The 6th Future of Robotics in Finland Seminar was successfully held on Friday 23.11.2018 at Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland, organized by the IEEE Finland Joint Chapter of the Control System Society, Robotics and Automation Society and Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society and in combination with the European Robotics week. This year the main theme was on Cognitive and Collaborative Robotics, which attracted near 100 participants from around 25 organizations and companies and key players such as VTT, Nokia, Ponsse, Epec, etc.

Opening of the seminar by prof. Roel Pieters

The morning session included keynote talks. Prof. Roel Pieters hosted the seminar and introduced the IEEE, the chapter and standing officers, followed by four keynote talks by Prof. Steve LaValle from the University of Oulu, Dr. Hamid Roozbahani from Lappeenranta University of Technology, Samuli Bergström from Omron Electronics, and Pravin Luthada from AddComposites Oy. on topics such as human perception engineering, tele-operated robots, collaborative robotics and additive manufacturing. There is a coffee break and a lunch break during the keynote talks, which are organized together with a poster session. The seminar is then followed by 3 pitch talks, one from industry and two from academia.

The seminar ended with a panel discussion, featuring panelists Prof. Steve Lavalle, Dr. Hamid Roozbahani, Pravin Luthada, Prof. Roel Pieters and moderator Mr. Pasi Hurri, on various aspects of the impact of collaborative and cognitve robotics. After the seminar a lab tour was organized demonstrating  ongoing activities in robotics in Tampere University of Technology and the TUTRobolab.

Panel discussion

The standing officers of IEEE Finland Joint Chapter of the Control System Society, Robotics and Automation Society and Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society organizing the event are Prof. Simo Särkkä, chair, Pasi Hurri, vice chair, Dr. Peter Jakubik, treasurer and Prof. Roel Pieters, secretary. Prof. Roel Pieters was responsible of the organization of the seminar in general, assisted by the other officers.

Reported by Roel Pieters, Email: roel.pieters@tut.fi
Secretary of IEEE Finland Joint Chapter of the Control System Society, Robotics and Automation Society and Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society