International Winter School on Humanoid Robot Programming

From 6 Feb, 2018 08:00 until 15 Feb, 2018 18:00

Autonomous robots are becoming progressively more sophisticated, thanks to the availability of affordable technologies and robust algorithms for perception, control and learning. These technologies are building blocks for the development of systems with cognitive capabilities, able to operate effectively outside controlled environments.

The aim of this school is to give students an overview of the state-of-the-art on the broad field of robotics and teach them the required, practical, skills that allow them to program robots taking advantage of available tools and libraries for perception, control and machine learning. We propose to use humanoid robots are testbeds, because they offer unique opportunities to study many of the problems that are relevant to the field of autonomous systems.

Format

The school is organized as a set of theoretical lectures followed by hands-on sessions using simulators as well as real robots. Students will be challenged with a set of practical assignments and a final project to be carried out in small groups. A set of evening talks by renowned researchers in robotics will complement the main school activities by exposing students to the latest results in the field. Two iCub humanoid robots will be available to the students, equipped with a cluster of computers and GPUs in a dedicated LAN.

Participants are expected to have a background in robotics and computer programming in C/C++. They should also bring their own laptop to attend hands-on sessions.

Topics Covered

  • Software architectures for robot programming (i.e. ROS, YARP)
  • Methods, tools and best practices for software integration and concurrent development
  • Robot kinematics and dynamics for whole body control
  • Robot vision
  • Neuromorphic sensors and event-driven vision
  • Machine Learning and Deep-learning

Invited talks 

We will host a series of invited talks, confirmed speakers are:
* Michael Zillich, Technische Universitat Wien
* Luis Sentis, University of Texas at Austin
* Katerina Pastra, Cognitive Systems Research Institute
* Rich Walker, Shadow Robot Company

Location 

The school will take place at the hotel Metropole in the beautiful town of Santa Margherita Ligure, located on the coast about 35km southeast Genova, Italy.

Schedule 

The school begins in the morning of 6 February 2018 and finishes in the evening of 15 February 2018. Sunday 11 February will be free (participants are encouraged to visit Santa Margherita or the riviera nearby).

Application 

The school is open to PhD students and Post-Docs, perspective participants should apply following the online instructions http://www.icub.org/winterschool/

Application Deadline

1 November 2017
Places are limited. Notification of acceptance will be made on 21 November 2017.
Discounted fees and travel grants are available for IEEE-RAS members.

Organizing Committee

* Lorenzo Natale, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
* Chiara Bartolozzi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
* Daniele Pucci, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
* Vadim Tikhanoff, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
* Ugo Pattacini, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

Teachers

* Chiara Bartolozzi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
* Alexander Bernardino, Instituto Superior Técnico
* Bence Magyar, Heriot-Watt University
* Lorenzo Natale, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
* Ugo Pattacini, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
* Daniele Pucci, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
* Lorenzo Rosasco, University of Genova, MIT, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
* Vadim Tikhanof, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

Acknowledgements

The school is funded by the Technical Education Program of the of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS).
We also acknowledge support of the following IEEE-RAS technical committees:
* Technical Committee on Cognitive Robotics
* Technical Committee on Humanoid Robotics
* Technical Committee on Software Engineering for Robotics and Automation
* Technical Committee on Whole-Body Control

Further information 

For further information, detailed schedule of the teaching and hands-on sessions please visit the school website http://www.icub.org/winterschool/
or write to Lorenzo Natale (lorenzo.natale _AT_ iit.it)

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