Challenges in Robotics: Down to Earth

Robotics research and its application in real-world scenarios made vast progress over the last decades and provided fundamentally new solutions to automation and autonomous systems. Robots developed from being pure positioning machines, whose purpose was to automate production processes, to full-scale humanoids, interactive teleoperated systems, or unmanned driving and flying systems. These machines become increasingly capable of autonomously perceiving, understanding, and acting in the real world. Theyare for example used in remote space, underwater, and disaster missions, so that humans are not unnecessarily exposed to life-threatening situations. Robotic systems evaded into several medical disciplines and significantly advanced surgical procedures. Interactive robots were recently introduced into industrial human-robot collaboration scenarios and are also on their way to the domestic world. These exciting achievements brought the long-term vision of human-robot coexistence in our everyday life to be close within our grasp.

The colloquium „Challenges in Robotics: Down to Earth“ features talks of internationally renown leaders and pioneers, who contributed several of the fundamental breakthroughs in the major fields of robotics research. The speakers give an overview of the history, state-of-the-art, and future of  robotics, providing a large-scale view on nowadays major open problems and next possible application areas. Fundamental aspects in design, control, perception, navigation, learning, and reasoning will be discussed in the context of diverse application areas as for example service, space, aerial, and field
robotics.