Agentic Engineering & ToolingKeynote20min
From Brainless to Brilliant — Giving an Open-Source Robot a Mind of Its Own
A hobbyist built AURA, a personal “brain” for an open robot platform, using only a laptop. It recognizes household members, keeps learned and told information separate, and seeks permission before committing code. The project demonstrates how accessible robotics and AI now are.
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Jan Van WassenhoveSopra Steria
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Wednesday, October 7, 09:50-10:10
TBA 7
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It arrives in a box, in pieces, and every part of it is open: hardware, firmware, simulator, SDK. An hour with a screwdriver and there is a robot on your kitchen table. What it does not arrive with is a mind.
So I bought one, and I wrote it a brain called AURA. No lab, no team, just a laptop and some evenings.
AURA knows the people in my house and treats each of them differently. What we told it stays separate from what it worked out on its own. Given a task, it opens VS Code, puts Claude Code to work on a real repository, and asks my permission before anything is committed.
It still gets things wrong. Nothing in the design promises otherwise; what it promises is that nothing sensitive happens without me saying yes.
The robot is not the point. The point is how little it now takes to build one, and that quietly changes who gets to build anything at all. I would rather show you that than argue it, so there will be demos, and no promises about all of them behaving.
So I bought one, and I wrote it a brain called AURA. No lab, no team, just a laptop and some evenings.
AURA knows the people in my house and treats each of them differently. What we told it stays separate from what it worked out on its own. Given a task, it opens VS Code, puts Claude Code to work on a real repository, and asks my permission before anything is committed.
It still gets things wrong. Nothing in the design promises otherwise; what it promises is that nothing sensitive happens without me saying yes.
The robot is not the point. The point is how little it now takes to build one, and that quietly changes who gets to build anything at all. I would rather show you that than argue it, so there will be demos, and no promises about all of them behaving.
Jan Van Wassenhove
Jan Van Wassenhove is the Technical Director of the System Integrations Business Line for the BeLux region at Sopra Steria, where he drives technology solutions and services, supported by his team of architects. With a strong background in Java development, Jan has evolved into an experienced architect and project manager, with in-depth expertise in Agile methodologies.
Remarkably, he is also the initiator of “SCRUM”, a new programming language he conceived. This creation perfectly reflects his innovative mindset and constant drive to explore new technological territories — and proves, with a wink, that everyone really can become a SCRUM master… in code.
Throughout his career, he has contributed to numerous projects in both the public and private sectors, with a particular focus on banking and public administrations.
Remarkably, he is also the initiator of “SCRUM”, a new programming language he conceived. This creation perfectly reflects his innovative mindset and constant drive to explore new technological territories — and proves, with a wink, that everyone really can become a SCRUM master… in code.
Throughout his career, he has contributed to numerous projects in both the public and private sectors, with a particular focus on banking and public administrations.