Events

PAST EVENTS


20 Years Building Character Robots: Risk, Grit, and Real-World Impact
Jun
25

20 Years Building Character Robots: Risk, Grit, and Real-World Impact

  • Stanford Robotics Center, David Packard Electrical Engineering Bldg., basement (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Come meet Jérôme Monceaux, the visionary behind Nao and Pepper, two of the most iconic humanoid robots in the world. Today, he’s building the next generation of social robots at Enchanted Tools, with a radically different approach to design, mobility and user interaction. Live on-stage demo included.

RSVP required by Monday, June 23. The presentation is open to everyone.

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Cartography to shape morphing at many length scales
May
30

Cartography to shape morphing at many length scales

“Soft robots locomote by reshaping compliant bodies. However, precision control of large, reversible 3-D deformations with minimal hardware remains difficult. We tackle this by treating morphing as a geometric problem: prescribing an in-plane “metric actuation” field—coordinated local area expansions and contractions—changes a surface’s intrinsic curvature, causing a flat surface to autonomously adopt a prescribed 3-D form.”

The seminar is open to Stanford faculty, students, and sponsors.

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Won Kyung Do PhD Defense: "Improving Robotic Dexterity with Optical Tactile Sensor DenseTact"
May
29

Won Kyung Do PhD Defense: "Improving Robotic Dexterity with Optical Tactile Sensor DenseTact"

Dexterous manipulation - especially when objects are small, cluttered, or partially occluded - remains a complex challenge in robotics. In this talk, I present three approaches to tackling this problem using DenseTact, a family of soft, vision‑based tactile sensors.

The seminar is open to everyone.

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Rule Breakers: Movie Special Screening
Mar
3

Rule Breakers: Movie Special Screening

The Stanford Robotics Center and Graduate School of Business Women in Management cordially invite you to the screening of Rule Breakers, a dramatic feature film inspired by the true story of the Afghan all-girls robotics team who overcame tremendous obstacles to learn coding and robotics, and then traveled the world competing in international robotics competitions.

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Affordable Robots for Rehabilitation after Brain Injury Worldwide: Current Efforts and Barriers
Feb
18

Affordable Robots for Rehabilitation after Brain Injury Worldwide: Current Efforts and Barriers

Join us for an insightful seminar by Dr. Michelle J. Johnson, Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. A leading expert in rehabilitation robotics, Dr. Johnson will present her talk, "Affordable Robots for Rehabilitation after Brain Injury Worldwide: Current Efforts and Barriers."

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ReachBot: Locomotion and Manipulation with Exceptional Reach
Jan
31

ReachBot: Locomotion and Manipulation with Exceptional Reach

Join us for a seminar with Mark R. Cutkosky, Fletcher Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He will discuss ReachBot, a robotic system developed with NASA for mobility in challenging environments like Martian caves. ReachBot uses extendable booms for long-reach movement and secure grasping, requiring a motion planning approach similar to multi-fingered grasping. Mark will outline its design, recent field tests in the Mojave Desert, and potential future applications, including integration with mobile platforms like ANYmal.

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Creating Life-like Robots: From Musculoskeletal Designs to Biohybrid Innovations
Jan
24

Creating Life-like Robots: From Musculoskeletal Designs to Biohybrid Innovations

Join us for an exciting seminar with Robert Katzschmann, Assistant Professor of Robotics at ETH Zurich and founder of the Soft Robotics Lab. Discover how living robots, integrating biological cells and synthetic materials, are transforming the landscape of robotics with capabilities like growth, regeneration, and environmental adaptation. Robert will delve into recent breakthroughs in electrohydraulic musculoskeletal robotics, vision-controlled inkjet printing, and xolographic biofabrication.

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2025 Robotics Industry Outlook Webinar
Jan
21

2025 Robotics Industry Outlook Webinar

Join us for an engaging exploration of the robotics industry and what lies ahead in 2025. This webinar will dive into the latest market trends, cutting-edge technologies, and emerging applications that are shaping the future of robotics. We’ll also examine the state of various industries, offer predictions for the future, and uncover potential disruptions on the horizon.

Whether you're a developer, business leader, or robotics enthusiast, this session will provide valuable insights to help you stay ahead in this dynamic field.

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Space Autonomy Through the Lens of Foundation Models
Jan
17

Space Autonomy Through the Lens of Foundation Models

Join speaker Daniele Gammelli as they explore how advancements in foundation models are shaping the future of space autonomy. The talk will cover adapting foundation model techniques, like Transformers, for reliable decision-making in spacecraft trajectory optimization. Additionally, Daniele will highlight opportunities for pre-trained models in machine learning-based autonomy stacks, from data curation to modular reasoning, paving the way for a versatile Space Foundation Model.

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Active Compliance for Robust Manipulation
Jan
17

Active Compliance for Robust Manipulation

Join speaker Yifan Hou as they explore compliance in robotic manipulation—how the elastic relationship between force and motion enhances robustness. Yifan will present two methods: one using analytical modeling to compute optimal control and motion plans, and another introducing Adaptive Compliance Policy (ACP), a framework that learns dynamic compliance adjustments from human demonstrations.

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