From self-folding robots, to robotic endoscopes, to better methods for computer vision and object detection, researchers at the University of California San Diego have a wide range of papers and workshop presentations at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (or IROS) which takes place from Sept. 24 to 28 in Vancouver, Canada. UC San Diego researchers also are organizing workshops on a range of themes during the event.

"IROS is one of the premier conferences in robotics," said Henrik Christensen, director of the Contextual Robotics Institute and a professor of computer science at UC San Diego. "It is essential for our institute that we present key papers across manufacturing, materials, healthcare and autonomy. I am very pleased to see that we have a strong showing at this flagship conference."

The conference this year focuses on "friendly people, friendly robots." Robots and humans are becoming increasingly integrated in various application domains, conference organizers explain on the IROS 2017 website. "We work together in factories, hospitals and households, and share the road," organizers said. "This collaborative partnership of humans and robots gives rise to new technological challenges and significant research opportunities in developing friendly robots that can work effectively with, for, and around people."

Soft robotics is one way to create robots that are not dangerous for humans and the research group of roboticist Michael Tolley is exploring the field with three papers at IROS 2017. Better interactions between robots and people also require improving computer vision and researchers led by computer scientist Laurel Riek are proposing using depth information to do so in one paper. Computer scientist Gary Cottrell has a paper on improving object recognition processes. Meanwhile, electrical engineer Michael Yip is looking to make medical robots like the Da Vinci surgical system even better.

Tolley also is one of the organizers of the Sept. 28 workshop titled "Folding in Robotics." Yip is one of the organizers of the Sept. 24 workshop titled "Continuum Robots in Medicine, Design, Integration, and Applications." Mechanical engineer Nicholas Gravish is one of the organizers for the Sept. 28 "Robotics-inspired Biology" workshop.

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Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli's voice soars to the rafters of the Tuscan theatre, but all eyes are on the orchestral conductor beside him - a robot with an apparent penchant for Verdi. The concert in the heart of Pisa is a world first, with two mechanical "arms" conducting live music at the grand finale of the first International Festival of Robotics. The Swiss-designed YuMi sweeps its b ... read more

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