On behalf of the Organising and Advisory Committee we take great pleasure in welcoming scientists, researchers, students and experts in Robotics to Loughborough for the 2nd Robotics and Autonomous Systems Conference to foster the progress in the robotics field at what promises to be a very comprehensive and exciting meeting, specifically for PhD students & early-career robotics researchers of the UK-RAS Network. This year’s theme covers ‘Embedded Intelligence’ and how it enables and supports RAS technologies.

The aim of the UKRAS19 is to promote quality research, networking and community building for PhD students and practitioners in the frontier of science and technology in intelligent robots and systems, by discussing the latest advancements in this fast growing and exciting field.

This year, the conference’s focus is on Embedded Intelligence (EI) which is defined as the ability of a product, process or service to reflect on its own operational performance, usage load, or environment, to enhance the product performance and lifetime, to increase quality or to ensure customer satisfaction. This strategy, when applied to Robotics and Autonomous Systems, opens new avenues for the creation of knowledge and the acceleration of impacts across many sectors and industries. The call for papers is now open and we are looking for submissions in four broad themes:

• AI & Robotics
• Service Robotics

• Extreme Environment Robotics
• Field Robotics


Background
Following the success and great feedback of the inaugural event last year, the conference aims to provide a much needed opportunity for PhD and Early-Career Researchers to participate in a robotics conference that opens subsequent opportunities through entry to the UK-RAS Proceedings as well as pre-selection of the best paper winners to other conferences such as TAROS and the Hamlyn Symposium.

This annual event attracted over 180 delegates last year and offers a vibrant community intent on sharing, exchanging and exploring new avenues and latest developments of Robotics and Autonomous Systems. The event will have 4-5 international Plenary speakers, followed by conference presenters, poster presentation, lab tours and demos.

The benefits to the attendants are:

Establishing their academic and professional relationships;
Improving their motivation and confidence in presenting research to an international audience;
Networking with other experts in related research areas;
Creating opportunities for publication and further conference presentation opportunities at TAROS (Towards Autonomous Robotics Systems) conference.
Paper Submission General Guidelines:
Authors must submit a 2 page abstract structured in 5 sub-headings as below:

1. Purpose;
2. Design/methodology/approach;
3. Findings if paper is empirical;
4. Research limitations/implications;
5. Originality/value of the paper.

In addition provide up to six keywords which encapsulate the principal topics covers and categorise your paper.