On Friday, September 25, 2026, from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m., CIIRC CTU will once again open its doors to the public as part of the popular Researcher´s Night. This year’s theme is COMMUNICATION, and at CIIRC we will explore it primarily through robotics, artificial intelligence, and modern technologies. How do we tell a robot what we want it to do? Can it understand a gesture or learn something new from a person? And how do machines communicate with each other in modern manufacturing?
We invite children, parents, students, adults, and all technology enthusiasts who would like to get a closer look at current research. At the CIIRC CTU – RICAIP Testbed Prague, visitors will find interactive experiments and demonstrations, with opportunities to try some of the technologies themselves.
Communication does not have to mean words alone. It can take the form of a gesture, an image, movement, data, or a simple instruction. Come and discover just how many ways humans and machines can “understand” each other today.
What can you see and try at CIIRC this year?
1. Teach a robot a new skill
How does a robot learn from a human? In this interactive demonstration, you will find out how a robot can be taught new skills using a joystick or gestures.
For example, the robot can learn to manipulate a probe for measuring electric current or even operate a coffee machine on its own. You will also discover what a good demonstration needs to include for the robot to successfully reproduce the task it has been shown. This demonstration also presents research conducted as part of the ROBOPROX project.
2. Interactive Pub Quiz with Sara Polak
At 7:00 PM, join us for a fun archaeology-themed pub quiz with Sara Polak, founder of the Liminal Center at CIIRC CTU. Come test your knowledge, put your logical thinking to the challenge, and enjoy science from a different perspective.
3. Teach a robot to understand gestures
Can you simply point at something and have a robot understand what you want it to do? This demonstration presents a system that combines gestures and speech to select the correct robotic action and the corresponding objects in a scene.
A gesture is not merely an addition to a spoken command. It can be used to identify a specific object or indicate the desired action. Visitors will see one possible approach to making communication between humans and robots more natural. The demonstration presents one of the research areas explored within the ROBOPROX project.
4. The EDUARDIS project: Can artificial intelligence teach art?
Technology and visual art may seem like two very different worlds. The EDUARDIS project, however, explores whether artificial intelligence can help teach painting, drawing, and sculpture.
At Researcher´s Night, you will learn how AI can become part of the process of teaching artistic skills, and you will be able to try some of these possibilities yourself. There will even be an opportunity to try oil painting. Come and discover how communication between humans and artificial intelligence can work in a field where creativity and an individual approach play such an important role.
5. Robotic checkers: Challenge AI to a game
Think you can beat a robot at checkers? A camera monitors the game board, artificial intelligence analyzes the possible moves, and the robot uses this information to execute its strategy.
Robotic checkers is a hands-on example of how a camera system, artificial intelligence, a robot, and, of course, a human can communicate with one another. An ordinary board game becomes a practical demonstration of machine perception, decision-making, and human-technology collaboration.
6. ROBOBAR: Let a robot serve you
What happens when several technologies need to communicate with one another to produce a finished drink? At the RICAIP Testbed Prague, you can find out at the Robobar, which can handle the entire process of preparing and dispensing a drink from start to finish without direct human intervention.
Come and try out a robotic bar and see automation in action. The Robobar also raises a broader question: where can machines take over human work today, and where do people remain irreplaceable?
7. A humanoid robot in action
Humanoid robots are among the technologies that naturally attract attention. At Researcher´s Night, you will be able to watch a humanoid robot handling objects on a table and see up close how it carries out assigned tasks.
CIIRC CTU was able to acquire the humanoid robots presented at this station thanks to the European AI-MATTERS project, which supports the adoption of artificial intelligence and robotics in industry.
8. How does a robot know where and what to weld?
Robotic welding is widely used in manufacturing, but for small production runs, the need to prepare a specialized robot program for every new product can be a major obstacle. Researchers are therefore developing software designed to simplify and automate motion planning for welding robots.
Visitors will learn how automated motion planning can reduce costs and make robotic cells more practical even for small-batch production, where automation has previously not been economically viable.
9. From photographs to a 3D world
How can a computer create a three-dimensional model of a real environment using only visual data? Researchers from the Spatial Intelligence Group at CIIRC CTU will present their latest results in photorealistic 3D reconstruction of scenes and objects through videos and demonstrations.
The demonstrations will also show how these 3D models can be used for applications such as visual localization and scene understanding. You will get a glimpse into research that teaches machines not only to capture the world around them, but also to better understand its spatial structure.
10. Draw a picture with a delta robot
This time, the robot will not be assembling products or welding. It will be drawing. Choose one of the available pictures on a tablet, and a delta robot will reproduce it on paper.
You can take the finished picture home with you. At the same time, you will see just how precisely and quickly industrial robots can perform programmed movements and how similar principles are used in modern automated manufacturing.
11. Build a maze and see what happens
How does information from a digital environment turn into movement in a physical system? In this interactive demonstration featuring Montrac, visitors will build their own maze in a tablet app and then watch as their instructions are translated into actions in the real-world system.
This playful demonstration introduces the principles of communication and control that are also used on a much larger scale in automated manufacturing.
12. Roll the dice and send a car on its way
Can a simple roll of the dice serve as a command for an autonomous system? At this station, it can. Visitors roll a die, and an autonomous vehicle sets off toward the corresponding destination based on the result.
In a simple and engaging way, the demonstration introduces autonomous control and higher-level communication. Instead of directly controlling every movement, a person specifies the goal, and the system must work out how to achieve it.
13. Small movement, big robot: Communicating with KUKA
At another station, you can try communicating a desired position to a robot using a small model of a robotic arm. Move the model into a particular position, confirm the command, and the industrial KUKA robot will automatically move to the corresponding position.
This simple experiment shows that communicating with an industrial robot does not always require complex programming. Information can also be conveyed intuitively through movement and physical demonstration.
Come and communicate with technology your own way
This year’s Researcher´s Night at CIIRC CTU will show that communication between humans and machines can take many forms. Sometimes a word is enough. Other times it may be a gesture, a hand movement, an image, a roll of the dice, or a demonstration of a task that a robot is expected to learn. And while some machines wait for human instructions, others can already perceive their surroundings, plan their next steps, or make decisions independently.
Come and see how these technologies work beyond textbooks and computer screens. Researcher´s Night 2026 at CIIRC CTU will take place on Friday, September 25, from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m.
The program is designed for children and adults alike, including families, students, and anyone interested in robotics, artificial intelligence, and the technologies of the future.
We look forward to seeing you!
[See what Researcher´s Night 2025 at CIIRC CTU looked like last year.]
