Robotics & AI for automated infrastructure inspection and intervention

Organizers

Aman P Kaur* – School of Engineering, London South Bank University, London, UK (kaura13 [at] lsbu.ac.uk)

Tariq Sattar – School of Engineering, London South Bank University, London, UK (sattartp [at] lsbu.ac.uk)

(*) Corresponding organizer

The ever expanding manufacturing processes and infrastructures developments have posed challenges for inspection & maintenance especially in extreme environments.  Similar trends have been seen in the developments of mobile robotics and non-destructive testing to tackle the challenges with the aim to optimise inspection, maintenance and in-situ repair to improve safety, environment and operating costs of the ageing, new infrastructures and critical manufacturing components. Further advancements are being made in these areas by applying machine learning & artificial intelligence techniques to improve the performance for real-time in-situ operations.

The upcoming CLAWAR 22: 25th International conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines is going to hold a special session on the topic. This special session intends to bring together roboticists, researchers, engineers and industry to present and discuss the latest developments in the subject area.

Authors are invited to submit their full draft papers to this Special Session, in PDF format and up to a maximum of 12 pages, by the indicated deadline in the conference website, using the URL (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=clawar2022 ). Authors should follow the guidelines of the template available at the paper submission page of the conference website (https://clawar.org/clawar2022/submissions/instructions-to-authors/). Please state in the abstract of the articles “[For submission to the Special Session on Robotics & AI for automated infrastructure inspection and intervention]”

Robots in Education and Educational in Robotics

Organizers

Manuel Silva* – School of Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto & INESC TEC (mss [at] isep.ipp.pt)

José Lima – Polytechnic Institute of Bragança & INESC TEC (jllima [at] ipb.pt)

Vítor Pinto – FEUP & SYSTEC DIGI2 (vitorpinto [at] fe.up.pt)

(*) Corresponding organizer

Recently there is a growing interest in the design, construction, and programming of robots for educational purposes. These skills are considered relevant to various fields, such as in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Furthermore, the introduction of the robot in the classroom, at different levels of education, and even as extracurricular activity (for instance through robotic competitions), promotes a set of outcomes such as technological fluency, creativity, participation, support, collaboration, and cooperation and also improves the social skills.

Other aspect also deserving great importance in the last years is related to the education in the field of robotics. Different approaches have been followed for teaching robotics, from the most “traditional” (based in lectures and laboratory classes), to others based on the use of simulators and virtual laboratories, not forgetting robot’s competitions.

Considering these ideas, this special session intends to bring together roboticists, researchers, engineers, teachers, and students, to present and discuss the latest developments and innovative aspects of using Robots in Education. Furthermore, this will emphasize the exchange of experiences, methodologies, and materials to motivate students about Education in Robotics.

Authors are invited to submit their full draft papers to this Special Session, in PDF format and up to a maximum of 12 pages, by the indicated deadline in the conference website, using the URL (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=clawar2022). Authors should follow the guidelines of the template available at the paper submission page of the conference website. Please state in the abstract of the articles “[For submission to the Special Session on Robots in Education and Educational in Robotics]”

Robotics in Agriculture

Organizers

Vítor Tinoco* – INESC TEC (vitor.tinoco [at] inesctec.pt)

Manuel Silva – School of Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto & INESC TEC (mss [at] isep.ipp.pt)

Filipe Santos – INESC TEC (filipe.n.santos [at] inesctec.pt)

(*) Corresponding organizer

The growing world population, shortage of agricultural labour, and the need to have more sustainable agricultural practices has sparked the research and the development of agricultural robotic systems. The development of such robots contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, namely Goal: 2 – Zero Hunger and Goal: 12 – Sustainable consumption and production.

Another aspect to consider is the general increase of knowledge in robotics, as agricultural applications do not rely on products stored in a database and, thus, robots must be able to adapt to different scenarios and products, such as differences in the current weather and/or differences in the shapes and sizes of products and terrain characteristics (such farms with stairs).

The purpose of this special session is to bring together roboticists, researchers, engineers, and students, to present and discuss the new developments and innovative aspects in Robotics in Agriculture and to emphasize the exchange of experiences, methodologies and materials to motivate more research in this field.

Authors are invited to submit their full draft papers to this Special Session, in PDF format and up to a maximum of 12 pages, using the URL (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=clawar2022). Authors should follow the guidelines of the template available at the paper submission page of the conference website (https://clawar.org/clawar2022/submissions/instructions-to-authors/). Please state in the abstract of the articles “[For submission to the Special Session on Robotics in Agriculture]”

Hybrid Legged-Wheeled Locomotion Robots

Organizers

Vítor H. Pinto* – FEUP & SYSTEC DIGI2 (vitorpinto [at] fe.up.pt)

Marko Bjelonic – ETH Zurich (marko.bjelonic [at] mavt.ethz.ch)

José Gonçalves – IPB (goncalves [at] ipb.pt)

(*) Corresponding organizer

Autonomous robotic systems are increasingly present in our daily lives. These are projected to have the ability to assist humansin their daily life, and even to provide new possibilities, that until now would not have been possible.

Hybrid locomotion systems are also an increasing trend, since these robotic systems exploit the advantages of using more than one locomotion system simultaneously, trying to avoid their disadvantages. One subsystem –the legs– makes their mobility unique, increasing their ability to move through difficult terrain, while the other –the wheels– increase their stability, their maximum speed and decrease the power consumption. There are multiple innovative and successful examples of these type of vehicles.

It is in this spirit that a special session on legged-wheeled hybrid locomotion robotsis proposed, with the aim of sharing knowledge among the community that invests in this type of technologies and associated systems.

Authors are invited to submit their full draft papers to this Special Session, in PDF format and up to a maximum of 12 pages, by the indicated deadline in the conference website, using the URL (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=clawar2022). Authors should follow the guidelines of the template available at the paper submission page of the conference website. Please state in the abstract of the articles “[For submission to the Special Session on Hybrid Legged-Wheeled Locomotion Robots]”

Wearable technology for rehabilitation and daily assistance at home and work

Organizers

Cristina P. Santos* – Center for Microelectromechanical Systems (CMEMS) (cristina [at] dei.uminho.pt)

Joana Figueiredo – Center for Microelectromechanical Systems (CMEMS) (joana.figueiredo [at] dei.uminho.pt)

Christine Azevedo Coste – National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (Inria), (christine.azevedo [at] inria.fr)

(*) Corresponding organizer

Wearable technologies are emerging rehabilitative interventions for a spectrum of neurological disorders to restore legged locomotion through exoskeletons, orthoses, or functional electrical stimulators. There is also an increased interest in wearable devices to make up for a loss of sensory function, including somatosensory and sense of touch. Augmented reality and haptic wearables have stood out to address sensory impairments.

In parallel, significant progress has been achieved in integrating wearable assistive technology into our daily lives in workplaces or at home to augment human motor functions or prevent musculoskeletal disorders. Motor assistive solutions may include (i) prostheses and (ii) exoskeletons for the elderly or workers in heavy/repetitive tasks (iii) functional electrical stimulation and (iv) hybrid solutions of these approaches. Cognitive augmentation devices are also rising to improve the acquisition/generation of knowledge and understanding of the world around us. They are needed in a variety of contexts, such as in medical, industrial, and consumer domains.

This special session aims to present the latest results and future role in emerging wearable robots to restore and/or augment humans in sensorimotor and cognitive functions. The focus will be given to wearable technologies that integrate perception, cognition, and control capabilities so they can seamlessly adapt to human’s intention/needs, enabling an optimal user experience. Beyond presenting control interfaces, the contributions may also cover: (i) wearable sensors to
objectively and continuously percept human and context state; (ii) AI-based cognition functions to recognize human intent/needs or predict risk situations; (iii) new strategies to adapt the wearable robots to human needs in a seamless and safe fashion; (iv) new technological advances on wearability and safety for daily use; (v) the effects and benchmarks of the rehabilitative and assistive technologies.

The authors may submit the full-draft papers until 1st April 2022. The manuscripts should be limited to 12 pages and follow the format guidelines given in the paper submission web page. Please state in the abstract of the articles “[For submission to the Special Session on Wearable technology for rehabilitation and daily assistance at home and work]”

Potential contributions from the organizers’ research team

  • Wearable virtual reality system for balance training: usability studies in healthy

  • Multimodal wearable sensor and actuation framework for post-stroke sensory augmentation

  • Proof-of-concept of muscle synergies-based FES control

  • Predicting multi-daily locomotion modes using foot mounted sensors

  • Hybrid orthoses for lowerlimb/upperlimb rehabilitation