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Workshops
Multispectral perception for robots (MP4Rob)
Description and scope
The aim and scope of the MP4Rob workshop, as part of the ICRA’26 conference, is to bring together industry, researchers, professionals, policy makers, stakeholders and experts in multispectral sensory perception for robots. Participants are welcome to discuss current and future challenges of multispectral perception systems (e.g., involving RGB, IR, RR, LWIR (Thermal), hyperspectral, LIDAR-based, separated or combining bands) applied to robot application domains: terrestrial, marine, aerial, space, industrial, humanoids, vehicular. The MP4Rob WS will emphasize approaches and techniques that combine more than one sensory-band/channel (e.g., RGB+Thermal, NIR+SAR, TIR+LiDAR-channels) towards real-world perspectives in robotics – as illustrated in Fig1. The key scientific and technological objectives of the workshop are to discuss ongoing and promising challenges and opportunities (during the keynote speakers’ session and the Posters’ session) related to the following areas:
• Multispectral sensory perception for robots and/or robotic systems (including but not limited to UAV, UGV, automated machines, autonomous vehicles, multi-scale sensing).
• AI/ML and multiple sensors/spectral-bands systems as part of perception and situational awareness systems to support inference and decision-making of robots operating in real-world conditions.
• Industry/non-academia deployment of robotics, reliable AI, and sensor-fusion systems using multispectral and/or hyperspectral sensory data.
Topics of interest
We want to encourage discussion of current and new challenges in the various topics of multispectral perception for robots. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
1) Multispectral perception systems for robots and/or autonomous robotic vehicles
2) AI (including ML and DL) for multispectral perception
3) Multisensory robot perception
4) Multisensory data representation and multi-scale sensing
5) Combination/fusion of multi-sensory spectra in perception systems
6) Multispectral sensing for UAS and remote sensing (low/middle/high altitude systems)
7) Trends and emerging technologies on multispectral sensing
8) Multispectral sensing for industrial, indoors, outdoors, field, agricultural or forestry robots
9) Test-cases, scenarios, real-world deployments
10) Artificial intelligence influence on multispectral perception
11) Cyber security for multispectral/multisensory robot perception
12) Reliable/Explainable/Interpretable AI/ML and sensor-fusion for robotics
13) Standardization, interoperability, and regulations
Objectives
The key scientific and technological objectives of the MP4Rob workshop are to discuss ongoing and promising challenges and opportunities (during the keynote speakers’ session and the Posters’ session) related to the following areas:
• Multispectral / multisensory-bands perception systems for robots and autonomous vehicles (UAV, UGV, automated machines).
• AI/ML and advanced learning models applied to multispectral sensor-fusion as part of perception and situational awareness systems to support inference and decision-making of robots operating in real-world conditions.
• Calibrated, probabilistic, explainable, interpretable, multimodal AI-based and sensor-fusion systems to increase reliability and robustness of multispectral perception for robots.
Preliminary Programme
| Time | Talk / Programme | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 8:45 | Welcome and opening | Online session will be provided |
| 9:00 | #talk1: Keynote speaker | 15 min + 5min Q&A |
| 9:20 | #talk2: Keynote speaker | 15 min + 5min Q&A |
| 09:40 | Coffee Break + Poster Session + networking | 50 min (poster evaluation) |
| 10:30 | #talk3: Keynote speaker | 15 min + 5min Q&A |
| 10:50 | #talk4: Keynote speaker | 15 min + 5min Q&A |
| 11:10 | PhD students and early-career researchers | 50 min (short talks, 2min Q&A) |
| 12:00 | Open discussions + Best poster award & Closing | Round-table + Q&A + awards |
Invited speakers
Name: Micael Couceiro (CEO)
Affiliation: Ingeniarius Lda, PT
Webpage: link
Tentative title: “Human-Aware Collaborative Robots in the Wild”
Background: industry / company
Affiliation: Ingeniarius Lda, PT
Webpage: link
Tentative title: “Human-Aware Collaborative Robots in the Wild”
Background: industry / company
Name: Howard Wu (CEO)
Affiliation: AntoBot Ltd, UK
Webpage: link
Tentative title: “Robot Navigation in Semi-Structured Horticulture Environments”
Background: industry / company
Affiliation: AntoBot Ltd, UK
Webpage: link
Tentative title: “Robot Navigation in Semi-Structured Horticulture Environments”
Background: industry / company
Name: Bas Boom (group leader)
Affiliation: IMEC-One Planet, NL
Webpage: link
Tentative title: “Robotic Pruning for Apple Orchards”
Background: non-academia
Affiliation: IMEC-One Planet, NL
Webpage: link
Tentative title: “Robotic Pruning for Apple Orchards”
Background: non-academia
Name: Filipe Neves dos Santos (TEC4AGRO-FOOD, Founder & Manager of TRIBE Lab)
Affiliation: FEUP, INESC-TEC, TEC4AGRO-FOOD | Founder of TRIBE LAB
Webpage: link
Tentative title: “Perception for Agricultural Robotics: Harvesting and Pruning uses cases”
Background: academia & non-academia
Affiliation: FEUP, INESC-TEC, TEC4AGRO-FOOD | Founder of TRIBE LAB
Webpage: link
Tentative title: “Perception for Agricultural Robotics: Harvesting and Pruning uses cases”
Background: academia & non-academia
Organizers
C. Premebida, C. Liu, T. Barros, L.V. Calderita, F. Auat-Cheein