Technical Activities Board

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• Technical Activities Board
• CASE 2008, Washington, DC
• Ken Goldberg, VP Technical Activities

tab.ieee-ras.org
2

• RAS Technical Activities Board
• Ken Goldberg, VP Technical Activities
• goldberg_at_berkeley.edu
• RAS Officers
• 45 Technical Committee co-chairs
• 24 Distinguished Lecturers
• Eugenio Guglielmelli, Assoc. VPTA
• Yasuhisa Hasegawa, Assoc. VPTA
• At-large members Frank van der Stappen, Katsu
  Yamane, Henrik Christiansen, Matt Mason, Ruediger
  Dillman,Satoshi Tadukoro

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• RAS TAB Agenda, F08 Meeting
• Spring 2008 Adcomm Decisions
• Review of DLs, Most Active Nominations
• Review of TCs, Most Active Nominations
• Triennial Reviews of TCs in 2009, 2010
• GOLD events
• Process for appointing new TC Co-Chairs
• Milestones (IEEE, RAS)

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ICRA 2008 TAB Proposals

• Proposal Increasing DL Transport budget
• from 10K -gt 15K/year
• Proposal Initiate Annual GOLD event at CASE
• 2K/year
• Proposal Retire TC-Prototyping
• Proposal Retire TC-Underwater Robots
• Proposal Retire TC-Manufacturing Automation
• Proposal Initiate TC-Robot Learning
• Proposal Initiate TC-Marine Robotics
• All Passed.

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RAS Distinguished Lecturers
Asia/Pacific Tatsuo Arai
(Japan) Hugh Durrant-Whyte
(Australia) Xiaohong Guan
(China) Hideki Hashimoto (Japan) Katsu
Ikeuchi (Japan) Frank Chongwoo Park
(Korea) Michael Wang (Hong Kong) N.
Vishu Viswanadham (India) Europe Alicia
Casals (Spain) Dan Halperin
(Israel) Jean Paul Laumond (France)
Brad Nelson (Switzerland) Paul
Newman (UK) Majid Nili
(Iran) Klas Nilsson (Sweden) Gianmarco
Veruggio (Italy)
Americas Greg Dudek (Canada) Lydia
Kavraki (US) Vijay Kumar
(US) Deirdre Meldrum (US) Robin Murphy
(US) Javier Ruiz-del-Solar
(Chile) Sebastian Thrun (US) Alfredo
Weitzenfeld (Mexico)
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• Technical Committees Triennial Review 2008
• Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
• Agricultural Robotics
• Algorithms for Planning and Control of Robot
  Motion
• Autonomous Ground Vehicles and Intelligent
  Transportation Systems
• Bio Robotics
• Computer Robot Vision
• Haptics
• Human-Robot Interaction Coordination
• Humanoid Robotics
• Manufacturing Automation
• Micro/Nano Robotics and Automation
• Networked Robots
• Prototyping for Robotics and Automation
• Rehabilitation Assistive Robotics
• Roboethics
• Safety Security and Rescue Robotics
• Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation
• Service Robotics

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Technical Committees Fall 2008 Aerial
Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Agricultural Robotics Algorithms for Planning
and Control of Robot Motion Autonomous Ground
Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems
Bio Robotics Computer Robot Vision Haptics
Human-Robot Interaction Coordination Humanoid
Robotics Marine Robots Micro/Nano Robotics and
Automation Networked Robots Rehabilitation
Assistive Robotics Roboethics Robot Learning
Safety Security and Rescue Robotics
Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Service
Robotics Software Engineering for Robotics and
Automation Space Robotics Surgical Robotics
Telerobotics
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Technical Committees Triennial Review 2009
Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Agricultural Robotics Algorithms for Planning
and Control of Robot Motion Autonomous Ground
Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems
Bio Robotics Computer Robot Vision Haptics
Human-Robot Interaction Coordination Humanoid
Robotics Marine Robots Micro/Nano Robotics and
Automation Networked Robots Rehabilitation
Assistive Robotics Roboethics Robot Learning
Safety Security and Rescue Robotics
Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Service
Robotics Software Engineering for Robotics and
Automation Space Robotics Surgical Robotics
Telerobotics
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Technical Committees Triennial Review 2010
Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Agricultural Robotics Algorithms for Planning
and Control of Robot Motion Autonomous Ground
Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems
Bio Robotics Computer Robot Vision Haptics
Human-Robot Interaction Coordination Humanoid
Robotics Marine Robots Micro/Nano Robotics and
Automation Networked Robots Rehabilitation
Assistive Robotics Roboethics Robot Learning
Safety Security and Rescue Robotics
Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Service
Robotics Software Engineering for Robotics and
Automation Space Robotics Surgical Robotics
Telerobotics
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• Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
• Flying opens new opportunities to robotically
  perform field services and tasks like search and
  rescue, observation and mapping. Key areas to be
  addressed include autonomous missions,
  localization and multi-vehicle coordination.
• Activities
• IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine Special
  Issue "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Enabling
  Technologies and Roadmap for Autonomy", Guest
  Editors K.P. Valavanis (USF) and G.J.
  Vachtsevanos (Georgia Tech)
• Springer-Verlag Book on UAVs (to be published)
• 2006 2nd Annual Indoor Aerial Robot Competition,
  May 7, 2006 - Philadelphia
• ICRA 2006
• Full day workshop, UAVs Missions and Payloads
• Full day tutorial, Hands-on Lessons for UAV
  Construction
• To Join, Contact Paul Oh paul_at_coe.drexel.edu

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Agricultural Robotics
AgGuide Pty Ltd Australia and the National Centre
for Engineering in Agriculture develop
Vision/GPS/Inertial guidance systems for farm
machinery gtgt more
University of Southern Queensland researchers and
the National Centre for Engineering in
Agriculture develop image processing systems
for livestock recognition gtgt more
University of Georgia researchers develop
networked autonomous GPS guided farm vehicles
gtgt more
Committee Chairs Jason Stone stonej_at_usq.edu.au
(National Centre for Engineering in
Agriculture) Professor John Billingsley
billings_at_usq.edu.au (University of Southern
Queensland) Website http//www.usq.edu.au/users/
billings/ieee/
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Algorithms for Planning and Control of Robot
Motion
Integration of Planning and Control Planning
based on local feedback control policies (Connor,
Choset, Rizzi, CMU) others results at UIUC,
UMass Amherst,
Funding SToMP 7.8 million DARPA program headed
by UIUC to investigate sensor-based planning and
associated mathematical and algorithmic
challenges others Penn, U of Chicago,
Rochester, Carnegie-Mellon, Melbourne University,
Arizona State, and Bell Labs/Lucent
Applications in Molecular Biology Protein
folding kinetics (Texas AM, Stanford)
Simulating large-amplitude molecular motion
(LAAS) Protein structure prediction (UMass
Amherst) other results at CMU, Rice,
Real-World Implementation Motion planning
algorithms are being implemented on real-world
humanoid robots at U Tokyo, AIST, CMU,
Contact Co-Chairs to Join Oliver Brock
(oli_at_cs.umass.edu) Tsutomu Hasegawa
(hasegawa_at_irvs.is.kyushu-u-ac.jp) Steve
LaValle (lavalle_at_uiuc.edu) Thierry Simeon
(nic_at_laas.fr)
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Bio Robotics
Recent Advances
TC Co-Chairs Atsuo Takanishi, Waseda
University Blake Hannaford, University of
Washington

• Contact email to join
• TC_contact_at_takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp

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Computer and Robot Vision
Real-time, stereo based vision systems for scene
modeling, segmentation, object and activity
recognition
Things
Objects
Attention points
3D Segmentation
Grouping
2D Attributes
3D Attributes
2D/3D Attributes
Object modeling for grasp planning and execution
Active humanoid head (University of Karlsruhe)
Vision Based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
To join contact Danica Kragic (dani_at_kth.se)
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Haptics
Haptic Science
Haptic Technology
Haptic Application
Tactile display to investigate longitudinal
recall of meaningful tactile signals (haptic
icons) (Univ. of British Columbia) and skin
stretch device for virtual proprioception tasks
(Stanford Univ.)
Graphics display by lateral skin deformation
(McGill Univ.)
Haptic device by Distributed Macro-Mini actuation
(Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford Univ.)
and tactile pattern display using Piezoelectric
Bending Element (Northwestern Univ.)
International conferences on haptics
worldHaptics (every two years in Europe, Asia,
and North America)
Haptic Symposium and EuroHaptics (every other two
years in the US and Europe)
A new transaction on Haptics will be published !
Publication will commence in the fall of 2008,
and issues will appear quarterly. Visit
http//www.computer.org/toh for detail.
Visit our Web site and contact co-chairs to join
http//www.worldhaptics.org/ Matthias
Harders mharders_at_vision.ee.ethz.ch Marcia
OMalley omalleym_at_rice.edu Yasuyoshi
Yokokohji yokokohji_at_me.kyoto-u.ac.jp
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Human-Robot Interaction and Coordination
Co-Chairs Cecilia Laschi , Cynthia Breazeal,
Yasushi Nakauchi

• Recent Technical Developments in HRI
• Computational models of core human
  socio-cognitive skills (such as perspective
  taking and shared attention) have been
  successfully demonstrated to improve the quality
  of human-robot teamwork and interaction
• HRI frameworks have successfully been applied to
  traditional machine learning methods to enable
  humanoid and mobile robots to learn from natural
  human interactions via imitation, demonstration,
  and tutelage.
• The HRI community has embarked on developing
  evaluation metrics that embrace
  multi-disciplinary perspectives such as human
  factors, psychology, robotics, etc. for diverse
  areas of HRI such as Urban Search and Rescue,
  Social Robotics, H-R teams for Space Exploration,
  and more.
• TC email list tchric_at_hri.iit.tsukuba.ac.jp

Leonardo sharing attention during collaborative
tasks at MIT Media Lab
DB learning by demonstration to play air-hockey
at ATR
Robonaut (teleop)-astronaut teams at NASA JSC
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Humanoid Robotics

• Recent Activities
• 2006 IEEE-RAS International Conference on
  Humanoid Robots
• Organized by Giulio Sandini and Aude Billard
• Dec. 4-6, Genova, Italy
• 100 Presentation (161 submitted)
• 240 Attendees
• Steering Committee Meeting of the TC on Humanoids
  
• (at Humanoids2006)
• Humanoids Steering/Advisory Committee (TC)
  Members Structure
• Conference Policy
• Report of Humanoids Conference 2005, 2006, 2007
• Future Humanoids Conference (2008, 2009, ...)
• RD Collaboration
• Future Perspectives
• Humanoids 2007
• Nov. 28-30
• The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon
  University
• General Chair James Kuffner
• Collaborative Development of Software Platform

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Some examples of recent technical developments
in robotics technologies applied to ITSfor
quality of life, efficiency, mobility, safety,
challenge.

• The DARPA Grand Challenge
• The first race ever that saw 5 autonomous
  vehicles reach the finish line after 130 miles
  of desert, rough terrain, and extreme
  conditions.
• The first time that unmanned vehicles succeed
  in this extremely complex task.

Cybercars a new approach for sustainable
mobility Emerging as an alternative to the
private passenger car, cybercars try to
offer the same flexibility and much less
nuisances based on fully automated electrical
vehicles with on-demand and door-to-door
capability. Fleets of such vehicles are being
deployed in several worldwide cities and are
already operational in specific environments
such as shuttle services for
passenger transportation.
Major breakthrough in automobile Combination of
Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane
Keep Assist System (LKAS).
Join RAS TC on ITSContact Urbano Nunes,
urbano_at_isr.uc.pt
2005/06
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Micro / Nano Robotics and Automation
Recent Advances
Electron micrograph of a nanoactuator built from
telescoping carbon nanotubes. Note the difference
in length between top and bottom panels.
Reference L. Dong, B. J. Nelson, T. Fukuda and
F. Arai, Towards Linear Nano Servomotors, IEEE
Trans. on Automation Science Engineering, 2006,
pp. 228-235.
Fully automatic manipulation of nanoparticles
with sizes 10 nm. Planned sequence of
operations on left AFM image result on the
pattern on right. Reference B. Mokaberi, J. Yun,
M. Wang and A. A. G. Requicha, Automated
Nanomanipulation with Atomic Force Microscopes,
ICRA 07, Rome, Italy, 2007.
Fully automatic navigation of a ferromagnetic
bead in the carotid artery of a living swine.
Reference J-B. Mathieu and S. Martel, In Vivo
Validation of a Propulsion Method for Untethered
Microrobots Using a Clinical Magnetic Resonance
Imaging System, IROS 07, San Diego, USA, 2007.
Contact Co-Chairs to Join Fumihito Arai
arai_at_imech.mech.tohoku.ac.jp Nicholas
Chaillet nicolas.chaillet_at_femto-st.fr Ari
Requicha requicha_at_usc.edu
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Networked Robots
Recent Advances
Coordinating large heterogeneous mobile robot
team. Reference A. Howard, L.E. Parker, and G.
S. Sukhatme Experiments with Large Heterogeneous
Mobile Robot Team Exploration, Mapping,
Deployment and Detection, Internal Journal of
Robotics Research, 5 2006 vol. 25 pp. 431 - 447
Surveillance, search, and rescue applications.
Reference B. Grochosky, J. Keller, V. Kumar, and
G.J. Pappas, Cooperative Air and Ground
Surveillance , IEEE Robotics and Automation
Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2006,
pages 16-25. .
Contact Co-Chairs to Join Asia Norihiro
Hagita lthagita_at_atr.jpgt Europe Klaus
Schilling ltk_schi_at_t-online.degt USA Dez
Song ltdzsong_at_cs.tamu.edugt
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Rehabilitation Assistive Robotics
CO-CHAIRS Michelle J. Johnson
Eugenio Guglielmelli
Takahori Shibata Marquette University, USA
Università
Campus Bio-Medico, Italy
AIST, Japan (From RAS Area
1 Americas) (From RAS
Area 2 Europe, Middle Est Africa)
(From RAS Area 3 Asia Oceania)
EMERGING TREND REHAB ASSISTIVE ROB FOCUS ON
NEURODEVELOPMENT
EXOSKELETON FOR LOWER LIMB MOTOR THERAPY
ROBOTIC TOYS FOR TREATMENT OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN
MECHATRONIC TOYS AND WEARABLE DEVICES FOR EARLY
DIAGNOSIS OF NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
Keepon, the robot developed in Japan by H. Kozima
et al. as part of the Infanoid project to
investigate the underlying mechanisms of social
intelligence
A sensorized rattle toy equipped with multiple
inertial, magnetic and tactile sensors for
behavioral analysis of infants in ecological
settings
The Pediatric Lokomat (Hocoma Ltd) for intensive
locomotion therapy of children with neurological
disorders
To join the TC and receive most updated
information in the field just e-mail
RehabRob_at_ieee.org To know more about these news
access our website through the TAB link from the
RAS Homepage
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MEMBERCOUNTER80
Roboethics It is the human-centered ethics
guiding the design, construction and use of the
robots.
Gianmarco Veruggio ltgianmarco_at_veruggio.itgt
(Corresp. Co-chair) Ronald C. Arkin
ltarkin_at_cc.gatech.edugt (Co-chair)Atsuo Takanishi
lttakanisi_at_waseda.jpgt (Co-chair)

• RECENT DEVELOPEMENTS
• International Symposium Robotics A New Science
  _at_ Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, February 20,
  2008 - Rome, Italy. (G.Veruggio Roboethics
  Philosophical, Social and Ethical Implications of
  Robotics)
• Table Ronde Roboéthique _at_ JNRR07 - Journées
  Nationales de la Recherche en Robotique. October
  10, 2007 - Obernay, France. Keynote by
  G.Veruggio and Rodolphe Gelin).
• Seventh International Computer Ethics Conference,
  July 14, 2007 - University of San Diego, USA.
  (Keynote by G.Veruggio on Ethical and Societal
  issues in Robotics).
• Track on Philosophy and Ethics of Robotics _at_
  ECAP07 - European Computing and Philosophy
  Conference. June 23, 2007 - University of
  Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. Chair
  G.Veruggio.

info_at_roboethics.org
http//www.roboethics.org/ieee_ras_tc/
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Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics
Outreach to Response Organizations Emergency
response organizations around the world are being
exposed to research and commercial robots at
training exercises and field demos in Japan,
Italy, USA, ....
Workshops IROS 2007 Rescue Robotics - DDT
Project on Urban Search and Rescue SICE 2008
Organized Session Safety, Security, and Rescue
Robot Systems 6th IEEE International Workshop on
Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2008)
October 28-31, 2008 Tohoku University, Sendai,
Japan General Chair Satoshi Tadokoro
Research Directions Mobility in collapsed
structures remains a key area of research,
worldwide. Human/Computer Interaction under
stress is receiving increasing emphasis. The
first systematic studies of Wilderness Search and
Rescue are starting to appear.
New Research Installations 2M National Testbed
for Safety Security Technologies broke ground
this spring at USF (USA). This testbed will house
indoor collapsed structure simulation
capabilities including smoke and rain.
Contact Co-Chairs to Join Daniele Nardi
(Daniele.Nardi_at_dis.uniroma1.it)? Richard Voyles
(rvoyles_at_du.edu) Fumitoshi Matsuno
(matsuno_at_hi.mce.uec.ac.jp)? Or contact
ssrr-info_at_hi.mce.uec.ac.jp?
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Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation
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Service Robots
Recent Advances/inventions
Humanoid sales representative, Advanced
Telecommunications Research Institute, Japan,
January 2008.
Tankpitstop, Winding Road, 2/5/08.
Contact Co-Chairs to Join http//www.service-rob
ots.org Hadi Moradi moradih_at_ut.ac.ir/
moradi_at_usc.edu Giovanni Muscato gmuscato_at_diees.uni
ct.it
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Software Engineering in Robotics Automation
Current Number of Members 24
Davide Brugali, brugali_at_unibg.it Giuseppe
Menga menga_at_polito.it Franco Guidi
Polanco fguidi_at_ucv.cl
TCPROG
Advances in Robot Software Development

• Pursuing the synergy between Robotics and
  Software Engineering
• STAR book Software Engineering for Experimental
  Robotics 2007
• SDIR-II Workshop at ICRA2007
• SDIR-III Workshop at ICRA2008 (proposal)
• Robotic software frameworks and tools
• NASA / JPL CLARAty open source September 2007
• Robot Software _at_ Wikipedia several projects
• ROSTA http//wiki.robot-standards.org/
• Domain engineering
• Software Abstraction for robot embodiment The
  AnyMorphology project at UniBG
• Measures and Procedures for the Evaluation of
  Robot Architectures The EU ROSTA project

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Space Robotics
Space Robotics TC Web site was expanded and
maintained http//teamster.usc.edu/fixture/Roboti
cs/SpaceRoboticsTC/SpaceRoboticsTC.html
Planetary Robotics Mars rovers (JPL, ESA,
LAAS-CNRS, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
in Zurich, Tohoku University, CMU, Stanford
University, Universität Bremen)
Orbital Robotics Inspection and Maintenance
Robot (Northrop Grumman) Manipulation of
Flexible Space Structures (Georgia Tech) Form
Based Control Algorithm (Cleveland State
University) Coordinated Control of Space Robot
Teams (MIT) Space Manipulator Analysis (JAXA)
Autonomous Spacecraft Proximity Maneuvers (Naval
Postgraduate School)
Organizational Membership increased from 13 to
18 in 2007 continued cooperation with other
organizations ICRA workshops in 07 and 08,
attendance at IROS 07 and ICRA 08RAS TAB
meeting
Contact Co-Chairs to Join Rick Wagner
(Rick.Wagner_at_NGC.com) Dimi Apostolopoulos
(da1v_at_cs.cmu.edu) Hobson Lane (Hobson.Lane_at_NGC.co
m) Richard Volpe (volpe_at_jpl.nasa.gov)
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Surgical Robotics
MRI Compatible Robotic Radiofrequency Ablation
with Haptic FeedbackRebecca Kokes, Kevin Lister,
Rao Gullapalli, Bao Zhang, Howard Richard,
Jaydev P. Desai
TC Co-Chairs Jaydev P. Desai, RAMS Lab,
jaydev_at_umd.edu Frank Tendick, frank.tendick_at_ucsf.e
du Mamoru Mitsuishi, mamoru_at_nml.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Robot-Assisted Lung BrachytherapyA.L. Trejos, S.
Mohan, H. Bassan, A. Lin, A. Kashigar, R.V.
Patel, R. Malthaner
In-Vivo Pan/Tilt Endoscope with Integrated Light
Source Tie Hu, Peter K. Allen, Dennis
L .Fowler
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Telerobotics
Multi-master/multi-slave teleoperation Multiple
robots for increasing telepresence and remote
functionalities Technische Univ. München,
Teleoperation of Mobile Robots (UIUC),
Teleoperation of mobile robots Mobile haptic
interface and mobile teleoperator Technische
Univ. München, Univ. di Roma, Univ. Politecnica
de Madrid
Workshops ICRA 2008 New Vistas and Challenges
in Telerobotics
Advanced bilateral control New control strategies
for improving telepresence Port-Hamiltonian
strategies (Univ. of Modena and Reggio Emilia and
Univ Twente), Synchronization (UMD and UIUC),
Wave variables (Stanford),
Contact Co-Chairs to Join Manuel
Ferre(mferre_at_etsii.upm.es)? Nikhil Chopra
(nchopra_at_umd.edu) Angelika Peer
(angelika.peer_at_tum.de)? Cristian Secchi
(cristian.secchi_at_unimore.it)?
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Technical Committees Fall 2008 Aerial
Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Agricultural Robotics Algorithms for Planning
and Control of Robot Motion Autonomous Ground
Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems
Bio Robotics Computer Robot Vision Haptics
Human-Robot Interaction Coordination Humanoid
Robotics Marine Robots Micro/Nano Robotics and
Automation Networked Robots Rehabilitation
Assistive Robotics Roboethics Robot Learning
Safety Security and Rescue Robotics
Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Service
Robotics Software Engineering for Robotics and
Automation Space Robotics Surgical Robotics
Telerobotics
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Field of Interest Statement
The Society strives to advance innovation,
education, and fundamental and applied research
in Robotics and Automation. Robotics focuses on
systems incorporating sensors and actuators that
operate autonomously or semi-autonomously in
cooperation with humans. Robotics research
emphasizes intelligence and adaptability to cope
with unstructured environments. Automation
research emphasizes efficiency, productivity,
quality, and reliability, focusing on systems
that operate autonomously, often in structured
environments over extended periods, and on the
explicit structuring of such environments.