The year 2020, although severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, still provided us with fascinating events in the area of technology and robotics. In the aftermath of the coronavirus situation, some of the planned events were canceled or postponed though. Let’s see what the most interesting technology and robotics events did occur in 2020.

Contents

CES 2020
International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2020
European Rover Challenge 2020
Global Robot Expo 2020
International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2020
Robotworld 2020
International Conference on Computer-Human Interaction Research and Applications (CHIRA) 2020
ROS World (ROSCon) 2020

CES 2020

January 7–10, 2020, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

CES, which stands for Consumer Electronics Show, is the world's largest trade show held annually in January in Las Vegas, Nevada, and sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association. The event showcases new products, prototypes, and emerging technologies in the consumer electronics industry.

The CES 2020 provided the participating companies with an excellent opportunity to build their brands, launch products, and form partnerships.

As usual, the event took place in Las Vegas in January just before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic was unleashed in the United States. 

Interestingly, Leo Rover (Turtle back then) was used as an exhibition robot during CES 2019.

International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2020

May 31 – August 31, 2020, virtually

International Conference on Robotics and Automation is an annual academic meeting devoted to advances in robotics. It's one of the leading conferences of this kind. It gathers renowned researchers and companies to share advances and ideas in the field.

The 2020 edition of ICRA was held between 31 May and 31 August. The event had been re-envisaged to be conducted in the form of a virtual conference, having in mind the safety of the community and ensuring an inclusive experience for three months' time.

See more here.

European Rover Challenge 2020

September 11–13, 2020, Kielce, Poland

Annually held in Poland, European Rover Challenge is the largest international robotics and space event in Europe. It brings together experts in planetary robotics, Mars rover designers as well as representatives of business and science, the sector of new technologies, and the general public interested in the field. 

The ERC from 2020 took place in Kielce, Poland, on September 11-13 and it was the first edition of this event to allow participants from universities all over the world to remotely join in for the challenge, making the ERC Remote Edition. 

We, the Leo Rover team, had the pleasure to support the ERC 2020 as a technical partner. The participating teams remotely connected to Leo Rover and with the use of a special interface were able to perform the tasks.

See more here.

Global Robot Expo 2020

October 20–21, 2020, virtually

Global Robot Expo is a B2B international trade show on innovation, robotics, and related technologies. The event is annually held in Madrid, Spain.

The multi-sector nature of GR-EX makes it truly unique and enables to create synergies between innovative companies. The event showcases the latest developments in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, logistics, and many others. 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of GR-EX, originally planned for April 2020 in Madrid, took place in October in a virtual form.

International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2020

October 25, 2020 – January 24, 2021, virtually

International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) presents leading-edge research in the field of robotics. The event is devoted to future directions in robotics, designs, the latest approaches, and outcomes. In addition to this, IROS gives an opportunity to establish contacts with the world's most eminent roboticists.

The 2020 edition of the conference was not held in person. Participants could access the content of the conference via the platform IROS On-Demand. 

See more here.

Robotworld 2020

October 28–31, 2020, Seoul, Korea

Robotworld is Korea's number 1 robot exhibition and one of the three largest international robot shows. It comprises of exhibition, competition, and conference. Since 2006, it's been held annually in October. 

The event provides companies with the opportunity to increase product awareness and reach out to potential customers.

Being a global exhibition for robotics companies worldwide, the Robotworld has been a reliable base for the revival of business and the expansion of robot demand.

See more here.

International Conference on Computer-Human Interaction Research and Applications (CHIRA) 2020

International Conference on Computer-Human Interaction Research and Applications (CHIRA) aims at bringing together students, academics, and professionals interested in improving the research and practical applications of human-technology and human-computer interactions.

Due to COVID-19, the 2020 edition of CHIRA was exceptionally held as a web-based event.

Several aspects of computer-human interactions were addressed in four parallel tracks: Adaptive and Intelligent Systems, Human Factors and Information Systems, Interaction Design, and Interactive Devices.

Apart from paper presentations, the program of the event also consisted of four keynote talks delivered by world-renowned speakers.

See more here.

ROS World (ROSCon) 2020

November 12, 2020, virtually

ROS World (ROSCon) is a ROS developers' conference held annually since 2012.

The two-day conference featured technical talks that presented and explained how to use tools and libraries, shared techniques, and described the best practices.

With the wide and growing adoption of ROS across the entire robotics community, ROSCon provides a forum in which community members can meet and discuss software engineering and development with the use of a common language.

The ROS World 2020 was a one-day event, live-streamed event.

See more here.

The show must go on

That would be it for the most interesting technology and robotics events in 2020. If it hadn’t been for the coronavirus situation, our list would be longer. As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll and because of that, a lot of such events were canceled. But fortunately, we did get to see some of them :)