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The First WARA Robotics Mobile Manipulation Challenge - Lessons Learned

Dominguez, David Caceres ; Iannotta, Marco ; Kashyap, Abhishek ; Sun, Shuo ; Yang, Yuxuan ; Cella, Christian ; Colombo, Matteo ; Pelosi, Martina ; Preziosa, Giuseppe F. and Tafuro, Alessandra , et al. (2025) 12th European Conference on Mobile Robots, ECMR 2025
Abstract

The first WARA Robotics Mobile Manipulation Challenge, held in December 2024 at ABB Corporate Research in Vasteras, Sweden, addressed the automation of task-intensive and repetitive manual labor in laboratory environments - specifically the transport and cleaning of glassware. Designed in collaboration with AstraZeneca, the challenge invited academic teams to develop autonomous robotic systems capable of navigating human-populated lab spaces and performing complex manipulation tasks, such as loading items into industrial dishwashers. This paper presents an overview of the challenge setup, its industrial motivation, and the four distinct approaches proposed by the participating teams. We summarize lessons learned from this edition and... (More)

The first WARA Robotics Mobile Manipulation Challenge, held in December 2024 at ABB Corporate Research in Vasteras, Sweden, addressed the automation of task-intensive and repetitive manual labor in laboratory environments - specifically the transport and cleaning of glassware. Designed in collaboration with AstraZeneca, the challenge invited academic teams to develop autonomous robotic systems capable of navigating human-populated lab spaces and performing complex manipulation tasks, such as loading items into industrial dishwashers. This paper presents an overview of the challenge setup, its industrial motivation, and the four distinct approaches proposed by the participating teams. We summarize lessons learned from this edition and propose improvements in design to enable a more effective second iteration to take place in 2025. The initiative bridges an important gap in effective academia-industry collaboration within the domain of autonomous mobile manipulation systems by promoting the development and deployment of applied robotic solutions in real-world laboratory contexts.

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organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Collaborative Robotics, Lab Automation, Mobile Manipulation
host publication
2025 European Conference on Mobile Robots, ECMR 2025 - Proceedings
editor
Gasteratos, Antonios ; Bellotto, Nicola and Tortora, Stefano
publisher
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
conference name
12th European Conference on Mobile Robots, ECMR 2025
conference location
Padua, Italy
conference dates
2025-09-02 - 2025-09-05
external identifiers
  • scopus:105018222663
ISBN
9798331527051
DOI
10.1109/ECMR65884.2025.11163319
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
643970cf-2b89-43cb-a55a-65fc4976f46c
date added to LUP
2025-11-28 11:16:41
date last changed
2025-11-28 11:17:39
@inproceedings{643970cf-2b89-43cb-a55a-65fc4976f46c,
  abstract     = {{<p>The first WARA Robotics Mobile Manipulation Challenge, held in December 2024 at ABB Corporate Research in Vasteras, Sweden, addressed the automation of task-intensive and repetitive manual labor in laboratory environments - specifically the transport and cleaning of glassware. Designed in collaboration with AstraZeneca, the challenge invited academic teams to develop autonomous robotic systems capable of navigating human-populated lab spaces and performing complex manipulation tasks, such as loading items into industrial dishwashers. This paper presents an overview of the challenge setup, its industrial motivation, and the four distinct approaches proposed by the participating teams. We summarize lessons learned from this edition and propose improvements in design to enable a more effective second iteration to take place in 2025. The initiative bridges an important gap in effective academia-industry collaboration within the domain of autonomous mobile manipulation systems by promoting the development and deployment of applied robotic solutions in real-world laboratory contexts.</p>}},
  author       = {{Dominguez, David Caceres and Iannotta, Marco and Kashyap, Abhishek and Sun, Shuo and Yang, Yuxuan and Cella, Christian and Colombo, Matteo and Pelosi, Martina and Preziosa, Giuseppe F. and Tafuro, Alessandra and Zappa, Isacco and Busch, Finn and Dong, Yifei and Longhini, Alberta and Lu, Haofei and Cabral Muchacho, Rafael I. and Styrud, Jonathan and Fregnan, Sebastiano and Guberina, Marko and Jia, Zheng and Carriero, Graziano and Lindqvist, Sofia and Castro, Silvio Di and Iovino, Matteo}},
  booktitle    = {{2025 European Conference on Mobile Robots, ECMR 2025 - Proceedings}},
  editor       = {{Gasteratos, Antonios and Bellotto, Nicola and Tortora, Stefano}},
  isbn         = {{9798331527051}},
  keywords     = {{Collaborative Robotics; Lab Automation; Mobile Manipulation}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}},
  title        = {{The First WARA Robotics Mobile Manipulation Challenge - Lessons Learned}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ECMR65884.2025.11163319}},
  doi          = {{10.1109/ECMR65884.2025.11163319}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}