Summer Camp 2020

The first Summer Camp of Robotics by Design Lab took place On June 11th (at Strate and on the premises of our partners!).

The members of this unique project had the opportunity to gather for the first time, to unveil their topics, and to collectively reflect on the future of robotics. 

Such a busy and enriching day, both by the subjects discussed and by the exchanges with the collaborators who could, for too long, only communicate by email due to the lockdown!

In a room at Strate, among on-site guests and others in videoconference, Ioana Ocnarescu, director of Strate Research and of this brand-new laboratory, started the session by presenting the laboratory, its multidisciplinarity, origins, features and functioning. Sylvie Captain-Sass (researcher in neuroscience and teacher at Strate) was with us during the meeting as a graphic facilitator to offer us a clearer, more concise and graphic vision!

The guest: Catherine Simon, specialist in robotics

We were fortunate to welcome Catherine Simon, who came to share her vision of robotics with her presentation "Robots for peace", which she also displayed at UNESCO. Based on the 17 objectives of sustainable development, these robots for peace offer a way to valorize humans and the user by including robots and robotics in complex scenarios. Through separating the three notions of robot, robotic and robotics in more ways than one, Catherine Simon portrayed a world technologically inhabited by humans, where integrating and appropriating robotics will be the link allowing robots to contribute to answering the great challenges of our world. A more complete article on Catherine Simon's presentation will be available soon on our website.

Presentation of theses and partners

The four PhD students of RbD presented the main lines of their research, the context in which they will take place and their respective partners (industrial and academic). These perfectly mastered presentations by Nawelle Zaidi, Mégane Sartore, Antoine Auton and Hazar Zilelioglu, allowed us to identify some major common axes.

It was then our partners, both academic and industrial, who shared their points of view and their expectations from their involvement in Robotics by Design Lab. The presentations were organized around each thesis, allowing to visualize the various work synergies within RbD. Thus, Aude Letty (Korian Foundation for Ageing Well), Fabrice Flottes de Pouzols (Korian) and Thomas Watkins (Unimes) shared their views on Nawelle's thesis aimed at exploring the potential of robotics in residential care facilities for the elderly, in particular for the nursing staff. Clément Bataille (frog), Gabriele Breda (Altran), Hélène Chabert (BNP Paribas Cardif), Abdelghani Chibani and Ghazaleh Khodabandelou (lecturers at the UPEC) discussed in more detail Hazar's thesis on the tripartite relationship between human-animal-robot.

Then Louis-Romain Joly (SNCF) and Stéphanie Buisine (CESI) talked about the impact of robotics on well-being at work through the notion of Ikigaï proposed by Mégane. The session came to an end with Aymeric Masurelle (Spoon), regarding the challenges of Antoine’s research topic with Spoon's artificial creature, Spoony, covering the intentionality of the robot's creator, the personalization and personality of the robot itself, but also its integration in different environments.

Luisa Damiano and Gentiane Venture: robotics studied in real life

Luisa Damiano (University of Messina) specialized in "ethics and robotics" and Gentiane Venture (GV Lab of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology), the two foreign partners of Robotics by Design lab presented their research and shared their views on robotics. In line with what Strate Research has been developing for a few years now, the two researchers have been trying to understand what living with robots means. For Luisa Damiano, this requires an understanding of the ethical challenges of living together. As for Gentiane Venture, she is advocating to get robots out of the labs, confronting them with real life to find meaning and usefulness. Only by approaching robotics through all possible means: sociology, art, psychology, etc., we will be able to surpass its limits.

Searching for research axes

After a well-deserved break, the meetings went on with an ideation session to identify the thoughts and issues that were common to all partners, based on the morning exchanges. Helped by Sylvie Captain-Sass's analysis, the Robotics by Design Lab team grouped the most frequently addressed and discussed topics into large clusters. The different clusters were then grouped into themes: the will to conceive methodologies and tools for design and robotics, the relationship to the body and form in the embodiment cluster, a relational and sensible robotics, as well as a social ecology and robotics - a robolution.

The next step for Robotics by Design Lab is to develop common and transversal research axes from these themes! To be continued...