ICRA 2020 launches with plenary panel ‘COVID-19: How Roboticists Can Help’

By Andra KeayCalifornia Robotics News, Commentary

ICRA is the largest robotics meeting in the world and is the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society. It is thus our honor and pleasure to welcome you to this edition, although the current exceptional circumstances did not allow us to organize it in Paris as planned with the glimpse and splendor that our wonderful robotics community deserves. Now, for sure, Virtual ICRA 2020, the first online ICRA, will be one of the most memorable ICRA editions ever! [Message from the General & Program Chairs]

Live Plenary Panel – COVID-19 : How Roboticist Can Help ?

Our first Plenary is a hot topic panel on COVID-19 Pandemic & Robotics, moderated by Ken Goldberg and chaired by Wolfram Burgard. Catch it on Big Screen or on IEEE.TV.

Proudly featuring:

Robin Murphy
Brad Nelson
Richard Voyles
Kris Hauser
Antonio Bicchi
Andra Keay		Gangtie Zheng
Ayanna Howard
Kirsten Thurow
Helen Grenier
Howie Choset
Guang-Zhong Yang

Join us for the virtual conference taking place May 31 to August 31 with sessions available both live and on demand. Plenaries and keynotes will be featured every afternoon (Central European Time) from June 1 to June 15, with live interactive Q&A sessions with the speaker. Our goal is bringing cutting-edge ICRA sessions to our community around the globe and provide opportunities to network with like-minded professionals from around the world. We hope that this offering reaches new members of our community and creates engaging discussions within the virtual conference platform.

Schedule

Virtual workshops31 May to 30 June
Award ceremony5 June
Plenary talks1 – 17 June
Paper discussions1 June  –  31 August
Conference recorded material1 June  –  31 August
RAS Member Events1 June  –  31 August
Plenaries
Lydia E. KavrakiPlanning in Robotics and BeyondTuesday June 2, 1PM UTC
Yann LeCunSelf-Supervised Learning & World ModelsWednesday June 3, 1PM UTC
Jean-Paul LaumondGeometry of Robot Motion: from the Rolling Car to the Rolling ManThursday June 4, 1PM UTC
   
Keynotes
Allison OkamuraHaptics for Humans in a Physically Distanced WorldMonday June 8, 1PM UTC
Kerstin DautenhahnHuman-Centred Social Robotics:
Autonomy, Trust and Interaction Challenges		Tuesday June 9, 1PM UTC
Pieter AbbeelCan Deep Reinforcement Learning from pixels
be made as efficient as from state?		Wednesday June 10,  1PM UTC
Jaeheung ParkCompliant Whole-body Control for Real-World InteractionsThursday June 11, 1PM UTC
Cordelia SchmidAutomatic Video UnderstandingFriday June 12, 1PM UTC
Cyrill StachnissRobots in the Fields:
Directions Towards Sustainable Crop Production		 Monday June 15, 1PM UTC
Toby WalshHow long before Killer Robots? Tuesday June 16, 1PM UTC
Hajime AsamaRobot Technology for Super Resilience – Remote Technology for Response to Disasters, Accidents, and PandemicWednesday June 17,  1PM UTC

Special RAS Events

There are also several virtual gatherings for IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) society members and Students. Scroll below for more information.

RAS Meet the Leaders (formally Lunch with Leaders) 

RAS Meet the Leaders is the virtual equivalent of the popular RAS Lunch with Leaders event traditionally held at IEEE RAS’s flagship conferences: ICRA, CASE, and IROS.

Meet the Leaders is planned for multiple dates and time zones to accommodate the international robotics community. Each Leader will begin with an informal 5-minute presentation about their career, followed by a question and answer session.

Participants (students and young professionals) may sign up for ONE session to participate in a relaxed chat with academic and industry leaders from around the world.

The following Leaders are confirmed for the dates and times listed below (check back often for additional sessions):