Registration

Speakers

Speakers

Plenary Talks

Prof. Dr. Marco Hutter

ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Marco Hutter

Legged robotics has made remarkable strides in recent years, with quadrupeds and humanoids beginning to demonstrate real value in practical applications. Beyond the rapid advances in hardware, breakthroughs in perception, navigation, planning, and reinforcement learning for locomotion have unlocked unprecedented levels of mobility and autonomy on challenging terrain. In this talk, I will explore how reinforcement learning and autonomy are transforming the capabilities of legged robots and other mobile machines. I will share insights into the underlying methodologies, highlight real-world deployments “in the wild,” and discuss where we stand today in the long-envisioned journey toward a ubiquitous robotic workforce.

Sessions by Dr. Hutter

Day 2 (April 28th)
11.00 - 12.00 am

The Workforce of today and tomorrow: Humanoids and Quadrupeds Enter the Real World

  • Speaker Biography
    Marco Hutter is Assistant Professor for Robotic Systems at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, since 2015 and a Branco Weiss fellow since 2014. Before this, he was the Deputy Director and Group Leader in the field of legged robotics at the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zurich. After studying mechanical engineering, he completed a doctoral degree in robotics at ETH Zurich with a focus on the design, actuation, and control of dynamic legged robotic systems. Beside his commitment within the NCCR Digital Fabrication since October 2015, Marco Hutter is part of the NCCR Robotics and coordinator of several research projects, industrial collaborations, and international competitions that target the application of high-mobile autonomous vehicles in challenging environments such as for search and rescue, industrial inspection, or construction operation. His research interests lie in the development of novel machines and actuation concepts together with the underlying control, planning, and optimisation algorithms for locomotion and manipulation.

Prof. Dr. Jorge Dias

Khalifa University; Abu Dhabi, UAE

Jorge Dias

Recent advances in robotics and artificial intelligence have driven the need for intelligent processing directly on embedded platforms, giving rise to the Edge AI paradigm, where computation is performed locally rather than in the cloud. This approach is essential for autonomous systems, as it reduces latency, connectivity dependence, bandwidth usage, and privacy risks, enabling real-time perception and decision-making. Technologies such as spiking neural networks and neuromorphic computing stand out for their energy efficiency and ability to process temporal data, making them well-suited for embedded applications. In this context, Edge AI enables more scalable, responsive, and efficient robotic systems, supporting applications in autonomous vehicles, collaborative robotics, and smart monitoring, while representing a key step toward more adaptive, resilient, and energy-efficient autonomous systems.

Sessions by Dr. Dias

Day 3 (April 29th)
11.00 - 12.00 am

Robotics and AI at the Edge: Towards Efficient, Intelligent, and Autonomous Systems

  • Speaker Biography
    Jorge Manuel Miranda Dias is a distinguished researcher and professor specializing in autonomous robotic systems. He holds a Doctor of Science (Habilitation/Agregação) and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Currently, he serves as a Professor at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where he leads academic and research efforts in robotic autonomy.

    With a career spanning over four decades, Jorge Dias has made groundbreaking contributions to artificial perception, computer vision, and robotic vision. Since 1984, he has been at the forefront of integrating multi-sensing and multimodal techniques into artificial perception. Notably, he played a pioneering role in the fusion of visual-inertial sensing (2006, 2007) and visual-auditory sensing (2008).

    One of his most influential achievements is the development of cognitive models for robots, leveraging a Bayesian framework to enable multimodal artificial perception. His research has significantly impacted active attention (2008), navigation (2005), and multi-robot cooperation (2009). His seminal book, Probabilistic Approaches for Robotic Perception (2014), consolidates his innovative work on Bayesian techniques in computational intelligence.

    Before his current role in Abu Dhabi, Jorge was a Full Professor at the University of Coimbra (UC) in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computers (DEEC) until September 2024. During his tenure, he was an active researcher at UC’s Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR). He also played a vital role as Vice-President of Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN) from 2008 to 2011, where he helped bridge the gap between academia and industry. Moreover, he was the founding Director of the Laboratory of Systems and Automation at IPN.

    Jorge’s recent research focuses on Neuromorphic Computing for Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Perception (2023, 2024), exploring unconventional computing methods applied to robotic systems. During his career published over 390 scholarly articles in international journals, books, and conferences, marking him as an expert in robotics and artificial perception.

    Throughout his career, Jorge Dias has been the Principal Investigator for numerous international projects, especially in Europe and the Middle East, advancing the field of autonomous robotic systems and artificial perception.