Thank you to our fantastic debaters, moderators, and audience for making the 2021 Debates on the Future of Robotics Research a resounding success!

If you weren't able to tune in live (or if you just want to replay some of the explosive highlights!), you can re-watch the debates on YouTube below.

If you enjoyed this year's debates and you’d like to see more in the future—or if you didn't enjoy the debates, and have ideas on how to make them better—we could really use your help organizing next year’s edition! Send us an email at roboticsdebates@gmail.com.

-The Robotics Debates Team

As an interdisciplinary field that has the potential to change and be changed by numerous diverse stakeholders, the future and potential impact of robotics research are frequent subjects of debate. We believe making these debates more formal and public can be beneficial to the general community.

Following on from previous workshops at ICRA 2019 and ICRA 2020, the third iteration of the debates will be held as part of ICRA 2021.

Debate Structure

Total Length: 80 minutes

• Introductions & initial audience poll (5 min)

• Opening arguments (20 min = 4 debaters x 5 min each)

• Moderated discussion between debaters + audience Q&A (20 min)

• Closing remarks (10 min = 4 debaters x 2.5 min each)

• Final audience poll + polling results (5 min)

• Moderated panel debrief + audience Q&A (20 min)