ROS-Industrial Consortium Americas 2025 Annual Meeting

Thursday, May 15, 2025
8:30 AM 4:30 PM 08:30 16:30

Huntington Place 1 Washington Boulevard Detroit, MI, 48226 United States (map)

Google Calendar ICS

The ROS-Industrial Consortium Americas will host its annual meeting in conjunction with the Automate 2025 show in Detroit. The annual Members' Meeting is a chance to understand the latest developments relative to ROS-Industrial, both within the Americas and around the world. There will be a chance to engage on the strategy for how ROS-I capability is shaped, in particular with the latest developments around ROS 2, and the latest success stories and resources to enable your team to get the most out of ROS 2.

This is always a great opportunity to engage with other interested end-users, OEMs, solution providers and researchers on open source, interoperable, agile software capabilities. The collaborations that emerge through these interactions have led to significant accomplishments, of which you will learn about at this gathering. We look forward to seeing everyone in Detroit!

When: May 15, 2025 (The last full day of Automate 2025)

Location: Room 140 DEF within the Huntington Place Conference complex.

Pre-meeting Dinner: A networking dinner will be held at Ottava Via, in Corktown, at 6:30 PM on May 14. Dinner is included and is walking distance from Huntington Place near downtown.

Host: Matt Robinson, RIC-Americas Program Manager

Registration: Registration has closed!

Virtual Attendance Option - Talks Only: Register Here!

Agenda

Morning Program
- 0815 – Light Breakfast, Check In
- 0835 – Welcome and ROS-I Americas State of the Consortium, Matt Robinson, RIC-Americas Program Manager, SwRI & Michael Ripperger, RIC-Americas Tech Lead
- 0910 – ROS-Industrial Consortium Updates from the EU, Yasmine Makkaoui, Scientific Coordinator, Fraunhofer IPA
- 0935 –Accelerate robotics deployment with a Digital-Twin with a multi-agent AI platform, Maria Vergo, ROS-I AP Program Manager, ARTC
- 1000 – Break
- 1020 – Winding down ROS 1, and winding up Kilted Kaiju, Kat Scott, Developer Relations, Intrinsic
- 1045 – AI in Automotive Assembly with MoveIt Pro and ROS, Dave Grant, CEO and Dave Coleman, Founder of PickNik Robotics
- 1110 – ARM Institute Technical Update: Key Initiatives in Robotics, AI, and Advanced Manufacturing, Suzy Teele, Chief Strategy Officer, ARM (Advanced Robotics in Manufacturing) Institute
- 1135 – Lunch
Keynote: Industry Leveraging Local Universities for Technology and Skill Development in ROS, Andrew Roberts, Research and Technology Manager (NDI/DM), Spirit AeroSystems
Afternoon Program
- 1300 –The Latest in Communication and Interoperability from PushCorp, Max Falcone, VP of Sales Engineering, PushCorp
- 1325 – The Challenges of Robot and Process Agnostic Methodologies for Convergent Manufacturing Applications, Logan McNeil, Applications Engineer, EWI
- 1350 – Break
- 1400 – An Introduction to the FANUC ROS 2 Driver, Eric Lattas, Staff Engineer, Fanuc
- 1425 – Industry Partners in Intelligent Robotics: The Tec de Monterrey Model for Training the Next Generation of Engineers, Prof. Alberto Munoz, EIC-Tec de Monterrey
- 1450 – Break
- 1500 – Rotating Workshops
  - ROS-I Roadmap and Prioritization – Review/Throw Rocks
  - Documents and Resources for Improved Leverage – OEM Drivers.
  - More efficient leverage and use of developed resources
- 1630 – Summary of Workshop outputs
- 1645 – Closing Remarks
- 1700 – Adjourn

Workshop Descriptions:

ROS-Industrial Roadmap and Prioritization Discussion

Moderator: Matt Robinson, ROS-I Consortium Americas Program Manager, SwRI

Review of the recently released ROS-Industrial roadmap and the idea of modules and frameworks as workable components to build applications. What are the challenges in this approach and is the scope appropriate for industry needs where diversity in application and deployment drive inevitable customization? There will be an opportunity to ask questions, mark up and propose different approaches relative to steering the technical development of the ROS-Industrial project.

Documents and Resources for Improved Leverage – OEM Drivers

Moderator: Maria Vergo, ROS-I Consortium Asia-Pacific Program Manager, ARTC

To support and improve the development and deployment of industrial systems in the wild, one challenge has been the lack or slow release of OEM-supported ROS 2 interfaces. In the early years of the ROS-Industrial project a handful of drivers were created and a robotic driver specification was created. This had benefit but also was restrictive to OEMs that were not positioned to immediately align to the specification or had more advanced capabilities that went beyond the specification. This discussion focuses on what resources may help OEMs develop interfaces that align to certain classes where the behavior in an application may be understood, without limiting OEM innovation, or driving a burden to an OEM in aligning to a prescriptive standard, thereby stalling progress.

To More Efficient Leverage and Use of Developed Resources

Moderator: Michael Ripperger, ROS-I Consortium Americas Tech Lead, SwRI

A number of capabilities have been provided across the ROS-Industrial ecosystem, by the regional Consortia or by the community. Some have had moderate success in being utilized by industrial application developers, while others do not seem to gain traction. This discussion seeks to understand the challenges and limitations in use and leverage of ROS-I developed and maintained components and what can be done to improve utilization of these resources.

ROS-Industrial Consortium Members Exhibiting at Automate