How to Build an Autonomous System: Software & Systems Architectures of EdgeAI Robotics in 2025

In 2025, true autonomy is no longer a futuristic concept but a practical reality, achieved at the edge where milliseconds matter and connectivity can't be guaranteed. This shift demands a radical rethinking of how we design and deploy intelligent systems. 

Join Sam Duffield as he shares the lessons he's learned over the past 5 years, working at the cutting edge of Robotics, Autonomy and EdgeAI in Babcock, Dyson and Balena. We will deconstruct the modern "edge compute" stack, moving beyond theory to address the critical engineering challenges of real-world deployment. Key topics will include:

- Software Architecture for Real-Time Robotics: An exploration of data-centric middleware (DDS, ROS 2), containerization on the edge, and the move towards resilient microservices architectures that ensure modularity and fault tolerance.

- Systems Architecture for EdgeAI: A detailed look at the heterogeneous computing landscape, including the System-on-Chip (SoC) designs that integrate CPUs, GPUs, and dedicated Neural Processing Units (NPUs) to run complex AI models with extreme power efficiency.

- The EdgeAI Lifecycle in Practice: We'll cover the end-to-end workflow for deploying machine learning on robots, from model quantization and pruning for constrained hardware to strategies for over-the-air updates and continuous learning in the field.

- Real-World Case Studies: Drawing on examples from industrial automation, autonomous drones, and smart agriculture, we will analyze the architectural trade-offs and design patterns that have proven successful in production environments.

This session is designed for robotics engineers, system architects, embedded software developers, and AI practitioners who are focused on bridging the gap between machine learning models and physical, deployable systems.

Attendees will leave with a comprehensive framework for designing and implementing the next generation of autonomous technology and a clear vision of the tools and techniques that will define the industry for the rest of the decade.

Speaker

Sam Duffield

Please contact Mike Gornall and state whether you will be attending the AGM, lecture and/or lunch