PUBLIC EVENT
Robots are rapidly moving beyond traditional industrial settings and increasingly operating in homes, public spaces, and medical environments. As these technologies become more integrated into everyday life, ensuring their safe and responsible deployment has never been more important. But with rapid development, how can we ensure safety is appropriately considered?
This webinar will explore the international efforts underway to develop the safety, performance, and interoperability standards needed to support the next generation of service and medical robots. Drawing on two decades of global standardisation work, speakers will outline how robotics standards have evolved - from early industrial guidance to today’s emerging frameworks for personal care robots, mobile platforms, wearable systems, and robotically assisted medical devices.
Attendees will gain insight into the latest developments across International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) committees, including key standards such as ISO 13482 for personal care robots and newly established guidance for autonomous medical equipment and surgical or rehabilitation robots. The session will also highlight ongoing revisions to expand these standards for a wider range of service robotics applications as the sector continues to grow.
Programme*
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Time |
Programme |
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12.00pm |
Welcome remarks Rhys Morgan, Director of Education and Skills, Royal Academy of Engineering |
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12.05pm |
Presentation Professor Mohammed Osman Tokhi, Professor of Robotics and Control, London South Bank University, UK |
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12.17pm |
Presentation Professor Gurvinder Singh Virk, Managing Director at Endoenergy Systems - India/UK |
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12.27pm
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Panel discussion followed by Q&A Chaired by: Rhys Morgan, Director of Education and Skills, Royal Academy of Engineering
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12.55pm |
Closing remarks Dr Rhys Morgan, Director of Education and Skills, Royal Academy of Engineering |
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1.00pm |
Webinar ends |
* Programme is subject to change
What the session will cover
- The trajectory of international robotics standardisation over the past two decades.
- Practical considerations for applying safety and performance requirements across non‑medical and medical contexts, including interoperability between systems.
Recording notice
Please note this event will be recorded and published on the Royal Academy of Engineering website. Your video will be off and your account will be muted throughout the entire event. Only the speakers and presentations will be visible on your screen.
Accessibility
It is very important to the Royal Academy of Engineering that our events are accessible to all. If you have any accessibility requirements, please contact the Stefania Pappalardo at your earliest convenience so that necessary arrangements can be made.
Diversity monitoring form
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Professor Mohammad Osman Tokhi
Professor Tokhi received his BSc in Electrical Engineering from Kabul University, Afghanistan in 1978 and PhD degree from Heriot-Watt University, UK in 1988. He is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology), Senior Member of IEEE (Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineering), Member of IIAV (International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration) and Member of CLAWAR (Climbing and Walking Robots) Association.
He has worked for industry and at various higher education establishments. He is currently Professor of Robotics and Control at the School of Engineering, London South Bank University, UK. His research interests include Active Noise and Vibration Control, Adaptive/intelligent Control, Soft-computing Modelling and Control of Dynamic Systems, and Assistive Robotics. He has published extensively and has completed numerous projects in these areas.
He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Low-Frequency Noise, Vibration and Active Control, and of Journal of Climbing and Walking Robots, Editor of book series on Service Robotics (published by World Scientific Publishing Company), Co-editor of book series on Mobile Service Robotics (published by Elsevier Publishing Company), member of Editorial Advisory/Editorial Board of Industrial Robot Journal, Artificial Intelligence and Technology, Mechanical System Dynamics, Sensors, and Modelling, Identification and Control. He has acted as Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, and member of editorial board of several other international journals.
He is Chair of CLAWAR Association, Chair of BSI (British Standards Institute) AMT10/1 Sub-Committee on Ethics of Robots and Autonomous Systems, Convenor of ISO technical committee TC299 (Robotics) working group WG2 – Service Robot Safety, Member of several working groups of ISO/TC299–Robotics Committee and of BSI AMT/010 Robotics Committee, Member of IFAC Technical Committees TC 3.1 (Computers for Control) and TC 3.2 (Computational Intelligence for Control).
Professor Gurvinder Singh Virk
Professor Gurvinder Singh Virk (PhD, DIC, BSc, CEng, FIET, FCIBSE, CMath, FIMA, SMIEEE) is Managing Director of Endoenergy Systems (with bases in UK and India) commercialising wearable assistive exoskeletons to support ageing society challenges globally. He has been Chief Scientist at HRG Huzhou Wuxing District Intelligent Robot Innovation Institute since March 2023 where he is finalising commercialisation plans for medical and non-medical exoskeleton products. Prof Virk holds a PhD in Control theory, Imperial College, University of London, UK. He is an international expert in robotics and control engineering with application to real-world engineering scenarios. He has produced around 400 publications, filed 6 patents, supervised 16 PhD/MPhils and led over 70 international funded projects (with research funding >£30M). His main scientific contributions are in theoretical and practical areas of data-based modelling of engineering applications, simulation and optimisation for control systems design, design and development of intelligent and advanced robots for new applications, control systems theory and its application via developing and implementing a variety of control strategies in realistic scenarios.
He is passionate about advancing real-world applications of engineering globally. His current interests are in exoskeleton robots for wellbeing, robot safety standardisation, robot modularity and inter-operability, social robotics and robot ethics all aimed at commercialisation of medical and non-medical exoskeletons for healthy ageing.
Prof Virk has held 13 Professorship positions in 7 countries, these include: 1) UK (Universities of Portsmouth Leeds, Sheffield, London Southbank, and Lincoln), 2) Sweden (University of Gävle and KTH Royal Institute of Technology), 3) India (IIT Ropar and UPES University), 4) New Zealand (Massey University), 5) China (Zhejiang University), 6) France (Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris), and 7) Germany (Fachochschule Südwestfalen, Soest). His previous commercial experience included Technical Director at InnotecUK, UK where he led R&D activities for realising commercially viable inspection robots for hazardous environments where mobility, climbing and manipulation capabilities were needed to carry out inspection tasks by the robot systems being developed.
Professor Virk is Trustee and Treasurer of the UK registered charity CLAWAR (Climbing and walking robots) having the mission to advance robotics globally for public benefit. For this he has been nominated as a UK robot standardisation expert by BSI, UK since 2005, and has led several international ISO/IEC robot standardisation activities on safety, performance, inter-operability with special attention on human-system collaboration and deployment of autonomy and AI features.
Prof Virk was also Coordinator of the euRobotics’ Topic Group on Standardisation in Europe as part the Horizon 2020 programme and beyond from 2011-2019. He has been actively networking and working with stakeholder organisations in Europe, China, South Korea, Japan, USA and India on linking international robot R&D with robot standardisation to encourage commercialisation and facilitate the creation of new robot markets.
Professor Seungbin Moon
Professor Seungbin Moon is a Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at Sejong University, Seoul, Korea. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1993, with a dissertation on optimal trajectories for cooperative manipulation by multiple robots. He earned his M.S.E. in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in control and robotics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and his B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from Myoung Ji University, Korea. Prior to joining academia, he worked as a Principal Researcher at Samsung Electronics, where he contributed to the development of industrial robots and later directed robotic business initiatives.
At Sejong University, Professor Moon has served in a range of academic leadership roles, including Senior Vice President for International Affairs, Dean of the Graduate School, and Dean of International Affairs. His research interests span face recognition, robotic computer vision, mobile robot navigation, and cooperative manipulation of multiple manipulators. He has made sustained contributions to both fundamental research and applied robotics, bridging academic innovation and industrial practice.
Professor Moon is internationally recognized for his leadership in robotics standardization. He has played a central role in ISO and IEC standardization activities for robotics and robotic devices, serving as Convenor of ISO TC 184/SC 2/WG 8 on service robots for over a decade and, more recently, as Convenor of ISO TC 299/WG 1 on vocabulary and characteristics. He has acted as project leader for several major international robotics standards and continues to contribute to global and national standardization bodies, including ISO, IEC, and the Korean Industrial Standards committees. In addition, he holds leadership and trustee roles in multiple professional organizations related to robotics, safety, and standards certification.
Philip Lance
Having originally graduated in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Leeds, Philip became interested in user-centered design and would go onto complete a PhD in design in assistive technology from Brunel University. Philip is now a Senior Human Factors Engineer focusing on medical devices. Having worked as a consultant, and in industry, Philip has helped develop the user interfaces of many products and medical devices such as invasive surgical equipment; diagnostic equipment; digital connected devices; wearable devices; and drug delivery devices. His particular interest is with the user interface of robots, and he has been extensively involved in the development of the user interfaces of service robots and medical robots.
Philip’s interest in robots extends to the development of standards in robotics and he is a member of the BSI (British Standards Institute) AMT/010 Robotics Committee and AMT10/1 Sub-Committee on Ethics of Robots and Autonomous Systems. As a UK expert Philip is a member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical committee ISO/TC299 (Robotics). As a member of ISO/TC299 Philip is also a member of ISO/TC299’s Chair’s Advisory Group (CAG) and is the Convenor for ISO/TC299 Robotics: Working Group 6 (WG6) Modularity for service robots. As the Convenor of WG6, Philip now oversees multiple project teams developing a family of international standards on modularity for robots, including standards on modules related to service robots, surgical robots and most recently humanoid robots.
Jason Wang
Jason Wang, 57, got his master’s degree from Electrical Engineering Dept., Tsinghua Univ. (THU) in 1993. He served as a senior lecturer in THU for 5 years, and then moved to industry in 1998. During his career experience of more than 30 years, he founded several successful companies in automation, robotics as well as innovation services, such as Tsino-dynatron Electrical Tech Co., leading servo drive provider for robotics and CNC machines; Smart Factory Institute, diagnosis and service provider for life-cycle management of smart factory; and IMA Innocloud, offering innovation training, services, and innovation management software, etc.
Jason Wang is very active in international standardization activities and non-profit technical organization. He is senior expert in several technical committees of China National Standardization Technology Committees (SAC), ISO TC299 and IEC TC44, with working areas of robotics, automation control system, predictive maintenance, IoT etc. He co-founded China Sci-tech Automation Alliance (CSAA) in 2011, and has been successfully leading the organization to be one of most dynamic and well-known alliance in smart manufacturing and advanced automation areas. Jason Wang has rich experiences and in-depth insights to advanced manufacturing/Industry 4.0/ Industrial Internet domestically and worldwide. He is also very active in international collaboration and technical transfer. In year 2017, he founded China-Italy Joint Lab on Advanced Manufacturing (CILAM), which is now one of the most successful bridges of the kind between two counties.
Jason Wang has been working in innovation training and education area for over 10 years. Through partnership with top innovation methodology masters around the world, he is pursuing development of innovation driven integrated management framework for enterprises and has been teaching innovation related courses to master as well as PhD students in Tsinghua university since 2017.