Proposal for Workshop at I-RIM 2025 1. Workshop Title: Out of the Lab: Challenges and Opportunities in Field Robotics 2. Organizers (alphabetical order): • Dario Calogero Guastella, University of Catania, Italy, dario[email protected] • Martina Lippi, Roma Tre University, Italy,
[email protected] (corresponding organizer) • Lorenzo Scalera, University of Udine, Italy,
[email protected] 3. Workshop Format: Invited talks and open for submissions through extended abstracts. 4. Workshop Objectives and Main Topics: Field robotics focuses on automating complex tasks through robotic platforms operating in outdoor, dynamic, unstructured, and often harsh environments. This includes diverse settings such as agriculture, search-and-rescue missions, construction sites, forests, underwater exploration, and mining operations. These scenarios are characterized by variability, uncertainty, and limited infrastructure, requiring robots to adapt in real time to unforeseen changes. In recent years, field robotics has seen substantial advancements, driven by progress in robotic hardware, advanced control and perception methodologies, artificial intelligence, sensor and computational technologies, which have enhanced the capabilities of robotic systems, enabling more effective perception, planning, and decision-making in complex environments. Despite these advancements, field robotics remains a highly challenging domain. Among the key open problems that this workshop aims to discuss there are: i) the design of robust and adaptive control, planning and algorithms capable of responding to real-time changes and uncertainties; ii) the development of advanced perception systems that can use noisy, multimodal sensor data under adverse conditions such as occlusion, poor lighting, or GPS-denied settings; iii) the development of durable and reliable robots that can operate autonomously and continuously in harsh and variable conditions, considering limited energy resources; iv) the effective identification and handling of possible faults and the interaction with humans to support supervision, intervention, and improved mission outcomes. In summary, this workshop aims to explore the current state-of-the-art on the above challenges in field robotics, with a focus on control, perception, planning, and decision-making, as well as on the design and deployment of robotic platforms and sensors suited for real-world, unstructured applications. The goal is to identify what is the current status of the research and what are the principal limitations that still hinder practical deployment, and foster discussion on promising directions for future research. 5. Keywords: Field robotics; aerial vehicles; ground vehicles; underwater vehicles; agricultural robotics; search and rescue; navigation, planning and control in unstructured environments; construction tasks; deployment in highly challenging environments; safety; environment monitoring; perception for dynamic environments. 6. Preferred Date: Both dates are fine. 2025 I-RIM Conference October 17-19, Rome, Italy ISBN: 9788894580570 =CONCATENATE("10.5281/zenodo.", J6) 8
7. List of Speakers (alphabetical order): • Victor Barasuol, Senior Researcher, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) (Pending) • Marco Camurri, Associate Professor, University of Trento (Confirmed) • Karl Dietrich von Ellenrieder, Full Professor, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Confirmed) • Andrea Gasparri, Full Professor, Roma Tre University (Confirmed) The selected speakers represent a diverse range of research topics and perspectives within field robotics, including both leading academics and a senior researcher from the IIT research center. This mix ensures a broad view that bridges theoretical research and practical applications in real-world environments. 8. Expected Number of Attendees: We expect about 20-30 people to attend the workshop, based on previous experience at similar events. In case the conference organizers allow the possibility of a hybrid workshop, we expect about 30-40 people since no traveling is necessary to join it. 9. Target Audience: The workshop is tailored towards researchers (in both academia and industry) interested at field robotics scenarios and closely related problems such as control, sensing, robotics and artificial intelligence in unstructured and dynamic environments. 10. Workshop Outcomes: The workshop is intended to provide a forum for critical reflection on the current challenges and limitations of field robotics, with the aim of fostering constructive dialogue that may create new research collaborations, cross-disciplinary innovations, and future community-driven initiatives. As mentioned in the next point, we plan to additionally organize a special session at an international conference as an outcome of the workshop. 11. Plan for Special Issue or Session: Following the workshop, we plan to organize a special session at forthcoming conferences relevant to the I-RIM community (e.g., IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering). This session will highlight progress and ongoing challenges in field robotics and autonomous robot operations in natural environments, thereby amplifying the workshop’s impact and encouraging continued discussion within the research community. 12. Call for Extended Abstracts: We will encourage the submission of extended abstracts through IRIM submission system which will foster the possibility to discuss the proposed ideas with experts in the field. Different communication channels will be exploited to advertise the workshop and solicit participation and submission of abstracts: i) a dedicated website will be developed where all the relevant information of the workshop will be reported; ii) an announcement of the workshop will be made in the main robotic mailing lists the organizers are part of. The main topics of the workshop as well as a link to the dedicated website will be included in the email; iii) an advertisement will be made on the websites of the organizers; and iv) the organizers and their research groups will promote the upcoming workshop in seminars given by them to other researchers. 13. Workshop Webpage: https://field-robotics-ws.github.io/irim-2025/ 14. Notes on Registration: We will first offer the free one-day registrations to the youngest invited speakers, and, if not needed, we will offer them to more senior speakers. 9
