Format

The primary objective of this workshop is to foster collaboration and discourse within the robot manipulation research community. Specifically, we aim to explore the impact and relevance of various design features in end-effectors manipulators and the potential implications regarding inherent biases. To achieve this, we will assemble a panel of 8 distinguished experts, each possessing unique perspectives on robot design and substantial expertise in planning, control, sensing, learning, and optimization. Through these diverse viewpoints, we seek to engage in comprehensive discussions about the current state-of-the-art in robot manipulation, with a specific focus on identifying areas where previous attempts have fallen short. It is our hope that these candid discussions will not only deepen our collective understanding but also offer valuable insights to researchers across the field.

This full-day workshop is structured in three sessions, each of them including keynotes with different perspective. The first part will be dedicated to present and discuss novel trends in the design of robotic end-effectors for multiple applications and requirements. This set of scientific presentations will move from a general overview of the problem to opposite opinions that go from an anthropomorphic and zoomorphic approach to more abstract solutions. The second part will include a panel discussion among the corresponding keynotes of the session (including speakers with a more industrial perspective) that openly discuss about the benefits but also potential societal bias that both developers and users encounters or perceive in robots designed for our world. This workshop is planned to encourage people belonging to different research fields to share their approaches, ideas and problems regarding bioinspiration. Through this structure, experts in the field will present recent work and their vision for the future perspectives in the field, with the aim to encourage an open discussion later with attendees. Selected contributions from researcher and PhD students will be presented during a poster session of around 60 minutes, including a poster teaser (1 min) of each at the beginning. Finally, demonstrations will be displayed during a Demo Session, allowing attendees to inspect and experience different technologies.

We will host the following in our workshop:

·        8 Invited talks (~20-30 minutes)

·        3 Panel discussion (composed of 3 or 4 invited speakers)

·        Contributed papers (poster teaser and poster sessions)

·        Demo session

·        Dissemination and archival of talks via video recordings