International robotics conference streams live to Africa

July 2026 SAIMC

The IEEE International Conference of Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in collaboration with IEEE Robotics and Automation and Control Systems chapters within South Africa, made live streaming to Africa possible. ICRA took place in Vienna, Austria. The streams included panel discussions, plenary presentations and keynote presentations. The SAIMC hosted five events in Africa in collaboration with its branches, including those in Zambia, Durban/Scientific Multidisciplinary Advanced Research Technologies (SMART) Lab, Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela University, Johannesburg/RAIL Lab and Bloemfontein/Central University of Technology.

Even though some venues had challenges with severe weather conditions around the country, attendance from academia and industry was strong. Following the panel discussions from Austria, in-depth discussions took place at the different venues on technical aspects related to collaboration, networking and publications. A few sponsoring companies were present at the different venues and gave short introductory talks.

Attendees were able to learn about technical aspects and new ideas and concepts that can be explored within South Africa. The conference highlighted what technology and possibilities are happening around the world, giving ideas for industry and researchers in South Africa for future technology exploration.

Thanks are due to all sponsors within South Africa and abroad for making it possible for people who were not able to attend the conference in Austria to be exposed to worldwide technology and research.

For more information contact Riaan Stopforth, UKZN, +27 72 255 3330, [email protected], www.ukzn.ac.za

Further reading:

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