The 2013 IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) is taking place this week in Karlsruhe, Germany. We’ve been in Europe for a week or so checking out robotics labs (more on that when we get back), but starting today, roboticists from all over the world have begun presenting their research in hundreds of sessions and interactive demonstrations.
Our schedule is absolutely packed; here’s an example of what we’re looking at for just one day:
Yes, it’s not physically possible for us to be everywhere at once, but we’re going to die trying! And before death happens, we’ll make sure and bring you all of the very best stuff, so keep checking back all week.
Last night was the official ICRA opening event, featuring a surprise quadrotor performance from Roland Siegwart’s team at ETH Zurich and some specially outfitted AscTec Hummingbirds from Ascending Technologies. Look at these smiling roboticists and their shiny drones:
I may have gotten a little bit carried away taking pictures of these things:
And then there were fireworks!
Woohoo!
Now, we’re off to check out some robots. Swing by later today for our first ICRA posts.
UPDATE: Here's how to  watch the webcast of the plenary talks, which will be streamed live from the ICRA venue: https://techtalks.tv/events/300/live/
This URL will be updated periodically to show the next keynote and its webcast time. All times are in CET. Here's the schedule:
Robert Wood: RoboBees: Progress in Insect-Scale Robotics
Tuesday May 7, 2013, 10:30-11:25
Alexander Waibel: Multi- and Cross-Lingual Robotic Assistants
Tuesday May 7, 2013, 16:00-16:55
Yasuo Kuniyoshi: From Embodied Intelligence to Fetal Development—a Quest for the Fundamentals of Human-Oid Intelligence
Wednesday May 8, 2013, 10:30-11:25
Rodney Brooks:Â Rethinking Industrial Robots
Wednesday May 8, 2013, 16:00-16:55
Aude Billard:Â Teaching Robots to Cook, Relax, and Play Catch
Thursday May 9, 2013, 10:30-11:25
Michael Black:Â The Mathematics of Body Shape
Thursday May 9, 2013, 16:00-16:55
[ ICRA 2013 ]
