Elsewhere
Sometimes my words turn up somewhere other than this website and VerseNotes. Here’s a growing collection of published talks, papers, conversations, and things I’ve contributed to other people’s work.
Talks and Panels
ROS-Industrial Americas: State of the Consortium and Technology Update
June 25, 2026 · Annual meeting · Chicago, Illinois
I hosted my first ROS-Industrial Americas annual meeting as program director and opened with a look at the consortium’s work and direction. The day brought together industrial robotics practitioners to share developments, compare experiences, and shape future collaborations.
From Yuma to Ukraine: Redefining Safety for Autonomous Defense Systems
April 7, 2026 · CERIAS Annual Security Symposium · Purdue University
I spoke about safety for autonomous defense systems at Purdue’s annual cybersecurity symposium, exploring how the operating environment changes what we need to ask of autonomous technology.
Uncrewed Aerial System Detection and Tracking with Event Cameras
August 2025 · GVSETS · Novi, Michigan
I presented research I coauthored with David Anthony and David Chambers on detecting and tracking small uncrewed aircraft using event cameras. These sensors offer high temporal resolution, wide dynamic range, and low-light capabilities that can help address the challenges of detecting small, fast-moving aircraft.
VORA: Vision for Off-Road Autonomy
August 2025 · GVSETS · Novi, Michigan
I presented research by Meera Towler and her coauthors on using vision for off-road autonomy. The work explores how passive cameras can provide the world models autonomous vehicles need to navigate difficult terrain.
Passive Sensing for Autonomous Operation
December 3, 2024 · Microelectronics Manufacturing PRISM Summit
I contributed to a session on passive threat detection, discussing passive sensing for autonomous operation alongside researchers working on optical and acoustic sensors.
Automated Technology for Buses
May 23, 2022 · Southwest Research Institute’s 74th Annual Meeting · San Antonio, Texas
I presented our work on automated technology for buses to SwRI’s trustees, directors, and guests. Later that year, I joined the Technology Today podcast to discuss the work in more detail.
Related interview and presentation photo
Explore!STEM: Introduction to Autonomous Driving
August 19, 2020 · Guest speaker · University of Texas at San Antonio
I joined UTSA’s summer STEM camp as a guest speaker during its introduction to autonomous driving. The camp helped students explore programming, computer vision, and machine learning through hands-on activities.
ROS 2 Roundtable: Is ROS 2 Ready for the Factory Floor?
April 12, 2019 · ROS-Industrial Americas Annual Meeting · Chicago, Illinois
I joined Dave Coleman, Matt Hansen, and Chris Lalancette for a discussion about ROS 2’s readiness for industrial applications.
ROS-Military: Progress and Promise
September 2018 · ROSCon · Madrid, Spain
I spoke about ROS-Military, an effort to bring the collaboration and shared infrastructure of the ROS ecosystem to U.S. military robotics, and to contribute its developments back to the wider ROS community.
The Maverick Planner: An Efficient Hierarchical Planner for Autonomous Vehicles in Unstructured Environments
September 2017 · IROS · Vancouver, Canada
I presented our coauthored research on the Maverick planner, a hierarchical approach to planning feasible paths for autonomous vehicles through unstructured environments.
Mapviz: An Extensible 2D Visualization Tool for Automated Vehicles
October 2015 · ROSCon · Hamburg, Germany
I presented Mapviz, a visualization tool for automated vehicles, at ROSCon. This was an early opportunity to share some of the robotics work we were doing at Southwest Research Institute with the wider ROS community.
ROS-Military: Concept Overview
August 2015 · National Advanced Mobility Consortium briefing · Novi, Michigan
Brian Gerkey and I contributed a briefing introducing the ROS-Military concept to NAMC.
Documented in SwRI’s Technical Staff Activities, page 25
Interviews and Podcast Contributions
Robot or Not? #363: Cobot Redux
September 29, 2026 · Listener contribution
After an earlier episode about collaborative robots, I sent Jason Snell and John Siracusa an email explaining why the robotics industry uses the term “cobot” and what it means in practice. Jason read the whole thing on the show, and they discussed it. Hearing my words in his voice was a particular delight.
ROS-Industrial at ROSCon
September 2026 · Video interview · Toronto, Canada
I spoke with Daniel Theobald at ROSCon about ROS-Industrial, the community behind it, and the work of bringing open-source robotics to manufacturing.
Technology Today #48: Developing Automated Buses
October 2022 · Podcast interview
I joined Lisa Peña on Southwest Research Institute’s podcast to talk about automated buses, our self-driving campus shuttle, and technology that could help ease congestion for New York City commuters. We also discussed one of my favorite questions: how can the robots we’re building make people’s lives better?
Writing and Papers
From URDF to SimReady: What a Robotiq Gripper Taught Us About Simulation Assets
August 5, 2026 · ROS-Industrial blog
I wrote about the practical work required to make a simulated gripper behave enough like its physical counterpart to support useful engineering decisions. File formats and available assets are starting points; reliable contact behavior takes more work.
A New Chapter for ROS-Industrial Americas
July 24, 2026 · ROS-Industrial blog
My welcome letter from the 2026 annual meeting, reflecting on the community I had just been asked to lead and the direction I hoped we would pursue together.
Collaborative Migration of an Autonomous Ground Vehicle Software System to ROS 2
August 2021 · GVSETS · Coauthored paper
Our team described the methods, results, and lessons learned while migrating the Robotic Technology Kernel to ROS 2. The paper explores how a large team spanning multiple organizations can carry out a complex software migration together.
ROS-Military: Progress and Promise
August 2018 · GVSETS · Coauthored paper
Matthew Bries and I described the ROS-Military program’s approach to reusable robotics software, shared practices, and collaboration across the defense robotics community.
