2025 Midwest Robotics Workshop (MWRW)
June 2–3, 2025
Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago6045 S. Kenwood Avenue (map)
Chicago, IL 60637
Overview
The robotics field is experiencing tremendous growth as a result of algorithmic and technological advances, the availability of common, low-cost sensors and platforms, and a standardization in open-source development. These factors together with the growing community of talented, highly-trained roboticists combine to render feasible real-world applications in our homes and workplaces, and on our streets.
The Midwest Robotics Workshop (MWRW) is intended to bring together roboticists from academia and industry in and around the Midwestern United States. Building on successful workshops in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2024 it is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to share their work with others and to network, with the goal of creating a more cohesive and vibrant robotics community in the Midwest. The workshop will feature invited talks by leading researchers, and an exciting collection of oral presentations and interactive poster sessions.
If you have any questions, please contact the organizers.
Call for Participation
We invite all roboticists from the Midwest (broadly interpreted) to participate in the second annual Midwest Robotics Workshop to be held at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC) on the University of Chicago campus (map) on June 2–3, 2025.
We encourage participants to use the workshop as an opportunity to present recent research either as a talk or during an interactive poster session. If you are interested in presenting, please submit a title and abstract summarizing your work. Since the workshop does not have published proceedings, abstracts that describe work that was previously published or is still in progress are welcome.
Keynote Speakers
Matthew Johnson-Roberson (Vanderbilt University)
Advancing Autonomy: AI-driven Perception and Decision Making for Field Robotics
Matthew Johnson-Roberson is the inaugural Dean of the College of Connected Computing and a Professor at Vanderbilt University. Previously, he served as the Director of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute and a Professor of Computer Science. Prior to that, he was a Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 2010, followed by postdoctoral appointments with the Centre for Autonomous Systems (CAS) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney. He co-founded Refraction AI, a last-mile autonomous vehicle delivery company. His research career has focused extensively on robotic perception since the first DARPA Grand Challenge, emphasizing enabling robots to better see and understand their environment.
Kevin Lynch (Northwestern University)
Autonomous And Human-Collaborative Robotic Manipulation
Kevin Lynch is a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Center for Robotics and Biosystems at Northwestern University. His research is on robotic manipulation, locomotion, human-robot systems, and robot swarms. He is research director of the NSF Human AugmentatioN via Dexterity (HAND) Engineering Research Center, former Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation Conference Editorial Board, a coauthor of three textbooks on robotics and mechatronics, and the instructor of six Coursera online courses and the associated YouTube videos forming the Modern Robotics specialization. He received the B.S.E. degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and the Ph.D. degree in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.
Invited Speakers
MWRW 2025 will feature talks by senior researchers, early-career faculty, and students. Some of the confirmed speakers include:Designing Emotionally Intelligent and Empathetic Robots |
Cyber-Physical Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles |
Object Assembly: A Spatial-Geometric Reasoning Pathway to Physical Intelligence |
Social Robots for Enhancing Human Health and Flourishing |
Adaptive Model Predictive Control using Control Barrier Functions |
Bio-inspired Strategies for Designing Robotic Tails |
Locomotion via Adaptive Morphology |
Robotic Musculoskeletal Systems via Motorized Materials |
Biomimetic, Biohybrid, and Biodegradable: Robots for a Sustainable Future |
Perceiving and Manipulating Formless Objects with the Help of Touch |
Important Dates
| May 1, 2025* | Registration and Abstract Submission Deadline (Register here) |
| May 1, 2025 | Student Lodging Grant Application Deadline (Apply here) |
| June 2–3, 2025 | Workshop |
*Note: Registration will close early if we reach maximum capacity.
Program
The workshop will start at 09:00am on Monday and will end with lunch on Tuesday. Breakfast and lunch will be provided both days. The program will include invited and contributed talks, as well as poster sessions.
The following times are subject to change.
Monday, June 2
| 09:00–09:30am | Breakfast (provided) |
| 09:30am–09:45am | Welcoming Remarks |
| 09:45am–10:45am | Keynote Talk (Chair: Kathryn Daltorio) |
Autonomous And Human-Collaborative Robotic Manipulation | |
| 10:45am–12:25am | Invited/Contributed Talks (Chair: Dan Bruder) |
Bio-inspired Strategies for Designing Robotic Tails |
|
Social Robots for Enhancing Human Health and Flourishing |
|
Perceiving and Manipulating Formless Objects with the Help of Touch |
|
Adaptive Model Predictive Control using Control Barrier Functions |
|
A 3D Model Predicts Behavior of a Soft Bodied Worm Robot Performing Peristaltic Locomotion |
|
| 12:25pm–02:00pm | Lunch (provided) and Poster Session I |
| 02:00pm–03:20pm | Invited/Contributed Talks (Chair: Ram Vasudevan) |
Biomimetic, Biohybrid, and Biodegradable: Robots for a Sustainable Future |
|
Object Assembly: A Spatial-Geometric Reasoning Pathway to Physical Intelligence |
|
Locomotion via Adaptive Morphology |
|
Power in Security Robots: Exploring the Role of Social Power in Robot Acceptance and Trust |
|
| 03:20pm–05:00pm | Happy Hour and Poster Session II |
Tuesday, June 3
| 09:30am–11:00am | Breakfast (provided) and Poster Session III |
| 11:00am–12:00pm | Keynote Talk (Chair: Ram Vasudevan) |
Advancing Autonomy: AI-driven Perception and Decision Making for Field Robotics | 12:00pm–01:20pm | Invited/Contributed Talks (Chair: Matt Walter) |
Robotic Musculoskeletal Systems via Motorized Materials |
|
Designing Emotionally Intelligent and Empathetic Robots |
|
Cyber-Physical Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles |
|
Towards Joint-level Programmability in Soft Robots |
|
| 01:20pm–01:30pm | Closing Remarks and Best Poster Award Announcement |
| 01:30pm–02:30pm | Lunch (provided) |
Poster Session I (Monday)
Dynamic Whole-body Optimization for Humanoid Weightlifting
Intuitive Human-Robot Interaction For Assistive Robotics
Predictive Simulation of Sand Effects by Implementing Resistive Force Theory in a Physics Engine
Bayesian Optimization of CPG Control for Adaptive Flipper‑Based Locomotion
Investigating Bottlenose Dolphin Interactive Behavior and Movement: A Case Study
Investigating a Simplified Generalized Control Strategy Using Passive Elastic Forces During a Motor Learning Squat Task
Embodied Supervision: Haptic Display of Automation Command to Improve Supervisory Performance
Towards Physical-Interface Pressure Monitoring Outside the Laboratory: Merging Pressure and Force Information
Design and Experimental Validation of a Six-Legged Platform for Subsea Infrastructure Inspection
SPARK-Remote: A Cost-Effective System for Remote Bimanual Robot Teleoperation
Camera Pose Invariant Manipulation
Vision-Based Obstacle Avoidance and Flight Time Optimization in Tiny Drones Using Deep Reinforcement Learning
Worm-like Robotics Systems for Transporting Conduit Underground
A Customizable Fitting Protocol for the Body-Machine Interface
Autonomous Rover for Phenotyping
Polysectoid Worm: A Soft-Bodied Multisegmented Robot Based On Marine Annelids
Direct-Drive Grippers Designed by Ellipse Synthesis Across Two Output Modes
Offline-To-Online Hyperparameter Transfer For Stochastic Bandits
Quantifying User Adaptation Through Embedded Control Metrics in BoMI Systems
Improving Locomotion Speed of an Underwater Crab Robot in Granular Media through End-Effector Redesign
SuperQ-GRASP: Superquadrics-based Grasp Pose Estimation on Larger Objects for Mobile-Manipulation
Towards Ambiguity-Free Spatial Foundation Model: Rethinking and Decoupling Depth Ambiguity
Spatial Variation in Dolphin Energetics
Single Camera Distance Estimation and Correction
Safety Guarantees for Control of Fully Actuated Robots
Canonical Policy: Learning Canonical 3D Representation for Equivariant Policy
Kinodynamic Model Predictive Control for Energy Efficient Locomotion of Legged Robots with Parallel Elasticity
Poster Session II (Monday)
Learning Obstacle Avoidance for Agricultural Robot Navigation
Rethinking Measurement Selection: From Submodularity to Scalable Concavity
Robotic Rehabilitation for Neurological Conditions
Swimming Dynamics of a Soft Flagellated Robot in Low Reynolds Number Environment
Understanding Challenges & Adaptive Strategies for Bathing & Showering Among Adults with Mobility Disabilities: Insights for Designing a Soft Robotic Showerhead
Nodes for modes: Nodal honeycomb metamaterial enables a soft robot with multimodal locomotion
Human-in-the-Loop Heteroscedastic Multi-Objective Bayesian Optimization for Gait and Squat Controller Tuning
Exteroception through Proprioception: Sensing through Improved Contact Modeling for Soft Growing Robots
In-socket Pressure Characteristics for Passive and Active Transtibial Prostheses
Task-space Control for a Powered Knee-ankle Prosthesis
Towards a Unified Approach for Continuously-Variable Impedance Control of Powered Prosthetic Legs over Walking Speeds and Inclines
Benefits of Parallel Elasticity to Reduce RMS Knee Torque during Sit-to-Stand Transition
SplaTraj: Camera Trajectory Generation with Semantic Gaussian Splatting
Advantage-Aligned Active Online Reinforcement Learning with Offline Data
Dynamic Spring-Charging Locomotion Enabled by Mechanical Intelligence
A Wheel-Gripper: Multifunctional End-Effector for Wheel-legged Robots
Conformalized Reachable Sets for Obstacle Avoidance With Spheres
Cooperative Routing for UAV-UGV Teams Under Energy and Risk Constraints Using Attention-Guided Learning
Coordinating Spinal and Limb Dynamics for Enhanced Sprawling Robot Mobility
Design Tools for Spherical Mechanism Synthesis
Continuous Predictive Myoelectric Control in an Active-Powered Transtibial Prosthesis
Soft Wrist Exosuit Actuated by Fabric Pneumatic Artificial Muscles
ShrinkJourney: Consistent Model Accelerates Shared Autonomy
Learning for Multi-Robot Autonomy
Koopman Operator Based Linear MPC on Quadruped Locomotion: Bounding Trotting and Gaits Transition
Cable Untangling with a 5-DOF Tactile-Reactive Gripper
UMArm: Untethered Modular Arm with 12 DoF
Poster Session III (Tuesday)
PROGRESSOR: A Perceptually Guided Reward Estimator with Self-Supervised Online Refinement
Release Chamber Enables Suction Cup to Delaminate and Harvest Fluid
Tool-as-Interface: Learning Robot Policies from Human Tool Usage through Imitation Learning
Co-Designing Algorithms and Hardware for Efficient Machine Learning
Phasing Through the Flames: Rapid Motion Planning with the AGHF PDE for Arbitrary Objective Functions and Constraints
Soft Growing Continuum Robots for Use in Crash Safety
Whole-Body Contact Sensing via Distributed Low-Cost Joint Torque Sensors for Legged Robots
Proprioceptive soft-embedded bend sensor design for 3D shape estimation in soft robots
Analysis of Underwater Pipe Traversing Robot Locomotion Using Hall Effect Sensors
Learning Object-Centric Local Navigation from RGB Demonstrations
GelTrack: Dexterous In-hand manipulation with Vision-based Tacile Moving Surfaces
Towards Autonomous Trash Collection: Exploring Prompt Caching and Feature-rich Synthetic Trash Data for Improving Integration of Large Language Models with Robotic Systems
WheelArm-Sim: A Manipulation and Navigation Combined Multimodal Synthetic Data Generation Simulator for Unified Control in Assistive Robotics
TVBench: Benchmarking Tactile-Vision-Guided Policies for Learning Contact-Rich Manipulation
Strategies for Moment Compensation in Supernumerary Robotic Limbs Manipulation Tasks
A Physics-Informed Direct Data-Driven Approach to Optimal Charging of Batteries
A Cost-Effective Multi-Sensor Fusion Approach for Dead-Reckoning Trajectory Estimation in an Underwater Hexapod Robot
Semi Automated Biodiversity Assessment (XPRIZE Rainforest Competition)
A Reduced Order Model for Capturing Mechanical Interaction Phenomena in Woven Systems
Mobile Pedipulation for Object Sliding via a Wheeled Bipedal Robot
An In-cage Automated Training Manipulandum for Monkeys
Multi-modal Adaptable Robot Ball for Land Exploration(MARBLE)
"Design and Simulation of Soft
Creating Nasal Cycle Simulations by Image Morphing Algorithms
Novel Mobile Robots Lab
TALE-teller: Tendon-Actuated Linked Element Robotic Testbed for Investigating Tail Functions
Overhand Throwing of hook Objects with Tactile Sensing and Reinforcement Learning
Accommodations
There are several hotels nearby the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park, where TTIC is located. These include:
- The Study (a five minute walk from TTIC)
- Hyatt Place Chicago-South
- Sophy Hotel
See this list for more options, including hotels in downtown Chicago.
Lodging Grants: We will provide a limited number of grants for student lodging at a nearby hotel for the night of June 2. Please see the Registration section for information on how to apply.
Parking: Free parking is available in the commuter parking lot at 60th St. and Stony Island Ave. and free street parking on many streets near TTIC (just beware of "permit parking" and "street cleaning" signs!). Parking can be found on 61st Street (between Woodlawn Ave and Blackstone Ave), on Dorchester Street (between 60th and 61st Streets).
Registration
Registration: If you are interested in presenting your work as a poster or talk, or would like to simply attend the workshop, please sign up here. There is no cost to register. Please note that the schedule is pretty tight, so we may not be able to honor every presentation request.
Lodging Grants: We are awarding a limited number of lodging grants for students from outside the Chicagoland area who would like to attend. The grants will provide a one-night stay at a nearby hotel on June 2. Please fill out this form if you would like to apply.
Organizers
Daniel Bruder (University of Michigan)Kathryn Daltorio (Case Western Reserve University)
Ram Vasudevan (University of Michigan)
Matthew Walter (TTIC)
Last modified: May 17 2025 08:02:51