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Plenary and Keynote Sessions

ICRA

                         

Plenary Sessions

Tuesday 30th May - 11:00 - 12:00 - Hugh Herr, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

On the Design of Bionic Limbs: The Science of Tissue-Synthetic Interfaces

ICC Auditorium (Level 0)

Critical to the advancement of bionic technology that emulates or extends normal physiological function is the design of tissue-synthetic interfaces connecting the human body with electromechanics. In this talk, I describe research activities underway to advance mechanical and neural interfaces for the functional enhancement of bionic limb devices. I present novel prosthetic, orthotic and exoskeletal limbs that behave dynamically like their biological counterpart, peripheral neural interfaces that serve as an electrical interface with the external bionic limb, and novel osseointegration technology for the mechanical and neural transmission of the bionic device to the biological limb. Further, I present a digital nervous system designed to artificially control paralyzed musculature for the restoration of motor function for persons with limb pathology. Finally, critical areas of future research are discussed that must be advanced to step towards the next generation of bionic limb systems.

Wednesday 31st May - 11:00 - 12:00 - Jasia Reichardt 

In Praise of Strangeness

ICC Auditorium (Level 0) 

Things which seem strange and unacceptable to us today may become normal tomorrow.

For instance, can we get used to living with robots? and, they with us?

Or, is it too late even to ask such a question?

Thursday 1st June - 11:00 - 12:00 - Marc Raibert, Boston Dynamics AI Institute

Making Robots Smarter in Body and Mind

ICC Auditorium (Level 0)

Robot hardware is getting better and better, their perception improves on almost a daily basis, and their physical skills are advancing by leaps and bounds.  But robots are still almost as dumb as door knobs.  If we can make robots smarter we can make them easier to use, safer around people, and much more productive.  This talk will discuss our hopes for a future of smarter robots. 

Keynote Sessions

Tuesday 30th May - 12:15 - 13:45 - Robots for Society

ICC Auditorium (Level 0)

Andrew Davison, Imperial College London 

John Leonard, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Lynne Parker, University of Tennessee

Tuesday 30th May - 17:00 - 18:30 - Healthcare Robotics

ICC Auditorium (Level 0)

Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, University of Toronto Mississauga - Accelerating Medical Robotics Innovation with the Open Continuum Robotics Project

Simona Crea, The Biorobotics Insititute - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

Heike Vallery, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) 

Wednesday 31st May - 12:15 - 13:45 - Human-Like Robots

ICC Auditorium (Level 0)

David Hanson, Hanson Robotics

Hiroshi Ishiguro, ATR Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories - Avatar and the future society

Will Jackson, Engineered Arts

Wednesday 31st May - 17:00 - 18:30 - Morphological Computation

ICC Auditorium (Level 0)

Theo Jansen, Strandbeest

Jamie Paik, EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

Fumiya Iida, Cambridge University

Thursday 1st June - 12:15 - 13:45 - AgriFood Robots

ICC Auditorium (Level 0)

Josie Hughes, EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

Tim Brackbill, Tortuga AgTech - Essential Robotics: Designing for application

Yaro Tenzer, RightHand Robotics

Thursday 1st June - 17:00 - 18:30 - AI in Robotics

ICC Auditorium (Level 0)

Sethu Vijayakumar, The Alan Turing Institute, University of Edinburgh - From Automation to Autonomy: Machine Learning for Next-generation Robotics  

Amanda Prorok, Cambridge University

Chelsea Finn, Stanford University