Design & Development Track

The next generation of field robotics will need to perform a wide variety of tasks in highly variable environments and workspaces. To successfully design, build, and deploy, engineers will need to be open minded to different designs and approaches. The ability to iterate quickly and try new things in the field will be an asset to the engineer. In this session, Andrew Willig, Lead Mechanical Engineer of HEBI Robotics, will provide a high level overview of several field robotics projects undertaken by HEBI, and describe how they evolved from initial concept to production design (sometimes very different) by emplolying rapid design, iteration, and integration techniques and tools.

Dexterous teleoperated and autonomous mobile robotic systems represent the latest advancements in robots that will increase productivity while eliminating the need for employees to work directly in complex, and often dangerous, unstructured outdoor environments, such as on construction sites and in the ocean. This next generation of mobile manipulation systems feature optimized strength-to-weight ratios, embedded computing, and intelligence that can perform intricate and dangerous jobs requiring human-like performance while removing humans from harm’s way. In this session, Denis Garagić, Chief Technology Officer at Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation, will describe the design requirements and processes for developing complex robots that can operate safely in complex and varying outdoor environments, and tolerate harsh environmental conditions including precipitation, condensation, and salt spray.

Robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) is a business model that benefits both the customer and the supplier. In this session, we’ll go deep in the the advantages and benefits of building a RaaS-based solution and organization.

We’ll also discuss how to approach a RaaS-based business model that uniquely addresses the needs of a specific application, as well as the various markets and applications for field robotics.
With RaaS, the solution has to be designed, built, marketed, sold, and supported in a different way than with a CAPEX-based solution.
We’ll go over each organizational component and examine how several existing RaaS-based field robotics organizations have designed their products and businesses. Furthermore, remote equipment monitoring and teleoperation are features that may be important in the solution design in order to meet contractual KPIs. We’ll take a quick look at some commercial solutions for remote monitoring and support that you can integrate into your RaaS solution.

Product development in the field robotics space is becoming increasingly complex with more interdependent systems, scaling requirements and the need to quickly adapt to changing stakeholder needs. One of the core aspects of product development is requirements engineering, which involves various activities including requirements elicitation, specification, analysis, verification and validation, and overall management throughout the lifecycle of development. Implementing a best in breed requirements engineering process is paramount in achieving successful design outcomes. In this session learn about requirements engineering best practices, with a focus on live traceability, and how to improve the overall quality of delivered field robotics systems and speed time to market.