Seventh Workshop on Robotic Autonomous Observatories

Fourteen years after the celebration of the First Workshop on robotic autonomous observatories in Málaga, the number of automatic astronomical facilities worldwide has significantly grown, as well as the level of robotisation, autonomy, and networking, with many recent developments motivated by the search of new electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves in the next months. This has a strong impact in many other astrophysical fields, like fireballs detection, minor planet studies, the search for extra-solar planets, the monitoring of variable stars in our Galaxy, the study of active galactic nuclei, the detection and monitoring of supernovae, and the immediate follow-up of high-energy transients such as cosmic gamma-ray bursts, besides the search of neutrino and gravitational waves electromagnetic counterparts. Last, but not least, space debris surveillance and tracking is another field of increasing interest. Educational aspects will be also covered. Thus, the main focus of the workshop will be on the new and existing astronomical facilities whose goal is to observe a wide variety of astrophysical targets with no (or very little) human interaction. As in the past 14 years, we expect the workshop will continue as an international forum for researchers to summarize the most recent developments and ideas in the field, with a special emphasis given to the Technical and Scientific results obtained within the last two years and future developments, with specific sessions on Educational Activities and Space Surveillance and Tracking.