The 2020 Peking University Online Graduate Academic Conference on Frontier of Swarm Robotics Research was successfully held on November 7-8, 2020. This conference was sponsored by Graduate School of Peking University and International Association of Swarm and Evolutionary Intelligence, undertaken by Computational Intelligence Laboratory of Peking University, and funded by the “Graduate Education Innovation Program” of Peking University.
More than 80 students from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Tongji University, Chinese Academy of Sciences and other universities and research institutes signed up for the conference, where most of the participants are engaged in the research of swarm robotics. The participants were composed of mainly postgraduate students and also included experienced professors and researchers, interested undergraduates, and so on. For postgraduate students who were new to the field of swarm robotics, this conference offered a rare and precious opportunity for them to establish a systematic understanding of this field, and inspired directions for future work. This conference also brought experienced scholars together to discuss the core issues of swarm robotics, which promoted the development of the entire field.
The invited guest speakers were all scholars who had published a large number of research works related to swarm robotics and swarm intelligence in internationally renowned publications and conferences. They focus on the research of theories, algorithms and applications in this field and have rich experience. Through their reports, students can fully grasp the latest research progress in swarm intelligence, which is of great value for students to understand, study and improve swarm robotics.
Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of the field of swarm robotics. This conference provided such a platform, which not only allowed more swarm robotics and cross-direction scholars to learn about the cutting-edge progress in the field, but also promoted academic exchanges and cooperation. After two days of expert lectures and discussion, the students had a deeper understanding of the basic theories, methods and practical applications of swarm robotics. They also strengthened the communication and friendship with each other. Overall, this conference played a positive role in promoting the swarm robotics research in China. Meanwhile it promoted the practical applications of swarm robotics that have a wide range of social benefits, such as UAV control, military and so on. In the future, students are expected to contribute to swarm robotics through utilizing the capabilities of swarm robotics in their respective fields and achieving rich research results.