This paper presents findings from an exploratory needfinding study investigating the research current status and potential participation of the competitions on the robotics community towards four human-centric topics: safety, privacy, explainability, and federated learning. We conducted a survey with 34 participants across three distinguished European robotics consortia, nearly 60% of whom possessed over five years of research experience in robotics. Our qualitative and quantitative analysis revealed that current mainstream robotic researchers prioritize safety and explainability, expressing a greater willingness to invest in further research in these areas. Conversely, our results indicate that privacy and federated learning garner less attention and are perceived to have lower potential. Additionally, the study suggests a lack of enthusiasm within the robotics community for participating in competitions related to these topics. Based on these findings, we recommend targeting other communities, such as the machine learning community, for future competitions related to these four human-centric topics.

Developing and testing novel control and motion planning algorithms for aerial vehicles can be a challenging task, with the robotics community relying more than ever on 3D simulation technologies to evaluate the performance of new algorithms in a variety of conditions and environments. In this work, we introduce the Pegasus Simulator, a modular framework implemented as an NVIDIA Isaac Sim extension that enables real-time simulation of multiple multirotor vehicles in photo-realistic environments, while providing out-of-the-box integration with the widely adopted PX4-Autopilot and ROS2 through its modular implementation and intuitive graphical user interface. To demonstrate some of its capabilities, a nonlinear controller was implemented and simulation results for two drones performing aggressive flight maneuvers are presented. Code and documentation for this framework are also provided as supplementary material.

Over the course of the past year Open Robotics has taken time from our day-to-day efforts to work with our colleagues in the field to consider how the technology we develop could negatively impact society as a whole. In particular we were concerned with the weaponization of mobile robots. After a lot of thoughtful discussion, deliberation, and debate with our colleagues at organizations like Boston Dynamics, Clearpath Robotics, Agility Robotics, AnyBotics, and Unitree, we have co-authored and signed an open letter to the robotics community entitled, "General Purpose Robots Should Not Be Weaponized." You can read the letter, in its entirety, here. Additional media coverage of the letter can be found in Axios, and The Robot Report.

During the pandemic, members of the reddit & discord r/robotics community rallied to organize an online showcase for members of our community. What was originally envisioned as a half-day event with one mildly interesting guest speaker turned out to be a two day event with an incredible roster of participants from across the world. You can watch last year's showcase here. This year, we are planning an event which anticipates the enthusiasm we've had from our community, continuing to provide a unique opportunity for roboticists around the world to share and discuss their work, regardless of age or ability. We are delighted to receive support from Wevolver, Robohub, The National Robotarium, and the IEEE-RAS Soft Robotics Podcast, who are helping us to reach more people from academia industry, and ensure we are proactive with our representation of diversity.

ROS Software can be used for path planning with dynamic obstacles. Almost 600 million Debs were downloaded from ROS (Robot Operating Software from Open Robotics) between July 2020 and July 2021, according ROS' 2021 Metrics Report, a 50% increase from last year. ROS is an open source development kit for robotics applications. It offers a standard, royalty-free, software platform for robotics developers. Its recent statistics report show a rapidly growing ROS community.

As the field of robotics matures, our community must grapple with the multifaceted impact of our research; in this article, we describe two previous workshops hosting robotics debates and advocate for formal debates to become an integral, standalone part of major international conferences, whether as a plenary session or as a parallel conference track. As roboticists build increasingly complex systems for applications spanning manufacturing, personal assistive technologies, transportation and others, we face not only technical challenges, but also the need to critically assess how our work can advance societal good. Our rapidly growing and uniquely multidisciplinary field naturally cultivates diverse perspectives, and informal dialogues about our impact, ethical responsibilities, and technologies. Indeed, such discussions have become a cornerstone of the conference experience, but there has been relatively little formal programming in this direction at major technical conferences like the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Conference. To fill this void, we organized two workshops entitled "Debates on the Future of Robotics Research" at ICRA 2019 and 2020, inspired by a similar workshop at the 2018 International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML).

ICRA is the largest robotics meeting in the world and is the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society. It is thus our honor and pleasure to welcome you to this edition, although the current exceptional circumstances did not allow us to organize it in Paris as planned with the glimpse and splendor that our wonderful robotics community deserves. Now, for sure, Virtual ICRA 2020, the first online ICRA, will be one of the most memorable ICRA editions ever! Our first Plenary is a hot topic panel on COVID-19 Pandemic & Robotics, moderated by Ken Goldberg and chaired by Wolfram Burgard. Join us for the virtual conference taking place May 31 to August 31 with sessions available both live and on demand.

NEW YORK, July 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cowen Inc. (COWN) ("Cowen" or the "Company") and MassRobotics today announced a collaboration to bring together their extensive market knowledge to advance research into the emerging robotics and artificial intelligence industry. Based in the Boston area, MassRobotics is a global hub for robotics, and the collective work of a group of engineers, rocket scientists, and entrepreneurs focused on the needs of the robotics community. "The robotics and artificial intelligence industry is a rapidly expanding market, and one that will define the advancement of manufacturing and services on a global basis. We are thrilled to be partnering with such an innovative collective in MassRobotics, which was established through a shared vision of advancing the robotics industry," said Jeffrey M. Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of Cowen. "Cowen has dedicated substantial time into the research of robotics and AI and we look forward to sharing our knowledge and capital markets expertise to support the emerging growth companies associated with MassRobotics."

The International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) is the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society's flagship conference and is a premier international forum for robotics researchers to present their work. Established in 1984 and held annually, the conference joins experts in the field of robotics and automation for technical communications through presentations and discussions. The conference creates a remarkable environment to indulge all the delegates in the frontier of science and technology in robotics and automation.

The European Robotics Forum 2018 (ERF2018), the most influential meeting of the robotics community in Europe, takes place in Tampere on 13-15 March 2018. ERF brings together over 900 leading scientists, companies, and policymakers for the largest robotics networking event in Europe. Under the theme "Robots and Us", the over 50 workshops cover current societal and technical themes, including human-robot-collaboration and how robotics can improve industrial productivity and service sector operations. During the opening the ERF2018, on 13 March, Juha Heikkilä, Head of unit, EC DG CNECT, explained that "the European Robotics Forum has been instrumental in breaking down silos and bringing together a strong, integrated robotics community in Europe. This year's theme, "Robots and Us", reflects the increasingly broad impact of robotics and allows discussing not just technology but also the all-important non-technological aspects of robotics."