Team NAIST-RITS-Panasonic, a team composed of members from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Ritsumeikan University (RITS) and the Robotics Hub of Panasonic Corporation, placed 1st in the Restock and Disposal task at the WRS Future Convenience Store Challenge (FCSC), a competition part of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2022), one of the most prestigious international robotics conferences in the world, held at the Kyoto International Conference Center, Kyoto, Japan, on October 23-27, 2022.
The FCSC is organized and sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of the Japanese government. In this competition, five teams gathered and benchmarked their cutting-edge technologies by competing in the Restock and Disposal task.
Team NAIST-RITS-Panasonic results:
Message from the Team Leader Gustavo Garcia:
With a strong passion for solving real-world problems with robotics technology and motivation to apply cutting-edge technology to on-site issues at convenience stores, based on our six years of experience in international robot contests, we participated in the competition as defending champions. Through strong teamwork, we were able to win the Restock and Disposal task and achieve our third consecutive victory.
We are grateful for the opportunity to present our research results to the world. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of our team members, the continuous support of Ritsumeikan University (RITS), the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) and the remarkable contributions of the Robotics Hub of Panasonic, our AI-powered robot solution has achieved state-of-the-art performance in service tasks. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Dr. Tadahiro Taniguchi (RITS), Prof. Dr. Tsukasa Ogasawara (NAIST), and Dr. Takeshi Ando (Panasonic Robotics Hub), who have supported us in pursuing our ambitions in international competitions.
Going forward, we will use AI x robotics technology to solve labor shortages, increase people's potential and QoL, and realize a "ubiquitous cooperative society of people and robots" where everyone can live happily.
Links: