managing robot autonomy with behavior trees

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Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot (center) and Agility Robotics’ Digit humanoid at the 2023 Robotics Summit & Expo.

Behavior trees are a mechanism for representing and abstracting complex behavior for robots. While they originated in the video game industry, they have been steadily gaining popularity in robotics over the past several years.

At the Robotics Summit & Expo on May 1-2 in Boston, attendees will learn how to manage their robot’s autonomy with behavior trees. Sebastian Castro, a senior robotics engineer at PickNik Robotics, and Andrew Stout, a roboticist and software engineer at The AI Institute, will contrast behavior trees with other widely used approaches such as finite-state machines.

This presentation, which runs from 2:45-3:30 on May 1, will cover the basics of behavior trees, detail the main software packages and resources available for getting started, and present lessons learned from applying behavior trees in various robotics projects.

At PickNik Robotics, Castro works on the MoveIt Studio developer platform for robot behavior using ROS. Previously, he managed educational content for robotics student competitions using MATLAB and Simulink, stood up a home service robotics software framework at MIT CSAIL, and participated in behavior development and field testing for autonomous truck unloading with the Boston Dynamics.

Stout previously led the adoption of behavior trees for autonomous behavior management at Diligent Robotics and has extensive experience integrating foundational robotic capabilities into coherent, autonomous, interactive, human-centered applications for new robot products. A veteran of several early-to-mid-stage robot startups, he has shipped production software to hundreds of thousands of deployed robots in consumer, healthcare, and education markets.

Robotics Summit brings together 5,000+ robotics developers

Launched in 2018, the Robotics Summit has quickly become a must-attend event for commercial robotics developers. The 2024 edition will bring together more than 5,000 attendees from across the robotics ecosystem.

The Robotics Summit & Expo will feature more than 60 speakers and over 40 technical sessions. Keynote speakers will include:

• Jonathan Hurst, co-founder and chief robot officer, Agility Robotics
• Tye Brady, chief technologist, Amazon Robotics
• Ujjwal Kumar, president, Teradyne Robotics
• Moritz Baecher, Tony Dohi, and Morgan Pope from Disney
• Medtronic will demonstrate a remote robotic-assisted surgical system

You can view the complete Robotics Summit agenda here. Speakers are still being added.

This will be the largest Robotics Summit ever. It will include more than 200 exhibitors, various networking opportunities, a women in robotics breakfast, a career fair, an engineering theater, a startup showcases, and more!

New to the event is the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards Gala. The event will include a cocktail hour, a plated dinner, photo opportunities, and the chance to hear from the Robot of the Year, Startup of the Year, and Application of the Year winners. Each RBR50 winner will receive two complimentary tickets to the Robotics Summit and RBR50 Gala. A limited number of tickets are also available to summit attendees. 

Registration is now open for the event. Register by March 8 to take advantage of early-bird pricing.