On December 9th, I-Ming CHEN, an academician of the Singapore Academy of Engineering and a professor at Nanyang Technological University, visited the 423rd session of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) Forum to give a special lecture titled “Robot Perception and Learning: Addressing Real-World Challenges and Future Prospects.”

I-Ming CHEN is an Academician of the Singapore Academy of Engineering (SAEng) and a tenured full professor at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is an IEEE Fellow and ASME Fellow, and a globally recognized leading expert in the field of robotics and automation. He has long been dedicated to researching intelligent perception for robots, design methodology, and logistics and construction robotics with research achievements that have wide international influence.

In the lecture, I-Ming CHEN started from the pain points in the development of industrial robotic arms, pointing out that traditional robotic arms are suited for “large-scale production lines,” but as manufacturing shifts to a “small-batch, multi-variety” model, the efficiency of programming and debugging struggles to meet dynamic demands. Today, the integration of 3D machine vision, machine learning, and fast computing is steering robotic arms toward “intelligence,” allowing them to flexibly adapt to various types of tasks. Using the championship solution of the “Amazon Robotics Challenge” as an example, he analyzed the integrative logic of 3D perception, machine learning, and robotic motion planning, and focused on scenarios such as hospital supply systems and food automation, exploring the emerging applications of robots in the “item picking process.” At the same time, he shared his personal experience of transitioning from a university researcher to a robotics entrepreneur, and discussed the future direction of the integration of artificial intelligence with robotics and the humanoid robot industry.