Hello Robot and A&K Robotics Tackle Indoor Navigation at RoboBusiness

Introduction: Robots Are Leaving the Warehouse

For years, most robots lived in tidy, predictable places like warehouses and factory floors. Now they are starting to step into everyday spaces, and that is a much messier world. At RoboBusiness 2026, two robotics founders will sit down to talk about exactly this challenge: how robots find their way through crowded indoor spaces.

Key Facts

• The session is titled “Shared Spaces: Navigating Challenges for Indoor Robots.”
• Speakers: Aaron Edsinger, co-founder and CEO of Hello Robot, and Matt Anderson, co-founder and CEO of A&K Robotics.
• RoboBusiness takes place on Oct. 20 and 21 in Santa Clara, Calif. The talk is at 3:30 p.m. PT on the first day, in the Engineering Theater.

According to The Robot Report, Edsinger has founded four companies. Two of them, Meka Robotics and Redwood Robotics, were acquired by Google in 2013, and he later served as a robotics director at Google. Hello Robot is developing practical, safe, and accessible robots for people; the article’s image shows its Stretch 4 robot.

Anderson’s A&K Robotics is building autonomous mobility infrastructure for complex, human-centered environments such as airports. Its products include Cruz, a self-driving mobility robot that carries passengers through busy airport terminals, and Kineos AI, a platform for socially intelligent autonomy that helps systems move naturally through dynamic spaces.

Consumer-facing spaces are dynamic, crowded, and highly unpredictable, requiring robots to safely navigate around constantly changing obstacles, operate in diverse lighting conditions, navigate narrow passages and cluttered spaces, integrate with existing infrastructure, and balance autonomy with safety.

Technical Background: Why Crowds Are Hard

Think of a warehouse robot as a train on a track: the route is known and surprises are rare. A robot in an airport or home is more like a person crossing a busy train station. People stop suddenly, luggage rolls by, lighting changes from sunny windows to dim corridors, and hallways narrow without warning.

That is why the article stresses social intelligence. Avoiding a person is not enough; a robot should move in a way people find natural and predictable. The two companies show different angles: Hello Robot’s Stretch is a mobile manipulator, a robot that moves and handles objects, while Cruz carries passengers, where safety stakes are especially high. Both must balance autonomy with safety.

Global Implications

The article argues that solving these navigation problems will be critical to broad consumer acceptance and large-scale deployment. Airports, hospitals, and homes exist worldwide, so progress here could shape how quickly service robots spread beyond industrial settings. Details of what the speakers will announce have not been disclosed.

Conclusion and Outlook

This session is a snapshot of robotics’ next frontier: not just building capable machines, but teaching them good manners in shared spaces. It will be worth watching what Edsinger and Anderson say about trust, safety, and real-world deployment.

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Sources (1 articles)

• [Robot Report] Hello Robot, A&K Robotics to discuss how robots navigate crowded indoor spaces at RoboBusiness

※ This article synthesizes and analyzes the above sources. Generated: 2026-10-14 00:03