Consulting in the Field Robotics Age

Note: the talk will be preceded by the CNSV Annual meeting and election of 2012 officers.

See IP SIG 6-7pm Pre-meeting info at bottom.

Great engineering consulting opportunities are opening up in field robotics. Like factory robots, these are pick-and-place machines that move things around. Unlike factory robots, they move things around in open, changing environments.

Robotic vacuum cleaners were the first commercial examples of field robotics, and these were enabled by laser distance sensors and new algorithms such as Simultaneous Location and Mapping (SLAM). These products also made use of mechatronics, an interdisciplinary area of engineering that combines mechanical and electrical engineering with computer science.

Field robotics is a fast growing market with huge potential. The US military wants to have one-third of its vehicles autonomous (robotic) by 2015, and commercial applications are equally important. Instead of humanoid forms, we should expect to see a wide variety of very different machines for different environments and tasks.

An animated film shown at this event is here.

About the speaker,  David Wyland, Neato Robotics, Inc.

David Wyland is one of the five IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) members who helped form the local RAS chapter. He has over 42 years of experience in high tech development and management, in both start-ups and large corporations. His experience includes product definition, product development and introduction, technical management and strategic marketing.

Previous roles include VP of Strategic planning at AMD, VP of Engineering at Quality Semiconductor and VP of Engineering at other firms. David is skilled in all aspects of silicon and system engineering, including product definition, architecture, analog, digital, and mixed signal design. He was a participant in the microprocessor revolution, introducing the first bit-slice element in 1973 at MMI.

David received a BSEE from UCLA. He has published 31 papers and has 25 patents to date. Paper topics include computer architecture, optical disk technology, system design and robot architecture.

CNSV Pre-meeting: 6-7 pm

Intellectual Property (IP) SIG (Left-Side of Room)

Co-Chairs: Peter Salmon and Jonathan Wells

Presentation: E-Book IP and Copyright Issues

Speaker: John Lattyak

John will share his personal experiences with the IP and copyright issues related to electronic books.

Speaker’s Bio:

John Lattyak was Principal Engineer at Amazom.com’s Lab126 subsidiary. As one of the original Kindle team members, he worked on most aspects of the Kindle ecosystem. He also was an Expert Witness in a billion-dollar lawsuit.

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Location: KeyPoint Credit Union

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