ICRA 2023, London: the International Conference on Robotics and Automation

It’s the 2nd of June 2023, we are in London and ICRA 2023 –the most eminent event of the year in the Robotics and Automation calendar– is happening. You may believe it or not, but MAPWORMS has found its place in the scientific community now and also at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. This is why it was so important to have some our team member to represent the project.

In fact, we had Arianna Menciassi, Linda Paternò and Veronica Iacovacci representing MAPWORMS at ICRA 2023, getting the chance to know estimable colleagues from all around the world. London, after all, is known for its cosmopolitan vocation and it did not disappoint the expectations.

Neither did MAPWORMS in the person of Linda Paternò, who was on stage during the workshop entitled “How soft robotics allows for new functionalities in medical devices”.

The workshop with Linda Paternò at ICRA 2023

As we were saying, we were not passive bystenders at ICRA 2023. On the contrary, we gave our meaningful contribution with doctoress Linda Paternò. Indeed, she was on a stage during a workshop entitled “How soft robotics allows for new functionalities in medical devices”, speaking with other reputable colleagues.

The crux of the discussion is understanding how soft robotics can help reaching the necessary requirements to develop biomedical devices. And how bioinspiration can influence the process. In this scenario, the MAPWORMS project was presented, starting from the species of worms from which we took inspiration from ’till the possible applications of its results to the medical field.

What we took from ICRA2023 was the possibility to meet estimable speakers from all around the world. Our gratitude goes to Hareesh Godaba, Dr. Ahmad Ataka and Kaspar Althoefer as coordinators of the workshop and, regarding Mr. Althoefer, also as general chair of the conference. 

It was an experience we would call “hard to forget”.