presentations by industry experts.
More than 70 speakers are confirmed from companies such as AWS, Brain Corp, Fictiv, Harmonic Drive, maxon, PickNik Robotics, RealSense, the Robotics and AI Institute, Robust AI, Tesla, Toyota Research Institute, and more.
The Robotics Summit will also feature a number of networking opportunities. They include a Mix & Mingle Networking Reception after the first day of the show and the ticketed RBR50 Awards Dinner.
The Robotics Summit & Expo is co-located with DeviceTalks Boston, which focuses on medical devices.
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