Past Events

Date/Time Event Description
29 Jun – 3 Jul 2020
All Day 		ARCHE 2020
Wangen an der Aare, Wangen an der Aare 		ARCHE (Advanced Robotic Capabilities for Hazardous Environment) was initiated in 2017 by the SCDR of the DDPS and is lead together with the Teaching Unit of Engineering/Rescue/NBC, ETH Zurich, and...
7 Jul – 13 Jul 2019
All Day 		Summer School on Rehabilitation Robotics
Shangai Jiao Tong University, Shangai 		The Summer School on Rehabilitation Robotics will take place at the Biomedical Engineering School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) between 7-13 July 2019. Organisers: - SJTU: Prof. Shanbao Tong, Prof....
1 Apr – 5 Apr 2019
All Day 		Hannover Messe 2019
Deutsche Messe, Hannover 		NCCR Robotics will be present at the Hannover Messe 2019 with a corporate booth and 3 additional booths for its spin-offs: Dronistics FES-ABILITY Sevensense The corporate booth will also showcase...
3 Dec – 4 Dec 2018
All Day 		BMI Symposium 2018 "Controlling behavior" Prof. Pavan Ramdya, Prof. Carl Petersen & Prof. Auke Ijspeert (NCCR Robotics PI) invite you to the 2018 BMI Symposium on "Controlling behavior". With this one and a half day symposium, we...
23 Nov 2018
All Day 		Neuroprosthetics Annual Research Symposium Prof. Stéphanie Lacour, NCCR Robotics PI and Director of the Center for Neuroprosthetics,  announces the First Neuroprosthetics Annual Research Symposium to be held on November 23rd, 2018, at Campus Biotech,...
1 Nov 2018
All Day 		Swiss Robotics Industry Day 2018
SwissTech Convention Center, Ecublens 		The next Swiss Robotics Industry Day will take place on November 1st, 2018 at the Swiss Tech Convention Centre, in Lausanne. All information on the event can be found here: http://swissroboticsindustry.ch
29 Oct – 31 Oct 2018
9:00 am – 5:00 pm 		Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL 2018) CoRL 2018 will take place on October 29-31 2018 in Zurich. The conference focuses on the intersection of robotics and machine learning. CoRL aims at being a selective, top-tier venue...
18 Oct – 19 Oct 2018
All Day 		SNSF Site Visit 2018 The 2018 SNSF Site Visit will take place in Bern, on October 18 and 19th. More information will be provided closer to the dates.
8 Oct – 9 Oct 2018
All Day 		Aerial Futures: The Drone Frontier @ HUBweek
Boston District Hall, Boston 		Swissnex Boston is gathering a selection of some of the most exciting drone exhibitors from Switzerland and the United States to bring to HUBweek. Expect an eclectic selection of UAVs...
31 Jul – 2 Aug 2018
All Day 		EPFL Drone Days Some NCCR Robotics laboratories will present demos at the EPFL Drone Days 2018. https://dronedays.epfl.ch
2 Jul – 7 Jul 2018
All Day 		ARCHE
Wangen an der Aare, Wangen an der Aare 		The event took place in the training village of the civil protection forces of the Swiss Federal Department for Defense, Civil Protection and Sport and was used as field test...
1 Jun 2018
3:15 pm – 4:45 pm 		Distinguished Seminar in Robotics, Systems & Control The Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems presents: Telerobotic Touch June 1st 2018, 15h15-16h15 Place: ETHZ, Main Building (HG G3) For those at EPFL: a video streaming will take place...
21 May – 25 May 2018
All Day 		ICRA 2018, Brisbane, Australia
Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Center, South Brisbane 		Roland Siegward, NCCR Robotics PI, will be a member of the Industry Forum Chairs Committee at ICRA 2018, in Brisbane, Australia. Margarita Chli, NCCR Robotics PI, will give a keynote...
23 Apr – 27 Apr 2018
All Day 		Hannover Messe
Deutsche Messe, Hannover 		NCCR Robotics has a booth within the Swiss Innovation Pavillion and will be accompanied by 2 two of our spin-offs:  MyoSwiss and Foldaway Haptics and the project "MIRobotics". For more information...
19 Apr 2018
All Day 		Forward (Forum de l'Innovation pour les PME)
SwissTech Convention Center, Ecublens 		NCCR Robotics will have a booth during this event, hosting two of our spin-offs Foldaway Haptics, and TWIICE.   https://forward-sme.epfl.ch  
13 Mar – 15 Mar 2018
All Day 		European Robotics Forum
Tampere Hall, Tampere 		The European Robotics Forum (ERF) 2018 hosted over 900 participants this year in Tampere, Finland from 13 to 15th March. NCCR Robotics was present with a booth, hosting two of...
12 Mar – 14 Mar 2018
All Day 		AAAS Science Robotics Meeting
Plaza Heisei, Tokyo 		Robert Riener, NCCR Robotics co-director, will give a keynote talk about Cybathlon at the AAAS Science Robotics Meeting in Tokyo, Japan.
8 Mar – 9 Mar 2018
All Day 		NCCR Robotics Annual Retreat
Hotel Ambassador, Bern 		The 2018 NCCR Robotics Annual Retreat (Bern, 8-9th March) was very successful, not only in bringing the community together but in achieving its targets in preparation for the next phase...
25 Jan 2018
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm 		Motor learning and neurorehabilitation: training with or without errors? - A talk by Professor Laura Marchal Crespo Abstract: There is increasing interest in using robotic devices to provide rehabilitation therapy following stroke. Robotic guidance is generally used in motor training to reduce performance errors while practicing. However,...
12 Sep – 15 Sep 2017
All Day 		11th Conference on Field and Service Robotics
ETH Zurich, Zurich 		For more details and to register please see: https://www.fsr.ethz.ch/
25 Jul 2017
6:30 pm 		ROBOTIK-LABOR AN DER ETH ZÜRICH - TeleZüri Sendung Tune into TeleZüri at 18:30 to hear Robert Riener speaking about all things rehabilitation robotics and Cybathlon. http://www.telezueri.ch/64-show-sommertalk
5 Jun – 10 Jun 2017
All Day 		Summer School on Rehabilitation Robotics
Biomedical Engineering School, Shanghai 		Organised by the Riener Lab, ETH Zurich. For more information please see: http://www.sms.hest.ethz.ch/news-and-events/sms-news-channel/2017/01/summer-school-on-rehabilitation-robotics.html          
2 Jun 2017
8:30 am – 5:00 pm 		ICRA Workshop on Event-based vision
sands expo and convention centre, Singapore 018971 		Tobi Delbruck and Davide Scaramuzza are confirmed speakers. For more information please see: http://rpg.ifi.uzh.ch/ICRA17_event_vision_workshop.html  
24 Apr – 28 Apr 2017
All Day 		Hannover Messe
Hannover Messe, Hannover 		We will present a booth at the Hannover Messe along with Swiss Robotics partners. To organise a meeting with us please contact techtransfer@nccr-robotics.ch 
5 Apr 2017
11:00 am – 12:00 pm 		Talk: Hearing the light: Optogenetic Sti
Campus Biotech, H8 Auditorium, Geneva 		Hearing the light: Optogenetic Sti by Tobias Moser Institute for Auditory Neuroscience & InnerEarLab, University Medical Center Goettingen, GE. For more information please see the seminar website.
20 Mar 2017
6:15 pm – 7:45 pm 		Talk: Roboter als Reha-Helfer im Einsatz by Robert Riener
Universität Zurich Zentrum, Hörsaal KOL-F-101, Zurich 		For more information please see the official flyer.
16 Mar 2017
10:00 am – 11:00 am 		Talk by Prof. Eric Tytell (Tufts University), Quantifying responses to perturbations during locomotion in fish
MED 115 18, EPFL, Lausanne
6 Mar – 9 Mar 2017
All Day 		R4L @HRI2017
Aula der Wissenschaft – Hall of Science, Vienna 		http://r4l.epfl.ch/HRI2017
2 Mar 2017
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm 		Business Ideas @EPFL Swiss Robotics going global
SwissTech Convention Center, Ecublens 		www.ifj.ch/cti-epfl
2 Mar 2017
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm 		Business Ideas @EPFL
SwissTech Convention Center, Ecublens 		http://www.ifj.ch/cti-epfl
13 Feb 2017
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm 		Talk by Dr Diego Pardo (ETHZ) Legged Robots: Stepping out of the continuous and differentiable zone.
EPFL, Lausanne
16 Dec 2016
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm 		Talk: MIT Cheetah: new design paradigm shift toward mobile robots, ETH Distinguished Lecture in Robotics, Systems & Control - Sangbae Kim
ETH Zurich, HG G3, Zurich
9 Nov 2016
10:00 am – 11:00 am 		Talk: Rehabilitation robotics - Cristina Santos, Universidade do Minho, Portugal; Dealing with uncertainty in robot grasping - Alexandre Bernardino, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal; Locomotion with the Walkman humanoid robot - Nikos Tsagarakis, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy.
MED 115 18, EPFL, Lausanne
4 Nov 2016
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm 		Talk: Designing and Controlling Robots for Direct Interaction with Humans by Prof. Alin Albu-Schaeffer, German Aerospace Center, Germany.
ETH Zurich, HG G3, Zurich
2 Nov 2016
All Day 		Swiss Robotics Industry Day
SwissTech Convention Center, Ecublens 		Please see www.swissindustryday.ch
23 Oct – 27 Oct 2016
All Day 		International Symposium on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 16) Please see http://ssrrobotics.org/index.html
9 Oct – 12 Oct 2016
All Day 		WORKSHOP ON BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACES (SMC 2016)
Intercontinental Hotel, BUDAPEST, 1052 Budapest 		Please see: https://documents.epfl.ch/users/c/ch/chavarri/www/IEEESMC2016_BMI/BMI-IEEESMC2016.html
8 Oct 2016
12:00 am 		Cybathlon 2016
SWISS Arena, Kloten 		Please see www.cybathlon.com
6 Oct 2016
All Day 		Cybathlon Symposium
SWISS Arena, Kloten 		For further information, please see http://www.cybathlon-symposium.ethz.ch/
30 Sep – 7 Jan 2016
All Day 		The origami robot Tribot from Paik lab is currently at the exhibition in +Ultra Knowledge & Gestaltung in Berlin
23 Sep 2016
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm 		Talk: Humanitarian Robotics and Automation Technologies by Dr. Raj Madhavan
ETH Zurich, HG G3, Zurich
13 Jul – 15 Jul 2016
All Day 		Workshop on Dynamic Locomotion and Manipulation (DLMC2016)
ETH Zurich, Zurich 		Please see the website http://www.dlmc2016.ethz.ch/
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Looking for publications? You might want to consider searching on the EPFL Infoscience site which provides advanced publication search capabilities.

Robotics and Neuroscience
  • Authors: Floreano, Dario; Ijspeert, Auke; Schaal, Stefan

In the attempt to build adaptive and intelligent machines, roboticists have looked at neuroscience for more than half a century as a source of inspiration for perception and control. More recently, neuroscientists have resorted to robots for testing hypotheses and validating models of biological nervous systems. Here, we give an overview of the work at the intersection of robotics and neuroscience and highlight the most promising approaches and areas where interactions between the two fields have generated significant new insights. We articulate the work in three sections, invertebrate, vertebrate and primate neuroscience. We argue that robots generate valuable insight into the function of nervous systems, which is intimately linked to behaviour and embodiment, and that brain-inspired algorithms and devices give robots life-like capabilities.

Posted on: September 22, 2014
Keywords: , ,

Role of Compliance on the Locomotion of a Reconfigurable Modular Snake Robot
  • Authors: Vespignani, Massimo; Melo, Kamilo; Bonardi, Stéphane; Ijspeert, Auke

This paper presents the results of a study on the effect of in-series compliance on the locomotion of a simulated 8-DoF Lola-OP Modular Snake Robot with added compliant elements. We explore whether there is an optimal stiffness for gait, terrain type, or several gaits and several terrains (i.e. a good “general-purpose” stiffness). Compliance was simulated using ball joints with eight different levels of stiffness. Two snake locomotion gaits (rolling and sidewinding) were tested over flat ground and three different types of rough terrains. We performed grid search and Particle Swarm Optimization to identify the locomotion parameters leading to fast locomotion and analyzed the best candidates in terms of locomotion speed and energy efficiency (cost of transport). Contrary to our expectations, we did not observe a clear trend that would favor the use of compliant elements over rigid structures. For sidewinding, compliant and stiff elements lead to comparable performances. For rolling gait, the general rule seems to be “the stiffer, the better”.

Posted on: January 5, 2016
Keywords: , ,

Roomba is not a Robot; AIBO is still Alive! Anthropomorphic Language in Online Forums
  • Authors: Fink, Julia; Mubin, Omar; Kaplan, Frédéric; Dillenbourg, Pierre

Anthropomorphism describes people’s tendency to ascribe humanlike qualities to non-human artifacts, such as robots. We investigated anthropomorphic language in 750 posts of online forums about the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, the AIBO robotic dog and the iPad tablet computer. Results of this content analysis suggest a significant difference for anthropomorphic language usage among the three technologies. In contrast to Roomba and iPad, the specific characteristics of the robotic dog enhanced a more social interaction and lead people to use considerably more anthropomorphic language.

Posted on: November 28, 2011
Keywords: , ,

Science, technology and the future of small autonomous drones
  • Authors: Floreano, Dario; Wood, Robert J.

We are witnessing the advent of a new era of robots — drones — that can autonomously fly in natural and man-made environments. These robots, often associated with defence applications, could have a major impact on civilian tasks, including transportation, communication, agriculture, disaster mitigation and environment preservation. Autonomous flight in confined spaces presents great scientific and technical challenges owing to the energetic cost of staying airborne and to the perceptual intelligence required to negotiate complex environments. We identify scientific and technological advances that are expected to translate, within appropriate regulatory frameworks, into pervasive use of autonomous drones for civilian applications.

Posted on: May 31, 2015
Keywords: , , , ,

Seamless Multi-Robot Programming for the People: ASEBA and the Wireless Thymio II Robot
  • Authors: Rétornaz, Philippe; Riedo, Fanny; Magnenat, Stéphane; Vaussard, Florian Christopher; Bonani, Michael; Mondada, Francesco
  • Presented at: 2013 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation, Yinchuan, China, August 26-28, 2013
  • Published in: Information and Automation (ICIA), 2013 IEEE International Conference on, p. 337 – 343
  • IEEE, 2013

    Reference

    Posted on: September 9, 2013
    Keywords: , , , ,

    Soft Cell Simulator: A tool to study Soft Multi-Cellular Robots
    • Authors: Germann, Jürg Markus; Maesani, Andrea; Stöckli, Manuel; Floreano, Dario

    Modular or multi-cellular robots hold the promise to adapt their morphology to task and environment. However, research in modular robotics has traditionally been limited to mechanically non-adaptive systems due to hard building blocks and rigid connection mechanisms. To improve adaptation and global flexibility, we suggest the use of modules made of soft materials. Thanks to recent advances in fabrication techniques the development of soft robots without spatial or material constraints is now possible. In order to exploit this vast design space, computer simulations are a time and cost-efficient tool. However, there is currently no framework available that allows studying the dynamics of soft multi-cellular systems. In this work, we present our simulation framework named Soft Cell Simulator (SCS) that enables to study both mechanical design parameters as well as control problems of soft multi-cellular systems in an time-efficient yet globally accurate manner. Its main features are: (i) high simulation speed to test systems with a large number of cells (real-time up to 100 cells), (ii) large non-linear deformations without module self-penetration, (iii) tunability of module softness (0-500 N/m), (iv) physics-based module connectivity, (v) variability of module shape using internal actuators. We present results that validate the plausibility of the simulated soft cells, the scalability as well as the usability of the simulator. We suggest that this simulator helps to master and leverage the potential of the vast design space to generate novel soft multi-cellular robots.

    Posted on: January 27, 2014
    Keywords: , ,

    Soft Cells for Programmable Self-Assembly of Robotic Modules
    • Authors: Germann, Jürg Markus; Maesani, Andrea; Pericet Camara, Ramon; Floreano, Dario

    Programmable self-assembly of chained robotic systems holds potential for the automatic construction of complex robots from a minimal set of building blocks. However, current robotic platforms are limited to modules of uniform rigidity, which results in a limited range of obtainable morphologies and thus functionalities of the system. To address these challenges, we investigate in this paper the role of softness in a programmed self-assembling chain system. We rely on a model system consisting of “soft cells” as modules that can obtain different mechanical softness presettings. Starting from a linear chain configuration, the system self-folds into a target morphology based on the intercellular interactions. We systematically investigate the influence of mechanical softness of the individual cells on the self-assembly process. Also, we test the hypothesis that a mixed distribution of cells of different softness enhances the diversity of achievable morphologies at a given resolution compared to systems with modules of uniform rigidity. Finally, we illustrate the potential of our system by the programmable self-assembly of complex and curvilinear morphologies that state-of-the-art systems can only achieve by significantly increasing their number of modules.

    Posted on: June 23, 2014
    Keywords: , , , ,

    Soft Pneumatic Actuator Fascicles for High Force and Reliability
    • Authors: Robertson, Matthew Aaron; Sadeghi, Hamed; Florez, Juan Manuel; Paik, Jamie

    Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are found in mobile robots, assistive wearable devices, and rehabilitative technologies. While soft actuators have been one of the most crucial elements of technology leading the development of the soft robotics field, they fall short of force output and bandwidth requirements for many tasks. Additionally, other general problems remain open including robustness, controllability, and repeatability. The SPA-pack architecture presented here aims to satisfy these standards of reliability crucial to the field of soft robotics, while also improving the basic performance capabilities of SPAs by borrowing advantages leveraged ubiquitously in biology; namely the structured parallel arrangement of lower power actuators to form the basis of a larger, more powerful actuator module. An SPA-pack module consisting of a number of smaller SPAs will be studied using an analytical model and physical prototype. Experimental measurements show an SPA-pack to generate over 112 N linear force, while the model indicates the benefit of parallel actuator grouping over a geometrically equivalent single SPA scales as an increasing function of the number of individual actuators in the group. For a module of four actuators, a 23 % increase in force production over a volumetrically equivalent single SPA is predicted and validated, while further gains appear possible up to 50 %. These findings affirm the advantage of utilizing a fascicle structure for high-performance soft robotic applications over existing monolithic SPA designs. An example high-performance soft robotic platform will be presented to demonstrate the capability of SPA-pack modules in a complete and functional system.

    Posted on: September 20, 2016
    Keywords: , , , ,

    Soft Pneumatic Gelatin Actuator for Edible Robotics
    • Authors: Shintake, Jun; Sonar, Harshal Arun; Piskarev, Egor; Paik, Jamie; Floreano, Dario

    We present a fully edible pneumatic actuator based on gelatin-glycerol material. The actuator is monolithic, fabricated via a molding process, and measures 90 mm in length, 20 mm in width, and 17 mm in thickness. Thanks to the material mechanical characteristics similar to those of silicone elastomers, the actuator exhibits a bending angle of 170.3 degrees and a blocked force of 0.34 N at the applied pressure of 25 kPa. These values are comparable to elastomer based pneumatic actuators. As a validation example, two actuators are integrated to form a gripper capable of handling various objects, highlighting the high performance and applicability of the edible actuator. These edible actuators, combined with other recent edible materials and electronics, could lay the foundation for a new type of edible robots.

    Posted on: October 3, 2017
    Keywords: , , , ,
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