Laboratory of Intelligent Robotic Systems (LIRS) of the Higher Institute of Information Technologies and Intelligent Systems (ITIS) KFU took part in the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2020), which was held in France from May 31 to June 30 2020 and for the first time takes place in an online format with live broadcasts of the event. All recorded content will be available to participants until August 31, 2020.

The proceedings of the ICRA ranks first among all publications in the field of robotics and automation according to Google Scholar. The conference is on the list of three flagship annual conferences on robotics and also ranks first in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. Articles published in the proceedings of the ICRA undergo thorough expert selection and subsequently have a dominant influence on the development of robotics and automation. For example, the article of the Professor Evgeni Magid “A comparison of gaussian and mean curvatures estimation methods on triangular meshes”, published in 2003 in the proceedings of the ICRA-2003 conference, has been quoted 103 times according to Scopus and 190 times according to Google Scholar for now.

Among the organizations presenting their works at the conference, the vast majority were represented by universities from the Top 100 list, including such pioneers in the field of robotics as Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ETH University, Stanford University, University of Tokyo, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and others. Among the 1,483 publications accepted for the conference, Russia is represented by only four universities, and the LIRS article at ICRA-2020 is the first publication of such a level in the field of robotics and automation in the history of KFU.

The format of the ICRA 2020 has been changed to the format of a virtual conference due to epidemical situation in the world. This format will enable the scientific community to continue to present their research and collaborate with their colleagues around the world. The conference will bring together experts in the field of robotics and automation for technical communications through online discussions, providing the opportunity to communicate with like-minded professionals from around the world. All registered participants will have the full access to scientific publications and conference presentations, including 1,600 cutting-edge key, sectional and industrial speeches from around the world. The online conference includes plenary presentations and key points, and will also give participants the opportunity to effectively exchange views with colleagues.

The live broadcast of the conference is available for viewing without prior registration on the ICRA 2020 website.

LIRS employee Bulat Abbyasov presented a report on the topic: "Automatic Tool for Gazebo World Construction: From a Grayscale Image to a 3D Solid Model." Authors: Bulat Abbyasov, Roman Lavrenov, Aufar Zakiev, Konstantin Yakovlev, Mikhail Svinin, Evgeni Magid.

The work presents a new tool that allows you to create a variety of landscapes for the simulator Gazebo. It is based on a new technique for converting a black and white gradient image into a 3D model, which can be directly imported into the Gazebo simulator. The proposed approach allows us to simplify the complex mathematical calculations performed by the physical engine of the simulator and, thereby, allows neutralize the low simulation performance when executing SLAM algorithms. The presented tool has been developed by LIRS employees and students since 2017, and work on further expanding its functionality continues.

The LIRS report can be viewed without registration at this link.

Bulat Abbyasov, research assistant of  LIRS tells about the conference: “A robotics conference is always a very interesting and exciting event! ICRA 2020 was no exception. Despite the fact that in today's difficult times we are limited in our mobility, the organizers were able to skillfully virtually collect all the interested robotic communities. The presented works are amazing and innovative and won’t let you get bored! Me, as the author of one of these creations, enjoy being close to wonderful and really passionate people.”

The article will be indexed in the Scopus and IEEEXplore databases.