Detailed programme
The detailed schedule below follows the official 5‑day programme for the iRoboCity2030 Summer School 2026: “ROS2: AI and Field Robotics”. Times and speakers may be subject to minor adjustments.
- Dates: 22–26 June 2026
- Format: On‑site
- Language: English
- Structure: Plenary + hands‑on learning
- Daily slots: 9h–17h (with breaks)
At a glance
Monday
ROS 2 fundamentals and introductory concepts.
Tuesday
Autonomous vehicles: AI for perception, decision-making, and simulation with CARLA.
Wednesday
Quadrupedal robots: field robotics, locomotion, and perception (hands‑on).
Thursday
Agricultural robotics and natural environments (hands‑on), plus Summer School dinner.
Friday
AI explainability, plenary lecture, ROS 2 projects, and closing session.
Monday – ROS 2 Fundamentals and Introductory Concepts
The opening day lays the technical foundations of the course. Participants will become familiar with the ROS 2 ecosystem, its architecture, nodes, topics, and development tools. Through plenary sessions and hands‑on practice, they will learn how to configure environments, enable inter‑process communication, and run basic simulations.
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9h–10h | Why ROS2 and Field Robotics? |
| 10h–11h | Plenary talk: Nav2 & ROS 2 Overview: Techniques & Applications Powering an Industry |
| 11h–11:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:30–13:30 | ROS2 basics |
| 13:30–15h | Lunch |
| 15h–17h | ROS2 basics (Hands‑on learning) |
Tuesday – Autonomous Vehicles
Dedicated to autonomous mobility, this day addresses perception, planning, and control in intelligent vehicles. It covers modular architectures for autonomous driving, AI for perception and decision‑making, and integration with realistic simulators. Hands‑on sessions focus on perception and navigation in virtual environments.
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9h–10h | Introduction to AI for Autonomous Vehicles |
| 10h–11h | Imitation Learning for autonomous vehicles |
| 11h–11:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:30–13:30 | Hands‑on Perception for Autonomous Vehicles using CARLA Simulator |
| 13:30–15h | Lunch |
| 15h–17h | ROS2 for Scaled Autonomous Racing Cars |
Wednesday – Quadrupedal Robots
This block provides an overview of quadrupedal robotics, combining fundamentals, current trends, and experimental practice. Topics include the challenges of operating in unstructured environments, legged locomotion principles, and the role of AI in perception and decision‑making.
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9h–10h | Search & Rescue – Field Robotics |
| 10h–11h | Quadrupedal Robots at a glance |
| 11h–11:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:30–12:30 | Quadrupedal Robots Walking |
| 12:30–13:30 | Quadrupedal robots (Hands‑on learning) |
| 13:30–15h | Lunch |
| 15h–17h | Perception for quadrupedal robots (Hands‑on learning) |
Thursday – Agricultural Robotics and Natural Environments
This day showcases how artificial intelligence and ROS 2 can be applied to agricultural robotics, focusing on real challenges: perception in variable environments, autonomous navigation in crops, and manipulation strategies adapted to agricultural tasks.
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9h–10h | AI and Robotics for agricultural applications |
| 10h–11h | Reinforcement Learning for Robot Control in Dynamic Environments and ROS2 |
| 11h–11:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:30–13:30 | AI and agricultural robotics I (Hands‑on learning) |
| 13:30–15h | Lunch |
| 15h–17h | AI and agricultural robotics II (Hands‑on learning) |
| 20h | Summer School dinner |
Friday – Final Project and Closing Session
The final day includes AI explainability in robotics, an aerial robotics session, and the presentation of ROS 2 projects developed throughout the week. Student teams share results, followed by diplomas and a closing social activity.
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 9h–10h | AI explainability in Robotics |
| 10h–11h | Plenary talk: title to be confirmed |
| 11h–11:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:30–12:30 | ROS2 projects |
| 12:30–13:30 | ROS2 for multiagent aerial robotics |
| 13:30–15h | Farewell party & Diplomas |
Plenary lectures
In addition to the academic programme, the summer school includes two plenary lectures delivered by internationally recognised leaders in the ROS 2 ecosystem. The final talk titles will be announced by the organisation.
Steve Macenski (OpenNavigation)
Plenary title: Nav2 & ROS 2 Overview: Techniques & Applications Powering an Industry
Steve Macenski is the CEO of Open Navigation and lead developer / maintainer on ROS 2's Nav2 navigation framework. He has spent a career working on navigation solutions and has built many of the common references and high-performance algorithms that power academic research and industry today.
Davide Faconti
Plenary title: To be confirmed
Davide Faconti is the creator of BehaviorTrees.CPP and Groot, tools extensively used for developing robotic applications based on Behaviour Trees.
His work focuses on scalable robot software architectures and developer tooling for designing and debugging complex behaviours.
He is recognised for delivering practical open-source components that are widely adopted across the robotics community.