Archive 30.07.2022

In this post we bring you all the paper awards finalists and winners presented during the 2022 edition of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Paper

• ‘Translating Images into Maps‘, by Saha, Avishkar; Mendez Maldonado, Oscar Alejandro; Russell, Chris; Bowden, Richard. (WINNER)
• ‘CT-ICP: Real-time Elastic LiDAR Odometry with Loop Closure‘, by Dellenbach, Pierre; Deschaud, Jean-Emmanuel; Jacquet, Bastien; GOULETTE, François.
• ‘D2A-BSP: Distilled Data Association Belief Space Planning with Performance Guarantees Under Budget Constraints‘, by Shienman, Moshe; Indelman, Vadim.

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Student Paper

• ‘Offline Learning of Counterfactual Perception as Prediction for Real-World Robotic Reinforcement Learning‘, by Jin, Jun; Graves, Daniel; Haigh, Cameron; Luo, Jun; Jagersand, Martin.
• ‘Dynamic Underactuated Manipulator Using a Flexible Body with a Structural Anisotropy‘, by Maruo, Akihiro; Shibata, Akihide; Higashimori, Mitsuru.
• ‘Interactive Robotic Grasping with Attribute-Guided Disambiguation‘, by Yang, Yang; Lou, Xibai; Choi, Changhyun. (WINNER)

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Automation Paper

• ‘SPIN Road Mapper: Extracting Roads from Aerial Images via Spatial and Interaction Space Graph Reasoning for Autonomous Driving‘, by Bandara, Wele Gedara Chaminda; Valanarasu, Jeya Maria Jose; Patel, Vishal.
• ‘ARChemist: Autonomous Robotic Chemistry System Architecture‘, by Fakhruldeen, Hatem; Pizzuto, Gabriella; Jakub, Glowacki; Cooper, Andrew Ian.
• ‘Precise 3D Reconstruction of Plants from UAV Imagery Combining Bundle Adjustment and Template Matching‘, by Marks, Elias Ariel; Magistri, Federico; Stachniss, Cyrill. (WINNER)

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Coordination Paper

• ‘Learning Scalable Policies over Graphs for Multi-Robot Task Allocation using Capsule Attention Networks‘, by Paul, Steve; Ghassemi, Payam; Chowdhury, Souma.
• ‘Decentralized Model Predictive Control for Equilibrium-based Collaborative UAV Bar Transportation‘, by Castro Sundin, Roberto; Roque, Pedro; Dimarogonas, Dimos V.. (WINNER)
• ‘A Deep Reinforcement Learning Environment for Particle Robot Navigation and Object Manipulation‘, by Shen, Jeremy; Xiao, Erdong; Liu, Yuchen; Feng, Chen.

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Deployed Systems Paper

• ‘Autonomous Teamed Exploration of Subterranean Environments using Legged and Aerial Robots‘, by Kulkarni, Mihir; Dharmadhikari, Mihir Rahul; Tranzatto, Marco; Zimmermann, Samuel; Reijgwart, Victor; De Petris, Paolo; Nguyen, Huan; Khedekar, Nikhil Vijay; Papachristos, Christos; Ott, Lionel; Siegwart, Roland; Hutter, Marco; Alexis, Kostas. (WINNER)
• ‘Learning Model Predictive Control for Quadrotors‘, by Li, Guanrui; Tunchez, Alex; Loianno, Giuseppe.
• ‘Optimizing Terrain Mapping and Landing Site Detection for Autonomous UAVs‘, by Proença, Pedro F.; Delaune, Jeff; Brockers, Roland.

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Dynamics and Control Paper

• ‘Cooperative Modular Single Actuator Monocopters Capable of Controlled Passive Separation‘, by CAI, Xinyu; Win, Shane Kyi Hla; Win, Luke Soe Thura; Sufiyan, Danial; Foong, Shaohui. (WINNER)
• ‘Real-time Optimal Landing Control of the MIT Mini Cheetah‘, by Jeon, Se Hwan; Kim, Sangbae; Kim, Donghyun.
• ‘Real-Time Multi-Contact Model Predictive Control via ADMM‘, by Aydinoglu, Alp; Posa, Michael.

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Interaction Paper

• ‘Effects of Interfaces on Human-Robot Trust: Specifying and Visualizing Physical Zones‘, by Hudspeth, Marisa; Balali, Sogol; Grimm, Cindy; Sowell, Ross T..
• ‘Synergistic Scheduling of Learning and Allocation of Tasks in Human-Robot Team‘, by Vats, Shivam; Kroemer, Oliver; Likhachev, Maxim.
• ‘Human-Robot Shared Control for Surgical Robot Based on Context-Aware Sim-to-Real Adaptation‘, by Zhang, Dandan; wu, zicong; Chen, Junhong; Zhu, Ruiqi; Munawar, Adnan; Xiao, Bo; Guan, Yuan; Su, Hang; Guo, Yao; Fischer, Gregory Scott; Lo, Benny Ping Lai; Yang, Guang-Zhong. (WINNER)

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Learning Paper

• ‘Symphony: Learning Realistic and Diverse Agents for Autonomous Driving Simulation‘, by Igl, Maximilian; Kim, Daewoo; Kuefler, Alex; Mougin, Paul; Shah, Punit; Shiarlis, Kyriacos; Anguelov, Dragomir; Palatucci, Mark; White, Brandyn; Whiteson, Shimon.
• ‘TartanDrive: A Large-Scale Dataset for Learning Off-Road Dynamics Models‘, by Triest, Samuel; Sivaprakasam, Matthew; Wang, Sean J.; Wang, Wenshan; Johnson, Aaron; Scherer, Sebastian.
• ‘Augmenting Reinforcement Learning with Behavior Primitives for Diverse Manipulation Tasks‘, by Nasiriany, Soroush; Liu, Huihan; Zhu, Yuke. (WINNER)

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Locomotion Paper

• ‘Scalable Minimally Actuated Leg Extension Bipedal Walker Based on 3D Passive Dynamics‘, by Islam, Sharfin; Carter, Kamal; Yim, Justin K.; Kyle, James; Bergbreiter, Sarah; Johnson, Aaron.
• ‘Omni-Roach: A legged robot capable of traversing multiple types of large obstacles and self-righting‘, by Mi, Jonathan; Wang, Yaqing; Li, Chen.
• ‘Trajectory Optimization Formulation with Smooth Analytical Derivatives for Track-leg and Wheel-leg Ground Robots‘, by Mane, Adwait; Swart, Dylan; White, Jason; Hubicki, Christian. (WINNER)

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Manipulation Paper

• ‘Online Object Model Reconstruction and Reuse for Lifelong Improvement of Robot Manipulation‘, by Lu, Shiyang; Wang, Rui; Miao, Yinglong; Mitash, Chaitanya; Bekris, Kostas E..
• ‘Multi-view object pose distribution tracking for pre-grasp planning on mobile robots‘, by Naik, Lakshadeep; Iversen, Thorbjørn Mosekjær; Kramberger, Aljaz; Wilm, Jakob; Krüger, Norbert.
• ‘Manipulation of unknown objects via contact configuration regulation‘, by Doshi, Neel; Taylor, Orion; Rodriguez, Alberto. (WINNER)

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Mechanisms and Design Paper

• ‘TaTa: A Universal Jamming Gripper with High-Quality Tactile Perception and Its Application to Underwater Manipulation‘, by Li, Shoujie; Yin, Xianghui; XIA, Chongkun; Ye, Linqi; WANG, xueqian; LIANG, bin.
• ‘Design of a Biomimetic Tactile Sensor for Material Classification‘, by Dai, Kevin; Wang, Xinyu; Rojas, Allison M.; Harber, Evan; Tian, Yu; Paiva, Nicholas; Gnehm, Joseph; Schindewolf, Evan; Choset, Howie; Webster-Wood, Victoria; Li, Lu. (WINNER)
• ‘A Wearable Fingertip Cutaneous Haptic Device with Continuous Omnidirectional Motion Feedback‘, by Zhang, Peizhi; Kamezaki, Mitsuhiro; Hattori, Yutaro; Sugano, Shigeki.

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Navigation Paper

• ‘Event-Triggered Tracking Control Scheme for Quadrotors with External Disturbances: Theory and Validations‘, by Gao, Pengcheng; Wang, Gang; Li, Qingdu; Zhang, Jianwei; Shen, Yantao.
• ‘EDPLVO: Efficient Direct Point-Line Visual Odometry‘, by Zhou, Lipu; Huang, Guoquan (Paul); Mao, Yinian; Wang, Shengze; Kaess, Michael. (WINNER)
• ‘Confidence-based Robot Navigation under Sensor Occlusion with Deep Reinforcement Learning‘, by Ryu, Hyeongyeol; Yoon, Minsung; Park, Daehyung; Yoon, Sung-eui.

ICRA 2022 Outstanding Planning Paper

• ‘Optimizing Trajectories with Closed-Loop Dynamic SQP‘, by Singh, Sumeet; Slotine, Jean-Jacques E.; Sindhwani, Vikas.
• ‘Trajectory Distribution Control for Model Predictive Path Integral Control using Covariance Steering‘, by Yin, Ji; Zhang, Zhiyuan; Theodorou, Evangelos; Tsiotras, Panagiotis.
• ‘Non-Gaussian Risk Bounded Trajectory Optimization for Stochastic Nonlinear Systems in Uncertain Environments‘, by Han, Weiqiao; M. Jasour, Ashkan; Williams, Brian. (WINNER)

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, car manufacturing companies such as Ford quickly shifted their production focus from automobiles to masks and ventilators.

Accelerating the search for life saving leishmaniasis treatments

In a strawberry field surrounded by strawberry fields on the outskirts of Santa Maria, a pair of robots have been picking berries all summer.

Looking into a protein’s past to unlock the mysteries of life itself

New insights into immunity to help protect the world’s flora

Big data that leads to discoveries that benefit everyone

Researchers are designing more effective drugs than ever before

Helping plastics become 100% recyclable

Piecing together one of the largest molecular structures in human cells

Unlocking a decade of data in minutes to help beat antibiotic resistance

The mussel and scallop industry could be revolutionized by a new autonomous underwater drone.

A team of researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia's Bioinspired Soft Robotics Laboratory has developed a new pleat-based soft robotic actuator that can be used in a variety of sizes, down to just 1 centimeter. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes the technology behind their new actuator and how well it worked when they tested it under varied circumstances.

As companies continue to integrate more automation into their warehouses and DCs, the need for intelligent sensors to monitor and guide that equipment in a very safe, efficient, and productive manner will also increase.

This post shows the proceedings for the 2nd annual Reddit Robotics Showcase! We’re delighted to once again offer an event for robotics enthusiasts of all ages and abilities from across the world to share their passion and their projects.

This year, we are planning an event which anticipates the enthusiasm we’ve had from our community, continuing to provide a unique opportunity for roboticists around the world to share and discuss their work, regardless of age or ability. The primary purpose of this event is to showcase the multitude of projects underway in the r/Robotics Reddit community. Topics range across all focuses of robotics, such as simulation, navigation, control, perception, and mechatronic design. We will use this showcase to present discussion pieces and foster conversation between active members in the robotics community around the world. The showcase will feature invited roboticists in research and industry to discuss what they see as technical challenges or interesting directions for robots.

The showcase is free and online, and is to be held on July 30th & 31st 2022, livestreamed via the Reddit Robotics Showcase YouTube channel. For more information, please check out the official website.

2022 Program

All times are recorded in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), UTC-4.

Saturday, 30th of July
Session 1: Industrial and Applied Robotics
10:00 – 11:00 Matt Whelan (Ocado Technology) – The Ocado 600 Series Robot
11:00 – 11:15 Nye Mech Works (HAPPA) – Real Power Armor
11:15 – 11:30 3D Printed 6-Axis Robot Arm
11:30 – 12:00 Vasily Morzhakov (Rembrain) – Cloud Platform for Smart Robotics
12:00 – 12:15 Bridging the Gap Between Physical and Digital with BOTSZY
12:15 – 12:45 Advoard – Autonomous Fleet Robots for Logistics
Lunch Break

Session 2: Mobile Robots
14:00 – 15:00 TBC
15:00 – 15:30 Julius Sustarevas – Armstone: Autonomous Mobile 3D Printer
15:30 – 15:45 Camera Controller Hexapod & Screw/Augur All-Terrain Robot
15:45 – 16:15 Keegan Neave – NE-Five
16:15 – 16:30 Dimitar – Gravis and Ricardo
16:30 – 16:40 Kamal Carter – Aim-Hack Robot
16:40 – 16:55 Calvin – BeBOT Real Time

Sunday, 31st of July
Session 1: Bio-Inspired Robots
10:00 – 11:00 Dr. Matteo Russo (Rolls-Royce UTC in Manufacturing and On-Wing Technology) – Entering the Maze: Snake-Like Robots from Aerospace to Industry
11:00 – 11:10 Humanoid, Hexapod, and Legged Robot Control
11:10 – 11:25 Halid Yildirim – Design of a Modular Quadruped Robot Dog
11:25 – 11:35 Hexapod as Robot Pet
11:35 – 12:05 Jakub Bartoszek – Honey Badger Quadruped
12:05 – 12:20 Lutz Freitag – 01. RFC Berlin
12:20 – 12:35 Hamburg Bit-Bots
12:35 – 12:50 William Kerber – Human Mode Robotics – Lynx Quadruped and AI Training
12:50 – 13:00 Sanjeev Hegde – Juggernaut
Lunch Break

Session 2: Human Robot Interaction
14:00 – 15:00 Dr. Ruth Aylett (The National Robotarium) – Social Agents and Human Robot Interaction
15:00 – 15:30 Senmag Robotics – High Fidelity Haptics Made Accessible
15:30 – 15:40 Hand Controlled Artificial Hand
15:40 – 16:10 The Shadow Robot Company
16:10 – 16:25 Maël Abril – 6 Axis Dynamixel Robot Arm
16:25 – 16:35 Control 4WD Raspberry Pi Robot Car Using Hand Gestures
16:35 – 17:05 Tentacular – Interactive Robotic Art