Some excellent highlights from ROS World 2020!
ROS World’s first virtual event was a huge success. After being cancelled at the start of the year it was decided in July that there would be a small meetup but it grew organically into a virtual show due to the large amount of interest and great content that was provided by its supporters.
Full recordings from the even can be found here but below are a few of our highlights, especially the ROS in agriculture panel which is an area we are very enthusiastic about and active in.
ROS in Agriculture
Stewardship of agricultural resources has been a priority for humans since we first established settlements. Now we face increasing pressure from population growth, demographic shifts, and climate change.
While no technology will be a panacea, we need innovative tools to help us to continue providing food and other agricultural products to the world while also making responsible use of the available resources. There is a long history of automation in agriculture, but today we see robotics qualitatively changing what is possible, especially in measurement, monitoring, and precision.
Opening Remarks & Keynote: Accelerating Innovation with ROS: Lessons in Healthcare
Dr. Vivian Chu, co-founder and CTO of Diligent Robotics, will speak about accelerating innovation in healthcare. Listen to her discuss the thinking behind the design of Moxi, Diligent Robotics’ flagship robot, and learn from the challenges she faced launching a startup. She will elaborate on the strengths and weaknesses of ROS as it relates to product development, and provide an overview of the opportunities in healthcare robotics, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Software Quality in Robotics
A robot is only as good as the software that runs it. This panel will address questions related to software quality in robotics. While there have been vast improvements in many areas of robotics, the quality of the end product is always constrained by the quality of the software that underlies the system.
Panellists have worked with software quality in robotics in general and ROS in particular and will include perspectives from both industry and academia. Topics may include: the current state of the art in quality assurance practices for robotics; the role of simulation; promoting quality through good development practices; ways to improve testing; software quality in projects with participants of different backgrounds; and unique quality features of the ROS ecosystem.