RoboBusiness 2025 continues with another exciting day at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The event will include over 60 speakers, a startup workshop, the annual Pitchfire competition, and over 100 exhibitors.
Day 2 kicks off at 10:00 a.m. PT with our first keynote and the opening of the RoboBusiness show floor. The floor will be open until 3:00 p.m., and it includes the Engineering Theater, a networking lounge, the Startup Showcase, the MassRobotics Startup Alley, and the KAIST Korean Pavilion. If you’re interested in picking up lunch, you can find the food court at the back of the expo hall.
Our first keynote today will cover the state of the robotics industry and will take place in the main theater. Sanjay Aggarwal, a venture partner at F-Prime; Jon Battles, vice president of technology strategy at Cobot; Amit Goel, the director of product management for autonomous machines at NVIDIA; and Brian Gaunt, the North American vice president of digital transformation at DHL Supply Chain, will have a candid conversation with Eugene Demaitre, editorial director of The Robot Report, about the industry, grounded in real experience and market insights.
This will be followed by another keynote, “Closing the Robotics Gap With China,” at 11:00 a.m. This panel will include Jeff Burnstein, the president of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3); Georg Stieler, the head of robotics and automation at Stieler Technology & Market Advistory; and Eric Truebenbach, the managing director at Teradyne Robotics. These industry leaders will discuss with moderator Demaitre what strategies the U.S., Europe, and other regions can use to close the gap with China.
Day 2 breakout sessions
Breakout sessions will kick off at 12:00 p.m. Today’s RoboBusiness breakout talk schedule is:
- 5 Keys to Deploying AI-Powered Robots in Manufacturing: SK Gupta, the co-founder and chief scientist at GrayMatter Robotics, will start this session at 12:00 p.m. in Room 203/204.
- A Practical Guide to Building Outdoor Robots: Illia Baranov, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Polymath Robotics, will present at 12:00 p.m. in Room 212.
- Global Implications of China’s Robotics Push: This session, led by Georg Stieler, the head of robotics and automation at Stieler Technology & Market Advisory, will also be at noon in Room 206.
- Scaling Robot Deployments: from 5 to 5M: This discussion will start at 12:00 p.m. in Room 207. The panel includes Jordan Bryan, the director of operations at Bear Robotics; Saman Farid, the founder and CEO of Formic; Florian Pestoni, the founder and CEO of InOrbit.AI; Richard Petrazzini, the co-founder and CEO at Robotic Crew; and Joe Wieciek, the director of quality assurance and technical operations at Agtonomy.
- UX For Robotics Developers: Orchestrating AI With Behavior Trees: Dave Coleman, the founder and chief product officer at PickNik Robotics, will speak at 12:00 p.m. in Room 201.
- AI for Dexterity & Adaptation in High-Stakes Environments: Vivian Chu, the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Diligent Robotics, will talk at 1:30 p.m. in Room 203/204.
- Amazon Robotics’ Approach to DfX and Scaling: Kunal Patil, the senior technical program manager at Amazon Robotics, will start at 1:30 p.m. in Room 201.
- Bringing Intelligence to Motion: Combining AI, 3D, and Edge Computing: Freya Ma, a product manager at Teledyne, will start this session at 1:30 p.m. in Room 207.
- Case Studies: Developing Robots For Challenging Environments: This panel will begin at 1:30 p.m. in Room 212. It will feature insights from Lou Bojarski, an autonomy staff engineer at Caterpillar; Spencer Krause, the president and CEO at SKA Robotics; Sean Harrington, an engineering manager at Caterpillar; and Brianna Wessling, an associate editor at The Robot Report.
- State of Robotics Investments: Sanjay Aggarwal, a venture partner at F-Prime, and Betsy Mulé, an investor at F-Prime, will converse at 1:30 p.m. in Room 206.
- Breaking the $1M–$5M Barrier – What Every Robotics Founder Needs to Know: This panel at 2:30 p.m. in Room 206 will feature Chase Olle, co-founder and CEO of Robot on Rails;, Parna Sarkar-Basu, founder and CEO of B&B Consulting; Jayiesh Singh, an executive officer at Able Innovations; and Jay Wong, the founder of Luminous.
- Crash Course on Force/Torque Sensors for Field Robotics: Robert Brooks, the founder and CEO of ForceN, will begin speaking at 2:30 p.m. in Room 212.
- Dexterous Robots in the Age of Embodied AI: Mihai Jalobeanu, the founder and CEO of Dexman AI, will present at 2:30 p.m. in Room 203/204.
- Novel Approaches to Actuation: This panel will start at 2:30 p.m. in Room 207. It will include Wes Brown, co-founder and CEO of Tension Dynamics; Stuart Diller, co-founder and CEO of ESTAT Actuation, and Hiten Sonpal, the CEO of Rise Robotics, with moderator Demaitre.
What’s happening in the Engineering Theater?
The Engineering Theater schedule for Day 2 is:
- Risk-Aware AI Models: The Key to Deploying and Scaling General Purpose Robotics Intelligence: Ali Agha, the founder and CEO of Field AI, will start this session at 11:45 a.m.
- Robot MCP: Bridging AI and Existing Robots Using Model Context Protocol: Rohit John Varghese, the director of Systems Engineering and Product at Contoro Robotics, will start this session at 12:30 p.m.
- Pitchfire: The annual startup competition will start at 1:45 p.m. Attendees will hear from Katie Bradford, the founder and CEO of Rotate8; Kevin Hays, co-founder and CTO of Morelle; Dominic Lindsay, the founder and CEO at Nexobot; Roby Lynn, the founder and CEO at R2 Labs; Toshi Quides, the chair of the board at Sensible Robotics; and Lakshay Sharma, co-founder and CEO at Cerulion.
Attend the Women in Robotics Lunch
At 12:45 p.m. in Room 209/210, we’ll be holding the Women in Robotics Lunch. Attendees will hear an exclusive conversation between Tessa Lau, co-founder of Dusty Robotics, and Joyce Sidopoulos, co-founder of MassRobotics. They will discuss Lau’s journey in robotics and her current work building robots for the construction industry.
This event requires pre-registration and an additional fee. Tickets may still be available on-site.
Day 2 to close with a joint keynote
RoboBusiness 2025, which is co-located with DeviceTalks West, will wrap up with a final keynote at 3:30 p.m. in the Theater. During this session, Iman Jeddi, the senior vice president and general manager of da Vinci platforms and product operations at Intuitive Surgical, will discuss the future of surgical robotics.
She will offer a rare look inside the redesign and launch of the da Vinci 5, the company’s next-generation surgical robotics system. With da Vinci 5, Intuitive has focused on implementing foundational computing power to unlock a new generation of capabilities—from force feedback and advanced instruments to machine vision that powers the surgeon’s interface and delivers deeper case insights.
