Presenting at the Open Up! Event
Natural Microsystems
Boston, Mass 
Sept 18, 1997

Steve Roberts is the leading avatar of “nomadic connectivity,” the idea that technology should allow people to be highly mobile yet still in networked communication with others. From 1983 to 1991, he pedaled 17,000 miles around the United States on a computerized and networked recumbent bicycle — the $1.2 million BEHEMOTH. At the conclusion of that adventure, he began building a pair of networked pedal/solar/sail ultralight trimarans known as Microships. By next January, Mr. Roberts and his partner expect to begin a multi-year coastal journey aboard their tiny boats.

At OPEN UP!, Mr. Roberts will present BEHEMOTH onstage along with various components of his work-in-progress Microships. The machines will be discussed in detail, with particular attention paid to their wireless network architecture, automated data collection and global telemetry, solar power management, user interface design, audio/video routing, embedded control systems, and more. He will also address the growing phenomenon of “technomadics” and what it may herald for the future.

A daring, innovative adventurer for the techno age, Steve Roberts is a voice you’ll want to hear.

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