Workshop overview
Traditional robotic systems and robot control strategies fear impacts: contact is either totally avoided or established at almost zero speed. In impact-aware manipulation and locomotion, contact is intentionally established at non-negligible speed, reducing execution time and energy consumption. This workshop is intended to cover the various aspects defining impact-aware robotics, such as modeling, planning, control, learning, sensing, and design, where object-environment dynamic interactions and corresponding sudden velocity jumps and vibrations are specifically addressed. More specifically, the workshop will provide the audience with an overview on control strategies for robot manipulation and locomotion involving dynamic interaction between the robot and the environment; new developments in modeling and simulation of robot dynamics with impact, friction, and flexibility effects; experimental validation of robot-object-environment dynamic models; contact detection and robot-object velocity estimation in the presence of impacts; impact-resilient robot design, including damping of mechanical vibrations due to intentional collisions.