The AIRPHARO workshop will focus on a high growth area of both research and industry, the use of aerial robots for physical interaction with people and the environment.

The scope of the workshop includes technologies, functionalities, regulation and safety issues, applications and education related to aerial manipulation and transportation. The technologies encompass aerial manipulation, soft aerial robots and compliance, bio-inspiration, teleoperation, hybrid aerial/ground/marine interaction, recharging/refueling and multi-robot cooperation with physical interaction. The functionalities include contact inspection, transportation, deployment and retrieval, co-working with humans, sampling and cleaning. The main application areas are inspection and maintenance, agriculture, construction, environment protection, firefighting and healthcare. Regulation and safety issues involving risk analysis, and education including educational prototypes and software tools are also included in the scope.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: design and control of aerial manipulators (AM), autonomy, AM control architectures, biologically inspired AM, perception for physical interaction, navigation, multi-robot collaboration, machine learning for AM, mission planning, AM applications.