Robophysics at APS March Meeting 2022

Robophysics: Robotics Meets Physics

We are hosting the seventh annual Focus Session on Robophysics at the APS March Meeting March 2022, to be held in Chicago, IL, March 14-18, 2021.

Please forward this abstract submission solicitation to whoever might be interested, particularly your students/postdocs.

Rationale:

This workshop addresses the need to establish a new field of robophysics–physics for complex “living” robotic systems (analogous to biophysics, physics for complex biological systems). Robots are moving from the factory floor and into our lives (autonomous cars, homecare assistants, search and rescue devices, etc.). However, despite the fascinating questions such future “living systems” pose for scientists, the study of such systems has been dominated by engineers and computer scientists.

We propose that interaction of researchers studying dynamical systems, soft materials, and living systems can help discover principles that will allow physical robotic devices to interact with the real world in qualitatively different ways than they do now.

We hope that a Focus Session at the APS March meeting that brings together leaders in this emerging area (most of whom are not physicists) will demonstrate the need for a physics of robotics and reveal interesting problems at the interface of nonlinear dynamics, soft matter, control, and biology.

To learn more, see Aguilar et al. (2016). A review on locomotion robophysics: The study of movement at the intersection of robotics, soft matter and dynamical systems, Reports on Progress in Physics, 79 (11), 110001 PDF

Invited speakers:

Cecilia Laschi, National University of Singapore: https://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/me/staff/cecilia-laschi/

Paul McEuen, Cornell University: https://mceuengroup.lassp.cornell.edu/

Abstract submission:

Submit at: https://march.aps.org/

Deadline: Friday, October 22, 5 PM US Eastern Time.

Please submit early if you can in case of technical glitches that results in delay.

When submitting, please list the following session number:

02.01.47 Robophysics: Robotics Meets Physics (DBIO, DSOFT) [same as 04.01.09]

Note that:

Abstract is short (1300 characters) and can be new work or past work revisited.

It does NOT require submitting a full paper of new work like major robotics meetings (e.g., ICRA, IROS, RSS).

It is advised to submit early in case of system glitches (which has occurred before).

Sessions typically run in blocks of ~3 hours with 10+2 min talks and ~30 min invited talks.

Previous Robophysics Focus Sessions:

Our Focus Session has had great success at APS March Meetings in 2016-2021, with growing attendance by a diverse group of physicists, engineers, mathematicians, biologists, etc. with interests at the intersection of science and robotics. To get an idea of the breadth of what has been presented before, see below:

2021

https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR21/Session/B14

https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR21/Session/F14

https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR21/Session/R14

https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR21/Session/S14

https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR21/Session/Y14

2020

http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR20/Session/S22

http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR20/Session/U22

http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR20/Session/W22

http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR20/Session/X22

2019