Welcome to RAHA 2016!
Raj Madhavan, Rao R. Bhavani · 2016
The Robotics and Automation for Humanitarian Applications (RAHA'16) Conference (RAHA'16) is the first ever robotics and automation conference dedicated to humanitarian applications. Truly interdisciplinary and crosscutting across disparate fields that might seem seemingly unrelated at first glance, the conference aims to connect technological innovators, policy makers, and humanitarian field workers. It is anticipated that the conference will produce dialogues and discussions that would identify gaps by bringing forward success stories and proven technologies whilst highlighting problematic areas where further work and efforts are needed. We have the opportunity and indeed the responsibility to learn f rom each other how to prepare the world for both the risks and the rewards of developing robots for humanitarian purposes. Through the knowledge gathered at RAHA, a special task force will be formed with the vision to impact society. The conference is also intended to serve as a platform for practitioners, researchers, and developers in humanitarian technology fields to share their thoughts and experiences. In turn, it is our belief that the interactions and networking will enable, engage, and empower students and junior researchers from developing countries from different engineering disciplines to rethink and tailor their current and future research in ways that benefit their communities in particular, and humanity, in general. With these motivations, we have put together an excellent conference program complete with 5 plenary and 13 keynote addresses from world-renowned speakers sharing their collective wisdom and invaluable deployment anecdotes on how emerging technologies can effect a change in people's loves for the better. Technical papers related to conference themes will be presented across 8 tracks and in a late breaking poster session.