Keynote Speakers
Assoc. Prof. Cosimo Della Santina
Controlling Deformability in Robotics: From Soft Robots to Large Deformable Objects
Date: TBD
Abstract:
Biography
Cosimo Della Santina received the Ph.D. degree (cum laude) in Robotics from the University of Pisa in 2019. He is currently an Associate Professor at TU Delft (The Netherlands) and a Guest Research Scientist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Munich. From 2017 to 2019, he was a Visiting Ph.D. student and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Between 2020 and 2021, he served as a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher and Guest Lecturer at the Technical University of Munich. His research focuses on endowing unconventional robotic systems—especially those with elastic and soft components—with motor intelligence grounded in physics-based modeling and control theory. Dr. Della Santina co-directs the Delft AI Lab SELF and is a recipient of the NWO Veni Fellowship. His work has been recognized with the 2020 Georges Giralt Ph.D. Award, the 2023 IEEE RAS Early Career Award, and an ERC Starting Grant in 2024. In 2025, he co-founded the Swiss start-up Embodied AI, which develops safe and capable robots designed to operate in human environments.
Assoc. Prof. Erol Şahin
Robotics@METU-ROMER: Projects that aim for your home as well as the Moon!
Date: TBD
Abstract:
In my talk, as the founding Director of METU-ROMER (Middle East Technical University Center for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence), I will present some of the robotics projects that are being carried under ROMER. In particular, I will be sharing the goals and recent progress of (1) the CHERI project, which aims to develop two mini rovers to be landed at the South Pole of the Moon in 2029, (2) the Home Robotics project, supported by Beko A.S., that explores the development and deployment of robotics, in particular manipulators, within the home environment in interaction with home appliances, controlled by the recent AI models that learn from demosntration, and interacti with humans (3) the RoboRoyale project, which show how robotics and AI can be used to expand our understanding of honeybee colonies. I will also mention the university-industry relationship model that ROMER is pushing, and share our experience with it.
Biography
Dr. Erol Şahin is an Associate Professor of Computer Engineering at METU and the founding Director of the Center for Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (ROMER). He holds a Ph.D. from Boston University, an M.S. from METU, and a B.S. from Bilkent University. Before joining METU, he was a post-doctoral researcher on the pioneering Swarm-bots project at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.His research focuses on swarm robotics, cognitive robotics, and human-robot interaction. He has secured substantial funding (€7.8 million) from the EU, TÜBİTAK, and industry, including a €5 million state grant that established ROMER’s state-of-the-art facilities. Key highlights of his career include a Marie Curie Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University, winning a free iCub humanoid robot after his proposal ranked 6th worldwide, and his ongoing leadership in the FET-funded RoboRoyale project. Beyond his research, Dr. Şahin has an extensive publication record, has edited multiple journal special issues and proceedings, and serves on the editorial boards for the Adaptive Behavior and Swarm Intelligence journals.
Prof. Genliang Chen
Integration of Structural Compliance and Intrinsic Sensing of Rigid-Flexible Hybrid Mechanisms
Date: TBD
Abstract:
Hybrid mechanisms, incorporating rigid and flexible components, are an emerging form of robotics that bridges the gap between traditional rigid-body linkages and novel soft robots. Leveraging the structural compliance of elastic links, this novel kind of mechanism promises a broad range of potential applications in manipulations and human-robot collaboration. However, due to the complex deflection behaviors of flexible units, there are still significant challenges in the modeling, proprioceptive and environmental perception, and control of motion and structural deformations. In this talk, I will present our recent research progress on this topic, including the discretization-based modeling method for flexible units in general cases, the integration of sensing units to achieve precise and real-time perception (contact/tactile sensing), and feedback control strategies to endow rigid-flexible hybrid robots with manipulation and collaboration capacities. Various case studies will be provided to demonstrate the advantages of these novel mechanisms: the adaptivity to unstructured environments, sensor-based interactive manipulation, and fast-response operation. Additionally, the prospects and challenges for future research on these hybrid mechanisms will be addressed at the end of this talk.
Biography
Genliang CHEN received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees, both in Mechanical Engineering, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), Shanghai, China, in 2006 and 2014, respectively. From the year 2016 to 2017, he was with the Biomimetic and Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory (BDML) at Stanford University as a visiting scholar. He joined the School of Mechanical Engineering at SJTU in 2018. Currently, he serves as the deputy director of the META Robotics Institute at SJTU. His research interests include mechanism design, flexible parallel manipulators, and robotics. He has published more than 100 journal/conference papers, including IEEE T-RO, IJRR, Nature Communications, Science Advances, MMT, and ASME JMR/JMD, etc. He serves as the associated editor of the Journal ‘Robotica’, ‘Meccanica’, et al. He has been honored with the Best Paper Award/Finalist from several international conferences, including Parallel 2020 and IEEE-ICIEA2023.