PROF. ROBERTO CALANDRA RECEIVES THE EARLY ACADEMIC CAREER AWARD IN ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION

Roberto Calandra, Chair of Explainable Artificial Intelligence in the Faculty of Computer Science, is honored with the 2024 Early Academic Career Award in Robotics and Automation from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS).

The award honors outstanding achievements in the robotics and automation community. Roberto Calandra receives it for his "contributions to touch sensing, processing and its application to manipulation". The award recognizes the work he and his team have done in the field of touch sensing - from hardware design and software development to applications in the field of grasping and manipulation. For example, one of their core research areas, in collaboration with Meta (Stanford University) and the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC) Dresden, aims to explore how the use of touch sensor technology can help in the early detection of cancer. The scientists are developing robotic hands that can use vision-based tactile sensors to sense perceptions such as material type, shape, density and surface texture and achieve the strength and spatial resolution of human fingertips.

Roberto Calandra: "I am very honored to receive this award from the robotics community and to stand on the shoulders of giants. As touch becomes increasingly important as a perceptual modality, we will continue to work on the democratization of touch and its many applications."

The award ceremony will take place during the IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA 2024) in May.