Workshop Description

In recent years, tactile sensors and robot skins have evolved from basic research prototypes for specific cases to promising robust and versatile sensing systems – equipping robots with new capabilities. Furthermore, new robot designs are beginning to consider them and even include them in their initial blueprints. Tactile-enhanced robotics brings a broad span of new applications and alternative solutions to the well-known problems related to manipulation and physical interaction. The ConRich workshop will explore new ideas in contact-rich robotics that allow robots to take advantage of large-scale tactile sensors and robot skins. The workshop will cover the design of new robot skin systems that enable contact-rich interactions, new control methods to exploit broad tactile information, learning and definition of contact-rich tasks and whole-body behaviors, and new multi-agent sensor systems to enable contact-rich collaborative robots. The goal of the workshop is to start a discussion and find the needs of the new generation of contact-aware robotic systems and the associated challenges. Bringing together the academic and industrial robotics communities to share points of view, experiences, and ideas to boost the development of contact-rich robotic solutions.

The topics of interest

1. Robot skins and tactile sensors

• New sensory systems to enable contact-rich robotics.
• New human motion and interaction recording systems.
• New data processing methods for large scale tactile interactions.
• Software infrastructure for contact rich feedback control.

2. Control and learning methods for contact-rich tasks

• Learning models and methods of contact-rich tasks.
• Representations of large-scale multiple contact interactions.
• New methods for multiple contact planning and control.
• Whole-body object manipulation and transport.
• New methods for whole-body hierarchical control.

3. Applications of contact rich robotic tasks

• Whole-body haptics.
• Manipulation and locomotion in constrained environments.
• Industrial applications of contact rich tasks.
• Multi-robot contact-rich robotic applications.
• Human-robot collaboration.

Workshop Schedule

09:00 – 10:30 Session 1: Invited talks.
        09:00 – 09:10 Introduction to the session and the speakers.
        09:10 – 09:30 Speaker 1 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
        09:30 – 09:50 Speaker 2 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
        09:50 – 10:10 Speaker 3 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
        10:10 – 10:30 Speaker 4 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break & student poster session
11:00 – 12:00 Session 2: New sensory systems to enable contact-rich robotics.
11:00 – 11:20 Pitch spotlight presentations
11:20 – 12:00 Interactive session with selected young researchers and live demonstrations.
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch break
13:00 – 14:30 Session 3: Invited talks.
        13:00 – 13:10 Introduction to the session and the speakers.
        13:10 – 13:30 Speaker 6 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
        13:30 – 13:50 Speaker 7 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
        13:50 – 14:10 Speaker 8 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
        14:10 – 14:30 Speaker 9 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
14:30 – 15:00 Coffee break & student poster session
15:00 – 16:00 Session 4: New control and learning methods for contact-rich tasks.
15:00 – 15:20 Pitch spotlight presentations
15:20 – 16:00 Interactive session with selected young researchers and live demonstrations.
16:00 – 16:10 Coffee break & student poster session
516:10 – 17:30 Session 5: Invited talks
16:10 – 16:20 Introduction to the session and the speakers.
        16:20 – 16:40 Speaker 1 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
        16:40 – 17:00 Speaker 2 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
        17:00 – 17:20 Speaker 3 (15 min presentation + 5 min Q&A)
17:30 – 18:00 Panel discussion and Closure