Organizers

Paolo Tiezzi Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Bologna viale Risorgimento 2 40136, Bologna, Italy Phone: +39 051 2090497 Fax: +39 051 2090484 e-mail: paolo.tiezzi@mail.ing.unibo.it http://diem1.ing.unibo.it/personale/tiezzi

Imin Kao Department of Mechanical Engineering SUNY at Stony Brook Stony Brook, New York 11794-2300, USA Phone: 631-632-8308 Fax: 631-632-8544 e-mail: kao@mal.eng.sunysb.edu http://dove.eng.sunysb.edu/~kao/

Gabriele Vassura Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Bologna viale Risorgimento 2 40136, Bologna, Italy Phone: +39 051 2093458 Fax: +39 051 2093412 e-mail: gabriele.vassura@mail.ing.unibo.it http://diem1.ing.unibo.it/personale/vassura

Abstract

The development of humanoid robots as well as the increasing interaction between human and robots are new challenging research topics towards which many efforts are directed. The skills of the robot are deeply affected by the contact interface through which robots interact with the environment. The adoption of soft contact interface is widely recognized to enhance the grasping and manipulation capabilities of dexterous hands. Furthermore, modeling and analysis of such contact interface can be a powerful tool to develop bio-inspired and ergonomic design solutions. In addition, such study can enhance the intrinsic safety in human-robot interaction. Besides the mentioned advantages, many issues related to the design solution of such compliant interfaces, the suitable sensory apparatus, the control strategies and the use of more complex models have to be solved.
The aim of the workshop is to explore the state of the art about these topics by gathering the contribution of researchers who are working on relevant subjects of contact interface.
The intended audience of the workshop includes researchers and students who are interested in having a panorama of the on-going research in robotic contact interface and its adoption on robotic manipulation.

Topics of interests

The workshop will consist of several invited talks and paper presentations. Interested authors are welcome to submit their contributions. Topics of interests include (but are not limited to):

• Modeling realistic behavior of soft contacts for design and control purposes.
• Development of new design solutions capable of providing the necessary integration between the surface layers, soft pads, articulated structure of the robot and distributed sensory equipment.
• Adoption of suitable sensory apparatus to provide the required information to the control system.
• Development of control procedures specifically oriented to manage surface compliance.
• Manipulation without detailed contact modeling.
• Practical applications for modeling various contact interface (for example: intrinsic safety in human-robot interaction, haptic interface, etc…).

Day and Location

The half-day workshop will be held in conjunction with ICRA'07 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation 10-14 April 2007, Roma, Italy.

The workshop will take place on April 14 (from 14:00 to 18:00) at the School of Engineering of the Università di Roma "La Sapienza", Via Eudossiana 18. The School is in the area of S. Pietro in Vincoli, near the Colosseum.

Important deadlines

• November 15, 2006 Publication of call for contributions
• December 15, 2006 Deadline for submission of contributions
• January 15, 2007 Selection of contributions and authors’ notification

Call for contributions

The workshop will consist of several invited talks and paper presentations. Interested authors are welcome to submit their contributions. Paper contributions should be submitted by email to one of the organizers. Papers should be in PDF format and prepared following the ICRA07 final camera ready format, with a maximum length of 10 pages. The detailed information on the paper format is available from the ICRA07 page. Timeliness in exchanging on-going research results and ideas is one of the driving factors of workshops. Therefore, submission of even preliminary or informal work is encouraged. Also, extended versions of ICRA’07 papers can be considered. Finally, state-of-the-art surveys in the above topical areas are welcome. Contributions will be selected by the workshop organizers, based on their quality and relevance to the workshop theme.

Download Call for Contributions (pdf)

Final Program

• Welcome and Introduction
  

o 14:00 - 14.15: Imin Kao Introduction

• Modeling, identification and control of robotic manipulator with soft contact

o 14:15 – 14:45: P. Tiezzi, I. Kao and G. Vassura: “Effect of Layer Compliance and Viscoelasticity on Frictional Behavior of Soft Robotic Fingers”. Presentation

o 14:45 – 15:15: L. Biagiotti and C. Melchiorri: “Robotic Manipulation with Soft Fingerpads: Online Estimation of the Contact Impedance”. Presentation

o 15:15 – 15:45: T. Inoue and S. Hirai: “How Hemispherical Soft Fingertips Enhance Dexterity in Grasping and Manipulation”. Presentation

• 15:50 - 16:10: Coffee Break
  
• New design solutions and sensory apparatus

o 16:10 – 16:40: T. H. Vose, P. Umbanhowar and K. M. Lynch: “Vibration-Induced Frictional Force fields on a rigid plate”. Presentation

o 16:40 – 17:10: M. Dollar and R. D. Howe: “The Harvard Hand – An Adaptive Gripper for Simple, Robust Grasping”. Presentation

o 17:10 – 17:50: A. Morales, M. Prats and G. Recatalà: “The role of tactile data in autonomous reactive grasping and manipulation: a framework and an experiment”. Presentation

• 17:50 - 18:00: Panel discussion

Detailed program with the list of speakers and abstracts.

Registration

Is available through ICRA 2007 web