Mark your calendar and register — the 2019 Robotics Summit is happening June 5 and 6, 2019. Focused on the design, development, manufacture, and delivery of commercial robotics) this event is in Boston and co-located with the DeviceTalks event at the Seaport World Trade Center.

Highlight #1 — Engineers wanting to connect with you on design ideas and work

Two companies showing at the Summit that supply bearings and other PT and motion technologies include BSC Industries and IKO International Inc.

BSC Industries • Booth #101 — This Massachusetts-based company sells bearings and power transmission products as well as electrical and automation components. It primarily serves OEM and MRO engineers.

IKO International Inc. • Booth #120 — Go visit here for needle bearings, linear motion roller guides, positioning tables, and other machine components and subsystems. One key offering for robotics from this supplier is C-Lube technology for maintenance-free lubrication on M-series linear ways and cam followers. Other offerings are suitable for robotic installations in cleanrooms, vacuum environments, and high-temperature settings.

Highlight #2 — Chance to be inspired by modern-day heroes

Note that as a Robotics Summit attendee, you’ll also get access to see the DeviceTalks keynote speaker in Tyler Shultz, the entrepreneur and Theranos whistleblower mentioned copiously in Bad Blood. Shultz speaks on June 6th (later than Robotics Summit keynote Dev Singh on the use of 5G in robotics).

Highlight #3 — Addressing societal challenges (from the replacement of manual jobs with robots)

In one keynote at the Robotics Summit — on Wednesday June 5th from 10:45 to 11:30 am — head of the Directorate for Engineering at the National Science Foundation (and professor at the University of Michigan) Dawn Tilbury will discuss how robots are moving into workplaces. Some are replacing some people while helping others accomplish their goals. She’ll outline how the NSF is funding research to ensure robots benefit both people and jobs.

One of NSF’s ideas — the future of work at the human-technology frontier — necessitates cross-discipline research with collaboration between universities and industries. Such collaborations will come to define new technologies — and address societal challenges that robots introduce.