IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2018 - 132

Figure 3. An interactive presentation at
ICRA 2018.

representing the latest in robotics and
automation research. Excellent ple-
nary addresses were delivered by
Rodney Brooks, Rethink Robotics,
Boston; Raia Hadsell, DeepMind,
London; and Mandyam Srinivasan,
Queensland Brain Institute, Bris-
bane, Australia.
In addition, discussion forums
addressing pressing needs of the
robotics community were organized,

covering industry, government, and
education, along with humanitarian
and social challenges, robot ethics,
and mentoring Ph.D. students. Four
robot competitions were organized:
Mobile Microrobotics, Tidy Up My
Room, Soft Material Robotics, and the
DJI Robomaster AI Challenge.
The Organizing Committee was
determined to make ICRA 2018 the
best ever. To this end, the committee
pioneered an exciting set of innova-
tions. These included the following:
● Integrated conference: The industry
exhibitions and robot competitions
were treated as integral parts of the
conference, organized primarily
within a single venue (Figure 2). This
allowed ICRA to attract additional
exhibitors and sponsors, which, in
turn, allowed the organizers to use
the additional revenue to provide all
delegates with nicely catered morn-
ing and afternoon breaks, lunches,
opening and closing receptions, and
a banquet dinner.
● Reimagined interactive presentations:
This year, a multimodal interactive
format was used for all sessions (2.5 h
each), with paper presentations uti-
lizing laptops, posters, and white-
boards. This format proved popular
with delegates. A spotlight presenta-

●

●

●

Figure 4. A plenary presentation at ICRA 2018.

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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december 2018

tion was prerecorded for each paper
and made available electronically
prior to the conference, along with
the conference proceedings. This
made it easier for delegates to attend
presentations of interest to them
without requiring a great deal of
walking and, with longer sessions,
gave delegates significant opportuni-
ties for discussion with presenters.
Awards track: The conference was
transparent in its selection of papers
for short oral presentations. Authors
of all papers nominated for awards by
the Senior Program Committee
delivered a short oral presentation to
the Awards Committee and confer-
ence delegates during a plenary ses-
sion in the Great Hall. The awards
track was quite popular because it
allowed delegates to see the best of
the best in our field.
First-class Wi-Fi and Internet connection: The conference used a dedi-
cated 10-Gb/s backhaul connection
to the Internet with a dense grid of
high-speed wireless hotspots, allow-
ing for 10,000 simultaneous connec-
tions. Delegates could use apps to
electronically access the spotlight
videos, the conference program, and
useful local information. ICRA 2018
operated three telepresence robots
(Figure 5) that allowed people from
around the world to attend the con-
ference. In two cases, presenters
who were unable to travel at the last
minute were able to deliver their
presentations using the telerobots. A
strong social media program ran
during the conference.
Intensive student focus: A key objec-
tive was to make ICRA a valuable
event for the future workforce in the
robotics and automation field-our
students! A student representative
was included on the ICRA Organiz-
ing Committee and the Senior Pro-
gram Committee. A discounted
student registration fee also gave
access to all social events and the
banquet. A Ph.D. student forum,
organized with strong sponsorship,
offered mentoring and career advice
from leaders in the robotics and
automation field. ICRA organized an
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