IEEE International Conference On Robotics And Automation Research Articles

Autonomous Ground Navigation in Highly Constrained Spaces: Lessons Learned From the Benchmark Autonomous Robot Navigation Challenge at ICRA 2022 [Competitions

The Benchmark Autonomous Robot Navigation (BARN) Challenge took place at the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in Philadelphia, PA, USA. The aim of the challenge was to evaluate state-of-the-art autonomous ground navigation systems for moving robots through highly constrained environments in a safe and efficient manner. Specifically, the task was to navigate a standardized differential drive ground robot from a predefined start location to a goal location as quickly as possible without colliding with any obstacles, both in simulation and in the real world. Five teams from all over the world participated in the qualifying simulation competition, three of which were invited to compete with one another at a set of physical obstacle courses at the conference center in Philadelphia. The competition results suggest that autonomous ground navigation in highly constrained spaces, despite seeming simple for experienced roboticists, is actually far from being a solved problem. In this article, we discuss the challenge, the approaches used by the top three winning teams, and lessons learned to direct future research.

Reconnecting the Diverse Community [From the Editor’s Desk

After two years of virtual conferences, the annual flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), has returned in person. When I attended ICRA in Philadelphia in May, I felt excitement in the air when people greeted each other and friends shook hands and hugged each other. It was not easy for professors, students, industry practitioners, and other attendees traveling from all around the world to be under one roof, while the COVID-19 pandemic has not fully settled into its endemic stage. With more than 4,700 in-person participants, nearly half of whom were students, this year’s conference was the largest and youngest one ever in ICRA history.

Greetings From the New Student Activities Committee Executive Team [Student’s Corner

Welcome again to the “Student’s Corner” column. This year brings to us a gradual transition between the online activities resulting from COVID-19 and in-person meetings. We finally had the ability to attend to the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in person. It was an impressive conference, not only for the number of participants and the sponsors that the organizers were able to attract but also for the opportunities available to early researchers in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS). We broke several records at the conference, beginning with the sponsors, extending to the number of people attending (8,004, with 4,709 joining in person) and reaching a total of 1,458 papers that students and researchers were eager to present after three years of pandemic and online meetings. We, the RAS Student Activities Committee (SAC), are excited by the large presence of early career researchers: 48% of the in-person participants were students. From these numbers, it is clear that the Society is expanding and that there is increasing interest in the field from new generations.

Reflections on ICRA 2022 [President’s Message

Having witnessed the nearly five thousand participants gathered in Philadelphia for the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2022, I think it’s safe to say that in-person meetings are emphatically back. It’s true that the coronavirus continues to evolve and still stubbornly refuses to go away, and many travel restrictions across borders remain in place. Still, after more than two years of meeting remotely, the chance to have informal conversations in the hallway with speakers, to connect with both old and new friends outside meetings, and to disconnect from the distractions of daily life and rituals were, especially for me, too much to pass up. To the organizers and volunteers who organized such a tremendously successful event through the uncertainty and challenges of the pandemic, let me express my deep gratitude on behalf of the entire robotics community.

Industry Forum at ICRA 2019 [Industry Activities

Reports on events, meetings, and activities that were part of the Industry Forum at 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

Where Do We Go From Here? Debates on the Future of Robotics Research at ICRA 2019 [From the Field

Reports on events, meetings, and activities that were part of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles [TC Spotlight

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee (RAS-TC) has contributed to promoting the emergence of new concepts and technologies as well as new applications. It has also provided services such as the assessment of regulations for development, which play an important role in the consolidation of the applications. The committee received the award for the Most Active IEEE Robotics and Automation Society at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in 2016.

Wearable Robotics for Motion Assistance and Rehabilitation [TC Spotlight

Reports on the Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Technical Committees (TC) approval on Wearable Robotics during the IEEE RAS Technical Activities Board meeting that was held 15 May 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2016.

2017 IEEE\/IFR Award for IERA [Industrial Activities

Presents the recipients of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)/IEEE International Federation of Robotics (IFR) Award for Invention and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation (IERA).

Scanning Electron Microscope Calibration Using a Multi-Image Non-Linear Minimization Process

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) calibrating approach based on non-linear minimization procedure is presented in this article11A part of this article has been published in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2014.. Both the intrinsic parameters and the extrinsic parameters estimations are achieved simultaneously by minimizing the registration error. The proposed approach considers multi-images of a multi-scale calibration pattern view from different positions and orientations. Since the projection geometry of the scanning electron microscope is different from that of a classical optical sensor, the perspective projection model and the parallel projection model are considered and compared with distortion models. Experiments are realized by varying the position and the orientation of a multi-scale chessboard calibration pattern from 300× to 10,000×. The experimental results show the efficiency and the accuracy of this approach.

Generalizing Movements with Information-Theoretic Stochastic Optimal Control

Stochastic optimal control is typically used to plan a movement for a specific situation. Although most stochastic optimal control methods fail to generalize this movement plan to a new situation without replanning, a stochastic optimal control method is presented that allows reuse of the obtained policy in a new situation, as the policy is more robust to slight deviations from the initial movement plan. To improve the robustness of the policy, we employ information-theoretic policy updates that explicitly operate on trajectory distributions instead of single trajectories. To ensure a stable and smooth policy update, the ”distance” is limited between the trajectory distributions of the old and the new control policies. The introduced bound offers a closed-form solution for the resulting policy and extends results from recent developments in stochastic optimal control. In contrast to many standard stochastic optimal control algorithms, the current approach can directly infer the system dynamics from data points, and hence can also be used for model-based reinforcement learning. This paper represents an extension of the paper by Lioutikov et al. (“Sample-Based Information-Theoretic Stochastic Optimal Control,” Proceedings of 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 2014, pp. 3896–3902). In addition to revisiting the content, an extensive theoretical comparison is presented of the approach with related work, additional aspects of the implementation are discussed, and further evaluations are introduced.

25 Years of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, 30 Years of ICRA [President's Message

The year 2014 marks both the 25th anniversary of the creation of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and the 30th anniversary of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). The author reviews the history of each over those 25 years.

Robotics and Automation for Humanitarian Activities [President's Message

Reports on the events of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) held in Karlsruhe, Germany, 6-10 May 2013.

School and the Distinguished Lecturer Program [President's Message

The 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) was held 9–13 May in Shanghai, China. I am sure that many people attended and enjoyed the conference and the city of Shanghai. This conference attracted the largest number of paper submissions and attendees in ICRA history. I thank all of the conference organizers, especially Prof. Zexiang Li, general chair; Prof. Yuan Zheng, program chair, and Prof. Antonio Bicchi, editor-in-chief of the Conference Editorial Board of our Society, for their wonderful work on this record-breaking conference.

Robotics: The Past and Future [From the Editor's Desk

It was wonderful to catch up with many friends and colleagues at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Anchorage. It was a great meeting and a location of truly breathtaking scenery as you will see from the student photo competition pictures in this issue (p. 12). The reindeer hot dogs were pretty good as well.

50 Years of Robotics [From the Guest Editors

In this issue, we celebrate the 50 years of robotics, following up on the theme from this year's IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) held in Anchorage, Alaska. The exact beginning of robotics is difficult to pin down and the topic for future historians of our field. Humankind has a long fascination with machines built in our image. Such machines were mentioned by the ancient Greeks, described by Al-Jazari in the 13th century, and designed by Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century. Human- and animal-like machines, automata, were a major fad in Europe in the 18th century with the flute player, the musician, the draughtsman, and the digesting duck. The term robot was coined in a 1920s play by Karel Capek, and Isaac Asimov published his first robot story in 1940. A common theme was the creation or the depiction of a machine that could emulate a human.

Robot suit hybrid assistive limb [Industrial Activities

Since 2005, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and International Federation of Robotics (IFR) have cooperated to host a joint Forum of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation to foster cooperation between the scientific community and industry. As part of the forum, an award for Invention and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation (IERA) is made. This year the IEEE--IFR form was held in Kobe, Japan, in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2009.

Repetitive Task Training for Improving Functional Ability After Stroke

Repetitive Task Training for Improving Functional Ability After Stroke

Building a bridge to the future [President's Message

At the end of a busy autumn on the road, I am writing this column in Tokyo while attending the Program Committee Meeting of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), which will take place in Kobe, Japan, 12?17 May 2009.

Tightening the chord between academia and industry [President's Message

After a successful IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) that marked the silver anniversary of our flagship conference (from Atlanta in 1984 to Pasadena in 2008), I am writing this column while attending the IEEE/International Federation of Robotics (IFR) Joint Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation (IERA) in Munich (see my message in the March issue), as part of Automatica 2008 (the largest biennial fair in robotics and automation in Europe), in parallel with two annual local events [the symposium of the German Association for Pattern Recognition, and Robotik organized by the German Society for Robotics (DGR)].