2024 Midwest Robotics Workshop (MWRW)
April 18–19, 2024
Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago6045 S. Kenwood Avenue (map)
Chicago, IL 60637
Wrap-Up
MWRW 2024 was the largest to-date, with over 200 people registered for an event that featured three fabulous keynotes, 77 poster presentations, and 17 wonderful talks by senior graduate students and early career faculty. We look forward to seeing you at MWRW 2025!
Here are some pictures from the workshop.
Overview
The robotics field is experiencing tremendous growth as a result of algorithmic and technological advances, the availability of common, low-cost sensors and platforms, and a standardization in open-source development. These factors together with the growing community of talented, highly-trained roboticists combine to render feasible real-world applications in our homes and workplaces, and on our streets.
The Midwest Robotics Workshop (MWRW) is intended to bring together roboticists from academia and industry in and around the Midwestern United States. Building on successful workshops in 2016, 2017, and 2018 it is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to share their work with others and to network, with the goal of creating a more cohesive and vibrant robotics community in the Midwest. The workshop will feature invited talks by leading researchers, and an exciting collection of oral presentations and interactive poster sessions.
There is no cost to attend the workshop. Additionally, we we are offering a limited number of student lodging grants for the night of April 18 in order to encourage participation from outside the Chicagoland area.
If you have any questions, please contact the organizers.
Call for Participation
We invite all roboticists from the Midwest (broadly interpreted) to participate in the second annual Midwest Robotics Workshop to be held at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC) on the University of Chicago campus (map) on April 18–19, 2024.
We encourage participants to use the workshop as an opportunity to present recent research either as a talk or during an interactive poster session. If you are interested in presenting, please submit a title and abstract summarizing your work. Since the workshop does not have published proceedings, abstracts that describe work that was previously published or is still in progress are welcome.
Keynote Speakers
Nancy Amato (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Nancy M. Amato is Head of the Computer Science Department and Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received undergraduate degrees in Mathematical Sciences and Economics from Stanford, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and the University of Illinois, respectively. Before returning to her alma mater in 2019, she was Unocal Professor and Regents Professor at Texas A–M University and Senior Director of Engineering Honors Programs.
Amato is known for algorithmic contributions to robotics task and motion planning, computational biology and geometry, and parallel and distributed computing. She has graduated 25 PhD students, with most going to faculty positions (12) or research positions in government or industry (9), and has worked with 30+ master's students, 100+ undergraduate researchers, and 10+ high school students. A majority of her students are from groups underrepresented in computing.
Amato has served in numerous leadership roles including CRA Board Chair (2021-2023), AAAS Section-T Chair (2021-2022), ACM Council Member-at-Large (2020-2024), and IEEE Robotics and Automation Society VP (2018-2021). She is dedicated to broadening participation in computing, and has served as CRA-WP Co-Chair (2014-2017), NCWIT Academic Alliance Co-Chair (2009-2011), and has Co-Directed the CRA-WP DREU program since 2000.
Her honors include the 2019 IEEE RAS Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation, the inaugural 2014 NCWIT Harrold/Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award, and the 2014 CRA Haberman Award for contributions to increasing diversity in computing. She is a Fellow of the AAAI, AAAS, ACM, and IEEE.
Marcia O'Malley (Rice University)
Marcia O'Malley is the Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor in Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Bioengineering, and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University. Her research addresses issues that arise when humans physically interact with robotic systems, with a focus on wearable robotics and haptics for training and rehabilitation in virtual environments. She has twice received the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching at Rice University. O'Malley was a recipient of both the ONR Young Investigator award and the NSF CAREER Award. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. At Rice, she has been recognized with Rice's Presidential Award for Mentoring, the Graduate Student Association Faculty Teaching and Mentoring Award, and the Rice University Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Service.
Robert Wood (Harvard University)
Robert Wood is the Harry Lewis and Marlyn McGrath Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a National Geographic Explorer. Prof. Wood completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He is founder of the Harvard Microrobotics Lab, which houses expertise in multi-scale, multi-material fabrication for robots with features sizes ranging from sub-micrometer to meter and with arbitrary material combinations. His current research interests include microrobots, bioinspired and biomedical robots, soft robots, and robots for marine and space applications. He is the winner of multiple awards for his work including the DARPA Young Faculty Award, NSF Career Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, Air Force Young Investigator Award, Technology Review's TR35, and multiple best paper awards. In 2010 Wood received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama for his work in microrobotics. In 2012 he was selected for the Alan T. Waterman award, the National Science Foundation's most prestigious early career award. In 2014 he was named one of National Geographic's "Emerging Explorers", and in 2018 he was an inaugural recipient of the Max Planck-Humboldt Medal. Wood's group is also dedicated to STEM education by using novel robots to motivate young students to pursue careers in science and engineering.
Important Dates
| March 15, 2024 | Student Lodging Grant Application Deadline |
| March 15, 2024 | Registration and Abstract Submission Deadline | April 18–19, 2024 | Workshop |
Program
The workshop will start (with breakfast) at 08:30am on Thursday and will end with lunch on Friday. Breakfast and lunch will be provided both days. The program will include invited and contributed talks, as well as poster sessions.
The following times are subject to change.
Thursday, April 18
| 08:30–09:00am | Breakfast (provided) |
| 09:00am–09:15am | Welcoming Remarks |
| 09:15am–10:15am | Keynote Talk (Chair: Dan Bruder) |
Robots Need Bodies! The Mechanical Side of Artificial Intelligence |
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| 10:15am–11:55am | Invited/Contributed Talks (Chair: Dan Bruder) |
Mobile Manipulation with Crab Robots |
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Establishing Correctness of Learning-Enabled Autonomous Systems |
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Re-examining Actor Critic Methods in the 2020s |
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The Purposeful Placement of Singularities |
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Safe Planning for Articulated Robots Using Reachability-based Obstacle Avoidance With Spheres |
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| 11:55am–01:00pm | Lunch (provided) |
| 01:00pm–02:00pm | Keynote Talk (Chair: Girish Krishnan) |
Sampling-Based Task and Motion Planning: From Robotic Manipulators to Intelligent CAD to Analyzing Proteins | |
| 02:00pm–04:00pm | Invited/Contributed Talks (Chair: Ram Vasudevan) |
Understanding Morphology to Design Robust and Adaptable Soft Robots |
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Uncovering Structure in Interactions for Social Navigation |
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Data-driven Modeling and Control of Robots |
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| Modular Self-Propelled Microrobots Inspired in Semiaquatic Insects |
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Cable-Driven Robots: Control & Estimation Challenges and Space Applications |
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Subwords as Skills: Tokenization for Sparse-Reward Reinforcement Learning |
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| 04:00pm–05:30pm | Poster Session I and Happy Hour |
Friday, April 19
| 08:00am–09:30am | Breakfast (provided) and Poster Session II |
| 09:30am–10:30am | Keynote Talk (Chair: Tim Bretl) |
Wearable Robots that Teach and Learn with a Human Touch |
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| 10:30am–12:30pm | Invited/Contributed Talks (Chair: Matt Walter) |
Designing Robots to Encourage Social Connections between People |
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Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? |
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Cooperative Multi-UAV Swarm in an Uncertain Environment: A Markovian Mutual Information Based Approach |
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Toward Deploying Reinforcement Learning with Confidence in Real-time and Dynamic Robotic Tasks |
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Within-subject Comparison of Gait Kinematics Using Passive, Microprocessor-controlled, and Powered Transtibial Prostheses |
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Collaborative Robots Can Augment Human Cognition in Regret-Sensitive Tasks |
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| 12:30pm–02:00pm | Lunch (provided) and Poster Session III |
Poster Session I (Thursday)
Many Multi-Contact Collisions are Simpler Than Expected
Maximum Diffusion Reinforcement Learning
A Synchronous Programming Language for Verifiable, Executable Robotics
DiffTune: Auto-Tuning through Auto-Differentiation
Innovative Strategies for Robotic Swimmers in Low Reynolds Number Environments: Insights from the Microscopic World
Ascending New Heights: Enhancing Bipedal Robotic Locomotion through Stair Climbing
Statler: State-Maintaining Language Models for Embodied Reasoning
A Wearable Resistance Device’s Motor Learning Effects in Exercise
Mapping Unknown Environments through Passive Deformation of Soft, Growing Robots
Detect2Grasp: Integrating Global and Local Visual Perception for Berry Manipulation with Low Cost Robots
Investigating the Impact of Spinal Joint Dynamics on a Sprawling Robot Using Deep Reinforcement Learning
CAFE-MPC: A Cascaded-Fidelity Model Predictive Control Framework with Tuning-Free Whole-Body Control
Implicit Gait Optimization Using A*-Based Search and Differential Dynamic Programming
DRAGON: A Dialogue-Based Robot for Assistive Navigation with Visual Language Grounding
Enhancing Locomotion Energetics via the Design of Actuator Modules that Incorporates Kinematic Singularities
Computationally Efficient Multi-Agent Optimization Framework for Online Routing of UAV-UGV System
Multi-legged Robot Motion is Simple
Touching the Future: High-resolution Tactile Sensing for Robotic Automation
Approximate Constrained Stochastic Optimal Control Via Parameterized Input Inference
Towards a Unified Motion Planning Framework for Diverse Robotic Platforms: From Simulations to Real-World Applications
Bio-Inspired, 3D Printed Feather Transducers for in Flight Aerodynamic Force and Vibration Sensing
Efficient modeling of multi-legged locomotion with slipping
AU-SPARC: An Autonomous, Utethered, Soft, Proprioceptive, Agile Robot for 3-D Climbing and Exploration with Precise Trajectory Following
Embedded Valves for Distributed Control of Soft Pneumatic Actuators
Poster Session II (Friday Morning)
VibTac: A Multi-Modal Tactile Sensing Finger for Robotic Manipulation
Bipedal Robot Walking Control Using Human Whole-Body Dynamic Telelocomotion
Enumerating Design Configurations for Reconfigurable Meshed Cellular Robots
Efficient Optimization of Exoskeleton Control Strategies for Hip-Centric Tasks
Multi-Modal Bayesian Inference for Semantic Classification and Property Prediction
Neural Informed RRT*: Learning-based Path Planning with Point Cloud State Representations under Admissible Ellipsoidal Constraints
Task-Level Control of Lower-Limb Prostheses
P-AgBot: In-Row & Under-Canopy Agricultural Robot for Monitoring and Physical Sampling
Enhancing UGV Path Planning using Dynamic Bayesian Filtering to Predict Local Minima
Sim-Suction: Learning a Suction Grasp Policy for Cluttered Environments Using a Synthetic Benchmark
Approximate Synthesis for Spherical Four-bar Motion Generation
Understanding the Strengths and Weaknesses of Omnidirectional Ball Wheels Compared to Traditional Wheels in Challenging Terrain
Sensor-Agnostic Embodied Active Learning
Improving Lower-Limb Prosthetic Ability with Hybrid Volitional Control
Modeling of Human Fatigue in a Manufacturing-Like Setting
A Direct-drive Five-bar Manipulator for Low Energy Consumption in Vertical Loading
Unlocking the Capabilities of Time-of-Flight Proximity Sensors
Using Robot's Physics to Learn Consistent Lidar Features for Robust Localization.
Detecting and Localizing Small Objects with a Proximity Sensor
Probabilistic Optimality for Social Navigation
Stigmergic Coverage with a Robotic Collective
Sequential Manipulation of Deformable Linear Object Networks with Endpoint Pose Measurements using Adaptive Model Predictive Control
Empir3D: A multi-dimensional point cloud quality assessment framework
Rollbot: a Spherical Robot Driven by a Single Actuator
Robust Model Predictive Control: Combining Control Lyapunov Function and Hamilton- Jacobi for Robust Control
Poster Session III (Friday Afternoon)
Design of an Open-Loop System of a Disk Shaped Robot Inspired by the Eccentrically Loaded Hopping Hoop Problem
AdverSAR—An Attentive Reasoning Framework for Multi-Agent Cooperative Navigation under Adversarial Communication
Magnetic Microrobots for Active Drug Delivery and Micro-Manipulation
Coachbot Swarm Testbed: A 100 Robot Autonomous and Remotely Accessible Platform for Testing Swarm Algorithms
Optimizing Robotic Gait Identification with Machine Learning and Shape Change Algorithms
Mixed Reality Interface for Multi-robot Supervision
SPUR: Shared Perspectives for Unforeseen Response in Human-Robot Teams
Optimizing Tendon Routing in Continuum Robots for Enhanced Dexterity and Workspace
LONER: LiDAR Only Neural Representations for Real-Time SLAM
In-Socket Pressure Characteristics For Powered Transtibial Prostheses
A scalable Control Framework for Centralized MicrostressBot: Group-based Control
Online Robotic Gait Learning using Generative Autoencoder
Navigating Adaptive Design: Advancing the Body-Machine Interface for 6D Control in Assistive Applications
Accelerating MPC Algorithms for Quadrupeds for Enhanced Balance
A Framework For Automated Dissection Along Tissue Boundary
Environment Agnostic Robotic Manipulator
Linear MPC for Quadrotors: A Model-based Koopman Approach
Stretchable Pneumatic Sleeve for Adaptable, Low-Displacement Anchoring in Exosuits
Advancing ADAS in Extreme Weather Conditions for Enhanced Road Safety
Design and Development of Bioinspired Soft Modular Appendages for Object Manipulation and Locomotion in Multi-Legged Robots Across Terrestrial and Aquatic Environments
To the Noise and Back: Diffusion for Shared Autonomy
Intuitive Integrated Heads up Mode Display System
A wearable and high spatiotemporal resolution haptic device
An Evolution of Assistive Robot Control to Meet End-User Ability
Customizable Perturbation Synthesis for Robust SLAM Benchmarking
LeTac-MPC: Learning Model Predictive Control for Tactile-reactive Grasping
Biodegradable Shape-Morphing Swimmers For Drug Delivery
In-Hand Singulation and Scooping Manipulation with a 5 DOF Tactile Gripper
Accommodations
There are several hotels nearby the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park, where TTIC is located. These include:
- The Study (a five minute walk from TTIC)
- Hyatt Place Chicago-South
- Sophy Hotel
There are also several reasonable options in downtown Chicago, such as Hotel Felix.
Lodging Grants: We will provide a limited number of grants for student lodging at a nearby hotel for the night of April 18. Please see the Registration section for information on how to apply.
Parking: Free parking is available in the commuter parking lot at 60th St. and Stony Island Ave. and free street parking on many streets near TTIC (just beware of "permit parking" and "street cleaning" signs!). Parking can be found on 61st Street (between Woodlawn Ave and Blackstone Ave), on Dorchester Street (between 60th and 61st Streets).
Registration
Registration: If you are interested in presenting your work as a poster or talk, or would like to simply attend the workshop, please sign up here. There is no cost to register. Please note that the schedule is pretty tight, so we may not be able to honor every presentation request.
Lodging Grants: We are awarding a limited number of lodging grants for students from outside the Chicagoland area who would like to attend. The grants will provide a one-night stay at a nearby hotel on April 18. Please fill out this form if you would like to apply.
Organizers
Timothy Bretl (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Daniel Bruder (University of Michigan)
Girish Krishnan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Ram
Vasudevan (University of Michigan)
Matthew Walter (TTIC)
Last modified: May 24 2024 15:12:34