Agility, Boston Dynamics, ASTM to debate the state of humanoid robotics

From left to right: Pras Velagapudi, Aaron Prather, and Alberto Rodriguez.

In recent years, humanoid robots have dominated conversations both inside and outside of the robotics community. Now, these systems are beginning to make progress in landing real-world deployments.

At the 2026 Robotics Summit & Expowhich takes place in Boston on May 27 and 28, industry leaders will participate in a keynote panel on “The State of Humanoid Robotics.” Experts from Agility Robotics, Boston Dynamics, and ASTM International will cut through the hype to examine what humanoids can realistically accomplish in factories and warehouses today.

The discussion will explore current capabilities, technical and operational challenges, safety and standards considerations, and key lessons learned from early deployments and testing. Attendees will gain a grounded understanding of where humanoids are delivering value now—and what must improve for broader industrial adoption.

The keynote will take place at 10 a.m. ET on the first day of the show.

Learn from humanoid experts

The keynote will include insights from:

Pras Velagapudi is the chief technology officer at Agility Robotics. He brings decades of experience in robotics planning and control, and creating and deploying robots into home, industrial, and outdoor environments. Velagapudi most recently was a vice president of engineering and chief architect of mobile robotics at Berkshire Grey, deploying fleets of hundreds of robots to logistics applications.

At Agility, Velagapudi is focused on pragmatic product-relevant innovations, driven by the vision and strategy for Agility’s bipedal robot Digit, operationalizing the company’s research and development efforts, and continually exploring what’s new. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University.

Aaron Prather is the director of robotics and autonomous systems programs at ASTM International. He has developed and deployed these technologies into numerous operations across the globe in his previous role with FedEx.

Additionally, Prather has participated in standards development at both A3 (formerly RIA) and UL. Prather is passionate about working with workforce development programs and building up the 21st century workforce in manufacturing, logistics, robotics, and automation. He holds a BS in geographic information systems from the University of Memphis and an MBA from Christian Brothers University.

Alberto Rodriguez is the director of robot behavior for Atlas at Boston Dynamics. At Boston Dynamics, he leads teams working on controls, reinforcement learning, vision-language-action models, and applications to create Atlas and bring the advanced humanoid to scale.

Rodriguez enjoys working at the intersection of hardware and software to build robots with physical intelligence. Before joining Boston Dynamics, he was a faculty member at the Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT and director of the MCube Lab.

Steve Crowe is the executive editor of The Robot Report and chair of the Robotics Summit & Expo and RoboBusiness. He is also co-host of The Robot Report Podcast, the top-rated podcast for the robotics industry. Crowe joined WTWH Media in January 2018 after spending four-plus years as managing editor of Robotics Trends Media.

Register for the Robotics Summit today!

Registration is now open for the Robotics Summit & Expothe world’s leading technical event for commercial robotics developers. The event takes place at the Thomas M. Menino Convention and Exhibition Center. The Robotics Summit & Expo is produced by The Robot Report and parent company WTWH Media.

The show will have more than 50 sessions in tracks on artificial intelligence, design and development, enabling technologies, healthcare, and logistics. The Engineering Theater on the show floor will also feature presentations by industry experts.

More than 70 speakers are confirmed from companies such as Amazon Robotics, AWS, Brain Corp, Fictiv, GM, Harmonic Drive, maxon, PickNik RoboticsQNX, RealSense, the Robotics and AI Institute, Robust AI, Tesla, Toyota Research Institute, Universal Robots, and more.

The Robotics Summit will also feature a number of networking opportunities. These include a Mix & Mingle Networking Reception after the first day of the show, the RBR50 Awards Dinner, and a Women in Robotics Breakfast. Thee event is co-located with DeviceTalks Bostonwhich focuses on medical devices.