IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2019 - 112

In the front row at the IROS 2018 opening ceremony (from left):
Program Chair Cecilia Laschi, Plenary Speaker Marc Raibert, and
Session Chair Nikos Papanikolopoulos.

IROS 2018 General Chair Carlos Balaguer (right)
and Advisory Committee Member Paolo Dario at a
press conference.

The conference attracted 4,401
attendees, including 3,678 full registrations (a 37% increase over IROS 2017),
388 competition registrations, 285 exhibitions, and 50 registrations for those
accompanying presenters and exhibitors. The papers accepted represented
62 countries, with 26% originating from
the United States, 11% from Germany,
10% from Japan, 6% from the United
Kingdom, and 5% each from Spain,
France, and Italy.
The event featured three plenary
speakers: Mark Raibert, Kanako Harada,
and Juergen Schmidhuber. Of the 20
keynote speakers, 10 were women,
representing an equal gender distribution for the first time. There were
165 technical sessions, and 10 rooms
were set up for oral-interactive formats with eight displays in each room
to facilitate the interaction. There were
112

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

JUNE 2019

An IROS 2018 exhibit with Advisory Committee Member
Osama Khatib (facing the camera).

Interested audience members observing a technical session.

also 14 special sessions, 48 workshops
(33 full day and 15 half day), eight
tutorials (three full day and five half
day), and nine competitions (seven
indoor and two outdoor).
The 11 discussion forums dealt
with topics focused on robotics and
its impact on society, including the
legal ramifications of robotics, the
psychological perceptions of robots,
and future applications involving
autonomous vehicles. Organizers also
staged an Industry Activity and an
Entrepreneur Activity with 10 finalists. In addition, participants had the
opportunity to tour an Airbus factory,
the European Space Astronomy Centre, and the Centre for Automation
and Robotics.
Eleven awards, including the traditional Best Paper Award and Best Student Paper Award, were given at IROS

2018, with 39 finalists in different categories. Among the award winners were
Matt Mason, who received the IEEE
Technical Field Award in Robotics and
Automation for his "scientific and educational contributions to the mechanics
of manipulation enabling real-world
robot autonomy, and for leadership in
robotics," and Bill Hamel, who received
the IEEE RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation
for his "continued leadership that has
significantly contributed to the growth
and development of robotics in hazardous environments and to the IEEE RAS."
The exhibition area took up 2,200 m2,
accommodating 168 stands from companies and institutions. The space was
divided into three areas: one for companies, one for results from European
Union projects, and one for universities
and research centers.

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2019

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