Robotics Leader and Educational Pioneer Selected for 2025 Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Awards

The robotics industry’s most prestigious award will be presented May 14, 2025 at Automate in Detroit

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) announced two longtime industry pioneers as the winners of the 2025 Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Awards, the world’s most prestigious robotics honor.

Stuart “Stu” C. Shepherd, Co-Founder and President of Shepherd Solutions Inc., was selected as the winner for his distinguished industry leadership. He will be recognized for more than 46 years transforming manufacturing in the Americas through robotic automation and capital equipment-related new business development, including past service as chairperson of both the Robotics Industries Association (RIA), now A3, and the Association for Advancing Automation (A3).

Dr. Peter Corke, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Queensland University of Technology, was selected as this year’s award winner in the education category for his impact in robotics education and research, including the creation of the widely used open-source “Robotics Toolbox” software, authoring the bestselling textbook “Robotics, Vision, and Control,” and developing the Robot Academy online video resource.

Stuart “Stu” C. Shepherd: Past A3 and RIA Chairperson, current A3 Robotics Board Member

Shepherd is the co-founder and president of Shepherd Solutions Inc., an industry consulting firm. His past experience includes automation integration roles at General Motors, and sales and top leadership roles at FANUC America Corp., KUKA AG, Güdel AG, Universal Robots A/S, and consulting roles at Gain & Co. and HowToRobot.com.

He is a past chairperson at both the RIA and A3, a current A3 Robotics board member, and an R15.05 safety committee member. He is also a member of the American Welding Society, serving on the D16 Robotic and Automatic Welding Committee.

Dr. Peter Corke: Robotics Education Pioneer

Dr. Corke is currently distinguished professor emeritus at Queensland University of Technology, where he co-founded the robotics discipline, which has grown to be one of the largest robotics research and teaching groups in Australia. Prior to that, he worked for the national research agency CSIRO as a researcher and then as the founding director of the CSIRO Autonomous Systems Lab.

His early work focused on the automation of underground and surface mining equipment and farm vehicles, internet of things, visual-inertial navigation of flying and underwater drones, and mobile manipulation. He holds a number of patents and is currently chief roboticist at robotic-packing company LYRO Robotics and technical advisor to drone-mapping company Emesent.

He is a fellow of the IEEE, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the Australian Academy of Science; former editor-in-chief of the IEEE Robotics & Automation magazine; and a member of advisory and editorial boards for the International Journal of Robotics Research, IEEE Trans. Robotics Practice and IEEE Trans. Field Robotics.

Awards Dinner

An awards dinner will take place at Automate 2025, the leading showcase for the robotics and automation industry in North America. It will take place May 14 from 5:15 to 8:30 p.m. at Huntington Place. Tickets for the event may be purchased when registering for Automate 2025.

Media interested in attending the show can register here.