Duckies and Robots: a poetic tribute ICRA is the largest conference on Robotics and Automation. This year, the robotics community reflected on the strong and natural relationship between robots and rubber duckies. This is the result: Duckies and Robots: Selected Poems Please vote your favorite poem using this form. We will award a special prize (a functional duckie-robot hybrid) to the author of the most favorited poem.

Duckies and Robots: a video tribute

Furthermore, the robotics community created a series of video tributes to the rubber duckies.

Episode 1: Flying robots

These are the papers featured in this episode. Please feel free to contact the authors for more information.

Dynamic Underactuated Flying-Walking (DUCK) Robot Christopher J. Pratt and Kam K. Leang University of Utah Robotics Center, University of Utah

Saccade Mirror 3: High-speed gaze controller with ultra wide gaze control range using triple rotational mirrors Kazuhisa Iida, Hiromasa Oku Gunma University

Trajectory Generation for Quadrotor based Systems using Numerical Optimal Control Mathieu Geisert, Nicolas Mansard LAAS-CNRS

The Flying Monkey: a Mesoscale Robot that can Run, Fly, and Grasp Yash Mulgaonkar, Brandon Araki, Je-sung Koh, Luis Guerrero-Bonilla, Daniel M. Aukes, Anurag Makineni, Michael T. Tolley, Daniela Rus, Robert J. Wood, Vijay Kumar UPenn, Harvard, MIT, UCSD

Episode 2: Daily life activities

These are the papers featured in this episode. Please feel free to contact the authors for more information.

Multi-Sensor Surface Analysis for Robotic Ironing Yinxiao Li, Xiuhan Hu, Danfei Xu, Yonghao Yue, Eitan Grinspun, Peter K. Allen Columbia University

Deep Spatial Autoencoders for Visuomotor Learning Chelsea Finn, Xin Yu Tan, Yan Duan, Trevor Darrell, Sergey Levine, Pieter Abbeel UC Berkeley

An ISO10218-compliant adaptive damping controller for safe Physical Human-Robot Interaction Benjamin Navarro, Andrea Cherubini, Aicha Fonte, Robin Passama, Gerard Poisson, and Philippe Fraisse PRISME Laboratory, University of Orléans

Robotic Disease Detection in Greenhouses Noa Schor, Avital Bechar, Timea Ignat, Aviv Dombrovsky, Yigal Elad, Sigal Berman ABC robotics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Episode 3: Incredible machines

These are the papers featured in this episode. Please feel free to contact the authors for more information.

Printable Hydraulics: A Method for Fabricating Robots by 3D Co-Printing Solids and Liquids Robert MacCurdy, Robert Katzschmann, Youbin Kim, Daniela Rus MIT

Triple Scissor Extender: A 6-DOF Lifting and Positioning Robot Daniel J. Gonzalez and H. Harry Asada MIT

Hierarchical Planning of Dynamic Movements without Scheduled Contact Sequences Carlos Mastalli, Ioannis Havoutis, Michele Focchi, Darwin G. Caldwell, Claudio Semini Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)

The effect of shapes in input-state linearization for stabilization of nonprehensile planar rolling dynamic manipulation Vincenzo Lippiello, Fabio Ruggiero, Bruno Siciliano University of Naples

Aggressive Driving with Model Predictive Path Integral Control Grady Williams, Paul Drews, Brian Goldfain, James Rehg, and Evangelos A. Theodorou Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, Georgia Institute of Technology

Episode 4: Mini-micro robots

These are the papers featured in this episode. Please feel free to contact the authors for more information.

Modular Hydraulic Propulsion: A Robot that Moves by Routing Fluid Through Itself Matthew J. Doyle, Xinyu Xu, Yue Gu, Fernando Perez-Diaz, Christopher Parrott and Roderich Groß University of Sheffield

Visual Tracking of Biopsy Needles in 2D Ultrasound Images Mert Kaya, Enes Senel, Awais Ahmad, Ozkan Bebek Ozyegin University

Compensation for Unconstrained Catheter Shaft Motion in Cardiac Catheters Paul M. Loschak, Alperen Degirmenci, Cory M. Tschabrunn, Elad Anter, Robert D. Howe Harvard University

Catadioptric Stereo Tracking for Three Dimensional Shape Measurement of MRI Guided Catheters Russell C. Jackson, Taoming Liu, and M. Cenk Cavusoglu Case Western Reserve University

Ingestible, Controllable, and Degradable Origami Robot for Patching Stomach Wounds Shuhei Miyashita, Steven Guitron, Kazuhiro Yoshida, Shuguang Li, Dana D. Damian, and Daniela Rus MIT, Tokyo Institute of Technology, University of Sheffield

Contacts

If you are a journalist who would like to learn more about the relevance of rubber duckies to robotics, please contact icra2016.media@gmail.com.

Credits

The duckies are distributed around the world with the help of the following Duckie Ambassadors. If you need a duckie, please reach out to them.

The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to Japan , Dr. Wataru Takano

, Dr. Wataru Takano The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to Korea , Dr. Jin-Woo Jung (정진우).

, Dr. Jin-Woo Jung (정진우). The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to Zurich , Dr. Saverio Bolognani.

, Dr. Saverio Bolognani. The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to the United States of America , Dr. John Leonard, and the Respectable Posting Attachés, Dr. Liam Paull, Sudeep Pillai, and Ross Finman.

, Dr. John Leonard, and the Respectable Posting Attachés, Dr. Liam Paull, Sudeep Pillai, and Ross Finman. The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to Germany , Dr. Gian Diego Tipaldi

, Dr. Gian Diego Tipaldi The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to Denmark , Dr. Mikkel Rath Pedersen

, Dr. Mikkel Rath Pedersen The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to San Diego , Dr. Michael Tolley

, Dr. Michael Tolley The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to Belgium , Dr. Mark Van Loock

, Dr. Mark Van Loock The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to IROS , Dr. Luca Carlone and Mr. Julian Straub.

, Dr. Luca Carlone and Mr. Julian Straub. The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to France , Mr. Shane Griffith.

, Mr. Shane Griffith. The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to the United Kingdom , Dr. Hadi Heidari.

, Dr. Hadi Heidari. The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to the continent of Africa , Mr. Dehann Fourie .

, Mr. Dehann Fourie . The Honorable Duckie Ambassador to Italy, Mr. Valerio Varricchio.

Organizer/editor: Andrea Censi. Narration: Alessandro De Luca, Dana Kulic.