このレポートは、2022年7月11日～15日に会津大学大学院後期課程１年のUdaka Ayas Manawaduさんが「AIM2022 SAPPORO」に参加したときのものです。
Report of the Conference Visit
Attendee: Udaka Ayas Manawadu
Place: Sapporo, Hokkaido, JAPAN
Date visited: 2022/7/11-7/15
About AIM 2022
IEEE/ ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM) was held from July 11th – July 15th in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan for the 25th time. “Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics for Social Good in the New Normal Era” was the theme of the conference. The conference was held as a hybrid in-person/online event. About 90 people participated in-person among more than 300 attendances. There were plenary talks, a 25th-anniversary event, and a technical tour apart from the sessions.
Figure2: AIM banner at the location. (Royton Sapporo hotel, Sapporo, Japan)
Presented paper
The presented paper was titled “Object Recognition and Pose Estimation from RGB-D Data Using Active Sensing”. I presented my research finding on a novel robotic software system for detecting and grasping globe valves from a side angle with the help of a robot arm. The paper was presented in a session called “Image Processing 1”. Researchers from China, South Korea, the USA, Japan, and New Zealand presented their research findings in that session. Since the conference was held on site many of the attendance asked questions about the research. Questions about the robot arm grasping, limitations of the research, and future works were widely discussed in the Q&A session after the presentation.
Figure 3: My presentation was displayed as this in the research timetable.
Figure 4: Some photos taken on conference site
Experience about the Conference
I came to the University of Aizu back at the end of 2019. Since then, I have participated in about four international conferences. All of them were held online because of Covid-19. This was my first on-site international conference participation after three years. I felt the difference between online and on-site conferences. In my thoughts, a research conference is not just for presenting research findings. It should be a platform for discussions for research, finding new trends, meeting, and making connections with the people in academia, and enjoying the whole atmosphere. Not like in an online conference, an on-site conference has all the qualities that I expect. In AIM 2022 I have experienced all the qualities that I expect. I have found new friends from academia, and I also enjoyed the chilly weather and surroundings in Sapporo during my free time.
Figure 5: Some photos taken in Sapporo. (Top: with the friends I made from different countries, bottom: photos from some iconic places in Sapporo)
On the final day of the conference, a technical tour of the vehicle robotics laboratory at, university of Hokkaido was held. Recent research trends in agriculture robotics were explained in a brief presentation and we had a tour of the robot garage that has many agricultural robots. It was a nice opportunity for me to identify the recent research trends and research area of agricultural robots.
Figure 6: Some photos taken during the technical tour to Hokkaido university. (Left: the presentation, Right: Robot garage with agricultural robots)
Finally, this was a good opportunity to straight my knowledge and gain more experience. I hope to participate more of these kind of international level in future.