The next edition of IEEE 2016 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), is kicking off in Stockholm, Sweden. This 5-day event, from 16-21 May, is one of the leading international forums for robotics researchers to present their work.

Plenary talks feature Tamar Flash (Weizmann Inst. of Science), presenting on Controlling motor behavior: humans, brains and robots (Tuesday morning); Fredrik Gustafsson (Linköping U.) presenting on Project Ngulia: from Phone to Drone (Tuesday evening); Roberto Cingolani (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) presenting on Nanotechnology and materials science for humanoids (Wednesday morning); Leslie Pack Kaelbling (MIT) presenting on Intelligent Robots Redux (Wednesday evening); and Claire Tomlin (UC Berkeley) presenting on Safe Learning in Robotics (Thursday evening).

The conference will also host a number of high-profile keynote talks.

During ICRA 2016 there will be four challenges:

• The Airbus Shopfloor Challenge, in which, competing teams will be challenged to develop a lightweight, agile robotic system to target accurate point-based assembly process operations such as drilling, tightening and measurement.
• The 2016 Mobile Microrobotics Challenge (MMC 2016), in which, microrobots on the order of the diameter of a human hair face off in tests of autonomy, accuracy, and assembly.
• The 2016 Humanitarian Robotics and Automation Technology Challenge (HRATC 2016), will continue to focus on promoting the development of new strategies for autonomous landmine detection using a mobile (ground) robot.
• Formal Methods for Robotics (FMR) Challenge, in which participants seek to motivate advancement of the state of the art toward practical realization. The challenge is organized into three problem domains: arbitrary dimensional chains of integrators, roads with Dubins cars, and factory cart clearing.

Six high-profile tutorial sessions will also be featured for junior researchers. The sessions are to provide interaction and foster collaboration between young researchers, with the opportunity to listen to, and closely interact, with senior experts. They will be held after the main conference on Friday, 20 May 2016.

The full list of plenaries, keynotes, workshops, tutorials, challenges, and talks can be found on the ICRA 2016 website.

Sabine, Kassie, Yannis and Audrow, are covering the conference, check back here for our latest coverage, including photos, #ICRA16 videos, podcasts, and live tweets during the Airbus Shopfloor Challenge!

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