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This is a sponsored article brought to you by Khalifa University of Science and Technology.

Abu Dhabi-based Khalifa University of Science and Technology in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be hosting the 36th edition of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2024) to highlight the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s rapidly advancing capabilities in the robotics and intelligent transport systems.

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Themed “Robotics for Sustainable Development,” the IROS 2024 will be held from 14-18 October 2024 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC) in the UAE’s capital city. It will offer a platform for universities and research institutions to display their research and innovation activities and initiatives in robotics, gathering researchers, academics, leading corporate majors, and industry professionals from around the globe.

A total of 13 forums, nine global-level competitions and challenges covering various aspects of robotics and AI, an IROS Expo, as well as an exclusive Career Fair will also be part of IROS 2024. The challenges and competitions will focus on physical or athletic intelligence of robots, remote robot navigation, robot manipulation, underwater robotics, as well as perception and sensing.

Delegates for the event will represent sectors including manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, agriculture, defense, security, and mining sectors with 60 percent of the talent pool having over six years of experience in robotics. A major component of the conference will be the poster sessions, keynotes, panel discussions by researchers and scientists, and networking events.

Khalifa University will be hosting IROS 2024 to highlight the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s rapidly advancing capabilities in the robotics and intelligent transport systems.Khalifa University

Abu Dhabi ranks first on the world’s safest cities list in 2024, according to online database Numbeo, out of 329 global cities in the 2024 standings, holding the title for eight consecutive years since 2017, reflecting the emirate’s ongoing efforts to ensure a good quality of life for citizens and residents.

With a multicultural community, Abu Dhabi is home to people from more than 200 nationalities and draws a large number of tourists to some of the top art galleries in the city such as Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, as well as other destinations such as Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.

The UAE and Abu Dhabi have increasingly become a center for creative skillsets, human capital and advanced technologies, attracting several international and regional events such as the global COP28 UAE climate summit, in which more than 160 countries participated.

Abu Dhabi city itself has hosted a number of association conventions such as the 34th International Nursing Research Congress and is set to host the UNCTAD World Investment Forum, the 13th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC13), the 12th World Environment Education Congress in 2024, and the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2025.

Khalifa University’s Center for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (KU-CARS) includes a vibrant multidisciplinary environment for conducting robotics and autonomous vehicle-related research and innovation.Khalifa University

Dr. Jorge Dias, IROS 2024 General Chair, said: “Khalifa University is delighted to bring the Intelligent Robots and Systems 2024 to Abu Dhabi in the UAE and highlight the innovations in line with the theme Robotics for Sustainable Development. As the region’s rapidly advancing capabilities in robotics and intelligent transport systems gain momentum, this event serves as a platform to incubate ideas, exchange knowledge, foster collaboration, and showcase our research and innovation activities. By hosting IROS 2024, Khalifa University aims to reaffirm the UAE’s status as a global innovation hub and destination for all industry stakeholders to collaborate on cutting-edge research and explore opportunities for growth within the UAE’s innovation ecosystem.”

“This event serves as a platform to incubate ideas, exchange knowledge, foster collaboration, and showcase our research and innovation activities” —Dr. Jorge Dias, IROS 2024 General Chair

Dr. Dias added: “The organizing committee of IROS 2024 has received over 4000 submissions representing 60 countries, with China leading with 1,029 papers, followed by the U.S. (777), Germany (302), and Japan (253), as well as the U.K. and South Korea (173 each). The UAE with a total of 68 papers comes atop the Arab region.”

Driving innovation at Khalifa University is the Center for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (KU-CARS) with around 50 researchers and state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, including a vibrant multidisciplinary environment for conducting robotics and autonomous vehicle-related research and innovation.

IROS 2024 is sponsored by IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Abu Dhabi Convention and Exhibition Bureau, the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ), the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE), the New Technology Foundation, and the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES).

More information at https://iros2024-abudhabi.org/

Four decades after the first IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Atlanta, robotics is bigger than ever. Next week in Rotterdam is the IEEE ICRA@40 conference, “a celebration of 40 years of pioneering research and technological advancements in robotics and automation.” There’s an ICRA every year, of course. Arguably the largest robotics research conference in the world, the 2024 edition was held in Yokohama, Japan back in May.

ICRA@40 is not just a second ICRA conference in 2024. Next week’s conference is a single track that promises “a journey through the evolution of robotics and automation,” through four days of short keynotes from prominent roboticists from across the entire field. You can see for yourself, the speaker list is nuts. There are also debates and panels tackling big ideas, like: “What progress has been made in different areas of robotics and automation over the past decades, and what key challenges remain?” Personally, I’d say “lots” and “most of them,” but that’s probably why I’m not going to be up on stage.

There will also be interactive research presentations, live demos, an expo, and more—the conference schedule is online now, and the abstracts are online as well. I’ll be there to cover it all, but if you can make it in person, it’ll be worth it.

Forty years ago is a long time, but it’s not that long, so just for fun, I had a look at the proceedings of ICRA 1984 which are available on IEEE Xplore, if you’re curious. Here’s an excerpt of the forward from the organizers, which included folks from International Business Machines and Bell Labs:

The proceedings of the first IEEE Computer Society International Conference on Robotics contains papers covering practically all aspects of robotics. The response to our call for papers has been overwhelming, and the number of papers submitted by authors outside the United States indicates the strong international interest in robotics.
The Conference program includes papers on: computer vision; touch and other local sensing; manipulator kinematics, dynamics, control and simulation; robot programming languages, operating systems, representation, planning, man-machine interfaces; multiple and mobile robot systems.
The technical level of the Conference is high with papers being presented by leading researchers in robotics. We believe that this conference, the first of a series to be sponsored by the IEEE, will provide a forum for the dissemination of fundamental research results in this fast developing field.

Technically, this was “ICR,” not “ICRA,” and it was put on by the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Committee on Robotics, since there was no IEEE Robotics and Automation Society at that time; RAS didn’t get off the ground until 1987.

This is a sponsored article brought to you by Khalifa University of Science and Technology.

A total of eight intense competitions to inspire creativity and innovation along with 13 forums dedicated to diverse segments of robotics and artificial intelligence will be part of the 36th edition of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2024) in Abu Dhabi.

These competitions at the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s first-ever global conference and exhibition from 14-18 October 2024 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC) will highlight some of the key aspects of robotics. These include physical or athletic intelligence of robots, remote robot navigation, robot manipulation, underwater robotics, perception and sensing as well as challenges for wildlife preservation.

This edition of IROS is one of the largest of its kind globally in this category because of active participation across all levels, with 5,740 authors, 16 keynote speakers, 46 workshops, 11 tutorials, as well as 28 exhibitors and 12 startups. The forums at IROS will explore the rapidly evolving role of robotics in many industry sectors as well as policy-making and regulatory areas. Several leading corporate majors, and industry professionals from across the globe are gathering for IROS 2024 which is themed “Robotics for Sustainable Development.”

“The intense robotics competitions will inspire creativity, while the products on display as well as keynotes will pave the way for more community-relevant solutions.” —Jorge Dias, IROS 2024 General Chair

Dr. Jorge Dias, IROS 2024 General Chair, said: “Such a large gathering of scientists, researchers, industry leaders and government stakeholders in Abu Dhabi for IROS 2024 also demonstrates the role of UAE in pioneering new technologies and in providing an international platform for knowledge exchange and sharing of expertise. The intense robotics competitions will inspire creativity, while the products on display as well as keynotes will pave the way for more community-relevant solutions.”

The competitions are:

• 2nd AI Olympics With RealAIGym: Is AI Ready for Athletic Intelligence in the Real World? focusing on the physical or athletic intelligence of robots

• The Earth Rovers Challenge on remote robot navigation

• Robotic Construction Challenge and the euROBIN Manipulation Skill Versatility Challenge (MSVC) on robot manipulation

• Underwater Robotics Challenges on innovation and problem-solving in underwater robotics and artificial intelligence

• ROAD-IROS: Automatic Data Annotation Challenge for ROAD Dataset on perception and sensing

• 21st F1Tenth Autonomous Racing Competition

• IEEE RAS Quadruped Robot Challenge (QRC), focusing on navigation

In addition to these competitions, the Falcon Monitoring Challenge (FMC) will focus on advancing the field of wildlife tracking and conservation through the development of sophisticated, noninvasive monitoring systems.

Khalifa University

IROS 2024 will also include three keynote talks on ‘Robotic Competitions’ that will be moderated by Professor Lakmal Seneviratne, Director, Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KU-CARS), Khalifa University. The keynotes will be delivered by Professor Pedro Lima, Institute for Systems and Robotics, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of. Lisbon, Portugal; Dr. Timothy Chung, General Manager, Autonomy and Robotics, Microsoft, US; and Dr. Ubbo Visser, President of the RoboCup Federation, Director of Graduate Studies, and Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Miami, US.

The forums at IROS 2024 will include:

• Robotics in Africa Forum

• Marine Robotics in Ocean Decade Initiative for Sustainable Development

• Robots for Sustainability and Sustainable Robots

• Government Forum: Funding for Robotics Research, Human-Avatars Symbiosis: Can you imagine a future society where you can remotely control multiple avatars?

• Moonshot R&D Program Goal 3 Forum. Envisioning a Future of Human-Robot Co-living: Potential for Robotics to Transform Human Lives

Other forums include:

• Sustainable Medical and Surgical Robotics

• Empowering Diverse Voices in Robotics, Robotics & AI in the UAE: Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship

• Europe Regulates Artificial Intelligence: the Challenge for Robotics, Industrial Opportunities and Socio-Economic Impact of Medical Robotics

• The Future of Work: AI-Enhanced Robotics and Human Interaction Research in M3S

• Robots for a Better Tomorrow: Wellbeing Through Advanced Technology.

One of the largest and most important robotics research conferences in the world, IROS 2024 provides a platform for the international robotics community to exchange knowledge and ideas about the latest advances in intelligent robots and smart machines. A total of 3,344 paper submissions representing 60 countries, have been received from researchers and scientists across the world. China tops the list with more than 1,000 papers, the US with 777, Germany with 302, Japan with 253, and the UK and South Korea with 173 each. The UAE remains top in the Arab region with 68 papers.

One of the largest and most important robotics research conferences in the world, IROS 2024 provides a platform for the international robotics community to exchange knowledge and ideas.

For eight consecutive years since 2017, Abu Dhabi has remained first on the world’s safest cities list, according to online database Numbeo, which assessed 329 global cities for the 2024 listing. This reflects the emirate’s ongoing efforts to ensure a good quality of life for citizens and residents. With a multicultural community, Abu Dhabi is home to people from more than 200 nationalities, and draws a large number of tourists to some of the top art galleries in the city such as Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, as well as other destinations such as Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and Warner Bros. World™ Abu Dhabi.

Because of its listing as one of the safest cities, Abu Dhabi continues to host several international conferences and exhibitions. Abu Dhabi is set to host the UNCTAD World Investment Forum, the 13th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC13), the 12th World Environment Education Congress in 2024, and the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2025.

IROS 2024 is sponsored by IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Abu Dhabi Convention and Exhibition Bureau, the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ), the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE), the New Technology Foundation, and the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES).

More information at https://iros2024-abudhabi.org/

The water column is hazy as an unusual remotely operated vehicle glides over the seafloor in search of a delicate tilt meter deployed three years ago off the west side of Vancouver Island. The sensor measures shaking and shifting in continental plates that will eventually unleash another of the region’s 9.0-scale earthquakes (the last was in 1700). Dwindling charge in the instruments’ loggers threatens the continuity of the data.

The 4-metric-ton, C$8-million (US $5.8-million) remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is 50 meters from its target when one of the seismic science platforms appears on its sonar imaging system, the platform’s hard edges crystallizing from the grainy background like a surgical implant jumping out of an ultrasound image. After easing the ROV to the platform, operators 2,575 meters up at the Pacific’s surface instruct its electromechanical arms and pincer hands to deftly unplug a data logger, then plug in a replacement with a fresh battery.

This mission, executed in early October, marked an exciting moment for Josh Tetarenko, director of ROV operations at North Vancouver-based Canpac Marine Services. Tetarenko is the lead designer behind the new science submersible and recently dubbed it Jenny in homage to Forrest Gump, because the fictional character named all of his boats Jenny. Swapping out the data loggers west of Vancouver Island’s Clayoquot Sound was part of a weeklong shakedown to test Jenny’s unique combination of dexterity, visualization chops, power, and pressure resistance.

Jenny is only the third science ROV designed for subsea work to a depth of 6,000 meters.

By all accounts Jenny sailed through. Tetarenko says the worst they saw was a leaky O-ring and the need to add some spring to a few bumpers. “Usually you see more things come up the first time you dive a vehicle to those depths,” says Tetarenko.

Jenny’s successful maiden cruise is just as important for Victoria, B.C.–based Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), which operates the NEPTUNE undersea observatory. The North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked Experiments array boasts thousands of sensors and instruments, including deep-sea video cameras, seismometers, and robotic rovers sprawled across this corner of Pacific. Most of these are connected to shore via an 812-kilometer power and communications cable. Jenny was custom-designed to perform the annual maintenance and equipment swaps that have kept live data streaming from that cabled observatory nearly continuously for the past 15 years, despite trawler strikes, a fault on its backbone cable, and insults from corrosion, crushing pressures, and fouling.

NEPTUNE remains one of the world’s largest installations for oceanographic science despite a proliferation of such cabled observatories since it went live in 2009. ONC’s open data portal has over 37,000 registered users tapping over 1.5 petabytes of ocean data—information that’s growing in importance with the intensification of climate change and the collapse of marine ecosystems.

Over the course of Jenny’s maiden cruise, her operators swapped devices in and out at half a dozen ONC sites, including at several of NEPTUNE’s five nodes and at one of NEPTUNE’s smaller sister observatories closer to Vancouver.

Inside Jenny

ROV Jenny aboard the Valour, Canpac’s 50-meter offshore workhorse, ahead of October’s NEPTUNE observatory maintenance cruise.Ocean Networks Canada

What makes Jenny so special?

• Jenny is only the third science ROV designed for subsea work to a depth of 6,000 meters.
• Motion sensors actively adjust her 7,000-meter-long umbilical cable to counteract topside wave action that would otherwise yank the ROV around at depth and, in rough seas, could damage or snap the cable.
• Dual high-dexterity manipulator arms are controlled by topside operators via a pair of replica mini-manipulators that mirror the movements.
• Each arm is capable of picking up objects weighing about 275 kilograms, and the ROV itself can transport equipment weighing up to 3,000 kg.
• 11 high-resolution cameras deliver 4K video, supported by 300,000 lumens of lighting that can be tuned to deliver the soft red light needed to observe bioluminescence.
• Dual multibeam sonar systems maximize visibility in turbid water.

Meghan Paulson, ONC’s executive director for observatory operations, says the sonar imaging system will be particularly invaluable during dives to shallower sites where sediments stirred up by waves and weather can cut visibility from meters to centimeters. “It really reduces the risk of running into things accidentally,” says Paulson.

To experience the visibility conditions for yourself, check out recordings of the live video broadcast from the NEPTUNE maintenance cruise. Tetarenko says that next year they hope to broadcast not only the main camera feed but also one of the sonar images.

3D video could be next, according to Canpac ROV pilot and Jenny codesigner, James Barnett. He says they would need to boost the computing power installed topside, to process that “firehose of data,” but insists that real-time 3D is “definitely not impossible.” Tetarenko says the science ROV community is collaborating on software to help make that workable: “3D imagining is kind of the very latest thing that’s being tested on lots of ROV systems right now, but nobody’s really there yet.”

More Than Science

Expansion of the cabled observatory concept is the more certain technological legacy for ONC and NEPTUNE. In fact, the technology has evolved beyond just oceanography applications.

ONC tapped Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to design and build the Neptune backbone and the French firm delivered a system that has reliably delivered multigigabit Ethernet plus 10 kilovolts of direct-current electricity to the deep sea. Today ASN deploys a second-generation subsea power and communications networking solution, developed with the Norwegian international energy company Equinor.

ASN’s “Direct Current/Fiber Optic” or DC/FO system provides the 100-km backbone for the ARCA subsea neutrino observatory near Sicily, in addition to providing control systems for a growing number of offshore oil and gas installations. The latter include projects led by Equinor and BP where DC/FO networks drive the subsea injection of captured carbon dioxide and monitor its storage below the seabed. Future oil and gas projects will increasingly rely on the cables’ power supply to replace the hydraulic lines that have traditionally been used to operate machinery on the seafloor, according to Ronan Michel, ASN’s product line manager for oil and gas solutions.

Michel says DC/FO incorporates important lessons learned from the Neptune installation. And the latter’s existence was a crucial prerequisite. “The DC/FO solution would probably not exist if Neptune Canada would not have been developed,” says Michel. “It probably gave confidence to Equinor that ASN was capable to develop subsea power and coms infrastructure.”

The end to this bloody stalemate must come with negotiation, and Putin should not wait until Trump is in the White House, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

Hours after Donald Trump wins the most conclusive mandate in 40 years, Mitch McConnell engineers a coup against his agenda by calling early leadership elections in the senate.

Friday on the RealClearPolitics radio show -- weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM's POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, and here on our website -- Tom Bevan, Andrew Walworth, and Carl Cannon look at the latest count to determine the final popular vote and House majority.

It's hard to imagine opposing Trump's proposal. Who would want to help murderers and drug dealers who entered the country illegally remain in the United States?

Even though that perception is partly the creation of right-wing media, the Democrats surely need to hone their identity.