Collaborative robots (Cobots) are intended to safely operate alongside humans. They need the software capabilities to be quickly deployable in a new environment and set to work on a potentially difficult task with minimum effort and without the need for expert programming. The human-robot collaboration (HRC) field has provided tools like learning by demonstration and task learning to address some of these problems. Techniques like deep learning and reinforcement learning are rapidly advancing towards a robot autonomously acquiring complex skills.

Industry 4.0 has also introduced new challenges, requiring production units to be no longer isolated with highly specialized tasks, but gathered in a fully integrated and optimized production flow. As a result, the production volume can be easily aligned to the market fluctuation and the product diversity can increase to better meet the customer needs. In this new scenario, Cobots are intelligent machines that can be integrated into the labor force to increase the overall productivity. The main challenge here is to achieve human manipulation and grasping capabilities to fulfill similar tasks.

This workshop will bring together participants from academia and industry alike to share advancements and new technologies in the field of collaborative robotics. The attendees of this workshop will be introduced to collaborative robotics and learning techniques from academic experts in the field. Experts from the industry will explain the current needs in industrial manufacturing and robotics, which will inspire researchers with challenges drawn from real use case scenarios. Experts from the academia will bring the latest advancements in the field, providing potential new solutions to real problems. The organizers and the invited speakers of this workshop have a multidisciplinary background that will stimulate interesting discussions, promote the cross-fertilization of ideas and encourage future collaborations.