What happened
At RoboBusiness 2026, held Oct. 20-21 in Santa Clara, Calif., a keynote panel titled “Beyond the Demo: AI in Production Robots” will feature leaders from Amazon Robotics, Teradyne Robotics, and Cobot. They will discuss how physical AI is being applied to robots in real customer environments, covering perception, autonomy, fleet optimization, maintenance, and software updates.
Why it matters
While physical AI efforts attract tens of millions of dollars in funding, the question remains what it is actually doing in the real world today. The panel aims to address this by exploring how to build physical AI that is reliable, scalable, and delivers measurable business value. Speakers include Bhavana Chandrashekhar from Amazon Robotics, who built robots like Robin (picked several billion packages) and Vulcan Stow (stowed over a million items), James Davidson from Teradyne Robotics, and Michael Vogelsong from Cobot.
What to watch
Attendees can register for the full conference pass to gain access to all keynotes, technical sessions, networking receptions, and special events. Discounts are available for academia, associations, and corporate groups. The session is at 4:30 p.m. PT on the first day.
Summaries like this, every morning.
RoboBusiness 2026 is positioning itself as a venue to address the gap between AI hype and practical application in robotics. The keynote panel “Beyond the Demo” specifically targets the question of what physical AI is doing in real customer environments, suggesting that while funding flows into the sector, proven, scalable deployments are still the challenge. The speakers bring a mix of operational and research experience: Chandrashekhar has overseen robots that have handled billions of packages, Davidson leads AI integration across collaborative and mobile robots at Teradyne, and Vogelsong has deep roots in ML for Amazon and healthcare. Their collective focus on reliability and business value indicates that the industry is moving from experimental demos to production-grade systems. For attendees, the event offers not just technical sessions but also networking opportunities, such as the Mix and Mingle reception on the first day, which could be valuable for professionals looking to connect with peers in commercial robotics.
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