Linda, University of Lincoln robotLinda (the robot, pictured) (Photo: University of Lincoln)

The University of Lincoln is set to host Europe’s leading robotics conference, with professors displaying research on how robots are moving from labs and factories into homes and workplaces.

Linda, University of Lincoln robot
Linda (the robot, pictured) was created by the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems as a service robot (Photo: University of Lincoln)

Organised by the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems, part of the university’s School of Computer Science, the European Conference on Mobile Robots (ECMR) helps roboticists across the continent stay up-to-date with the variety of research in their field – from transport to surveillance to food.

Keynote speakers include Maja Pantic of Imperial College London, who studies robots’ interpretations of human gestures and emotions; Roland Siegwart of ETH Zurich, who aims to help robots deal better with complexity and the unexpected; and Ingmar Posner of the University of Oxford, who focuses on machine learning techniques.

Conference organiser Professor Tom Duckett, who leads the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems, said: “Hosting ECMR in 2015 is a fabulous opportunity to showcase our research in mobile robotics and to help to put Lincoln firmly on the map in the international scientific community.

“As today’s robots leave the laboratory and start entering many different real-world applications, it is a very exciting time to be working in robotics research, and I feel privileged to be hosting this important international event together with my colleagues in the robotics research team here at Lincoln.

“We already had nearly 100 paper submissions, so it promises to be a fantastic event with contributions from all over Europe and beyond.”

The conference will take place between 2 – 4 September 2015 on the Brayford campus.