The 2018 Member Meeting discussion will explore applications in agricultural for autonomous vehicles. From tending to your backyard garden, to orchestrating complex operations supporting commercial large scale farming and nursery facilities, and from supporting logistics around livestock to facilitating automation in the processing and distribution channels, these local autonomous technology developers and integration experts are working to address challenges through opportunity as they look to advance the global agriculture markets.
Meet the speakers
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Charles Grinnell, CEO, Harvest Automation Charles founded Harvest Automation in Boston, MA with a group of robotic innovators and a goal of solving critical challenges in industrial applications starting with Agriculture. HarvestAI released their first product in 2013: a new breed of small mobile robots that work alongside humans solving severe labor issues in the $15B Ornamental Horticulture industry. The robots also help growers reduce production inputs and environmental impact while increasing plant quality. Now Harvest is adapting their solutions to commercial vegetable and fruit production that is experiencing intense labor, land, cost, and environmental pressures. Before founding Harvest Charles served as GM at DEKA R&D, creators of a wide range of medical and industrial products. Prior to DEKA Charles founded a consulting company at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland developing specialized instrumentation for high-energy physics. |
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Jason Walker, CEO & co-founder, Waypoint Robotics Jason Walker is the CEO and co-founder of Waypoint Robotics (formerly Stanley Robotics). Waypoint is focused on makingau tonomous mobile robots accessible to more people and companies. Prior to founding Waypoint, Mr. Walker was the cofounder and Director of Operations at CyPhy Works. Mr. Walker also served as Lead Roboticist and Principal Investigator for CyPhy Works’ contracts with agencies such as DARPA, NIST, and the National Science Foundation. Mr. Walker has 17+ years of experience in product and business development, includi ng B2B, consumer, and government markets. Prior toco-founding CyPhy Works he was the quality, reliability, and testing manager for the Roomba vacuuming robot at iRobot. Walker received a BSEE with a concentration in Robotics and Control Systems from Kansas State University and is alifelong entrepreneur. |
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Joseph Jones, Cofounder/CTO, Franklin Robotics Joseph Jones is cofounder/CTO of Franklin Robotics. His primary interest is the practical application of robotic technology to real-world problems. Previous experiences include cofounding Harvest Automation, proposing and developing iRobot’s Roomba, and serving on the research staff at the MIT AI Lab. A graduate of MIT he holds 60+ patents. |
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Agenda for May 16th
| 5:30-6:00 |
Registration & Networking |
| 6:00-7:30 | Robotics in Agriculture Panel |
| 7:30-8pm |
Chapter Review & Meeting |
| Meeting details |
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