Climbing robots and vertical locomotion capabilities are essential for hazardous or hard-to-reach tasks, including search and rescue, planetary exploration, construction, and infrastructure maintenance. Despite their promise, these robots face intricate challenges involving coupled locomotion, manipulation, and grasping, which require various locomotion mechanisms, specialized end-effectors, motion planning, control, and detailed contact dynamics modeling. Additionally, climbing robots must effectively manage uncertainties through robust perception and accurate state estimation. This unique combination of challenges provides an exciting opportunity to design robotic systems and mechanisms with practical constraints for real applications. 

We propose a dedicated workshop at IROS to advance the practical application of climbing robots. This workshop will convene researchers and engineers from various backgrounds, from academia to industry, to discuss cutting-edge advancements in climbing robotics, along with different opportunities for climbing robots. It will provide a forum for exchanging ideas on mechanical design, gripper technologies, sensing, control methodologies, and planning strategies, facilitating the transition from theoretical innovations to real-world implementations. Renowned experts and emerging innovators will share insights into recent progress in vertical mobility technologies, including novel grasping end-effectors, actuation systems, tactile sensing, and diverse climbing locomotion mechanisms. We also plan on hosting panel discussions with industry partners and researchers, which will actively engage participants from multidisciplinary backgrounds to explore unconventional applications and foster original thinking.

The workshop will include live robot demonstrations, poster sessions, and presentations from early-career researchers, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration and the potential for climbing technologies in novel application domains.

Workshop Archives

 All of the workshop contents, robot demos, posters, abstracts will be posted on this website.