Blog

Aug 14, 2023

Learn how to bring autonomy outdoors at RoboBusiness

By Brianna Wessling | August 9, 2023 Building robots to operate in unstructured, off-road environments presents challenges that differ from those facing indoor mobile robots and autonomous on-road

By Brianna Wessling | August 9, 2023

Building robots to operate in unstructured, off-road environments presents challenges that differ from those facing indoor mobile robots and autonomous on-road vehicles. Off-road robots must be rugged enough to stand up to both their outdoor environments and the unique tasks they are executing.

Sensors must work in all possible operating conditions. Software processing must be tailored to the task at hand. And off-road applications – like cutting thick grass, harvesting, or bulldozing – can be incredibly power intensive, which generally forces power savings in all other possible areas.

At RoboBusiness, which takes place at the Santa Clara Convention Center on October 18-29, using lessons learned from developing and deploying Scythe’s M.52 all-electric, fully autonomous commercial lawn mower, Jack Morrison, the Co-Founder and CEO of Scythe Robotics, will share the critical ways that unstructured environments influence hardware, perception, and software design decisions for off-road robots.

Jack Morrison, the CEO and co-founder of Scythe Robotics. | Source: Scythe Robotics

Morrison is a technical leader who is passionate about connecting computers with the physical world, Morrisson has a track record for leading innovative, collaborative initiatives and organizations. Inspired to develop the future of long-term autonomous robotics, he believes that software engineering and novel research can go hand-in-hand to produce extraordinary advancements.

Morrisson brings deep experience in computer vision and robotic software to his role as CEO. He began his career as a software engineer at MITRE Corporation building computer vision systems for UAV imagery before a brief stint as a Robotics PhD at George Washington University where he researched long-term, collaborative robotic autonomy and perception.

He left academia to co-found Replica Labs where he built monocular, dense 3D reconstruction systems from early smartphone video. Replica Labs was later acquired by Occipital. Morrisson founded Scythe in 2018 with Isaac Roberts and Davis Foster. The company now has 50+ employees and is expanding its facilities in Longmont, CO.

RoboBusiness is the leading event focused on developing commercial robots. There will be 60-plus speakers, 100-plus exhibitors and demos on the expo floor, networking receptions, the Pitchfire Robotics Startup Competition and more. You can check out the current list of speakers, to which more will be added.

RoboBusiness will be co-located with the Field Robotics Engineering Forum, an event focused on how to successfully develop robots that operate in wide-ranging, outdoor, dynamic environments. Also co-located with RoboBusiness is DeviceTalks West, the premier industry event for medical technology professionals, currently in its ninth year. Both events attract engineering and business professionals from a broad range of healthcare and medical technology backgrounds.