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Autonomous Systems. THE NEXT BIG THING.

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Autonomous Systems: the Next Big Thing

Na het daverende succes van de eerste editie keert het Nationaal Congres Autonomous Systems (NCAS) op 2 april 2026 terug. Zelfde formule, maar nog een tikkeltje ambitieuzer!

We staan aan het begin van de Autonomy Economy, waarin (AI-gedreven) autonome systemen het werk in alle sectoren slimmer, efficiënter en veiliger maken. Autonome – dus zelfsturende, onbemande en zelflerende – systemen worden onmisbaar bij het aanpakken van grote maatschappelijke en technologische opgaven in alle sectoren en vormen de snelste route naar verhoging van de arbeidsproductiviteit en het behoud van ons verdienpotentieel (Draghi).

De razendsnelle opkomst van autonome systemen (oude barrières worden in recordtempo afgebroken) biedt ongekende kansen in alle geledingen van economie en maatschappij: voor proceseigenaren om hun operaties naar het hoogste niveau te tillen én voor de keten van hightech-technologieaanbieders om met impact te innoveren.  

Aftermovie NCAS’25

Nationaal Congres Autonomous Systems (NCAS’26)

Je moet het ijzer smeden als het heet is. Met NCAS’26 willen we gebruikers (dienstverleners, proceseigenaren) en technologieaanbieders inspireren om autonome(re) systemen te omarmen en Nederland profileren als koploper in de aankomende 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆. Daarvoor brengen we een geweldige line up in stelling van (inter)nationale best practices, vroege gebruikers en erkende visionairs uit de praktijk en de wetenschap. De focus ligt op de technologiekant (IT/OT) van autonome systemen: succesvoorbeelden, toekomst, how-to, impact en verdienmodellen. Daarom zijn vooral CTO’s (Technology Officers, C-level) als spreker uitgenodigd.

Voor wie is NCAS’26 bedoeld?

• Bedrijven en publieke organisaties die operationele processen runnen (in industrie, logistiek, agrosector, waterbeheer, energie, leefomgeving, medisch, etc.)

• Technologie aanbieders (machinebouw, robotics, hardware etc.), system integrators en solution providers (oa. AI-bedrijven, sensor, software & IT)

• Wetenschappers die bijdragen aan doorontwikkeling van Autonome Systemen

• Beleidsmakers die autonome systemen willen inzetten om (regionale) economie te versterken en andere ecosysteempartners (financieel, onderwijs, legal)

Voor wie is NCAS’26 bedoeld?

Opzet

NCAS’26 bestaat uit lezingen, demo’s en ontmoetingen – met als belangrijkste bouwstenen:

• Plenaire opening & closing

• Parallelsessies voor Business en Science

• Demotrack waar autonome systemen on-stage worden gedemonstreerd

• Een uitgebreid demoplein

Daarnaast is er een side-programma met een hackathon voor studenten (1 april), diverse matchmaking events (1 april), en op de dag zelf een ontbijt voor geselecteerde startups en de sprekers en een regionaal ecosysteem event van de EDIH-NN.

Opzet

Sprekers Plenair & Keynotes

Dagvoorzitter: Roelien Attema, R&D directeur van Astron

Openingslezing: Christa Hooijer,  Chief Scientist van TNO

Keynote: Prof. dr. S. Shankar Sastry, UC Berkely – From AI to Autonomy: Building Trustworthy Systems for the Real World

Keynote: Matthieu Gallas, Airbus R&D Lead Autonomous System – over Autonome systemen in defensie

Sprekers Business Line

Carlo Ruiz, NVIDIA, Vice President – Enterprise Solutions & Operations EMEA) – AI als accelerator van Autonomous Systems

Christian Schwaiger, KUKA, Technology Strategy Lead – Autonomous Material Handling (interne logistiek)

Timo Roestenberg, Demcon , CTO – Autonomous Systems als productstrategie voor hightech maakbedrijven

Ken Fleming, Fizyr, CEO – Autonome sorteer- en handling­systemen als sleutel tot schaalbare en arbeidsarme logistiek, met Pallet Sorting Systems (Heerenveen) als praktijkvoorbeeld

Frederik Nieuwenhuys, PICNIC, CEO – Hoe word je een gamechanger door inzet van autonomie

Stephanie Klein Nagelvoort, Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen, UMCG, RvB – Autonome systemen in de medische sector

Sprekers Science Line

Coördinator: Paris Avgeriou – Universiteit Groningen. Bekijk het programma voor meer informatie.

Marcel Heertjes – ASML and TuE, Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering

Raffaela Carloni – RUG,Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence

Christian Berger – Dep. of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Gothenburg and Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems, and Software Program (WASP)

Claudio de Persis – RUG, Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen

Verena Klös – Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

Prof. Jarkko Koskinen – Chairman of ESA programme board for Earth Observation (PB-EO), Deputy Director General , FGI

Sprekers/Bedrijven Demo Line

Kailai Li, RUG – Towards Embodied Sensor Intelligence for Mobile Robots; hoe gedragen robots zich in dynamische omgevingen?

Marco de Wit, Blue Ocean Robotics (door MART Medical) – Autonome robots voor desinfectie voor kantoren en ziekenhuizen

Stephan van den Berg, NXTGEN Smart Industry – Wat betekent autonomie voor productiesystemen?

Jordy Senden, TUE – Humanoids – de do’s en don’ts.

Programma

Bekijk hieronder het programma

  • NCAS'26
  • Business Track (Roel Oostrazaal)
  • Science Track (Rutger Hauerzaal)
  • Demo Track (Studio zaal)
09:30 - 09:40Plenair: Opening lecture Christa Hooijer TNO in Roel Oostrazaal By Chief ScientistChief Scientist TNO
09:40 - 10:30Plenair: Grand opening in Roel Oostrazaal – Prof. Shankar Sastry, UC Berkley By Shankar SastryProfessor at UC Berkley

Plenaire grand opening met Prof. Shankar Sastry UC Berkley, USA.

10:35 - 11:05AI als accelerator van Autonome Systemen By Carlo RuizVice President Enterprise Solutions & Operations EMEA NVIDIA
11:10 - 11:40Autonomous sorting and handling systems as the key to scalable, low-labor logistics, with Pallet Sorting Systems (Heerenveen) as a practical example By Ken FlemingCEO Fizyr
11:55 - 12:25Autonomous systems as a product strategy for high-tech manufacturing companies By Timo RoestenbergCTO Demcon
12:30 - 13:00Autonomous Material Handling (internal logistics) By Christian SchwaigerTechnology Strategy Lead Kuka
14:15 - 14:40Autonomous systems in the medical sector By Stephanie Klein NagelvoortUniversitair Medisch Centrum Groningen, UMCG, RvB
14:45 - 15:15How to become a game changer through the use of autonomy By Frederik NieuwenhuysCEO Picnic
15:30 - 16:15Plenair: Keynote in Roel Oostrazaal | Mathieu Gallas, Airbus By Matthieu GallasAirbus - R&D Lead Autonomous Systems

Over autonome systemen in defensie

16:15 - 16:30Plenair: Grand Closure in Roel Oostrazaal By Roelien Attema R&D director Astron
16:30 - 17:45Plenair: Drinks & Netwerk (Demoplein)
09:30 - 09:40Plenair: Opening lecture Christa Hooijer TNO in Roel Oostrazaal By Chief ScientistChief Scientist TNO
09:40 - 10:30Plenair: Grand opening in Roel Oostrazaal – Prof. Shankar Sastry, UC Berkley By Shankar SastryProfessor at UC Berkley

Plenaire grand opening met Prof. Shankar Sastry UC Berkley, USA.

10:35 - 11:05Stage Motion Control: Nonlinear Integrators Revisited By Marcel HeertjesASML and TuE, Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering

Linear integrators are well known for their ability to counter static forces and improve low-frequency disturbance rejection properties in control systems. However, linear integrators introduce phase lag, which is a frequency-dependent time shift or delay. Since the early introduction of the Clegg integrator, nonlinear integrators have held the promise of providing phase advantages over linear integrators. For five currently known nonlinear integrators, an overview is provided of recent developments in stage motion control. Benchmark examples are taken from the industrial practice of wafer scanners, which form the pivotal machines used in the manufacturing of computer chips.

11:10 - 11:40Embodied intelligence in bionic limbs By Raffaela CarloniBernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence

The design of bionic limbs is undergoing a fundamental shift, moving beyond isolated technical performance toward truly human-centered, intelligent systems that function seamlessly in the real world. This talk addresses the challenge of achieving embodied intelligence in bionic limbs, with an emphasis on lower-limb prostheses operating in complex, dynamic environments alongside their users. It highlights recent advances in compliant mechatronic design, human-in-the-loop optimization, and AI-based control architectures that tightly couple physical embodiment, sensing, and decision-making.

These developments have the potential to enable prosthetic systems that adapt in real time, respond naturally to human intent, and reduce the cognitive burden on the user. By embedding intelligence directly into both the mechanical and control layers, bionic limbs can become more intuitive, robust, and responsive. These efforts aim to support the development of a new generation of prosthetic technologies that can enhance mobility, independence, and quality of life.

11:55 - 12:25The Blessing and Curse of LLMs-enabled Automotive Systems Engineering By Christian BergerUniversity of Gothenburg, Sweden / Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems, and Software Program

Generative AI (GenAI) has been praised to automate and accelerate engineering processes even beyond code and test generation. The role of today’s software engineers even for embedded systems is being redefined and expertise on system architecture, orchestration, and large-scale refactoring is defining daily activities especially in the context of agentic software engineering. In this talk, the speaker is sharing selected highlights and critical reflections on the benefits and challenges of GenAI from several research projects in the area of automotive software engineering. A particular light is also shed on insights from and reflections about the Swedish research funding landscape in the context of AI, autonomous systems, and software. 

12:30 - 13:00Automated end-to-end control design from data By Claudio de PersisUniversity of Groningen / Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen 

Whether you are watching a launch site catching a starship booster on reentry or sitting in a self-driving car that is changing lanes, the technology behind these actions is automatic control. Control is a discipline at the intersection of engineering, math and physics that provides the tools to make machines behave the way you want. 

At the core of a successful automatic control design is a good physical-mathematical description of the system you want to control. This description is usually hard to get, and even if you have it, it is unlikely that you will be able to immediately design a controller for it. 

This talk will highlight recent efforts by the control systems community to automate control design using data. It will describe the fundamental principles behind an end-to-end process that, after collecting experimental data from the system to be controlled, encodes the data into an optimization program whose solution yields a provably correct control algorithm. 

The talk will discuss what is left to be done and how these results fit in a world where data and machine learning are taking over. 

14:15 - 14:40Explainability of Autonomous Systems – Beyond XAI By Verena KlösCarl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany

The internal reasoning of intelligent cyber-physical systems gets more complex and opaque with their increasing autonomy. This creates challenges for ensuring safety and correctness during development, diagnosis, and interaction. Collaboration between humans and machines is particularly prone to misunderstandings and false expectations, leading to poor results and even dangerous accidents. Extra effort is needed to regain transparency through explanations of internal behaviour. However, not all explanations are appropriate or useful. They must be tailored to a certain purpose, their recipient, and their situational context. Also, explanations must address the overall system behaviour, not only internal AI algorithms. This talk gives an overview of requirements for useful explanations, shows how tailored explanations can be generated autonomously, and presents challenging research questions.

14:45 - 15:15Geospatial data and precise positioning fostering digitalisation and robotics. By Jarkko KoskinenChairman of ESA programme board for Earth Observation (PB-EO) and Deputy Director General, Finnish Geospatial Institute

The role of geospatial data and precise positioning in the development of digitalisation and robotics has grown drastically. This evolution challenges the public sector to adapt their spatial data strategy to ensure accuracy, timeliness and sharing of geospatial data and positioning to meet the new needs arising from developments such as intelligent traffic, drones, digitalisation of forestry and agriculture, global trading and finance and other location-based services. Additionally, digital twins, that model real-world processes, such as climate or oceanic digital twins, need real-time accurate geospatial data. As part of these new applications, it is vital to understand how we can share geospatial data efficiently for the needs of real time decision making.

15:30 - 16:15Plenair: Keynote in Roel Oostrazaal | Mathieu Gallas, Airbus By Matthieu GallasAirbus - R&D Lead Autonomous Systems

Over autonome systemen in defensie

16:15 - 16:30Plenair: Grand Closure in Roel Oostrazaal By Roelien Attema R&D director Astron
16:30 - 17:45Plenair: Drinks & Netwerk (Demoplein)
09:30 - 09:40Plenair: Opening lecture Christa Hooijer TNO in Roel Oostrazaal By Chief ScientistChief Scientist TNO
09:40 - 10:30Plenair: Grand opening in Roel Oostrazaal – Prof. Shankar Sastry, UC Berkley By Shankar SastryProfessor at UC Berkley

Plenaire grand opening met Prof. Shankar Sastry UC Berkley, USA.

11:10 - 11:40Towards Embodied Sensor Intelligence for Mobile Robots; hoe gedragen robots zich in dynamische omgevingen? By Kailai LiRUG
12:30 - 13:00Humanoids – de do’s en don’ts By Jordy SendenTUE

Nadruk op AIMatters TEF; “Hoe kunnen bedrijven (MKB) met AI en Robotica komen testen vanuit dit project”.

14:15 - 14:40Wat betekent autonomie voor productiesystemen? – met de bus naar het Philips terrein – max. 50 personen By Stephan van den BergNEXTGEN Smart Industry

Om 14:00 vertrekt de bus vanaf de Lawei naar het Philips terrein. De demo start daar om 14:20.

Hoe werkt de meest gerobotiseerde fabriek van Europa samen met haar partners aan nog slimmere oplossingen?  We pakken de bus en bezoeken één van de NXTGEN testlabs op het terrein van Philips.

14:45 - 15:15Demo UVD Robots By Marco de WitBlue Ocean Robotics

Een demo van de UVD Robot; een bekroonde mobiele robot voor het desinfecteren van uiteenlopende omgevingen. De UVD Robot is ontwikkeld op basis van feedback van specialisten die betrokken zijn bij reinigings- en desinfectieprocedures met UV-licht.

De autonome robot beschikt over diverse geavanceerde functionaliteiten die UV-C-lichtdesinfectie naar een hoger niveau tillen.

15:30 - 16:15Plenair: Keynote in Roel Oostrazaal | Mathieu Gallas, Airbus By Matthieu GallasAirbus - R&D Lead Autonomous Systems

Over autonome systemen in defensie

16:15 - 16:30Plenair: Grand Closure in Roel Oostrazaal By Roelien Attema R&D director Astron
16:30 - 17:45Plenair: Drinks & Netwerk (Demoplein)

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Locatie

Het congres wordt gehouden in Schouwburg De Lawei