With several of my colleagues from the Samsung AI Center, as well as one of my graduate students and McGill colleagues, I was able to visit Japan, attend the International Conference on Robots and Systems (IROS) and visit Kyoto and Tokyo.
IROS was good, and for many of the attendees was the first in-person conference since the pandemic began. There were a number of excellent keynotes that provided a retrospective view of how the field has evolved. Human robot interaction was a significant theme of the conference, and there was also the anticipated array of impressive Japanese mechatronics at the trade show (as well as in some of the talks).
The always-engaging Professor Junaed Sattar from U Minnesota give a talk about gesture based underwater robotics, and the paper was nominated for a best paper award.
Our team also got to visit the Samsung Research lab in Yokohama, which was extremely impressive, but confidential.
We were lucky enough to have a bit of spare time to visit the big Buddha at Kamakura, as well as the really fantastic national museum in Tokyo.
Our team with Tokyo skyline
Buddha at Kamakura
Mount Fuji from the train to Kyoto
