National Autonomous Systems Congress 2025 with keynote by Aaron Saunders, CTO Boston Dynamics

Walk-in

By Organization of National Congress of Autonomous Systems

Welcome

Opening Lecture: Autonomous Economy

Door Monika Hoekstra, Director van NXTGEN Hightech

Autonomy in Dairy Farming: efficiency and sustainability on the Farm

We begin with a true pioneer of autonomous systems: Lely. Sergio Ooijens shows us how their autonomous milking and feeding robots are making dairy farming around the world more efficient, sustainable and animal-friendly.

Door Sergio Ooijens, Directeur BT Next van Lely

Leaders in the European Sheet Metal Industry due to autonomous production

The ultimate business case comes from 247TailorSteel Netherlands. CEO Carl Berlo tells how his company developed a fully autonomous production system, which customers use to place orders online and control production. The Achterhoek-based company thus developed the new standard in the sheet metal sector and became the largest player in Europe.

Door Carl Berlo, CEO van 247TailorSteel

Modular autonomous systems for a world in motion

If it is up to Avular, the Netherlands will become a robot country. Albert Maas's much-discussed Eindhoven start-up develops modular, autonomous robots and drones that can be flexibly deployed in industries such as agriculture, inspection and logistics and could become a very big player.

Door Albert Maas, CEO van Avular

Lunch and expo

By Organization of National Congress of Autonomous Systems

Autonomous robots in Industry and Agriculture: Innovation in the workplace

Spider-in-the-web of the rapidly developing Northern Netherlands ecosystem around autonomous systems is Batenburg Industrial Automation Beenen. Innovation manager Thom Verwater shows how, as a large industrial automation company, they help companies in the transition to more autonomous production environments. They are also actively involved in the development of autonomous robots, including in the agribusiness sector.

Door Thom Verwater, Innovation Manager van Batenburg Beenen

Autonomy in recycling: Technology for a circular future

Afval op een efficiënte manier inzetten als grondstof lukt alleen als onderliggende scheiding- en sorteerprocessen autonoom zijn. Bollegraaf and Lubo Recycling Solutions is in de mondiale wereld van recyclinginstallaties absolute koploper met inzet van AI (dankzij hun participatie in de Londense start-up Greyparrot) en Autonome Systemen en daarmee de trots van het Noorden. Edmund Tenfelde en Mikele Druckman nemen ons mee.

Door Edmund Tenfelde, Bollegraaf en Lub Recycling Solutions , Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board (voorheen CEO) en Mikele Druckman, CEO Greyparrot van Bollegraaf en Lubo Recycling Solutions

Short break

By Organization of National Congress of Autonomous Systems

From Man to Machine: The transformation to logistical autonomy

Vanderlande, famous for its baggage systems, is the world market leader in logistics solutions for airports, parcel services and warehouses. CTO Frank van Dijck, also president of the FEM (European Materials Handling Federation), explains that the combination of autonomy and flexibility will determine the future of logistics.

Door Frank van Dijck, CTO van Vanderlande

Autonomous boating inspires other industries

The Mayflower project, a completely unmanned research vessel, opened eyes around the world to the unprecedented possibilities of autonomous systems. This groundbreaking vessel proved that a vessel without a crew could not only cross the ocean on its own, but also carry out complex missions - from deep ocean research to more sustainable and efficient transportation. Jan Willem Sieben, CTO Defense & Intelligence at IBM, demonstrates how the Mayflower not only pushed the boundaries of navigation, but also put autonomous technology on the global map and opened the way for new applications in numerous sectors.

Door Jan-Willen Sieben, CTO van IBM

Autonomy in Multi-robot Systems

In this talk, I will revisit on the challenges involved in the deployment of multi-robotic systems that work together and interact actively & dynamically with each other. Thereafter, we present the low and mid-level control design that enables the safe interaction and collaboration among the robots, and enabling tasks to be completed collaborative and cognition of the environment to be created as a group. It will be closed with challenges in the integration with AI-based agents/controllers.

Door Prof. Bayu Jayawardhana van Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

From data to future high-tech systems

The future of manufacturing equipment and scientific instruments hinges on the ability to perform precise and fast motions. Examples of such mechatronic systems include wafer scanners, printing systems, pick-and-place machines, microscopes, and telescopes. These high-tech systems are subject to ever-increasing speed, accuracy, and flexibility requirements. We envisage revolutionary data-intensive mechatronic designs with a massive number of actuators and sensors. These future systems can autonomously improve their performance through self-learning and self-healing. These ideas are illustrated in industrial case-studies.

Door Prof. Tom Oomen van TU Eindhoven

Lunch and expo

By Organization of National Congress of Autonomous Systems

What can large language models (AI) do for autonomous robots?

Large language models are particularly useful for autonomous robots to gain understanding of their surroundings from information given in human daily languages. These models also become handy for engineers to enable robots to carry out commonsense reasoning, and thus significantly enhance robots' ability to comprehend subtle contexts, and even to handle implicit information privacy constraints. In this talk, I will use robotic navigation as a case study to show how to apply large language models for autonomous robots. It offers discussion on state-of-the-art technologies of 3D mapping and target identification; more importantly, it provides food for thought on what the benefits and challenges are when applying the latest developments in AI for autonomous robots in broad areas of warehousing, logistics, manufacturing and healthcare.

Door Prof. Ming Cao van Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Halftime toward 2050 - Looking Back and Forth in Robot Soccer

RoboCup started in 1997 as an annual robot soccer competition with the ultimate goal to beat the human world champion in 2050. So, with some benevolent rounding, it's now halftime towards that goal and time to look back and forth. What has been achieved? Which challenges of human soccer are still open. University of Bremen has participated in the standard platform league, where all teams share the same commercial robot, first with Sony's quadruped Aibo, then with Aldeberan Robotics' humanoid Nao. So the talk covers that league in more depth.

Door Prof. Udo Frese van Universiteit van Bremen

Short break

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Robot Autonomy among Decision-Making Agents

We move towards an era of smart cities and factories, where autonomous vehicles will provide on-demand transportation while making our streets safer, and mobile robots will automate processes in coexistence with humans. The motion plan of mobile robots and autonomous vehicles must, therefore, account for the interaction with other agents, whether robots or humans, and consider that they are, as well, decision-making entities. For example, when humans drive a car, they are fully aware of their environment and how other drivers and pedestrians may react to their future actions; or a team of mobile manipulators may coordinate to carry large objects on the factory floor. Towards this objective, I will discuss several methods for perception, motion planning, task planning and multi-robot coordination that a) account for the inherent uncertainty of dynamic environments and b) leverage constrained optimization, game theory and machine learning to achieve interactive behaviors with safety guarantees. The methods are of broad applicability, including autonomous vehicles, autonomous vessels, aerial vehicles, and mobile manipulators.

Door Prof. Javier Alonso-Mora van TU Delft

Pervasive Smart Sensing Systems at the Edge.

In this presentation, I will introduce illustrative examples of research initiatives focused on pervasive smart sensing systems. Pervasive systems are characterized by networks of collaborative sensing, computational, and reasoning components that are seamlessly integrated into their environments, facilitating active and unobtrusive interactions. These systems represent a “digital skin” that perceives its surroundings through the amalgamation of numerous interconnected smart sensing devices embedded within the environment. The application domains encompass Smart Urban, Smart Life, and Smart Industry applications. In particular, I will particularly address the challenges, including scalability and resource efficiency, as well as the end-to-end edge sensing systems that our team is developing to mitigate these issues.

Door Dr. Özlem Durmaz van Universiteit Twente

Wat is het concept ELSA & wat verstaan we onder responsible AI

Autonome systemen en AI transformeren onze samenleving en economie. Maar wanneer kunnen we spreken van echt verantwoorde ontwikkeling en inzet van deze technologieën? Wat is ervoor nodig om dit te realiseren? Hoe maken we AI-systemen uitlegbaar en controleerbaar? Hoe zorgen we voor eerlijke en niet-discriminerende algoritmen? En hoe kunnen organisaties zich voorbereiden op de steeds strengere eisen rondom AI-governance? Het concept ELSA (Ethical, Legal, and Societal Aspects) wordt nader toegelicht. Als Noord Nederland hebben we hier nationaal een voortrekkersrol met het ELSA lab Noord Nederland. Deze openingssessie geeft inzicht in het thema voordat de andere sessies meer de diepte ingaan.

Door Mirjam Plantinga, AP van UMCG – ELSA AI Lab Noord Nederland

Autonome Systemen in de openbare ruimte en maatschappij

Qbuzz, als pionier in autonoom vervoer, schetst hoe autonoom vervoer de toekomst van het openbaar vervoer kan verbeteren binnen een krimpende arbeidsmarkt en de afnemende betaalbaarheid van het OV op het platteland. Dit omvat de impact op chauffeurs, organisatie en reizigers in termen van acceptatie, vertrouwen en (sociale) veiligheid. Wie draagt de verantwoordelijkheid, het voertuig of de operator op afstand? Is het voertuig te verzekeren? Waar begin je, en hoe schaal je op? Deze vragen komen samen bij de implementatie van autonoom openbaar vervoer. Tevens is Qbuzz met haar autonome bus in het echt te zien!

Door Michel van der Mark, Programma Directeur van Qbuzz

Lunch and expo

By Organization of National Congress of Autonomous Systems

Wie draagt de risico's? De toekomst van risicomanagement in het tijdperk van autonome systemen

Wat gebeurt er als een autonoom systeem een fout maakt? Wie draagt de verantwoordelijkheid? Met de opkomst van AI en zelflerende systemen worden traditionele modellen voor risicobeheer en aansprakelijkheid opnieuw uitgedacht. Voor verzekeraars brengt dit zowel uitdagingen als kansen. Hoe pas je bestaande verzekeringsmodellen aan op autonome besluitvorming? Welke innovatieve oplossingen kunnen helpen bij het inschatten en dekken van nieuwe risico’s? Tijdens deze sessie gaan we in op de rol van verzekeraars in een wereld waarin AI steeds autonomer wordt. Denk mee over de toekomst van risicomanagement in het tijdperk van autonome systemen.

Door Evert-Jeen van der Meer, Industry Director Mobility van AON

Vertrouwen en betrouwbaarheid van Ai in autonome systemen

Het lijkt wel of iedereen AI wil inzetten, voor alles. Daarin is beschikbare en juiste data cruciaal. Onderbelicht is vaak hoe je autonome en ai gedreven systemen onderhoud en vertrouwd. Hoe zorg je ervoor dat deze “assets” goed beheerd, onderhouden en effectief ingezet worden? Het toepassen van (Europese, NEN- en ISO-) standaarden speelt hierin een belangrijke rol. Deze standaarden helpen organisaties bij het waarborgen van datakwaliteit, interoperabiliteit en veiligheid, zodat data niet alleen betrouwbaar, maar ook duurzaam inzetbaar blijft. Daarnaast is data op zichzelf niet voldoende—het moet gekoppeld worden aan de juiste kennis en vaardigheden van mensen. Hoe zorg je ervoor dat medewerkers effectief samenwerken met AI-systemen? Hoe kunnen autonome systemen en menselijke expertise elkaar versterken? Aan de hand van praktijkvoorbeelden zowel regionaal als Europees krijg je praktische handvatten om mee aan de slag te gaan.

Door Christos Emmanouilidis, AP van Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Short break

By Organization of National Congress of Autonomous Systems

Social: Confidence, Work and Acceptance

CNV - Piet Fortuin Chairman CNV and member executive board Labour Foundation and SER. What is the impact on work, what change in jobs and effects does this have on the labor market? Work is changing as a result of technological developments. How do we ensure that people and technology can develop together? What tools does an employee need and what responsibility does the government, employer and employee have in making choices. How do we ensure that people can continue to develop in a strongly changing world of work.

Door Piet Fortuin, Voorzitter CNV en lid dagelijks bestuur Stichting van de Arbeid van CNV

AI ACT – Wat moet je weten en hoe kun je eraan voldoen

De Europese AI Act die inmiddels in werking is getreden, stelt duidelijke eisen aan de ontwikkeling en inzet van AI systemen. Wat betekent dit voor jouw organisatie? Hoe zorg je voor compliance zonder innovatie te remmen? Tijdens deze sessie duiken we in de impact van de AI Act op autonome systemen. We bespreken concrete uitdagingen, juridische knelpunten en strategieën om ethische, veilige en verantwoorde AI te implementeren. Ontdek hoe je als organisatie voorbereid kunt zijn op de toekomst en grip houdt op AI-gedreven besluitvorming.

By Mag. Dr. Oskar Josef Gstrein, Martijn Bekking of RUG, AIC4NL

Shaping the Future of Humanoid Robotics and Their Transformative Impact.

American Boston Dynamics is taking the world by storm with their groundbreaking humanoid mobile robotics, such as the Spot, Stretch and Atlas. Chief Technology Officer Aaron Saunders will share his views on the future of autonomous systems and how these technologies are transforming our world.

Door Aaron Saunders, CTO van Boston Dynamics

Closing

By Organization of National Congress of Autonomous Systems