How to Build an Autonomous System: Software & Systems Architectures of EdgeAI Robotics in 2026

In 2026,  autonomous systems are no longer a futuristic concept, but a practical reality. Autonomous systems are often “software defined”, allowing system capability to evolve monthly, sometimes weekly.  This new paradigm of engineering, which is evolving exponentially, demands a radical rethink of engineers design and deploy intelligent systems. 

 Join us as we deconstruct the modern edge compute software stack and address the critical engineering challenges of real-world deployment of autonomous systems. 

We will explore data-centric middleware, containerisation on the edge, and the move towards microservices architectures which ensure modularity and dependency management. We will have 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. We will touch on how to deploy AI models to the edge, and how to optimise hardware acceleration for millisecond performance. Lastly, we will analyse the architectural trade-offs and design patterns that have proven successful in production environments.

This session is designed for engineers who would like a whistle-stop-tour of some of the tools, frameworks and technologies used to build autonomous systems in 2026.

Speaker

Sam Duffield is a Staff Software Engineer at balena, and leads their Professional Services Team. Sam works with balena’s customers day-to-day to help them architect the software in their physical products, to maximise EdgeAI performance and IoT connectivity. Sam is also an Honorary Professor of Practice in Robotics and Autonomous Systems at the University of Plymouth, providing strategic direction to the University to adapt their educational programmes to maximise student employability in the EdgeAI, IoT and Robotics sectors. Sam also sits on the IET Council and is the chair of the IET Young Professionals Committee, providing strategic direction to The IET on future products and services to adopt to support the future engineering workforce. Sam’s career spans a decade working in Electronics, Embedded Systems and Software, with previous roles in Babcock and Dyson.