The 5th UK Manipulation Workshop, hosted in Oxford, marked a milestone with over 300 attendees from both academia and industry. Spanning two days on January 11th and 12th 2024, the workshop served as a dynamic platform for the UK's robot manipulation community. Attendees engaged in a diverse program featuring talks, tutorials, poster sessions, lab tours, and networking events.

The Mathematics Institute of the Oxford University served as the main venue for talks, poster sessions, and an industry showcase. Additionally, participants explored the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) through organised lab tours, along with walking tours of the city.

The workshop's talks covered an array of robot manipulation topics, including robot learning and control for manipulation, soft and intelligent manipulation, and industrial manipulation. Presenters included academics from various UK universities, as well as industry leaders such as Amazon, DeepMind, Shadow Robot, UK Atomic Energy Authority, Cambrian Robotics, and the Intelligent Automation Centre.

The UK Robot Manipulation Workshop has been held regularly since 2016, with past workshops at the University of Birmingham in February 2016, Imperial College London in July 2017, the University of Leeds in April 2019, and following a break due to the pandemic, the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in January 2023.

This workshop not only provided valuable insights into robot manipulation research but also fostered networking opportunities for robotics researchers, especially benefiting young talents. Looking forward to the next UK manipulation workshop which will be held at King’s College London in 2025!

Event site: https://www.robot-manipulation.uk/

From: Dr Shan Luo, Reader in Robotics and AI, King's College London