Robot Meets GNSS and Ranging

A research and community initiative connecting GNSS, UWB, 5G NR, and radio-based ranging with robotics perception, planning, and control for seamless autonomy. Most robotics research treats global localization as a black box; most GNSS research treats robotics as an application sink. Robot Meets GNSS and Ranging deliberately bridges the two communities at IEEE-flagship robotics venues.

Why it matters. Robotics needs globally referenced, uncertainty-aware, and infrastructure-aware localization beyond vision/LiDAR-only autonomy. The radio-and-ranging community needs roboticist feedback on what real downstream consumers of position need. This initiative is the meeting point.

Format. Co-organizing the 1st ICRA 2026 Workshop on Robot Meets GNSS and Ranging (news) in Atlanta, USA, May 2026.

Industry translation context (lab-wide). Beyond this community initiative, multiple IPNL research outputs have moved into deployment or spinout: the LifeSparrow Visual Positioning System startup founded by alumnus Max Lee (HK$1.8M aggregate funding); Stairio preparing for Hotel ICON deployment; and multiple Huawei mobile-device product integrations under the HK$10M three-year framework.