I recently attended the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), which was held in Detroit, Michigan in October 2023, where I’ve had the pleasure of presenting my Transactions on Robotics paper “Static Shape Control of Soft Continuum Robots using Deep Visual Inverse Kinematics Models”. This led to interesting conversations with other PhD students also working on the control of continuum robots. We discussed alternative methods of control and sensing, ranging from state-of-the-art machine learning to more classical control. This was tremendously insightful, as it has given me ideas on how to extend this project, vital for the final year of my PhD.
Similar to ICRA, and last year’s IROS, the conference itself was massive; lots of people, and lots of talks. It can be quite intimidating, but overall, it’s an incredible way to learn about robotics topics you wouldn’t read papers on, as the presentations were relatively short and concise, which is useful for coming up with ideas and transferring knowledge to other robotic domains and projects. I made sure to also attend the workshops, as I’ve found these to be more engaging and interactive than normal talks. The workshops topics that I attended ranged from Humanoid control, Medical Robotics and of course, Robotics in Agriculture, where again, I learnt a lot more about alternative mechanical and software solutions to real-world problems that I never even considered. I have also found that talking to industrial robotic companies such as Amazon and Kuka during the exhibitions and asking about job prospects is a great way to find out more about career opportunities outside of academia.
Finally, it was such a great opportunity to be able to visit Detroit, especially as it was my first time in the US. During the conference, I got to visit the Motown and the Henry Ford museum, where I experienced a bit of history about music and automotive engineering! This trip wouldn’t have been possible if not for the Outreach funding. I genuinely learnt a lot and had an incredible time!
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