Outline and Scope

There is a significant and increasing emphasis on collaborative robot use in manufacturing, ranging from side-by-side human-robot interaction to fully autonomous mobile manipulator assembly application. This workshop is intended to bring together researchers who are studying technologies relevant to this end, including but not limited to mobile manipulators intended for collaborative industrial robot applications. Manufacturing and industry robotic arms are traditionally bolted to floors and within cages as the robots perform their relatively precise tasks, primarily to stay within safety standards for heavy payload industrial robots. As robot arms are liberated from cages and made collaborative by switching to lightweight and low force characteristics they transform into a broader class of tools. Close physical collaboration with the human worker and the potential to create highly customisable, modular and easy to use robots are some of the main outcomes of switching to lightweight robots. Both traditional and collaborative robot arms are being installed onto mobile platforms and automatic guided vehicles to form mobile manipulators for more agile industrial needs in warehouses and manufacturing facilities. An International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2015 workshop on mobile manipulators concluded that ‘mobile manipulators are one of the key elements for future robotic technologies’. The safety, accuracy, repeatability, and usefulness of these systems for the industrial tasks at hand are however still up for debate, investigation and improvement.

The objective of this full-day workshop is to open a discussion forum with experts and end-users to share recent developments, challenges, and future research trends in the field. Key-topics from end-user application scenarios are performance of mobile manipulators for use in the automotive industry and large-scale manufacturing operations for shipyards and aeronautics sectors among others.

 

Topics of Interest

The scope of the workshop includes and is not limited to the following non-exhaustive list of topics:

  • Performance measurements
  • Safety and effectiveness of human-robot interaction
  • Safety standards
  • Perception
  • Path planning
  • Control, communication, integration
  • Localization and Navigation
  • Multi-robot cooperation and co-manipulation
  • Object recognition and localization
  • Modular and customisable robots

 

Submission of Papers

Prospective authors are invited to submit their full draft papers in PDF format using the URL:(https://www.softconf.com/h/clawar2016/submit.html) or the paper submission link in the paper submission page of the CLAWAR2016 conference web-site by the deadline of 01 21 February 2016 for consideration for inclusion in this Workshop. Final accepted papers will be limited to 8 pages in length in the prescribed style format given in the paper submission page of the conference web-site.

All papers will be peer reviewed, and all accepted papers (subject to registration) will be published in the conference proceedings.

A selection of presented papers will also be recommended for possible publication in reputable international journals.

 

Accepted Papers 

[click on the titles to access the presentations in pdf format]

  1. J. d. G. Fernandez, H. Sprengel, M. Mallwitz, M. Zipper, B. Yu and V. Bargsten – “Designing modular series-elastic actuators for safe human-robot collaboration in industrial settings”
  2. B. Carlson, A. Norton and H. Yanco – “Preliminary development of test methods to evaluate lower body wearable robots for human performance augmentation”
  3. C. Schou and O. Madsen – “Towards shop floor hardware reconfiguration for industrial collaborative robots”
  4. F. Rovida, V. Krueger, L. Nalpantidis, A. Charzoule, A. Lasnier, R. Petrick, M. Crosby, C. Toscano and G. Veiga – “A cyber-physical systems approach for controlling autonomous mobile manipulators”
  5. A. Ataka, A. Shiva, A. Shafti, H. Wurdemann and K. Althoefer – “Reactive motion planning for mobile continuum arm in dynamic industrial environment”
  6. J. Saenz, F. Penzlin, C. Vogel and M. Fritzsche – “VALERI – A collaborative mobile manipulator for aerospace production”
  7. R. Bostelman, R. Eastman, T. Hong, O. A. Enein, S. Legowik and S. Foufou – “Comparison of registration methods for mobile manipulators”
  8. J. Kildal and I. Maurtua – “Revisiting the end user’s perspective in collaborative human-robot interaction”

 

Workshop Organising Committee

Roger Bostelman, 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA,
Contact Email: roger DOT bostelman AT nist DOT gov

Roger Eastman,
Loyola University Maryland, USA,
Contact Email: reastman AT loyola DOT edu

Ali Shafti,
King’s College London, UK

Helge A. Wurdemann,
University College London, UK,
Contact Email: helge DOT wurdemann AT kcl DOT ac DOT uk

Kaspar Althoefer,
King’s College London, UK,
Contact Email: kaspar DOT althoefer AT kcl DOT ac DOT uk

Iñaki Maurtua,
IK4-Tekniker, Spain,
Contact Email: inaki DOT maurtua AT tekniker DOT es

 

CLAWAR 2016 Conference Key Submission Dates:

01 21 February 2016: Submission of Full Draft Papers [extended deadline]

14 March 2016: Notification of Paper Acceptance

15 April 2016: Submission of Final (accepted) Papers