Prof. Ning Xi (IEEE Fellow)
Chair Professor of Robotics and Automation
Director of Advanced Technologies Institute, The University of Hong Kong

Biography: Professor Ning Xi received D.Sc. degree in Systems Science and Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA in December 1993. Currently he is the Chair Professor of Robotics and Automation in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing System Engineering, and the Director of Advanced Emerging Technologies Institute of the University of Hong Kong. Before joining the University of Hong Kong, he was a University Distinguished Professor, the John D. Ryder Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of Robotics and Automation Laboratory at Michigan State University in United States. He also served as the founding head of the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong (2011-2013).  Prof. Xi is a fellow of IEEE. He also served as the President of IEEE Nanotechnology Council (2010-2011), a member of Administrative Committee of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (2013-2015). He has been elected as the President of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (2018-2019). His research interests include robotics, manufacturing automation, micro/nano manufacturing, nano sensors and devices, and intelligent control and systems.

Speech Title: Wearable Assistive Robots for Aging Society
Abstract: A rapidly aging population is one of the grand challenges facing the society. The number of people aged 65 or older worldwide is estimated to reach 1.6 billion by 2050. A major difficulty that many older people experience is severe limitation in mobility and manipulability in their daily life, resulting in tremendous social and economic challenges. This talk will discuss a User-Centric Co-Creation (UC³) approach to develop intelligent robotic systems to assist mobility and manipulability and prevent falls. The UC³ methodology lays down a theoretical foundation for multi-disciplinary approach to develop personalized wearable assistive systems. It will pave a new avenue to advance the ergonomics and gerontechnology beyond current horizons.

Prof. Dan Halperin (IEEE Fellow, ACM Fellow)
Tel Aviv University, Israel

Biography: Dan Halperin received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, after which he spent three years at the Computer Science Robotics Laboratory at Stanford University. He then joined the Department of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University, where he is currently a full professor and for two years was the department chair. Halperin’s main field of research is Computational Geometry and Its Applications. Application areas he is interested in include robotics, automated manufacturing, algorithmic motion planning, and 3D printing. A major focus of Halperin’s work has been in research and development of robust geometric software, in collaboration with a group of European universities and research institutes: the CGAL project and library. Halperin was the program-committee chair/co-chair of several conferences in computational geometry, algorithms and robotics, including SoCG, WAFR, ESA, and ALENEX. Halperin is an ACM Fellow and an IEEE Fellow. Halperin's home page: http://acg.cs.tau.ac.il/danhalperin.

Speech Title：From snapping fixtures to multi-robot coordination: Geometry at the service of robotics

Abstract: Robots sense, move and act in the physical world. It is therefore natural that understanding the geometry of the problem at hand will be key to devising an effective robotic solution, often as part of interdisciplinary solution methods. I will review several problems in robotics and automation in whose solution geometry plays a major role. These include designing optimized 3D printable fixtures, object rearrangement by robot arm manipulators, and efficient coordination of the motion of large teams of robots. As we shall see, exploiting geometric structure can lead to reducing the dimensionality of the search space and results in efficient solutions.

Prof. Guilin Yang
Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, China

Biography: Guilin YANG is currently a professor, a PhD supervisor, and the deputy president of Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his B. Eng degree and M. Eng degree from Jilin University in 1985 and 1988 respectively, and Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University in 1999, all in Mechanical Engineering. From 1998 to 2013, he was with the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Singapore, as a scientist, a senior scientist, and then the manager of the Mechatronics Group. He has long been engaged in the research areas of precision mechatronics, industrial robotics, and manufacturing automation. He has been the principal investigators for a number of major research projects in precision actuators, modular robots, parallel robots, cable-driven robots, and industrial robot applications. He has published over 300 technical papers in referred journals and conferences, authored two books, and filed 100 more patents. He received the R&D 100 Award in 2014 and the golden award of “Good Design” of China in 2020. He has also served as associate editors and guest editors for a number of scientific journals.

Speech Title：Advanced Industrial Robotics and Applications
Abstract: This talk will present the latest R&D progress on both applied industrial robotics and collaborative robots, which are critical and enabling technologies for intelligent manufacturing. The applied industrial robotics mainly includes intuitive teaching and rapid programming，calibration and error compensation, and contact force control technologies, which makes the existing industrial robots easy to use, much more accurate, and suitable for contact-type operations. Collaborative robots are a new class of industrial robots that are able to safely interact with human and environments., while their key technologies mainly include high torque-density motor, integrated joint module, and compliant motion control. Carrying out R&D on such advanced technologies are of great significance for the function expansion, performance improvement, and application extension of industrial robots.

Prof. Zhigang Wu
Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Biography: Zhigang Wu is a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China. Prior to joining HUST, Dr. Wu was an associate professor in Microsystems Technology, at Uppsala University, Sweden. The mission of Wu’s research is to develop new fabrication and manufacturing technologies for liquid-fused soft intelligent systems that can potentially bring new solutions for societal challenges. Currently, his research focuses on technology and application development of 1) microfluidics for in vivo diagnosis, 2) liquid alloy-based soft intelligence, 3) intelligent soft robots.
Dr. Wu was selected as in junior researcher program by the Swedish Research Council in 2010 and a Chutian Scholar by the Hubei government in 2012. Dr. Wu was the founding executive chair of the International Symposium of Flexible and Stretchable Electronics and the chair of the national conference of Soft Robot Theory and Technology, 2019, Wuhan.
Speech Title: Liquid-fused Soft Intelligence
Abstract: Being an essential part of natural soft intelligence, liquid plays an important role in various processes, e.g., structural formation, physiology information detection, signal transfer, energy distribution and action control, and so on. However, liquids are relatively less studied in soft intelligence. Hence, it is of great importance to develop relevant new technologies and explore new applications for such liquid-fused soft intelligence, e.g., soft electronics and robots, where liquids play important roles in the system. In this talk, we discussed our recent work on the manipulation and integration of functional liquids, e.g. liquid metal, solutions, for implementing soft smart devices. Of particular, we focus on two categories of research: 1) liquid alloy manipulation and its patterning techniques on complex micro-nanopatterned/curved/dynamic surfaces and its application development for new scenarios, e.g. plant hybrid machines; and 2) liquid-based soft robots, and seamless multifunction/heterogenous integration techniques for small soft robots with physical intelligence enhancement for better environments adaptabilities, e.g. self-gait sensed soft robot, multi-gait/gait configurable robot, cooperation for better performance, e.g. synergic surface tension driven robot with low friction, and even for active local environment influence, e.g. color warning robot, and so on.