Robotics experts gather at Imperial to show off their cutting-edge projects

The Second UK Robot Manipulation Workshop brought 40 expert teams together from across the nation to swap ideas and share inventions. The workshop , hosted by Dr Ed Johns at the Dyson Robotics Lab , Imperial College London, brought some of the brightest brains in robotics together to share ideas and network on a range of topics in robot manipulation including mechanical design, sensor design, control, vision, response to touch, and learning. It is highly encouraging for the UK's competitiveness to discover just how many people across the country are working in robot manipulation, across all the important areas of this multi-disciplinary field. Dr Ed Johns Department of Computing Through invited talks, tutorials, poster sessions, and live demonstrations, guests learned how we can use vision and learning to control robotic behaviour, how biologically-inspired design of robotic hands can improve responsiveness to touch, and how in turn, robots can assist humans in disaster situations, and even in rehabilitation from paralysis. Dr Johns, Dyson Research Fellow at Imperial's Department of Computing , who organised the workshop, said: "Following the huge success of last year's inaugural robot manipulation workshop , we are delighted to have hosted the second one so far and hope this becomes an annual event. " The workshop took place on 10 and 11 July 2017. The two-day workshop attracted around 145 representatives from 40 UK universities, industry, and small startup companies, and was sponsored by Imperial's Dyson Robotics Lab, Ocado Technology , the Shadow Robot Company , and The Institution of Engineering and Technology.