QNX builds physical AI software for various robot designs. | Credit: QNX
QNX, a business unit of BlackBerry Ltd., is set to have a prominent presence at the Robotics Summit & Expo, scheduled for May 27–28 in Boston.
During the event, the company will offer hands-on demos, expert insights, and fresh research showcasing how its software delivers a safe, secure, and deterministic base for a wide array of next-generation robotic systems, including AI-powered ones.
On the exhibition floor, QNX will run interactive demos showing how its real-time operating system (RTOS) turns AI-driven decisions into accurate, dependable physical actions. Attendees will also discover how its software scales smoothly from budget-friendly prototypes to production-ready commercial robots, empowering developers to create systems that work safely and predictably alongside people.
Additionally, QNX President John Wall will take part in the opening keynote panel titled “Building the Next Era of Robot Autonomy.”
Robots are steadily moving past isolated industrial spaces and into environments shared with humans. This discussion will address how safety, security, and real-time performance must be built into systems from the ground up.
Wall will share the stage with leaders from Amazon Robotics, Locus Robotics, and Universal Robots. Together, they will discuss how top organizations are achieving safe autonomy at scale as physical AI moves from concept to reality.
Explore live demos on the show floor
QNX has prepared several live demonstrations for the Robotics Summit exhibition area. The first focuses on accessible robotics prototyping using QNX software. This demo highlights an entry-level robotic arm constructed on affordable hardware that can observe and replicate human movements to grasp objects.
It demonstrates how QNX software serves as the deterministic control backbone for robotics development through the QNX Everywhere initiative. The program was created to reduce barriers by providing developers with free, easy access to QNX software for learning, experimentation, and early-stage prototyping.
The company will also present digital factory automation powered by sensor fusion and deterministic safety. In a production-style “Digital Factory Automation” setup, a high-fidelity robotic arm running on QNX OS illustrates how lidar, vision sensing, and robot control collaborate to achieve real-time object detection and avoidance.
Leveraging QNX OS, the system integrates dynamic safety in real time, responding instantly and deterministically whenever an object or person crosses its path of motion.
QNX will also showcase high-performance motion replication on Intel and NVIDIA hardware. Driven by high-performance Intel and NVIDIA platforms, this demo uses AI-based pose detection to accurately replicate human gestures.
Visitors can engage directly with the system and observe an on-screen avatar mirroring their movements, highlighting how QNX supports real-time, low-latency performance on advanced platforms used in humanoid and AI-enabled robots.
QNX to unveil architecture benchmark report
At the event, QNX will also introduce its “Inside the Robot: Architecture Benchmark Report,” a new global research study exploring how robotics development is changing as systems grow more software-defined, AI-enabled, and increasingly deployed in human-shared spaces.
The report draws on a survey of 1,000 robotics developers across the globe and uncovers the biggest obstacles to progress, the disconnect between system ambitions and current capabilities, and outlooks on the industry’s future.
“Robotics is at a turning point where artificial intelligence is no longer limited to screens or simulations but is increasingly manifested through physical movements in shared real-world environments where the safety stakes are incredibly high,” said Carsten Hurasky, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at QNX.
“QNX provides the deterministic software foundation that makes this new era of physical AI trustworthy, whether you are experimenting with a low-cost robotic prototype or deploying advanced commercial systems in safety-critical environments,” he continued. “At the upcoming Robotics Summit & Expo, we look forward to showing how developers can start quickly, scale confidently, and build robots that people can trust to perform reliably and safely 100% of the time, no matter the situation.”
GEDP powers every demo
All of QNX’s demonstrations are built on the QNX General Embedded Development Platform (GEDP), a comprehensive, production-grade solution engineered to speed up the development of safe, secure, and reliable robotics systems.
Featuring the QNX RTOS, QNX GEDP offers a unified environment for embedded software development, enabling robotics innovators to bring advanced capabilities to market faster while satisfying increasingly strict safety and security standards.
At the booth, visitors can explore a GEDP animation that illustrates how these capabilities work together in practice.
Robotics Summit attendees are invited to visit Booth 307 to experience QNX’s demonstrations in person.
