As part of the IEEE RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots in Birmingham, U.K., last month, the awards committee decided to organize a fun photo contest. Participants submitted 39 photos showing off their humanoids in all kinds of poses and places. I was happy to be one of the judges, along with Sabine Hauert from the University of Bristol and Robohub, and with Giorgio Metta, the conference’s awards chair, overseeing our selection. All photos were posted on Facebook and Twitter, and users were invited to vote on them. Sabine and I then looked at the photos with the most votes and scored them for originality, creativity, photo structure, and tech or fun factor. Here are the winners of the two categories, “Best Humanoid Photo” and “Best Funny Humanoid Photo,” and all the amazing submissions.
The winner for “Best Humanoid Photo” features iCub in a Hamlet-inspired pose. The photo, titled “To be, or not to be,” was submitted by Pedro Vicente from VisLab in Lisbon, Portugal. Congratulations Pedro!
Title: “To be, or not to be” Robot: iCub Photo: Pedro Vicente, VisLab@ISR-Lisboa
The three finalists for “Best Humanoid Photo,” in no particular order, were:
Title: “One who doesn’t throw the dice can never expect to score a six. One who doesn’t throw the ball can never expect to learn to juggle.” Robot: NICO (Neuro-Inspired COmpanion) Photo: Erik Strahl, Universität Hamburg (University of Hamburg, Germany)
Title: “Ready to explore (TORO accompanied by LRU, two experimental robots for verifying concepts for planetary exploration)” Robot: Toro and LRU Photo: Maximo A. Roa, Christian Ott, Johannes Englsberger, Bernd Henze, Alexander Werner, Oliver Porges, DLR – German Aerospace Center
Title: “Sweaty goes Japan” Robot: Sweaty Photo: Heitz, Benjamin, University Offenburg
The winner for “Best Funny Humanoid Photo” was titled “If only I had a self-driving car” and featured a robot called SABIAN sitting in the driver’s seat. The photo was submitted by Marco Moscato from the Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Congratulations Marco!
Title: “If only I had a self-driving car.” Robot: SABIAN (Sant’Anna BIped humANoid) Photo: Marco Moscato, The Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
The three finalists for “Best Funny Humanoid Photo,” in no particular order, were:
Title: “NAOs’ Kindergarten :)” Robot: Nao Photo: Mohsen Kaboli, Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Title: “Ain’t easier than ImageNet” Robot: iCub Photo: Lorenzo Natale, Elisa Maiettini, Vadim Tikhanoff, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Title: “The Humanoids deadline is in six hours—I need those results!” Robots: Talos and Nao Photo: Aljaž Kramberger, Barry Ridge, Robert Bevec, Miha Deniša, Miha Dežman, Rok Goljat and Andrej Gams, Jožef Stefan Institute
You can see all the other photos below. Congratulations to all the participants, and to Serena Ivaldi from INRIA and the other members of Humanoids awards committee for the organization!
Title: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” (千里之行,始於足下) Robot: SABIAN (Sant’Anna BIped humANoid) Photo: Marco Moscato, The Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Title: “Ready for the match of the year: Baxter VS McGregor” Robot: Baxter Photo: Alessandro Albini and Simone Denei, DIBRIS (University of Genoa, Italy)
Title: “Valkyrie preparing to use a drill” Robot: Valkyrie Photo: Nicholas Thoma, NASA
Title: “DYROS JET Ready for Action” Robot: DYROS JET Photo: Jaehoon Sim, Seoul National University, South Korea
Title: “What’s up bro” Robot: DYROS JET Photo: Jaehoon Sim, Seoul National University, South Korea
Title: “JET prefers riding” Robot: DYROS JET Photo: Jaehoon Sim, Seoul National University, South Korea
Title: “Walking to the future” Robot: DYROS RED Photo: Mathew Schwartz, Seoul National University
Title: “Machine Learning” Robot: DYROS JET Photo: Jaehoon Sim, Seoul National University, South Korea
Title: “The Creation of Vizzy” Robot: iCub and Vizzy Photo: João Avelino, VisLab, Institute for Systems and Robotics, Instituto Superior Técnico
Title: “Dialogue of generations” Robots: HRP2 and Romeo Photo: Mehdi Benallegue, CNRS-LAAS, France
Title: “Discussing the fate of humanity” Robots: Romeo and HRP2 Photo: Mehdi Benallegue, CNRS-LAAS, France
Title: “NimbRo-OP2 vs. Sweaty (RoboCup 2017 AdultSize Final)” Robots: NimbRo-OP2 Photo: Sven Behnke, University of Bonn
Title: “NimbRo-OP2 kicking” Robot: NimbRo-OP2 Photo: Sven Behnke, University of Bonn
Title: “They grow up so fast” Robot: NimbRo-OP2 Photo: Sven Behnke, University of Bonn
Title: “Posing with NimbRo-OP2” Robot: NimbRo-OP2 Photo: Aimee Han, ROBOTIS
Title: “Yes, I’m drunk.” Robot: iCub Photo: Daniele Pucci, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Title: “I’ve lost my mind for the conference” Robot: iCub Photo: Daniele Pucci, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Title: “Don’t look at me, I’m naked!!” Robot: iCub Photo: Daniele Pucci, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Title: “Discobolus” Robot: Talos Photo: Carlos Viva, PAL Robotics
Title: “Walk like an Egyptian” Robot: Talos Photo: PAL Robotics
Title: “Soccer Champion” Robot: Nao Photo: Mathew Schwartz, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Title: “Brace yourselves. iCub is coming.” Robot: iCub Photo: Marco Randazzo, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)
Title: “Blessed among women: life is not so hard when you are a broken robot” Robot: iCub Photo: Brice Clement, INRIA Nancy, France
Title: “Fainting robot (TORO getting tired of doing experiments)” Robot: Toro Photo: Maximo A. Roa, Christian Ott, Johannes Englsberger, Bernd Henze, Alexander Werner, Oliver Porges, DLR – German Aerospace Center
Title: “Challenging Yoga pose (Toro getting ready for transportation)” Robot: Toro Photo: Maximo A. Roa, Christian Ott, Johannes Englsberger, Bernd Henze, Alexander Werner, Oliver Porges, DLR – German Aerospace Center
Title: “Pick and install (TORO picks a part for installation on an airplane frame – project COMANOID)” Robot: Toro Photo: Maximo A. Roa, Christian Ott, Johannes Englsberger, Bernd Henze, Alexander Werner, Oliver Porges, DLR – German Aerospace Center
Title: “I could work faster, if only I had ten fingers.” Robot: Nao Photo: Aljaž Kramberger, Barry Ridge, Robert Bevec, Miha Deniša, Miha Dežman, Rok Goljat and Andrej Gams, Jožef Stefan Institute
Title: “(He)iCub and “integration”” Robots: Nao and HeiCub Photo: Yue Hu, Optimization, Robotics and Biomechanics (ORB), ZITI, Heidelberg University
Title: “I want a head” – the (!)sad story of a headless iCub” Robots: Nao and HeiCub Photo: Yue Hu, Optimization, Robotics and Biomechanics (ORB), ZITI, Heidelberg University
Title: If I had a robot…. – Elementary school students draw what they would like a robot do for them. Robots: Pepper, iCub, Nao Photo: Wibke Borngesser, Institute for Cognitive Systems, TU München
Title: Sweaty supports exhausted coach during RoboCup Soccer Robot: Sweaty Photo: Sandra Lutz-Vogt, Univ. Appl. Sci. Offenburg
Erico Guizzo is the Director of Digital Innovation at IEEE Spectrum, and cofounder of the IEEE Robots Guide, an award-winning interactive site about robotics. He oversees the operation, integration, and new feature development for all digital properties and platforms, including the Spectrum website, newsletters, CMS, editorial workflow systems, and analytics and AI tools. An IEEE Member, he is an electrical engineer by training and has a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.