Objectives
Robots have become more and more common in High-Income Countries (HICs) but use in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries (LICs and MICs, respectively) is virtually non-existent. While this lack of use is not surprising to most people, there are many issues facing these communities where robots could make a huge impact. Consider Cambodia, one of the most unexploded ordnance contaminated countries in the world, robots could be used to keep humanitarian demining and explosive ordnance disposal technicians out of harm’s way. In India, where traffic congestion can be severe, drones could be used to increase the speed of supplies to first responders – this also has application in rural communities in the United States. In post-disaster relief, like recent events in Haiti or Indonesia, robotic devices could be used for infrastructure inspection and search and rescue missions. In these cases, and many more, robots could be the difference between life and death.
The application and success of robots in LICs and MICs is not just a matter of the specific robotic technology being available or feasible, but also involves a broad range of environmental, cultural, structural, political, socio-economic and resource constraints that are critical to consider when developing robots and other technologies for LICs and MICs. A fundamental reason behind failure of technology solutions in LICs and MICs is that there exists a disconnect between technology developers (e.g., academic researchers and companies) and humanitarian field workers and the communities they work in. Developers rarely know what tools humanitarian workers in-the-trenches need and sometimes don’t even know what the critical problems are that need to be solved. Only humanitarian field workers know what is needed and what solutions are truly sustainable.
This workshop will bring together roboticists, policy makers, representatives from funding agencies, and humanitarian field workers to share their expertise and experience with each other and the greater IROS community. In the end, we hope that this workshop will result in new ideas and connections that will spur the development of robotic solutions to some of the most difficult challenges in the humanitarian world.
Topics of interest
Below is a list of topics that will be addressed and/or discussed in the course of this workshop
- Robotics in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries
- Humanitarian Robotics Applications, which may include:
- Avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions
- Floods and tsunamis
- Wind storms (hurricanes, tornadoes)
- Epidemics and pandemics (Covid-19)
- Mining and mineral disasters
- Pollution monitoring and cleaning (e.g. oil spills, inland water monitoring, …)
- Chemical emergencies from industrial accidents
- Nuclear incidents and similar cleanup efforts of contaminated sites
- Structural collapse (e.g. bridge and dam failures)
- Fires (wild and urban)
- Demining (landmine detection and clearance)
- Explosive ordnance disposal
- Low-cost Robotics
- Robot Policy
Intended audience
The intended audience for this workshop is relatively broad, considering the broad nature of the field of humanitarian robotics. The workshop will target anyone in the IROS community who is working on robotic technologies that could have application in the humanitarian world. We will specifically focus advertising on members of the Robotics and Automation Society Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Robotics (RAS-SIGHT) and members of the Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committees that could have potential interest, like the Technical committee on Robotics Research for Practicality (R2P). In addition, we are hoping to attract a number of future humanitarian robotics researchers by specifically focusing advertising on PhD students and early career researchers.
Endorsement
This workshop is being endorsed by the Robotics and Automation Society Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Robotics (RAS-SIGHT).
Organizers
Garrett M. Clayton
Villanova University, USA
Email: garrett.clayton@villanova.edu
Lino Marques
University of Coimbra, Portugal
Email: lino.marques@uc.pt
Raj Madhavan
U.S Department of State, USA
Email: raj.madhavan@ieee.org