With a focus on introducing leading technology trends, creating actionable change, and building collaborated partnerships in Academia and Industrial practices, NCRA conducted its 4th IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Industry (ICRAI). The conference agenda included multiple sessions of research presentations from national and international researchers. The conference has become one of the leading international forums in Pakistan for researchers, practitioners and educators in Robotics and Automation to present their work.
A two-day ICRAI was organized by the National Centre of Robotics & Automation (NCRA) at NUST College of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering (CEME), Rawalpindi on October 26 & 27, 2021. NCRA serves as a leading technological hub within the domain of Robotics and Automation in Pakistan. The Centre aims at using the highly skilled researchers, scientists, and experts of robotics and automation towards generation of human and technical resources based on our innate strengths towards transforming Pakistan into one of the technologically advanced nations of the world.
With the theme of “Robotics & Automation in Industry”, the two-day conference had several sub-events such as keynote speeches by leading international experts in Robotics, research paper presentations, an industrial exhibition and mesmeric opening & closing ceremonies.
Executive Director HEC, Dr. Shaista Sohail inaugurated the conference and expressed her well wishes to the organizers of the conference. During her address she applauded Department of Mechatronics Engineering CEME and NCRA for arranging the conference during pandemic and said that such conferences not only bring together experts in the relevant fields and pave the way for forging meaningful academic and research collaborations, but also inspire disruptive innovation among students and researchers.
The conference was also broadcasted live via a fully interactive virtual platform. A total of 9 sessions were held based on multiple themes, and a total of 53 research papers were presented to the conference in below mentioned themes:
- Robotics & Automation
- Image Processing and Motion Planning
- Sensors and Actuators, and AI, Deep Learning & IOT
- Smart Algorithms
- Biomedical
- Control Systems
A best session paper was awarded in each session based on the scores of chairing committees. Amongst these best session papers, a best conference papers were selected having best overall score and reviews. The Best Conference Paper award was presented to Ms. Zorah Bilal Ahmad for her paper Design of a Low Voltage and High Capacitance Tuning Ratio Electrothermally Actuated RF-MEMS Varactor using Standard Microfabrication Constraints. The Author was also awarded with an amount of USD 100 as cash prize.
The highlight of the conference were three international speakers from Canada, USA and UK which presented their keynote speeches in their respective area of expertise:
- Prof Dr. William Melek , Director RoboHUB, University of Waterloo, Canada delivered his keynote on “Safe and reliable human-
machine interaction/collaboration robots for industrial settings.” - Prof Dr Manoj Karkee from Washington State University, USA, delivered his keynote address on “AI and Robotics in Production Agriculture: Global Perspective and Local Context.”
- Prof Dr Carl Diver, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK gave his keynote talk on “Industry 4.0, Towards Sustainable Production.”
The conference also included an Industrial Exhibition, Workshop on UR5 Robot and TRIZ session. The representatives of NCRA’s labs and members of robotics and intelligent manufacturing companies also participated in the exhibition. The conference provided a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners, and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Robotics and Automation.
The author is the Research, M&E Officer at the National Centre of Robotics and Automation (NCRA) hosted at the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (CEME), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST). She can be reached at jannat@ncra.org.pk.
