COSUR-2020

Third edition of COSUR – School on Control of Surgical Robots

24-26 September and 1- 2 October 2020, Barcelona

Registration is open for the third edition of COSUR – biennial doctoral school on the control of surgical robots – to be held in Barcelona at the Technical University of Catalonia on 24, 25, 26 September and 1, 2 October 2020.

The school is organized in two sessions to give students the opportunity to participate in CRAS – Conference on new technologies for Assisted Robotic Surgery, which will also be held in Barcelona this year. Access to CRAS will be included in the fee and represents a great opportunity for participants, since it will provide insights into the current direction of research in the medical robotics community.

The school aims to introduce students to the multidisciplinary environment of research in surgery with
particular attention to the control algorithms used in robotic surgery and the impact of the cognitive factor in directing the control.
Participants will have the opportunity to learn from well-known speakers and to work together on group projects in a positive and friendly atmosphere.

go to the official page

Registration open until 10 July

Registration is open until 10 July, all information is available from the official page metropolis.scienze.univr.it/cosur-2020

The 2020 edition is organized by the ALTAIR Robotics Laboratory of the University of Verona and by the
Research Center for Biomedical Engineering (CREB) of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, in
collaboration with the Horizon 2020 projects ARS (Autonomous Robotic Surgery), SARAS (Smart
Autonomous Robotic Assistant Surgeon) and ATLAS (Autonomous intraluminal surgery).

The last edition was held in Verona in July 2018 with 26 PhD students and researchers attending and
coming from different academic backgrounds: from computer science to engineering to the medical field.

← Workshop at ERF 2020 - Robotics in lighthouse areas COSUR 2020 - Dates Postponed →

Workshop at ERF 2020 – Robotics in lighthouse areas

Title: Robotics in lighthouse areas
Date: 5 march 2020
Time: 14.00 – 15.30
Place: Sala 2.1, Trade Fairs and Congress Center of Malaga

Full programme available here

The workshop will be conducted by teleconference

Due to Regional restrictions caused by the recent COVID-19 health alert, we won’t be able to attend the event, see official Press Release.

Agenda

14.00 – 14.05 Introduction

by Dr Riccardo Muradore, Dr Marta Capiluppi

14.05 – 14.50 Talks

Prof Elena De Momi, Politecnico di Milano
“Smart planning and sensing for an innovative steerable robotic catheter for neurosurgery: new possibilities for advanced diagnosis”

Prof Sanja Dogramadzi, UWE Bristol
“Safety features in surgical robotics – experiences of SMARTsurg project”

Dr Gernot Kronreif, ACMIT Gmbh
“Robot autonomy: aspects from translational view”

Prof Andreas Melzer, University of Dundee
“Robotics for Image Guided Therapy and FUS”

Dr Francesco Setti, University of Verona
“Embodied AI in robotic surgery: challenges and opportunities”

14.50 – 15.30 Round table

On the future of AI+Robotics (Hospital of the future) and on the health care topic group.
Chairman: Prof Paolo Fiorini

European Robotics Forum 2020

The European Robotics Forum (ERF), the most influential meeting of the robotics community in Europe, will be held in Malaga, Spain, on 3-5 March 2020, at the Trade Fairs and Congress Center of Malaga (FYCMA). Over 1000 European robotics top experts are expected to attend the 11th edition of the conference.

ERF2020 will host a major exhibition where companies, universities and research institutes showcase the most advanced European prototypes, products, services and projects funded under EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme.

With over 50 workshops highlighting the newest robotics research, the event will offer a unique window to the latest developments on the European markets.

Official website: www.eu-robotics.net/robotics_forum

← ERF2020 - Participation cancelled COSUR-2020 →

Locomotion strategies for quadruped robots – a seminar with Michele Focchi

Date: 7 december 2018
Time: 11:00
Place: Aula Verde, Dip. Informatica
Speaker: Michele Focchi – IIT Genova

Contact Person: P. Fiorini

ABSTRACT

Legged robots are mainly designed to traverse unstructured environments where wheeled robots have limited mobility. Their applications range from nuclear decommissioning to mining, search and rescue, inspection and surveillance. In addition, they can be applied to flank human workers (or collaborate with them) in order to reduce labor accidents, as well as in elderly care. The next generation of legged robots are envisioned to operate either autonomously or semi-autonomously (through tele-operation) over uneven terrains. This requires the rejection and compensation of disturbances, the exploitation of visual feedback, and the ability to manipulate both fragile and heavy objects. The main ingredients for legged locomotion are planning, control, perception and state estimation. Numerical optimization is a promising tool for motion planning and control for legged robotic systems in complex geometry environments (e.g. multi-contact scenarios) because it enables to push the machine up to the performance limits.

Indeed, when the complexity of the terrain increases, or when the execution of the requested task involves highly dynamic motions, numerical optimization and machine learning strategies are needed to automatically find feasible trajectories and control actions that could not otherwise be determined. In this seminar I will mainly focus on the planning aspects and on different strategies to achieve effective locomotion across complex terrain.

BIO

Michele Focchi is currently a Researcher at the DLS team in IIT. He received both the Bsc. and the Msc. in Control System Engineering from Politecnico di Milano.
After gaining some R&D experience in the industry, in 2009 he joined IIT where he developed a micro-turbine for which he obtained an international patent and a prize.In 2013, he got a PhD in robotics, getting involved in the Hydraulically Actuated Quadruped Robot (HyQ) project.
He initially was developing torque controllers for locomotion purposes, subsequently he moved to higher level (whole-body) controllers and model identification. He was also investigating locomotion strategies that are robust to uncertainties and work reliably on the real platform. Currently his research interests are focused on pushing the performances of quadruped robots in traversing unstructured environments, by using optimization-based planning strategies to perform dynamic motion planning.

https://www.iit.it/people/michele-focchi

← ALTAIR Christmas Video 2019 ERF2020 - Participation cancelled →

European Robotics Week 2019

European Robotics Week 2019 at the CS Department

The Computer Science Department celebrates European Robotics Week 2019 with a calendar of events for students, families, and enthusiasts of new technologies.
Two days of events that will take place inside and outside the University environment, in collaboration with local institutions and schools from the Verona area.

A unique opportunity to get in touch with different types of robots and intelligent robotic systems and understand how these technologies are present in everyday life and within university research, accompanied by experts in the field.

All events are free entry but needs to be booked online.

reserve your seat here

Thursday 21 November from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm

Robot @Garda ed. 3

Garda Town Hall (VR) – Lungo Lago Regina Adelaide 15, 37016 Garda VR

Third edition of the informative meeting on the use of robotics and artificial intelligence in different contexts of high social value, including water monitoring and surgical robotics. Event in collaboration with the Italian Naval League section of Garda.

During the day it will be possible to be direct spectators of demonstrations with intelligent aquatic drones for water quality monitoring (European Project INTCATCH), flying drones and advanced robotic systems used in operational activities by the State Police.

INFO
Event intended for schools with the possibility of external access.
Free entry with limited seats, online booking required.
Closing reservations: Wednesday 20 November, 12:00.
Book your place here

Detailed Program

ore 9:00 – Tendostruttura – Saluto delle Autorità;
ore 9:20 – Università di Verona, Dipartimento di Informatica:
– Prof. Alessandro Farinelli: Droni acquatici intelligenti per il monitoraggio delle acque
– Prof. Paolo Fiorini: Robot chirurgici intelligenti
ore 10:20 – Dimostrazione pratica:
– Università di Verona, Dipartimento di Informatica: droni acquatici sviluppati nel progetto INTCATCH 2020
– Polizia di Stato: robot per attività operative
– Polizia di Stato: mezzi in dotazione
ore 12:30 PAUSA PRANZO
ore 13:30 – Polizia Locale Unione Colline Mantovane:
– Com.te Emanuele Feudatari: strumenti innovativi in uso alla Polizia Locale – Drone Aereo
ore 14:00 – Polizia di Stato
– Com.te Andrea Erculiani – prevenzione, monitoraggio e repressione reati ambientali
ore 14:50 – AGS Azienda Gardesana Servizi – Ing. Alberto Cordioli: innovazione e tutela del Garda dalla Citizen Science al nuovo Collettore del Garda e Contratto di lago – dati raccolti con il monitoraggio droni della mattina Ore 15:30 Fine lavori
Dimostrazioni
• Area “diga” del porto
Drone acquatico autonomo INTCATCH – Università di Verona, Dipartimento di Informatica
• Arenetta
Robot di intervento – Polizia di Stato
• Pontile Navigarda lato Bardolino Acquascooter e mezzi in dotazione – Polizia di Stato

ERW19-robotatgarda-presentazione-fiorini

ERW19-robotatgarda-presentazione-intcatch

ERW19-robotatgarda-presentazione-farinelli

ERW19-robotatgarda-polizia-robot-terra-dettaglio

ERW19-robotatgarda-polizia-robot-acquatico

Friday, November 22nd, from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm

Open Lab at ALTAIR Robotics Lab

Robotics and new technologies enthusiasts will be led by researchers from the ALTAIR Lab to discover the main research areas of the Laboratory: surgical robotics, collaborative robots for industry 4.0, rehabilitation robots. During the visit it will also be possible to watch live demonstrations of the robots currently in use in the Laboratory.

The ALTAIR robotics laboratory is an Italian center of excellence in the research and development of advanced and unconventional robotics systems, from teleoperation to autonomous behavior, founded in 2001 by Paolo Fiorini, professor of computer science, within the Computer Science Department of University of Verona. Over the years ALTAIR has been awarded several Italian and European grants developing a wide knowledge in the field of robotic surgery.
In the last years with the coming of Industry 4.0 and the introduction of robots within companies, the laboratory has opened its research to cooperative robots for industry, human-machine interaction and artificial intelligence.

INFO

Duration of the tour: 45 minutes
Free entry with limited seats, online booking required.
Closing reservations: Thursday 21 November, 12:00.
Book your place here

Friday, November 22nd, from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Scientific Aperitif

An informal occasion to meet professors and researchers of the ALTAIR Laboratory and to discuss scientific topics as well as ongoing and future projects while enjoying an aperitif.

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/414828885852119

← Workshop on next generation intelligent surgical systems Festival del Futuro →

Workshop on next generation intelligent surgical systems

ALTAIR Robotics lab organizes a workshop on next generation intelligent surgical Systems: Computer Simulation and Robotics.

Free Entry with registration by Friday 8th November, 12 PM

Italian and French research meet in Verona in a workshop about the next generation intelligent surgical systems.

On Wednesday 13rd November ALTAIR Robotics Laboratory based in the CS Department of University of Verona organizes a workshop on the role of biomechanical simulation in robotics for the development of next-generation surgical systems, entitled “Next generation intelligent surgical systems: computer simulation meets robotics“.

The workshop is aimed at PhD students, post-docs and researchers with interest in the fields of biomechanical simulation and robotics and will open with a talk by Prof. Paolo Fiorini, Director of the ALTAIR Laboratory.

Special guest is Prof. Stéphane Cotin, Director of the MIMESIS group, part of the prestigious INRIA – French research institute for digital sciences, and one of the creators of the SOFA project, an open-source framework for advanced simulation in the medical field.

Introduction

Nowadays the use of simulation in the surgical field is increasing and is becoming important both for the training of surgeons and for the planning of an intervention. Through the simulation it is possible to represent and reproduce complex anatomical responses to various stimuli for a specific patient, thus making it possible, for example, to predict the effects of some therapies and prevent potentially critical situations.

In robotic surgery, the realistic simulation of the behavior of the various organs, which represent the working environment of the robot, is of great importance for the development and validation of autonomous systems.

The ALTAIR Robotics Laboratory has a strong experience in the field of simulation applied to robotics, which has also led over time to the creation of spin-offs and the marketing of simulators for surgical training.

An Italo-French union

The workshop is funded within the Cassini Program which aims to create a scientific network between French universities and research centers; it also benefits from the support of the French Embassy in Italy and the Institut Français.

The organization was made possible thanks to the contribution of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Verona and the European research projects ARS project and SARAS project, currently in charge of the ALTAIR Laboratory.

Speakers, info and registration at the link below.

Learn More

← Kids University 2019 European Robotics Week 2019 →

Kids University 2019

We are happy to take part to the annual edition of Kidsuniversity Verona 2019 with tho open labs dedicated to school classes and to families named “Past Present and Future of Robotics”.

Tuesday 17 September: Kidslab During the morning we had the pleasure to host two classes from the Verona area that have experienced how to build and program a toy robot.

Saturday 21 September: FamilyLab During the morning we had the pleasure to host kids and families and dive together into the world of robotics.

Official website: http://kidsuniversityverona.it/

Here’s the news on the local TV Telearena – minute 18:26 🎬

← CARS 2019 Workshop on next generation intelligent surgical systems →

COSUR-2020

Third edition of COSUR – School on Control of Surgical Robots

Registration open until 10 July

Workshop at ERF 2020 – Robotics in lighthouse areas