Touch science and Engineering
Abstract
This workshop proposal will showcase selected case studies about the investigation of human touch physiology and translation to engineered solutions for both tactile sensing and haptic feedback. The workshop is focusing on key enabling technologies for robotics and intelligent machines, which are transversal with respect to the main impact domains of the I-RIM community. Tactile sensing and display technologies ground on the progressive scientific understanding of the underlying physiology of natural somatosensation, and are nowadays approaching their field deployment. Target applications include a wide range of embodiments such as bionic prostheses, exoskeletons, collaborative robots, surgical robots, humanoids, animaloids and plantoids. The workshop will connect academia and industry and showcase interactive demos.
Full text
Workshop on Touch Science and Engineering 1 Workshop title Touch Science and Engineering 2 Organizers • Prof. Calogero Maria Oddo, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa; [email protected] • Dr. Mariangela Filosa, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa; [email protected] • Dr. Tommaso Lisini Baldi, Università degli Studi di Siena, Siena; [email protected] • Prof. Gionata Salvietti, Università degli Studi di Siena, Siena; sal[email protected] • Prof. Monica Malvezzi, Università degli Studi di Siena, Siena; [email protected] • Prof. Domenico Prattichizzo, Università degli Studi di Siena, Siena; dprattichiz[email protected]t 3 Workshop format The I-RIM 2025 workshop on touch science and engineering will feature invited talks from both academia and industry, live demonstrations of tactile sensing and haptic feedback devices, and pertinent contributions from the call for papers. 4 Workshop Objectives and Main Topics This workshop proposal will showcase selected case studies about the investigation of human touch physiology and translation to engineered solutions for both tactile sensing and haptic feedback. The workshop is focusing on key enabling technologies for robotics and intelligent machines, which are transversal with respect to the main impact domains of the I-RIM community. Tactile sensing and display technologies ground on the progressive scientific understanding of the underlying physiology of natural somatosensation, and are nowadays approaching their field deployment. Target applications include a wide range of embodiments such as bionic prostheses, exoskeletons, collaborative robots, surgical robots, humanoids, animaloids and plantoids. The workshop will connect academia and industry and showcase interactive demos. 5 Keywords • Touch science • Touch engineering • Tactile sensing • Haptics 6 Preferred date The workshop proposers would propose October 17, nevertheless October 18 would be feasible as well. 2025 I-RIM Conference October 17-19, Rome, Italy ISBN: 9788894580570 10.5281/zenodo.17629626 32
7 List of Speakers The agenda of the workshop is detailed hereafter: • Introduction by the workshop organizers (SSSA, UNISI) – 15’ • Fabio Puglia (Oversonic Robotics, confirmed) – 15’ • Lucia Seminara or Maurizio Valle (University of Genoa, confirmed) – 15’ • Lucia Beccai (Italian Institute of Technology, confirmed) – 15’ • Selected talk from call for papers – 15’ • Conclusions by the workshop organizers (SSSA, UNISI) – 15’ • Live demos and poster session – 60’ 8 Expected Number of Attendees Likely, the workshop will be attended by about 30 participants. 9 Target Audience The workshop will mainly target representatives from the following organizations: • Academia and research sector • Companies • Investors • Institutional stakeholders 10 Workshop Outcomes We expect this workshop to be a regular event to be proposed yearly within I-RIM 3D. Moreover, and expanded edition of the workshop will be proposed as part of relevant international conferences (e.g., IEEE ICRA, IROS, Sensors, EMBC). The contents of the workshop are also related to the technical program of the annual summer school on robotics and intelligent machines (DRIMS), that is part of the educational offer of the national PhD program founded by I-RIM. Finally, a collection series (special issue) on Touch Science and Engineering has been agreed with Advanced Science and Advanced Robotics Research journals (Wiley), and is going to be announced soon. The workshop speakers and poster presenters will be invited to submit papers to such editorial initiative. 11 Plan for Special Issue or Session A collection series (special issue) on Touch Science and Engineering has been agreed with Advanced Science and Advanced Robotics Research journals (Wiley), and is going to be announced soon. The workshop speakers and poster presenters will be invited to submit papers to such editorial initiative. 33
12 Call for Extended Abstracts We plan to collect extended abstracts submitted via the EasyChair platform. A selected contribution will be featured for oral discussion, while the other abstracts will be presented in the poster session or as live demos. 13 Workshop Webpage A dedicated workshop page will be created and featured on the institutional website of the organizers. 14 Notes on Registration We plan to use the 2 free one-day registrations for supporting the participation of selected invited speakers, whereas the other speakers will go through the regular registration to the conference. 34