Debates on the Future of Robotics Research

Full-Day Hybrid Workshop | May 27th at ICRA 2022

10:00 AM - 3:20 PM ET | Pennsylvania Convention Center, Room 108A + Live streaming here!

"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it."

Joseph Joubert

Thank you to our fantastic debaters, moderators, and audience for making the 2022 Debates on the Future of Robotics Research a resounding success!

If you weren't able to tune in live (or if you just want to replay some of the explosive highlights!), you can re-watch the debates on YouTube below.

If you enjoyed this year's debates and you’d like to see more in the future—or if you didn't enjoy the debates, and have ideas on how to make them better—we could really use your help organizing next year’s edition! Send us an email at roboticsdebates@gmail.com.

-The Robotics Debates Team

Debate recordings

Debate 1: Algorithms should not be published without an open-source reference implementation.

Debate 2: Research in robotics is intrinsically a social good because we seek to solve the dull, dirty, and dangerous stuff

Debate 3: The investment and involvement of industry giants in robotics research in academia is positive.


As an interdisciplinary field that has the potential to change and be changed by numerous diverse stakeholders, the future and potential impact of robotics research are frequent subjects of debate. We believe making these debates more formal and public can be beneficial to the general community.

Following on from previous workshops at ICRA 2019, 2020, and 2021, the Robotics Debates will be back for ICRA 2022, in an all-new hybrid in-person/virtual format.


Topics and schedule


10:00AM- 11:20AM ET

Let it be resolved that...

Algorithms should not be published without an open-source reference implementation.


11:40AM-1:00PM ET

Let it be resolved that...

Research in robotics is intrinsically a social good because we seek to solve the dull, dirty, and dangerous stuff


2:00PM-3:20PM ET

Let it be resolved that...

The investment and involvement of industry giants in robotics research in academia is positive.

Debate Structure

Total Length: 80 minutes

  • Introductions & initial audience poll (5 min)

  • Opening arguments (20 min = 4 debaters x 5 min each)

  • Moderated discussion between debaters + audience Q&A (20 min)

  • Closing remarks (10 min = 4 debaters x 2.5 min each)

  • Final audience poll + polling results (5 min)

  • Moderated panel debrief + audience Q&A (20 min)

Participants


Dr. Andreas Bihlmaier

ABB Robotics

Debater

Prof. Aaron M. Dollar

Yale University

Debater

Prof. Dan Halperin

Tel Aviv University

Debater

Prof. Sabine Hauert

University of Bristol

Debater

Prof. Ani Hsieh

UPenn

Debater

Prof. Monroe Kennedy

Stanford University

Debater

Prof. Ayoung Kim

Seoul National University

Debater

Dr. Francesco Nori

Deepmind

Debater

Prof. Amanda Prorok

Cambridge University

Debater

Dr. Vandi Verma

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Debater

Prof. Camillo J. Taylor

University of Pennsylvania

Moderator

Dr. Karol Hausman

Google Brain

Moderator

Prof. Jonathan Kelly

University of Toronto

Moderator

Organizers

Prof. Sylvia Herbert

UCSD

General Co-Chair

Prof. Karthik Dantu

University at Buffalo

General Co-Chair

Sudharshan Suresh

Carnegie Mellon University

Technical Chair

Shreyas Kousik

Stanford University

Organizing Committee

Alexis E. Block

UCLA

Organizing Committee

Federico Rossi

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Organizing Committee

Khen Elimelech

Rice University

Organizing Committee

Benoit Rosa

CNRS

Organizing Committee

Iris Andrussow

Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems

Organizing Committee

Advisory Committee

Prof. Florian Shkurti

University of Toronto


Prof. Jonathan Kelly

University of Toronto


Prof. Nico Hochgeschwender

Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences

Prof. Duygun Erol Barkana

Yeditepe University

Prof. Alexander Badri-Spröwitz

Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems

Prof. Xuesu Xiao

George Mason University | X, The Moonshot Factory | The University of Texas at Austin


Prof. Kim Baraka

VU Amsterdam

Prof. Jaime Fernández Fisac

Princeton University

Contact

Please address all inquiries and questions about the workshop to roboticsdebates@gmail.com.