From hirata at irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp Mon Dec 1 00:37:55 2008 From: hirata at irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp (Yasuhisa Hirata) Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:37:55 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Advanced Robotics : Vol. 22, No. 15 issue Message-ID: <4933A263.6010908@irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp> ************************************************************************ The Official International Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan Advanced Robotics Volume 22, Number 15, 2008 Special Issue on Mobiligence (1) ************************************************************************ You have free access to the abstracts of all papers below from the following link, and can access the pdf files if you or your institution is subscribing to Advanced Robotics: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/vsp/arb/2008/00000022/00000015 Table of Contents Preface pp. 1603-1604(2) Authors: Hosoda, Koh; Aonuma, Hitoshi Understanding and Reconstruction of the Mobiligence of Insects Employing Multiscale Biological Approaches and Robotics pp. 1605-1628(24) Authors: Kanzaki, Ryohei; Ando, Noriyasu; Sakurai, Takeshi; Kazawa, Tomoki Neurobiological Basis of Controlling Posture and Locomotion pp. 1629-1663(35) Authors: Takakusaki, Kaoru; Okumura, Toshikatsu Biological Insights Into Robotics: Honeybee Foraging Behavior by a Waggle Dance pp. 1665-1681(17) Authors: Okada, Ryuichi; Ikeno, Hidetoshi; Aonuma, Hitoshi; Ito, Etsuro Rapid and Cheap Learning by Exploiting Biarticular Muscles - A Case Study With a Two-Dimensional Serpentine Robot pp. 1683-1696(14) Authors: Watanabe, Wataru; Kawakatsu, Toshihiro; Ishiguro, Akio Simulating Adaptive Human Bipedal Locomotion Based on Phase Resetting Using Foot-Contact Information pp. 1697-1713(17) Authors: Aoi, Shinya; Ogihara, Naomichi; Sugimoto, Yasuhiro; Tsuchiya, Kazuo These are the relevant links to Advanced Robotics: http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/index_e.html [Advanced Robotics Home Page] http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/Subscribe_e.html [How to Subscribe] http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/Submit_e.html [Paper Submission] -- Shigeki Sugano (Waseda University, Japan) Editor-in-Chief, Advanced Robotics Takashi Yoshimi (Toshiba Corporation, Japan) Committee Chair of RSJ International Journal e-info at rsj.or.jp From cmatei at cs.columbia.edu Mon Dec 1 07:16:57 2008 From: cmatei at cs.columbia.edu (Matei Ciocarlie) Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:16:57 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Contributions - IJCAI 2009 Mobile Manipulation Challenge Message-ID: <4933FFE9.9000701@cs.columbia.edu> IJCAI 2009 Mobile Manipulation Challenge July 13-16, 2009 Pasadena, CA, USA http://mobile-manipulation-challenge.net/ CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS The IJCAI 2009 Mobile Manipulation Challenge, held in conjunction with the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, welcomes contributions that demonstrate physically embodied robots performing a mobile manipulation task. This year, we aim to bring together several research/commercial groups to demonstrate complete platforms performing relevant mobile manipulation tasks. Our long-term aim is to define increasingly challenging experiments future mobile manipulation events and greater scientific understanding of the area. AREAS OF INTEREST include (but are not limited to): - point-and-click fetching: where human users can select various objects (possibly using a laser pointer) for a mobile robot to fetch, we invite participants to bring objects for collective use for all contributors; - assembling structures: robot manipulators that can build larger structures by connecting smaller primitive parts; - searching for hidden objects: search tasks that involve manipulation of occluding objects to find hidden goal object. CONTRIBUTIONS can include live hardware demonstrations and/or short video clips, showcasing manipulation abilities as described above. Those interested in contributing should submit a 1-2 page proposal, by March 1 2009, containing the following information: - the names and affiliation of the exhibitors; - a summary of the objectives and methods of the underlying research; - description of the manipulation demonstration; - citations to any relevant or supporting papers; - if you are proposing a live hardware demonstration, a list and short description of the hardware you will be using at the Challenge. SUBMISSION can be done via email at the address: contribute at mobile-manipulation-challenge.net Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by March 20, 2009. TRAVEL SUPPORT may be possible for selected participants and their hardware, depending on available funds and level of demand. MISSION: the IJCAI 2009 Challenge will serve as the foundation for more focused and commonly pursued challenges for AAAI 2010 and beyond. Please visit the Challenge website for more details: http://mobile-manipulation-challenge.net/ The IJCAI 2009 Robotics site can be consulted for more information about the overall robotics events: http://robotics.cs.brown.edu/ijcai09/ ORGANIZERS Matei Ciocarlie Radu Bogdan Rusu Chad Jenkins Monica Anderson From secretariat at icorr2009.org Tue Dec 2 00:38:58 2008 From: secretariat at icorr2009.org (Makoto NOKATA) Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:38:58 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ICORR 2009: Call for Papers and Proposals Message-ID: <20081202083646.D878A3682B6@rungw388.ritsumei.ac.jp> Dear Colleagues, It is our great pleasure to announce the Call for Papers of: The 2009 IEEE 11th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR 2009) which will be held in Kyoto, Japan, from June 23 to 26, 2009. http://www.icorr2009.org/ ICORR 2009 will be focused on a number of topics including the themes of: - Assistive Robotics - Therapeutic Robotics - Mechatronics in Prosthetics - Artificial Human Exoskeletons - Psychosocial Robotics - Robotics for Caregiving - Neural-Machine Interfaces & Control - Robotics for Human-Motion Analysis - Evaluation & Clinical Experience The theme of the conference is "Reaching Users & the Community,? reflecting the strong demands on the rehabilitation robotics researchers to bring the fruits of their efforts to users and the community who wish to utilize them in their daily life. *** Important Dates *** December 22, 2008: Proposals for Organized SIGs/Workshops/Tutorials January 31, 2009: Submission of full papers and video clips March 28, 2009: Notification of paper acceptance April 25, 2009: Final papers and W/T manuscripts due June 23-26, 2009: ICORR 2009 Conference We are looking forward to seeing you in Kyoto. ICORR 2009 General Chair Kiyoshi Nagai ----------------------------------------------------------------- Kiyoshi Nagai, Dr. Eng. Professor Department of Robotics College of Science and Engineering Ritsumeikan University Noji-higashi 1-1-1, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan Tel: +81-77-561-2750, Fax: +81-77-561-2665 E-mail: nagai at se.ritsumei.ac.jp ----------------------------------------------------------------- From alex at cs.iastate.edu Wed Dec 3 02:09:12 2008 From: alex at cs.iastate.edu (Alexander Stoytchev) Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:09:12 -0600 (CST) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: ICDL 2009, 8-th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (Shanghai, June 5-7, 2009) Message-ID: ======================================================================= CALL FOR PAPERS 8th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL2009) Shanghai, June 5-7, 2009 http://www.icdl09.org/ ICDL is a multidisciplinary conference pertaining to all subjects related to the development and learning processes of natural and artificial systems, including perceptual, cognitive, behavioral, emotional and all other mental capabilities that are exhibited by humans, higher animals, and robots. Its visionary goal is to understand autonomous development in humans and higher animals in biological, functional, and computational terms, and to enable such development in artificial systems. ICDL strives to bring together researchers in neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, robotics and other related areas to encourage understanding and cross-fertilization of latest ideas. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to: (1) Biological and biologically inspired architectures and general principles of development (2) Neuronal, cortical and pathway plasticity (3) Autonomous generation of internal representation, including feature identification (4) Neural networks for development and learning (5) Dynamics in neural systems and neurodynamical modeling (6) Attention mechanisms and the development of attention skills (7) Visual, auditory, touch systems and their development (8) Motor systems and their development (9) Language acquisition & understanding through development (10) Multimodal integration through development (11) Conceptual learning through development (12) Motivation, value, reinforcement, and novelty (13) Emotions and their development (14) Learning and training techniques for assisting development (15) Biological and biologically inspired thinking models and development of reasoning skills (16) Models of developmental disorders (17) Development of social skills (18) Philosophical and social issues of development (19) Robots with development and learning skills (20) Using robots to study development and learning ICDL2009 will feature invited plenary talks by world-renowned speakers, a variety of special sessions aligned with the conference theme, pre-conference tutorials, as well as regular technical sessions, and poster sessions. In addition to full-paper submissions, ICDL 2009 accepts one-page abstract submissions to encourage late-breaking results or for work that is not sufficiently mature for a full paper. Organizing Committee General Chair: Juyang Weng, Michigan State University, USA General Co-Chairs: Tiande Shou, Fudan University, China Xiangyang Xue, Fudan University, China Program Chairs: Jochen Triesch, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Germany Zhengyou Zhang, Microsoft Research, USA Publication Chair: Yilu Zhang, GM Research, USA Publicity Chair: Alexander Stoytchev, Iowa State University, USA Publicity Co-Chairs: Hiroaki Wagatsuma, RIKEN, Japan (Asia) Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, INRIA Bordeaux - Sud-Ouest, France (Europe) Gedeon De?k, University of California at San Diego, USA (North America) Local Organization Sub-Committee: Hong Lu (Chair), Rui Feng (Hotel), Cheng Jin (Web), Yuefei Guo (Finance), Wenqiang Zhang (Publication) Important Dates January 25, 2009: Special session and tutorial proposals February 8, 2009: Full papers April 19, 2009: Accept/Reject notification for full papers April 26, 2009: One-page poster abstracts May 3, 2009: Accept/Reject notification for poster abstracts May 10, 2009: Final camera-ready papers Sponsors IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Cognitive Science Society Microsoft Research ======================================================================= Alex Stoytchev, ICDL-09 Publicity Chair http://www.ece.iastate.edu/~alexs/ From cetto at iri.upc.edu Tue Dec 2 03:54:42 2008 From: cetto at iri.upc.edu (Juan Andrade Cetto) Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:54:42 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] POSTDOC POSITIONS OFFERED AT IRI IN BARCELONA Message-ID: <49352202.1010306@iri.upc.edu> POSTDOC POSITIONS OFFERED AT IRI IN BARCELONA The Institut de Rob?tica i Inform?tica Industrial, CSIC-UPC, Barcelona, seeks qualified candidates for 3 and 5 year postdoctoral positions in the fields of robot kinematics, robot design, robot perception, robot manipulation, mobile robotics, ubiquitous sensor networks, and automatic control. The applicant will perform both independent and collaborative state of the art research linked to ongoing national and/or European research projects at IRI in any of the following fields: - Robot kinematics and robot design, in any of the following topics: position analysis and motion planning, mechanism synthesis, novel parallel robots, and tensegrities. - Robot perception and robot manipulation: in topics of perception, learning, and planning capabilities of robots in order to achieve higher degrees of autonomy and user-friendliness during everyday manipulation tasks. - Mobile robotics and ubiquitous computing devices, in topics such as tracking, recognition, situation awareness, learning motion skills, localization, mapping, autonomous navigation, path planning or exploration. - Automatic control, with emphasis on nonlinear control, predictive optimal control, diagnosis and fault-tolerant control and large-scale networked systems control, energy based modeling and control, and decision support systems, for applications in water and energy systems. The ideal candidates will hold a PhD degree in computer science, computer or electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mathematics, or related fields and a proven record of research excellence with journal and conference publications. An excellent English level is required. Three postdoctoral calls are included in this initiative. - The 3-year Jae-Doc call from the Spanish Council of Scientific Research (deadline 16/12/08, start 3/09, www.csic.es/vapc/JAEDoctores2008/) - The 3 year Juan de la Cierva call from the Ministry of Science and Innovation (deadline 2/09, start 12/09, www.micinn.es/ciencia/delacierva/) - The 5 year Ramon y Cajal call from the Ministry of Science and Innovation (deadline 2/09, start 12/09, www.micinn.es/ciencia/cajal/) Applicants are encouraged to visit the corresponding call web pages and verify compliance with the requisites on the specific call he/she wishes to concur, and to notify the institute his/her intention to concur by sending a letter of motivation, indicating the call of interest, a detailed CV and academic curricula, and the names of two references to admin-iri at iri.upc.es. Applicants are also encouraged to communicate with an ongoing project PI for feasibility and relevance to ongoing research. Current IRI projects can be browsed at www.iri.upc.edu/mem/mem-07.pdf. -- Juan Andrade Cetto Institut de Rob?tica i Inform?tica Industrial CSIC-UPC Llorens i Artigas 4-6, 2a pl. 08028 Barcelona, Spain Tel. +34 934010775 Fax. +34 934015750 cetto at iri.upc.edu From elebox10 at nus.edu.sg Wed Dec 3 03:43:28 2008 From: elebox10 at nus.edu.sg (Social Robotics Lab) Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:43:28 +0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Vision & Control & AI) Message-ID: <008c01c9553c$5bec95c0$13c5c140$@edu.sg> ====================================== Post-doctoral research fellow (Vision) ====================================== Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, National University of Singapore Job Description: We invite application for a Research Fellow position (tenuable minimum of 2 years) available in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore. The Research Fellow will join a team under one of our projects on Computer Vision. This project aims to develop a system which analyze and extract features from videos or images for the communication and control of robots. Areas of research for the project include pattern recognition, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and robotics. Qualifications: - PhD in Engineering, usually in Electrical, Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision. - A background in a relevant subject such as electronics, mechanical, robotics, computer science, physics or math. - Strong C / C++, programming skills. - Hardware development experience. - Excellent communicator, ability to learn quickly and enthusiastically. Qualified candidates are invited to express their interest in the vacancy or ask for more detailed information. Remunerations will commensurate with qualifications and experience. To be considered for the Research Fellow appointment, the following materials must be submitted electronically by the applicant: 1. Duly completed Personal Particular Form and Recommendation Form. 2. Brief CV (resume) including a list of publications. 3. Statement of research interests and goals, including the reason for participation in this program. 4. Copies of three best research publications (if any). For further details contact Prof. Shuzhi Sam GE, email: srl at nus.edu.sg Position description is available at http://robotics.nus.edu.sg/index.php?q=node/59 To find more information of our Social Robotics Lab at http://robotics.nus.edu.sg/ ============================================================== Post-doctoral research fellow (Control theory and application) ============================================================== Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering National University of Singapore We invite application for a Research Fellow position (tenuable minimum of 2 years) available in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore. The Research Fellow will join a team under one of our projects on control theory and applications. Qualifications: - PhD in Engineering, usually in Electrical, Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in Control. - background in a relevant subject such as electronics, mechanical, robotics, computer science, physics or math. - Excellent communicator, ability to learn quickly and enthusiastically It would be a plus if the applicant possesses: - strong C / C++, programming skills - hardware development experience Qualified candidates are invited to express their interest in the vacancy or ask for more detailed information. Remunerations will commensurate with qualifications and experience. To be considered for the Research Fellow appointment, the following materials must be submitted electronically by the applicant: 1. Duly completed Personal Particular Form and Recommendation Form. 2. Brief CV (resume) including a list of publications. 3. Statement of research interests and goals, including the reason for participation in this program. 4. Copies of three best research publications (if any). For further details contact Prof. Shuzhi Sam GE, email: samge at nus.edu.sg Position description is available at http://robotics.nus.edu.sg/index.php?q=node/59 To find more information of our Social Robotics Lab at http://robotics.nus.edu.sg/ ======================================================= Post-doctoral research fellow (Artificial Intelligence) ======================================================= Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, National University of Singapore Job Description: We invite application for a Research Fellow position (tenuable minimum of 2 years) available in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore. The Research Fellow will join a team under one of our projects on Social Robotics. Qualifications: - PhD in Engineering, usually in Electrical, Mechanical Engineering with a specialty in Artificial Intelligence - A background in a relevant subject such as electronics, mechanical, robotics, computer science, physics or math. - Strong C / C++, programming skills. - Hardware development experience. - Excellent communicator, ability to learn quickly and enthusiastically. Qualified candidates are invited to express their interest in the vacancy or ask for more detailed information. Remunerations will commensurate with qualifications and experience. To be considered for the Research Fellow appointment, the following materials must be submitted electronically by the applicant: 1. Duly completed Personal Particular Form and Recommendation Form. 2. Brief CV (resume) including a list of publications. 3. Statement of research interests and goals, including the reason for participation in this program. 4. Copies of three best research publications (if any). For further details contact Prof. Shuzhi Sam GE, email: samge at nus.edu.sg Position description is available at http://robotics.nus.edu.sg/index.php?q=node/59 To find more information of our Social Robotics Lab at http://robotics.nus.edu.sg/ From raj.madhavan at nist.gov Tue Dec 2 12:12:32 2008 From: raj.madhavan at nist.gov (Raj Madhavan) Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:12:32 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] [Call for Papers] Autonomous Robots Journal Special Issue: Characterizing Mobile Robot Localization and Mapping Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20081202150430.022bd628@mailhub.mel.nist.gov> Autonomous Robots Journal Special Issue: Characterizing Mobile Robot Localization and Mapping Editors: Raj Madhavan, Chris Scrapper, and Alexander Kleiner Stable navigation solutions are critical for mobile robots intended to operate in dynamic and unstructured environments. In the context of this special issue, stable navigation solution is taken to mean the ability of a robotic system "to sense and create internal representations of its environment and estimate pose (where pose consists of position and orientation) with respect to a fixed coordinate frame". Such competency, usually termed localization and mapping, will enable mobile robots to identify obstacles and hazards present in the environment, and maintain an estimate of where they are and where they have been. A myriad of approaches have been proposed and implemented, some with greater success than others. Since the capabilities and limitations of these approaches vary significantly depending on the requirements of the end user, the operational domain, and onboard sensor suite limitations, it is essential for developers of robotic systems to understand the performance characteristics of methodologies employed to produce a stable navigation solution. Currently, there is no way to quantitatively measure the performance of a robot or a team of robots against user-defined requirements. Additionally, there exists no consensus on what objective evaluation procedures need to be followed to deduce the performance of various robots operating in a variety of domains. Lack of reproducible and repeatable test methods have precluded researchers working towards a common goal from exchanging and communicating results, inter-comparing robot performance, and leveraging previous work that could otherwise avoid duplication and expedite technology transfer from the "drawing board" to the field. For instance, currently, the evaluation of robotic maps is based on qualitative analysis (i.e. visual inspection). This approach does not allow for better understanding of what errors specific systems are prone to and what systems meet the needs. It has become common practice in the literature to compare newly developed mapping algorithms with former methods by presenting images of generated maps. This procedure turns out to be suboptimal, particularly when applied to large-scale maps. The absence of standardized methods for evaluating emerging robotic technologies has caused segmentation in the research and development communities. This lack of cohesion hinders the attainment of robust mobile robot navigation, in turn slowing progress in many domains, such as manufacturing, service, health care, and security. Providing the research community access to standardized tools, reference data sets, and an open-source library of navigation solutions, researchers and consumers of mobile robot technologies will be able to evaluate the cost and benefits associated with various navigation solutions. The primary focus of this special issue is to bring together what is so far an amorphous research community to define standardized methods for the quantitative evaluation of robot localization algorithms and/or robot-generated maps. The performance characteristics of several approaches will be documented towards developing a stable navigation solution by detailing the capabilities and limitations of each approach and by the inter-comparison of experimental results, as well as the underlying mechanisms used to formulate these solutions. Through this effort, we seek to start the process, which will compile the results of these evaluations into a reference guide that documents lessons learned and the performance characteristics of various navigation solutions. This will enable end users to select the "best" possible method that meets their needs and will also lead to the development of the adaptive systems that are more technically capable and at the same time are safe thus permitting collaborative operations of man and machine. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): * Characterizing navigation in complex unstructured domains & requirements imposed by dynamic nature of operating domains * Evaluation frameworks and adaptive approaches to developing stable navigation solutions * Probabilistic methodologies with particular attention to uncertainty in assessing robot-generated maps * Visualization tools for assessing localization and mapping * Methods for ground truth generation from public map sources * Multi-robot localization and mapping * Testing in various domains of interest ranging from manufacturing floors to urban search and rescue * Applications with demonstrated success or lessons learnt from failures The above topics are by no means exhaustive but are only meant to be a representative list. We particularly encourage submissions related to mobile robot field deployments, challenges encountered, and lessons learnt during such implementations. Theoretical investigations into assessing performance of robot localization and mapping algorithms are also welcome. Please contact the guest editors if you are not sure if a particular topic fits the special issue. IMPORTANT DATES * Paper submission deadline: February 1, 2009 * Notification to authors: May 1, 2009 * Camera ready papers: August 1, 2009 SUBMISSION INFORMATION See journal webiste at http://www.springer.com/10514 Manuscripts should be submitted to: http://AURO.edmgr.com This online system offers easy and straightforward log-in and submission procedures, and supports a wide range of submission file formats. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Raj Madhavan, Ph.D. Intelligent Systems Division National Institute of Standards and Technology 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8230 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230. Tel: (301) 975-2865 Fax: (301) 990-9688 URL: http://aser.ornl.gov/madhavan/ From simon.miles at kcl.ac.uk Tue Dec 2 02:45:17 2008 From: simon.miles at kcl.ac.uk (Miles, Simon) Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:45:17 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] AAMAS-09 2nd Call for Demonstrations Message-ID: (apologies if you receive multiple copies of this call) Eighth International Joint Conference on AUTONOMOUS AGENTS AND MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS (AAMAS 2009) Call for Demonstrations AAMAS 2009 will include a demonstration session. Demonstration submissions are be invited for four different categories: * INDUSTRIAL SOFTWARE * ACADEMIC SOFTWARE * ROBOTICS * STUDENT PROJECTS. A best demo award will be chosen separately for each category. A price of 1000 Euro is provided for the winner in the category "student projects." The award selection will be done in consultation by the advisory board and the exhibits and demo co-chairs. Demonstrators are expected to present a live interactive demo at assigned time slots during the conference. Developers of software or robotic system based on autonomous agents or multi-agent techniques, especially those showing novel technology, are welcome to submit a demo. Examples of demos include but are not limited to: * Multi-agent software systems * Industrial and military applications (including prototypes) * Agent-based games * Agent platforms and development environments * Open-source software tools * Robotic systems (single and multi-agent) * Virtual agents and interactive virtual environments * Simulation environments The demonstration sessions will be held as part of the AAMAS main conference. The goal of the AAMAS demonstrations is to give participants, from industry and academia an opportunity to present their latest developments on software and/or robotic system. In addition, we strongly encourage students to submit valuable demos resulting from their projects or thesis work. Submissions accepted for the demonstration session will be advertised on the AAMAS website and in the conference booklet, which will contain abstracts of all available demos. Each demo submission should consist of three parts: 1. A 2-page paper in which the authors describe the system to be demonstrated. The paper should describe the application domain/problem/scenario, the technology used, the agent/multi-agent techniques involved, the innovations of the system, its live and interactive aspects, etc. Papers have to be prepared in PDF format using the AAMAS style (follow the instructions at http://www.conferences.hu/AAMAS2009/). 2. A demonstration movie (youtube compatible) that clearly shows the purpose and use of the demo. Alternatively, the authors can submit a scenario that consists of a series of snapshots of the demo annotated with an explanation. 3. For student projects only: a 1 page statement in which the student clearly describes his personal contribution to the project 4. Additional information in a plain text file including the following information: - Demonstration title - Authors (name, affiliation, email, address, phone fax) - The corresponding author with her/his email address - Abstract (max. 150 words) - Keywords - URL (if available) - Paper ID if the demo is related to a paper at the main conference - Equipment you will bring (e.g., laptop, robot) - Equipment you will need (e.g., table, poster board, power sockets) - Special requirements (e.g., space for robot and if so how much, video projector) - A discussion of the present state of your demo (e.g., ready to demonstrate now, but if not, include a realistic estimate for conclusion and what remains to be done before you have a demonstrable software/robotic system). Accepted demos will have the 2-page papers included in the AAMAS proceedings. Submissions All demonstration proposals should be send to demos at aamas09.org Submissions are open from October 27, 2009 Submission Deadline: January 12, 2009, 23:59 UTC Selection Process The submission and selection processes for the AAMAS 2009 demos will be separate from that of the main conference. Each submission will be assessed by the demo co-chairs and at least one member of the advisory board. The authors will receive a brief report with the result of the evaluation with the notification. The main evaluation criteria are: * Relevance to AAMAS * Quality and soundness of the underlying technology * Novelty of the application domain * Maturity of the (deployed) system * Potential for public interaction Notification of acceptance or rejection of submitted demos will be sent to the corresponding author by January 30, 2009. At least one author of each accepted demonstration is required to register and to attend the conference to give the demonstration. Important Dates Submission deadline: January 12, 2009. Notification of acceptance/rejection: January 30, 2009. Camera-ready paper: February 6, 2009 Contact Information For more information, contact the demos co-chairs: demos at aamas09.org AAMAS 2009 Advisory Board James Odell, Independent consultant, USA Andrea Omicini, Universit? di Bologna, Italy H. Van Dyke Parunak, NewVectors LLC, Ann Arbor, USA Juan Pav?n, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Spain Giovanni Rimassa, Whitestein Technologies Michael Winikoff, RMIT Melbourne, Australia AAMAS 2009 Demo & Exibits Co-Chairs Paolo Giorgini, University of Trento, Povo (Italy) Danny Weyns, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) -- Dr Simon Miles Agents and Intelligent Systems Group Department of Computer Science Kings College London, UK From athomaz at cc.gatech.edu Wed Dec 3 11:41:50 2008 From: athomaz at cc.gatech.edu (Andrea Thomaz) Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:41:50 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: IJCAI 2009 Learning by Demonstration Challenge Message-ID: IJCAI 2009 Robot Learning by Demonstration Challenge July 13-16, 2009 Pasadena, CA, USA http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~athomaz/IJCAI-LbD-Exhibit/ ------------------------------------------------------ CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS The IJCAI 2009 Robot Learning by Demonstration (LbD) Challenge, held in conjunction with the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, welcomes contributions that demonstrate physically embodied robots learning a task or skill from a human teacher. This year, we aim to bring together several research/commercial groups to demonstrate complete platforms performing relevant LbD tasks. Our long-term aim is to define increasingly challenging experiments for future LbD events and greater scientific understanding of the area. CONTRIBUTIONS can include live hardware demonstrations and/or short video clips, showcasing Learning by Demonstration abilities. Those interested in contributing should submit a 1-2 page proposal, by March 1 2009, containing the following information: - the names and affiliation of the exhibitors; - a summary of the objectives and methods of the underlying research; - description of the LbD demonstration; - citations to any relevant or supporting papers; - if you are proposing a live hardware demonstration, a list and short description of the hardware you will be using at the Challenge. SUBMISSION can be done online at: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?c=.21071;conf=ijcai09lbdchallenge Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by March 20, 2009. TRAVEL SUPPORT may be possible for selected participants and their hardware, depending on available funds and level of demand. MISSION: the IJCAI 2009 Challenge will serve as the foundation for more focused and commonly pursued challenges for AAAI 2010 and beyond. Please visit the Challenge website for more details: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~athomaz/IJCAI-LbD-Exhibit/ The IJCAI 2009 Robotics site can be consulted for more information about the overall robotics events: http://robotics.cs.brown.edu/ijcai09/ ORGANIZERS Andrea Thomaz Chad Jenkins Monica Anderson ------------------------------------------------------ Andrea Thomaz Asst. Professor, Interactive Computing Georgia Institute of Technology http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~athomaz From devin at cs.dartmouth.edu Thu Dec 4 06:08:48 2008 From: devin at cs.dartmouth.edu (Devin Balkcom) Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:08:48 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] RSS 2009 Call for papers Message-ID: <95DFCFB7-527B-4B29-9E5B-A237C2891AF2@cs.dartmouth.edu> Robotics: Science and Systems 2009 http://www.roboticsconference.org/ University of Washington, Seattle, June 28 - July 1, 2009 CALL FOR PAPERS http://www.roboticsconference.org/papercall.html The 2009 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference will bring together researchers working on algorithmic or mathematical foundations of robotics, robotics applications, and analysis of robotic systems. High quality, original papers are solicited in all areas of robotics. The final program will be the result of a highly selective review process designed to include the best work of its kind in every category. The conference will be single track to allow attendees an opportunity to experience the best research in all areas of robotics. The program will include invited talks as well as oral and poster presentations of refereed papers. Conference dates are Sunday, June 28 through Wednesday, July 1, 2009. Workshops will run all day Sunday and Monday morning and the main conference track begins Monday afternoon and continues through Wednesday. As in previous years, efforts are underway to make RSS affordable, particularly for student attendees. Important Dates: Paper submissions: January 15, 2009, 23:59:59PST (firm) Rebuttal phase: March 9-13, 2009 Notification: April 15, 2009 Conference: June 28 ? July 1, 2009 We look forward to seeing you in Seattle. Jeff Trinkle, RSS 2009 General Chair Yoky Matsuoka, RSS 2009 Program Chair Devin Balkcom, RSS 2009 Publicity Chair From jacky at cs.umanitoba.ca Wed Dec 3 14:11:34 2008 From: jacky at cs.umanitoba.ca (Jacky Baltes) Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:11:34 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: International Conference on Advanced Humanoid Robotics Research (ICAHRR-09), Aug 16-19, 2009, Daejon, Korea Message-ID: International Conference on Advanced Humanoid Robotics Research (ICAHRR-09) Incheon, Korea August 16-18, 2009 Call For Papers OBJECTIVES The goal of this conference is to bring together researchers from all areas of humanoid robotics to explore new frontiers for humanoid robots, a very active and important research area within robotics. To date most work in this area has focused on the generation of basic walking gaits for flat terrains, but recent advances have led to novel research opportunities and directions. While walking is obviously a core competency for a humanoid robots, and a skill on which more challenging behaviours are based, it is still a simple task when compared to the full range of motions that a human can easily generate and control. To develop humanoid robots that can have a significant impact on our society, such as robotic nurses or firemen, a humanoid robot must have numerous skills. These include being able to actively balance on uneven surfaces (e.g., move through grass as well as gravel roads), plan complex motions (e.g., pick up dirty laundry from underneath the bed), and interact with other robots or humans (e.g., move furniture). The conference provides researchers with an opportunity to present active developments in these and related areas, and to develop directions for future research. TOPICS OF INTEREST We solicit original, unpublished research in all areas of humanoid robotics, especially those outlined above. Major areas of interest are: - Adaptive and Intelligent Control - Trajectory Planning - Walking Gait Generation - Complex Motion Planning - Human-Robot Interaction - Simulation of Humanoid Robots - Sensing and Perception of Unstructured Environments - Computer Vision for Humanoid Robots - Multi-Robot Coordination and Communication - Machine Learning - Applications for Humanoid Robots in Society - Societal Issues related to Humanoid Robots Proceedings will be published by Springer and exceptional papers will be considered for publication in The International Journal of Social Robotics. PAPER SUMMISSION Authors are invited to submit the complete manuscripts in PDF format. Submissions should be as per the LaTex or Word templates. Manuscripts are limited to six (6) A4 size papers. The front page must contain the title of the paper, full name(s) and address(es) of the author(s) and the appropriate academic field(s). The complete mailing address(es), telephone number(s), FAX number(s) and email address(es) must be provided on a separate sheet. All papers will be refereed by the program committee. IMPORTANT DATES - INVITED SESSION PROPOSAL SUBMISSION: February 1, 2009 - CONFERENCE/INVITED SESSION PAPER SUBMISSION: February 1, 2009 - NOTIFICATION TO AUTHORS: March 10, 2009 - FINAL CAMERA-READY MANUSCRIPT: April 1, 2009 WEBSITE Submission and general information will be available at: http://www.fira.net VENUE Incheon is the 3rd largest city in Korea with population 2,700,000 people. It is the gateway city of Korea, with Incheon International Airport and seaport located about 28km from Seoul. The city is near the west sea and has many beautiful sites to visit. The Global Fair and Festival 2009 will be held along with FIRA. For more information please visit http://english.incheon.go.kr RELATED EVENTS 14th FIRA RoboWorld Congress 2009 Korea, 16-18 August, 2009 14th FIRA RoboWorld Cup 2009 Korea, 18-20 August, 2009 Global Fair and Festival 2009, Incheon, Korea, 7 August-25 October, 2009 Honorary Chair Jong-Hwan Kim KAIST, Korea FIRA Steering Committee Chair Shuzhi Sam Ge The National University of Singapore, Singapore FIRA Congress Program Chair Prahlad Vadakkepat, Singapore General Chair Jacky Baltes University of Manitoba, Canada Program Chair John Anderson University of Manitoba, Canada Vice Chair: Invited/Special Sessions Kuo-Yang Tu NKFUST Taiwan Program Committee Guido Buckman, U. Plymouth, UK Zaki Byagowi, Gilan U, Iran Thomas Braunl, U. Western Australia, Australia Chung-Hsien Guo, NTUST,Taiwan Dennis Hong, Virginia Tech, USA Pasan Kulvanit, King Mongkut's U., Thailand Jean-Claude Latombe, Stanford, USA Adalberto Llarena, UNAM, Mexico Bruce McDonald, U. Auckland, NZ Chris Messom, Massey U., Albany, NZ Norbert Meyer, U. Osaka, Japan Asad Norouzi, Chalmers U., Sweden Paul Oh, Drexel U., USA Nadir Ould-Khessal, Okanagan C., Canada Simon Parsons, CUNY, USA Heinz Ulbrich, TU Munich, Germany Changjiu Zhou, Singapore Polytechnic Publicity Chair Adalberto Llarena (S. America) Simon Parsons (N. America) Heinz Ulbrich (Europe) Zaki Byagowi (Middle East) Changjiu Zhou (Southeast Asia) Norbert Meyer (Japan) Finance Chair Hyun-Myung, KR Local Arrangement Chair Yeon-Chan Hong, KR Contact ICAHRR09 at CS.UMANITOBA.CA Christine Kim office at fira.net Chen Xiangyu firacongress at gmail.com HOSTS & ORGINAZERS FIRA RoboWorld Congress is hosted by FIRA and Incheon Metropolitan City and organized by FIRA Korea and Incheon information Technology Industry Promotion Agency -- Jacky Baltes, EITC E2-402 Department of Computer Science, University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2 VoIP: +1 (310) 961-2209, Fax: +1 (204) 474-7609 Email: jacky (AT) cs.umanitoba.ca http://aalab.cs.umanitoba.ca Gizmo: jacky_baltes From jeedward at yahoo.com Thu Dec 4 08:08:02 2008 From: jeedward at yahoo.com (John Edward) Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:08:02 -0800 (PST) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ARCS-09 call for papers Message-ID: <499320.31036.qm@web45916.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> ARCS-09 call for papers ? The 2009 International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Control Systems (ARCS-09) (website: http://www.PromoteResearch.org ) will be held during July 13-16 2009 in Orlando, FL, USA. We invite draft paper submissions. The conference will take place at the same time and venue where several other international conferences are taking place. The other conferences include: ????????? International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (AIPR-09) ????????? International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics and Chemoinformatics (BCBGC-09) ????????? International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems and Web Technologies (EISWT-09) ????????? International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking and Communication Systems (HPCNCS-09) ????????? International Conference on Information Security and Privacy (ISP-09) ????????? International Conference on Recent Advances in Information Technology and Applications (RAITA-09) ????????? International Conference on Software Engineering Theory and Practice (SETP-09) ????????? International Conference on Theory and Applications of Computational Science (TACS-09) ????????? International Conference on Theoretical and Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (TMFCS-09) ? The website http://www.PromoteResearch.org contains more details. ? Sincerely John Edward Publicity committee ? ? ? From jfraczek at meil.pw.edu.pl Wed Dec 3 12:20:23 2008 From: jfraczek at meil.pw.edu.pl (Janusz Fraczek) Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:20:23 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics Warsaw Poland, 2009 Message-ID: <008101c95584$9279f540$b76ddfc0$@pw.edu.pl> Dear subscribers on behalf of the Organizing Committee of the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics, Warsaw, Poland, 29th June - 2nd July, 2009, ?I would like to kindly ask all interested researchers to submit abstracts for our conference and take part in this excellent event. One of the invited sessions organized by Prof. E. Papadopoulos and Prof. Vincenzo Parenti-Castelli is entitled Control, Mechatronics and Robotics. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is December 5th, 2008. Multibody dynamics is an exciting area of computational mechanics, which merges and blends various disciplines such as structural dynamics, multi-physic mechanics, robotics, mechatronics, computational mathematics, control theory and computer science in order to deliver methods and tools for the virtual prototyping of complex mechanical systems. Multibody dynamics plays today a central role in the modeling, analysis, simulation and optimization of mechanical systems in a variety of fields and for a wide range of industrial applications. The abstract submission procedure is described at www.multibody2009.org. With kind regards Janusz Fr?czek On behalf of Organizing Committee Eccomas Thematic Conference Multibody Dynamics 2009 Warsaw, Poland From kubota at tmu.ac.jp Wed Dec 3 22:12:44 2008 From: kubota at tmu.ac.jp (Naoyuki Kubota) Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:12:44 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] **Deadline Extended to Dec. 25** Call for Special Sessions for FUZZ-IEEE 2009 Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20081204144859.04ac0a40@ccdms.cc.tmit.ac.jp> Dear colleagues, The deadline for the special session proposals has been extended to December 25. I would greatly appreciate your contribution to the success of the conference. The Special Session site of the conference is to be opened next week. We are sorry for the inconveniences the delay might have caused to you. The approved proposals will be added to the list of the special sessions on the site as approved. Thank you very much in advance for your support. Best regards, Naoyuki KUBOTA, Dr. Special Sessions Chair ==================================================== FUZZ-IEEE 2009 (2009 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems) will take place at International Convention Center Jeju(ICC Jeju), Jeju Island, Korea on August 20-24, 2008 as detailed below. (see also http://www.fuzz-ieee2009.info/index.html). You have been highly recommended as an expert in your research area and we would like to encourage you to organize a session for the conference. All special session committee members will be duly acknowledged in the conference proceedings. As a guideline, a special session is expected to have 5-6 presentations. We would need information on the organizers, the session title, the abstract (brief description of the session topic), keywords of the session, the tentative list of presentation, contact organizer, his/her e-mail addresses, and, URL of the link to the special session. If you hesitate to make your contribution just because you need more time, please contact me. Also, please feel free to make any question or suggestion you might have. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your support. ********** Apology for multiple posting ********** ====== FUZZ-IEEE 2009 Call for Papers ====== The Annual IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, well known as FUZZ-IEEE, is one of the premier international conferences in the field of fuzzy sets and systems. FUZZ-IEEE 2009 (18th in its series) will be held on Jeju Island, Korea, which is one of the most beautiful islands in Asia with a historical wealth of cultural and tourist attractions. The conference venue will be at the newly built “ ocean view” Jeju International Convention Center . The conference will cover the whole range of research and applications in fuzzy systems and soft computing, including but not limited to: * Adaptive, hierarchical, evolutionary, neural and nature-inspired systems * Hybrid systems of computational intelligence techniques * Fuzzy systems and internet applications * Kansei, human-machine interface, brain-machine interface * Fuzzy image, speech and signal processing, vision and multimedia * Industrial, financial, and medical applications * Fuzzy control and robotics, sensors, fuzzy hardware, fuzzy architectures * Fuzzy optimization and design, decision analysis and support * Fuzzy systems design, modeling, identification, fault detection * Fuzzy data analysis - clustering and classifiers, pattern recognition, bio-informatics * Fuzzy information processing - information extraction and retrieval, fusion, text mining * Knowledge discovery, learning, reasoning, agents, knowledge representation * Type II fuzzy sets, computing with words, granular computing, rough sets, fuzzy human computer interaction * Fuzzy set theory, fuzzy measures, fuzzy integrals * Rough sets, grey systems * Optimization, decision analysis, decision making, multi-criteria decision making * Software and hardware applications In addition to regular oral and poster presentations, the conference will include a full program of tutorials, specialist workshops and panel sessions together with keynote talks from several well known leaders in the field. Submissions for oral and poster presentation are invited from researchers, practitioners, and students worldwide. Proposals for Special Sessions are highly welcomed. Each proposal should give a description of the session topic and the names of the contributors plus their paper titles. Papers submitted to special sessions will go through the normal reviewing process. Proposals for Tutorials are also highly welcomed. An outline for each tutorial should be submitted and any pre-requisites for the intended audience. Further details of the submission process will be posted on the conference website in the near future. Important Dates Special Sessions: December 25, 2008 Paper Submission: February 1, 2009 Notification of Acceptance: March 15, 2009 Camera Ready Copy Due: May 1, 2009 Tutorials: August 20, 2009 Conference: August 21-24, 2009 Information Contact Prof. Frank Chung -Hoon Rhee School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Hanyang University , KOREA Email: frhee at fuzzy.hanyang.ac.kr Phone: +82 31 400 5296 Fax: +82 31 501 7502 ===== From devin at cs.dartmouth.edu Fri Dec 5 08:34:44 2008 From: devin at cs.dartmouth.edu (Devin Balkcom) Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:34:44 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] RSS Call for Workshops and Tutorial Proposals Message-ID: Call for Workshop and Tutorial Proposals Robotics: Science and Systems Sunday, June 28 - Wednesday, July 1, 2009 University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA http://www.roboticsconference.org Important Dates: December 15, 2008 submission deadline for the proposed topic January 31, 2009 submission deadline for the full proposal March 15, 2009 acceptance decisions made June 28 and June 29, 2009 workshops and tutorials take place Description: The Organizing Committee for the 2009 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference (RSS 2009) requests proposals for full and half-day workshops and tutorials to be held on Sunday, June 28, 2009 and Monday morning June 29, 2009 at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. This day and a half of workshops and tutorials will precede the main conference, which takes place from the afternoon of Monday June 29, 2009 to Wednesday July 1, 2009. RSS brings together researchers working on algorithmic or mathematical foundations of robotics, robotic applications, and the analysis of robotic systems. The workshops and tutorials have consistently provided high-quality, topically-focused forums for researchers at the forefront of robotics. Submissions: We request that workshop and tutorial organizers initially email a brief, single-paragraph description of the proposed topic and a list of organizers by December 15, 2008 to rss09workshops at cs.rice.edu. A template for the final proposal will be mailed to all interested parties. The simple template will inform the organizers of the expected constraints of full-day and half-day workshops and tutorials (including starting and ending times, coffee-breaks, capacity of available rooms) and will request information for the full proposal to be considered. As it will be indicated in the template, the full proposal submission should include a title, an abstract appropriate for promotion of the event on the RSS website, a description of the proposed content, a tentative schedule, a plan for soliciting participation, and expected requirements for space and equipment, among others. We expect full proposals to be approximately 3 pages in length. Full proposals for review will be due by January 31, 2009. Full proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage early submissions. All decisions will be made by March 15, 2009. We recommend that workshops and tutorials be designed to promote discussion among the participants. Priority will be given to proposals that effectively address this issue. Previous Workshops and Tutorials: Examples of previous workshops and tutorials with websites and on- line schedules can be found through the following links: http://robotics.ethz.ch/rss/workshopcall.shtml http://rss2007.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/workshoplist.shtml http://robotics.cs.brown.edu/rss06/workshop_descriptions.shtml http://robotics.cs.umass.edu/rss05/workshop_descriptions.html Contact: Submissions rss09workshops at cs.rice.edu Inquiries rss09workshops at cs.rice.edu Workshop Chair Lydia E. Kavraki, Rice University (kavraki at rice.edu) From raj.madhavan at nist.gov Fri Dec 5 10:36:29 2008 From: raj.madhavan at nist.gov (Raj Madhavan) Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:36:29 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] [Call for Participation] IEEE/NIST National Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20081205132927.01ee4330@mailhub.mel.nist.gov> CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IEEE/NIST Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition: Advancing Robotic Research through an Open Source High-Fidelity Simulation Framework and Competition DATE & VENUE OF TUTORIAL December 11th, 2008 University of California, Merced Merced, CA 95343. BACKGROUND Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) represent an integral component of today's manufacturing processes. They are widely used on factory floors for intra-factory transport of goods between conveyors and assembly sections, parts and frame movements, and truck-trailer loading/unloading. Automating these systems to operate in unstructured environments presents an exciting area of current research in robotics and automation. Unfortunately, the traditional entry barrier into this research area is quite high. Researchers need an extensive physical environment, robotic hardware, and knowledge in research areas ranging from mobility and mapping to behavior generation and scheduling. An accepted approach to lowering this entry barrier is through the use of simulation systems and open source software. The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society has recognized the importance of this area by forming a new robot challenge competition that will take place annually at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). In addition, the National Institute of Standards and Technology will be administering a National Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition (VMAC) that will provide an opportunity for well qualified teams to try their algorithms on actual robotic platforms. It is our belief that competitions are an effective means of stimulating interest and participation among students by providing exciting technological problems to tackle. WHO CAN PARTICIPATE? Under this effort, we are soliciting faculty members and their interested students from universities and community colleges to be introduced to this time-critical research area at a workshop to be held at UC Merced. Student involvement is strongly encouraged This competition is based on the successful VMAC competition ( http://vmac.hood.edu) held in April 2008 and the RoboCup Rescue Virtual Competitions (http://www.robocup-us.org/). Since all code used in these competitions is open source, participants are able to learn from their competitors and self-sustain their research in their areas of expertise. Researchers from multi-agent cooperation, robotic mapping and localization, communications networks, and sensory processing backgrounds are particularly encouraged to participate. The participants will be provided with the necessary knowledge needed to join the robotics and automation research community in the area of manufacturing automation and will be provided with all relevant software. The last of the full day tutorials to introduce and discuss the simulation platforms and other associated details will be held at: * University of California, Merced: December 11th 2008 Two other tutorials were given at the following venues: * Carnegie Mellon University/University of Pittsburgh: October 23rd 2008 * Georgia Institute of Technology: December 4th 2008 INTERESTED? For the December 11th tutorial, please RSVP to by December 8th with a succinct statement of how you expect to benefit from your participation. This year's National VMA Competition will be held at the NIST campus in Gaithersburg MD, and the International Competition will be held during ICRA '09 in Kobe Japan. For both events, virtual participation is possible. BEYOND THE COMPETITION ... Using a metrics-driven competition model, advancements in the various technologies comprising the AGV control system are quantified, helping the community gauge as well as target progress. It is our belief that these competitions will serve as a model for establishing a university-community focused on a real-world practical problem. This effort is administered under the IEEE Washington/Northern Virginia Section Robotics & Automation Society Chapter. RAS Chapters from across the United States are invited to be a sponsor of this competition by spreading the word among their members and helping us with the local organization of the regional tutorials. CONTACT DETAILS: Dr. Stephen Balakirsky Dr. Raj Madhavan Mr. Chris Scrapper Intelligent Systems Division National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230. Email: robosim at nist.gov --------------------------------------------------------------------- Raj Madhavan, Ph.D. Intelligent Systems Division National Institute of Standards and Technology 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8230 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230. Tel: (301) 975-2865 Fax: (301) 990-9688 URL: http://aser.ornl.gov/madhavan/ From deluca at dis.uniroma1.it Fri Dec 5 23:51:30 2008 From: deluca at dis.uniroma1.it (Alessandro De Luca) Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2008 08:51:30 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Correct 2007 Impact Factor of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics Message-ID: Could you please distribute? I believe this is of interest to our community. Thanks Alessandro De Luca ====== Correct 2007 Impact Factor of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics Thomson Reuters has put on the web the revised 2007 edition of their Journal Citation Reports (JCR). In this yearly revision, which is issued every Fall, corrections are made to wrong citation data that appeared in the first release of June. With the correct data, the IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO) is again at the top of the Robotics category for Impact Factor, with IF=1.976. This rank #1 continues the tradition of T-RO (and of its ancestor T-RA). Moreover, this year T-RO is also ranked first for Cited Half Life (9.5 years), an index that measures the archival value of a journal. If you happened to use the previous incorrect data of T-RO, please revise them. Note also that T-RO suffered from the same citation problem in the 2006 JCR edition issued in June 2007, and later corrected in the Fall of 2007. The T-RO data that you find now on the JCR web page are the right ones. Alessandro De Luca Past EiC of IEEE T-RO ====== -- Alessandro De Luca Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica "A. Ruberti" Universita' di Roma "La Sapienza" Via Ariosto 25 00185 Roma, Italy tel: +39 06 77274052 fax: +39 06 77274033 email: deluca at dis.uniroma1.it url: http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/labrob/people/deluca/deluca.html From gerhard.kraetzschmar at fh-bonn-rhein-sieg.de Fri Dec 5 15:03:48 2008 From: gerhard.kraetzschmar at fh-bonn-rhein-sieg.de (Gerhard Kraetzschmar) Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:03:48 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CfP Workshops and Tutorials for ICAR 2009 Message-ID: <18FFFBD9-DF79-40B3-969A-080DD2660834@fh-bonn-rhein-sieg.de> Dear robotics-worldwide list members, the International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR 2009) will be held in Munich next year in June. The conference organizers work hard to put together a very high quality technical program. I have the pleasure to solicit proposals for workshops and tutorials, to be held immediately prior to the conference technical program. All details are specified in the call below. Please do not hesitate to contact me, if you have questions or want to discuss ideas. Best regards, Gerhard Kraetzschmar ICAR 2009 Workshop and Tutorials Chair --------------------------------------- ** Apologies for cross-postings. ** ** Please send to interested colleagues and students.** ===================================================================== CALL FOR WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS 14th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR 2009) Munich, Germany, June 22nd to June 26th, 2009 Theme: Able Robots http://www.icar2009.org/ Workshop and tutorial proposal submission deadline: Feb 15, 2009 Workshop and tutorial program: Jun 22 to Jun 23, 2009 Sponsored by the German Robotics Society (DGR) Technically Co-sponsored by IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) ====================================================================== ------------------------------------------------- CONFERENCE THEME ------------------------------------------------- The theme of ICAR 2009 will be "able robots", where "able" is the lexical intersection of "cap-able", "depend-able", "measur-able", "afford-able". These adjectives stand as synonyms for four rather fundamental and important features of robots which are supposed to deliver useful and economically competitive services in everyday environments under everyday conditions. Robots need to be "cap-able" of performing functions, which are considered to be of real use to a customer. These functions and capabilities have to be shown in a "depend-able" manner 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and 52 weeks per year. Service robots, which have become products, have become "measur-able" because their price performance ratio determines their competitiveness. Measurability of functions, components, system designs is needed to develop competitive service robot products. Finally, attention must be paid not only to the development of high technology but also to "afford-able" technology, which leads to a competitive price performance ratio of the eventual service robotics products. ------------------------------------------------- SUBMISSION OF WORKSHOP AND TUTORIAL PROPOSALS ------------------------------------------------- ICAR 2009 is inviting workshop and tutorial proposals for the Workshop and Tutorial Program. We solicit proposals -- particularly, but not exclusively -- addressing or complementing the core scientific and technological issues of the technical conference program: * cap-able * motion planning and navigation, reactive and sensor-based planning, visual navigation, mapping and localization, robot control, kinematics and dynamics, behavior-based systems, robot architectures, distributed robot systems, sensing and perception, scene understanding, situation awareness, force and tactile sensing, haptics, sensor fusion, visual servoing, tracking, manipulation, mobile manipulation, grasping, reasoning, learning, interaction, service robotics, domestic robotics, home automation, field and service robotics * afford-able * low-cost localization, low-cost sensing and 3D perception, low-cost wide-area navigation, low-cost collision detection and obstacle avoidance, low-cost manipulation and grasping, low-cost actuation, low-cost coverage, low-cost robot design * measur-able * performance measures and procedures, benchmarks, experimental robotics, standards * depend-able * robust autonomy, error recovery, remote diagnosis and monitoring, self-modeling, self-monitoring, self-repair Tutorial durations can be half-day or full-day. Workshop durations can be anything from half-day to two days. Proposals for tutorials should include - the title of the tutorial - a brief description of the tutorial content - a brief description of the target audience - the names, affiliations, and brief CVs of all speakers - a tentative schedule for the tutorial - a description of the material that will be supplied to participants - a listing of any equipment needed Proposals for workshops should include - the title of the workshop - a description of the workshop topics, motivations, and objectives - a brief description of the target audience - a list of workshop organizers and (if applicable) committee members (all confirmed, with name, affiliation, country for everyone) - a list of confirmed (invited) speakers and confirmed participants (with name, affiliations, country for everyone) - a tentative schedule indicating also the format of the workshop, e.g. sessions of invited or contributed talks, panels, workgroups, etc. All proposals should be submitted as PDF documents by email to the workshop and tutorial chair no later than Feb 15, 2009: Gerhard Kraetzschmar, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences E-Mail: gerhard.kraetzschmar at fh-brs.de ------------------------------------------------- WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS AND TUTORIAL MATERIAL ------------------------------------------------- Tutorial and workshop material will be distributed on CDROM or USB stick to registered tutorial and workshop participants. All material must be supplied by the workshop/tutorial organizers to the Tutorials and Workshop Chair by the dates listed below. It is recommended that workshops use the same formats, instructions and means for preparing tutorial and workshop material as required by the main conference. ------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT DATES, WORKSHOP AND TUTORIAL PROGRAM ------------------------------------------------- Workshops: Proposal submission due date: Feb 15, 2009 Notification of acceptance: Mar 01, 2009 Final participants list due date: May 01, 2009 Camera-ready workshop paper submission: May 01, 2009 Workshop program: Jun 22-23, 2009 Tutorials; Proposal submission due date: Feb 15, 2009 Notification of acceptance: Mar 01, 2009 Camera-ready tutorial material submission: May 15, 2009 Tutorial program: Jun 22-23, 2009 ------------------------------------------------- FURTHER INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------- Inquiries may be sent by e-mail message to the workshop and tutorial chair: Gerhard Kraetzschmar, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences E-Mail: gerhard.kraetzschmar at fh-brs.de Detailed information on the conference is available at the Conference web page: http://www.icar2009.org/ ------------------------------------------------- COMMITTEES ------------------------------------------------- * Honorary Chairs Rolf Dieter Schraft, Fraunhofer IPA Gerd Hirzinger, DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics * General Chair Erwin Prassler, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences * Program Chair Paolo Fiorini, Univ. of Verona * Workshop and Tutorial Chair Gerhard Kraetzschmar, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences * Financial Chair Rainer Bischoff, KUKA Roboter GmbH * Publication Chair Martin H?gele, Fraunhofer IPA * Publicity Chair Monica Reggiani, Univ. of Padua * Industrial Liaison Chair Gisbert Lawitzky, Siemens AG * International Steering Committee J. Angeles (Canada) A.K. Bejczy (USA) Alicia Casals (Spain) Paulo Dario, University of Pisa (Italy) B. Espiau (France) George Giralt (France) J.O. Gray (UK) Gerd Hirzinger, German Aerospace Center (Gemany) Oussama Khatib, Stanford University (USA) Giulio Sandini, University of Genoa (Italy) Rolf Dieter Schraft (Gemany) Jon Trevelyan, Durham University (UK) Y. Umetani (Japan) * Local Organizer Corinna Noltenius, GPS Gesellschaft f?r Produktionssysteme GmbH ------------------------------------------------- VENUE ------------------------------------------------- All sessions and activities of the ICAR 2009 will be held at the Munich Marriott Hotel, Berliner Strasse 93, Munich, Germany Best regards, Gerhard Kraetzschmar --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard K. Kraetzschmar Professor for Autonomous Systems Fon: +49-2241-865-293 Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University oAS Fax: +49-2241-865-8293 Computer Science Department Net: gerhard.kraetzschmar at fh-brs.de Grantham-Allee 20 Web: http://www.kraetzschmar.de/ 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany B-IT Bonn-Aachen International Center of Information Technology Net: gerhard.kraetzschmar at b-it-center.de --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From k_schi at t-online.de Sat Dec 6 05:34:18 2008 From: k_schi at t-online.de (Schilling,Klaus) Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2008 14:34:18 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] 2 Aerospace Robotics Professor Positions In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <493A7F5A.5070909@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de> At the Institute for Computer Science of the Julius-Maximilians- University Wuerzburg the following tenured positions are available from 1. April 2009 : W3-Professor on ?Aerospace Information Technology? We search for this full professor position a researcher of international reputation with experience in aerospace technologies and with research emphasis in areas like ? On board data processing systems, micro-processors, embedded control, ? Autonomy, control technology, ? Signal- and information processing, navigation systems, ? Redundancy concepts, real-time operation systems. Interdisciplinary cooperations between Computer Science, Physics and Engineering should be supported. Emphasis in teaching will concern lectures on on-board data processing systems, micro-processors and embedded control, sensor systems, introduction to aerospace systems, laboratories and hardware practicals in these fields. W2-Professor on ?Telematics? We search for this associate professor position a well recognized researcher with aerospace background. The research emphasis should be in areas like ? telemetry and telecommand, telematic methods and hardware, ? advanced telecommunication systems, fault-tolerant and self-organizing networks, ? supervisory control, remote control, ? ground control operations, telecommunication hardware, quality of service / experience Interdisciplinary cooperations between Computer Science, Physics and Engineering should be supported. Emphasis in teaching will concern lectures on telematics, aerospace systems, remote control systems, laboratories and hardware practicals in these fields. This position will be affiliated with chair Informatics VII: robotics and telematics. For both positions the lectures will be related to the programs -program ?Aerospace informatics? (Bachelor), the international ?SpaceMaster? (Master) (www.spacemaster.uni-wuerzburg.de) and SpaceMathematics (Master), as well as to Computer Sciences. The classes can be offered in English language. An active support and cooperation in planned and existing graduate programs is expected. Prerequisites are pedagogical skills, completed university studies, PhD, and Habilitation or similar level research results (achieved as junior professor or at positions outside academia). At appointment the age of 52 years should not be completed (exceptions in urgent cases are possible according to Art. 10 Abs. 3 Satz 2 BayHSchPG). The university wants to increase the percentage of female faculty and encourages applications of women. Disabled persons will be prefered at equal skill level. Applications with the usual documents (curriculum vitae, copies of certificates, list of publications, copies of 3 selected publications, list of lectures offered so far and professional activities in the aerospace sector) are to be sent until 9. January 2009 to Dean of the Fakulty for Mathematics and Computer Sciences, University Wuerzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Wuerzburg, Germany, e-mail dekan at mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de _______________________________________________________________________ Profile Julius-Maximilians-University Wuerzburg (JMUW) The university was first founded in 1402, enrolls today more than 20000 students in 12 faculties and hosts well known research institutions. 13 Nobel prize winners worked there, among them Wilhelm R?ntgen, the discoverer of the X-rays. W?rzburg, located near the centre of Germany, offers a wide range for recreation and leisure activities together with theaters, open-air concerts, and wine festivals. Located at the shores of the river Main, vineyards, castles, mediaval cities and baroque residences (the bishop?s residence is on the list of the UNESCO world inheritage) are characteristic for the region. From skgupta at umd.edu Fri Dec 5 15:03:19 2008 From: skgupta at umd.edu (Satyandra K. Gupta) Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:03:19 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] postdoc position announcement Message-ID: <4939B337.7070705@umd.edu> Position Description: Research Associate (Post-Doc) position in Surgical Robotics for the design, development, and implementation of a highly dexterous Minimally Invasive Neurosurgical Intracranial Robot (MINIR) teleoperated under continuous MRI. This project is sponsored by National Institute of Health (NIH). Required Expertise: Expertise is required in the areas of fundamentals of robotics, and micro and mesoscale manufacturing for making miniature robots. Candidate must have familiarity with CAD, Finite Element Modeling, CNC Machining, and Injection Molding. Candidates with hands-on design abilities and experimental background will be preferred. Selection of potential candidates will begin immediately. Application package: Interested candidates should submit the following by email in a single PDF file to skgupta at umd.edu. 1. Curriculum vitae with a list of at least 3 references 2. At least three papers which could be either published, accepted for publication, or in-preparation which demonstrate some of the required expertise mentioned above. 3. Relevant courses taken during Ph.D. studies 4. Expected date of graduation (for those who are currently pursuing a Ph.D.) 5. Doctoral dissertation topic 6. A one-page summary of research background and interests and how it aligns with the current position. Contact Information: Satyandra K. Gupta Professor and Director, Advanced Manufacturing Lab Department of Mechanical Engineering Room 3143, Glenn L. Martin Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 Phone: 301-405-5306 Fax: 301-314-9477 -- Satyandra K. Gupta, Ph.D. Professor and Director, Advanced Manufacturing Lab Mechanical Engineering Department and Institute for Systems Research University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 Office: 3143 Martin Hall Email: skgupta at umd.edu Phone: (301) 405 5306 FAX: (301) 314 9477 WWW: http://www.glue.umd.edu/~skgupta/ From wds at cse.wustl.edu Sun Dec 7 11:17:25 2008 From: wds at cse.wustl.edu (Bill Smart) Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:17:25 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] 2009 ICRA Robot Challenge Message-ID: <1228677445.29174.10.camel@localhost.localdomain> We are pleased to announce the first draft of the events for the 2009 ICRA Robot Challenge, to be held in conjunction with ICRA 2009, in Kobe, Japan, in May next year. This year's Challenge builds on the success of the inaugural event at ICRA 2008, and comprises three events: HRI, Planetary Exploration, and Manufacturing Automation. Please see the Challenge web site for more details: http://icra.wustl.edu/ If you are interested in participating, we would like to hear your feedback on the content and form of the events. The rules and descriptions are not yet finalized, and we are very open to suggestions on how to make the events better, and more relevant to your research agenda. Bill Smart, Challenge Chair Aude Billard Andreas Birk Steve Balakirsky Raj Madhavan From mtjspaan at isr.ist.utl.pt Mon Dec 8 07:22:02 2008 From: mtjspaan at isr.ist.utl.pt (Matthijs Spaan) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:22:02 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PostDoc position in Planning under Uncertainty Message-ID: <493D3B9A.7050301@isr.ist.utl.pt> A postdoctoral research grant is available at the Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR) of the Instituto Superior T?cnico, Lisbon. The topic of the grant is Planning under Uncertainty for Multiagent/Multi-robot Systems. Due to restrictions in communication, centralized planning solutions are not always viable. Decentralized partially observable Markov decision processes (Dec-POMDPs) form a formal approach for multiagent planning. They handle uncertainty in acting and sensing in a principled way, and recent years have seen great progress in planning algorithms for Dec-POMDPs. In this grant, we intend to advance the state of the art in planning algorithms and their scalability. Furthermore, we will consider a case study concerning the decentralized control of irrigation channels, in which we will apply planning under uncertainty techniques to design an autonomous controller for each gate in a channel. More details can be found at http://decpucs.isr.ist.utl.pt/ . ISR-Lisbon is a research institute of the Instituto Superior T?cnico, the oldest and largest engineering school in Portugal. ISR-Lisbon has a long standing tradition of research and development and offers a modern and enthusiastic research environment with strong interdisciplinary and international links. The grant has duration of (a maximum of) two years, and candidates should have obtained a relevant PhD degree (e.g., Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Electrical Engineering). The ideal candidate has expertise in Markov decision processes and decentralized control. Applications should include CV, a statement of research interests and two recommendation letters, and be sent to Dr. Matthijs Spaan at mtjspaan at isr.ist.utl.pt or fax: +351-21-8418291, who can also be contacted for more information. Application deadline is December 23, 2008. -- [ Matthijs Spaan ] [ http://www.isr.ist.utl.pt/~mtjspaan ] From jaime.vallsmiro at eng.uts.edu.au Mon Dec 8 23:01:14 2008 From: jaime.vallsmiro at eng.uts.edu.au (Jaime Valls Miro) Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:01:14 +1100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Phd positions at the Centre for Intelligent Mechatronics Systems - University of Technology, Sydney Message-ID: <493E17BA.1070704@eng.uts.edu.au> The Centre for Intelligent Mechatronics Systems (CIMS) at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) invites applications for a 3-year PhD scholarship (x4) to commence in March 2009, or as soon as possible thereafter. International candidates are welcome. The focus of the investigation is the fusion of computing, mechanics, sensing, actuation and human physiology to create intelligent machines that are not limited to mobile robots, but have the ability to manipulate the environment and coexist and cooperate with humans. In particular, the two key areas of interest are: a) Human-machine techniques that allow intelligent, effective, adaptive communication between humans and machines. Probabilistic methods for estimating intentions and the functional state of humans; use of multi-modal input for machine control and action recognition; machine learning. b) Physical human-interactive robots that are in direct contact with humans to conduct various tasks cooperatively. Haptics/tactile rendering for effective interaction; human-robot cooperative control; compliant mechanism design; human-robot interaction modelling; multisensory rendering and information processing and prototype development. CIMS (ims.uts.edu.au) is a cross-disciplinary center that integrates research in the disciplines of mechanical, electrical and electronics engineering and computer systems. Its main research directions include autonomous robots (unstructured environments, infrastructure maintenance, search and rescue, health care, road vehicles), electrical machines (system optimization, control), automotive systems (performance, comfort, road safety), and human factors (physiological and psychological aspects of human-machine and human-environment interaction). Requisites: applicants should have a first class honours degree or equivalent in any related discipline (e.g., electrical/mechanical/mechatronics engineering, computer science, biomedical engineering). Strong mathematical skills, knowledge of high-level programming languages (C/C++), and good level of written/spoken English are required. Applicants must also have strong knowledge in at least two of the following areas: probability and estimation theory, human factors/HRI and biomedical engineering, smart sensors and sensor fusion techniques, haptics, mechanisms, computer vision and machine learning. We are looking for individuals with strong motivation to pursue advanced studies and who are capable of adapting to team work. Each scholarship is funded at an Australian Postgraduate Award equivalent. Consideration on waving tuition fees will be given to international candidates with strong research background and/or academic record. The scholarship will be supplemented by access to overseas travel grants and other allowances Application process: to submit an application please send an email including (preferably as a single PDF): 1) motivation letter (clearly discussing your adequacy to the areas of expertise from those listed above, and the preferred research area of interest (a) or (b)) 2) description of prior research work (if applicable) 3) curriculum vitae 4) academic transcript 5) contact details of (max 2) referees 6) list of refereed publications (if applicable) to one of the two addresses below. Application deadline: 31st January 2009 For any enquiries or further information, send email to: for candidates in area (a): Dr Jaime Valls Miro jaime.vallsmiro [at] uts [dot] edu [dot] au for candidates in area (b): A/Prof Dikai Liu dikai.liu [at] uts [dot] edu [dot] au -- Dr Jaime Valls Miro Senior Research Fellow Centre for Intelligent Mechatronics Systems UTS, Faculty of Engineering and IT, PO BOX 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia Office: CB02.605 [p]: +61 2 9514 2967 [f] : +61 2 9514 2655 jaime.vallsmiro [at] uts [dot] edu [dot] au -- UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER: This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views the University of Technology, Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. From jonghyuk.kim at anu.edu.au Mon Dec 8 23:03:33 2008 From: jonghyuk.kim at anu.edu.au (Jonghyuk (Jon) Kim) Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:03:33 +1000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] A PhD Scholarship in Autonomous Navigation at the Australian National University Message-ID: <000001c959cc$3fbdbed0$382dcb96@engnet.anu.edu.au> Applications are invited for a 3-year PhD Scholarship in the fields of Autonomous Navigation, at the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) of Australian National University (ANU), Australia. The topic of the grant is: *** Project title: Simultaneous Localisaton and Image Fusion (SLIF) for robotic exploration *** *** Application deadline: 31st January 2009 *** The project is to investigate the use of Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Visual Odometry (VO) for precise aerial navigation which is crucial in robotic explorations. The position is to commence in March 2009 or as soon as possible thereafter. Applicants should have at least upper second class honours from a recognised university. The scholarship is valued at AUD$26,140 p.a. (tax exempt). The scholarship will be supplemented by access to overseas travel grants and other allowances. Overseas students are eligible to apply for this scholarship provided that they have separate tuition fee funding (eg. an EIPRS). The Australian National University is consistently ranked as one of the top universities in the world. For example, ANU ranked 16th in the world in The Times Higher Education Supplement 2008, and being the highest ranked Australian university. To submit an application: Please include a curriculum vitae, an academic transcript and two referees. A statement of the broad area of your research interest should also be included. For any enquiries or further information, send email to: Dr Jon Kim (jonghyuk.kim at anu.edu.au) or Ms Suzanne Van Haeften (suzanne.vanhaeften at anu.edu.au). Jonghyuk (Jon) Kim, PhD, Lecturer Department of Engineering (Bldg 32, E233) The Australian National University Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia T: +612 6125 2462 F: +612 6125 0506 http://engnet.anu.edu.au/DEpeople/Jonghyuk.Kim CRICOS Provider # 00120C From rad at eecs.harvard.edu Tue Dec 9 11:08:02 2008 From: rad at eecs.harvard.edu (Radhika Nagpal) Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:08:02 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PostDoc Position in Bio-Inspired Multi-Robotic Systems, Harvard University Message-ID: <5ECC6B35-1261-4FAC-A5AE-7903C7E9C2F2@eecs.harvard.edu> Postdoctoral Fellowship The Harvard Self-organizing Systems Research Group is currently seeking applicants for a postdoc position in the area of bio-inspired multi-robotic systems. We are specifically interested in topics such as programmable self-assembly and modular robotics, collective construction by mobile robots, bio-inspired decentralized control and environmentally-adaptive distributed systems. Applicants should have a Ph.D. in computer science or closely related field, significant experience in either theory or hardware multi-robot systems, and an interest in pursuing both theory and hardware design as part of the postdoctoral research. The position will be for 2 years, starting either June or Sept 2009. Applicants should send a cover letter describing their background and research, a CV, and the names and contact information for at least three references. These documents should be submitted as pdf attachments to Radhika Nagpal (rad at eecs.harvard.edu). Harvard University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and applications from women and underrepresented minorities are strongly encouraged. Radhika Nagpal Assistant Professor of Computer Science School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University Address: 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 Email: rad at eecs.harvard.edu Phone: 617 496 6434 Website: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~rad/ http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~rad/ssr/ From cebly at cs.toronto.edu Mon Dec 8 05:08:12 2008 From: cebly at cs.toronto.edu (Craig Boutilier) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:08:12 -0500 (EST) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IJCAI09: Final Call for Papers Message-ID: 21st International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-09) Final Call for Papers [ This call can be viewed (with appropriate links), or downloaded in PDF, at http://www.ijcai-09.org ] The IJCAI-09 Program Committee invites submissions of technical papers for IJCAI-09, to be held in Pasadena, CA, USA, July 11-17, 2009. Submissions are invited on significant, original, and previously unpublished research on all aspects of artificial intelligence. The theme of IJCAI-09 is "The Interdisciplinary Reach of Artificial Intelligence," with a focus on the broad impact of artificial intelligence on science, engineering, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities. The conference will include invited talks, workshops, tutorials, and other events dedicated to this theme. Important dates for authors of technical papers: * Electronic abstract submission: January 7, 2009 (11:59PM, PST) * Electronic paper submission: January 12, 2009 (11:59PM, PST) * Author feedback period: March 13-16, 2009 (11:59PM, PDT). Please note: Daylight savings time starts on March 8. * Author notification of acceptance/rejection: March 31, 2009 * Camera-ready copy due: April 14, 2009 * Technical sessions: July 13-17, 2009 Submission Details Submitted papers must be formatted according to IJCAI guidelines and submitted electronically through the IJCAI-09 paper submission site. Full instructions for submission, including formatting guidelines and electronic templates for paper submission, are available on the IJCAI-09 website: http://www.ijcai-09.org (see the link titled Submission Details). Submitting authors will be required to register with the IJCAI-09 paper submission software (this will be linked from the IJCAI-09 website during the first week of December, 2008). Papers may be accepted for either oral or poster presentation; papers accepted for either form of presentation will not be distinguished in the conference proceedings, nor will designation of oral or poster presentation be made on the quality of the contribution. Instead, these distinctions will be made in the interests of overall program coherence and quality. To facilitate review, the paper title, author names, contact details, and a brief abstract must be submitted electronically by Jan. 7, 2009 (11:59 PST). No paper will be accepted for review unless an accompanying abstract is received by the deadline. Technical papers are due electronically on Jan. 12, 2009 (11:59 PST). Authors bear full responsibility for compliance with submission standards. Submissions received after the deadline or that do not meet the length or formatting requirements will not be accepted for review. No email or fax submissions will be accepted. Notification of receipt of the electronically submitted papers will be emailed to the designated contact author soon after receipt. If there are problems with the electronic submission, the program chair will contact the designated author by email. The last day for inquiries regarding lost submissions is Jan. 19, 2009. Notification of acceptance or rejection of submitted papers will be emailed to the designated author by March 31, 2009. The opportunity to respond to preliminary reviews will be made available to authors prior to this date, during the period March 13-16, 2009. Guidelines for such responses, along with details of the reviewing process will be posted on the IJCAI-09 website. Camera-ready copy of accepted papers must be received by the publisher by April 14, 2009. Note: at least one author of each accepted paper is required to attend the conference to present the work. Authors will be required to confirm their acceptance of this requirement at the time of submission. Authors who do not have access to the web should contact the program chair at pcchair09 at ijcai.org no later than December 15, 2008 for alternate submission instructions. Content Areas To facilitate the reviewing process, authors will be required to choose two to four appropriate content area keywords from the list provided by the IJCAI-09 submission software, which will be part of the online paper registration process. Authors are encouraged to select the most specific keywords that accurately describe the main aspects of their contributions. General categories should only be used if specific categories do not apply or do not accurately reflect the main contributions. Each keyword is placed within one of ten 10 major themes; however, many of the keywords cut across multiple themes, and authors should feel free to select any keyword descriptive of the contribution, even if the major theme within which is it categorized is not the most appropriate. A list of keywords is appended to the end of this call. The major themes are: * Agent-based and Multi-agent Systems * Constraints, Satisfiability, and Search * Knowledge Representation, Reasoning and Logic * Machine Learning * Multidisciplinary Topics And Applications * Natural Language Processing * Planning and Scheduling * Robotics and Vision * Uncertainty in AI * Web and Knowledge-based Information Systems Policy on Multiple Submissions IJCAI will not accept any paper which, at the time of submission, is under review for or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. Authors are also required not to submit their papers elsewhere during IJCAI's review period. These restrictions apply only to journals and conferences, not to workshops and similar specialized presentations with a limited audience and without archival proceedings. Authors will be required to confirm that their submissions conform to these requirements at the time of submission. Paper Length and Format Submitted technical papers must be no longer than six pages, including all figures and references, and must be formatted according to posted IJCAI-09 guidelines. Specifically, papers must be formatted for "letter-size" (8.5" x 11") paper, in double-column format with a 10pt font. Electronic templates for the LaTeX typesetting package, as well as a Word template, that conform to IJCAI-09 guidelines will be made available at the conference website (see above) during the first week of December, as will further details on formatting. Authors are required to submit their electronic papers in PDF format. Files in Postscript (ps), or any other format will not be accepted. Submitted papers must not exceed six (6) formatted pages, including references and figures. This six-page limit will be strictly enforced: over-length papers will not be considered for review. Each accepted paper will be allowed six pages in the proceedings; up to two additional pages may be purchased at a price of $275 per page. In order to make blind reviewing possible, authors must omit their names and affiliations from the paper. Also, while the references should include all published literature relevant to the paper, including previous works of the authors, it should not include unpublished works. When referring to one's own work, use the third person rather than the first person. For example, say "Previously, Foo and Bar [7] have shown that...", rather than "In our previous work [7] we have shown that..." For accepted papers, such identifying information can be added to the final camera-ready version for publication. Review Process Papers will be subject to blind peer review. Selection criteria include accuracy and originality of ideas, clarity and significance of results and quality of the presentation. Each paper will be assigned to three Program Committee members, one Senior Program Committee member and one Area Chair for review. The reviewing process will include a short period for the authors to view reviews and respond to technical questions on the submitted work raised by the reviewers before final decisions are made. The decision of the Program Committee will be final and cannot be appealed. Papers accepted for the conference will be scheduled for oral or poster presentation and will be printed in the proceedings. At least one author of each accepted paper will be required to attend the conference to present the work. Please send inquiries about paper submissions to ijcai09 at aaai.org. Inquiries about the conference program can be directed to: Craig Boutilier Program Chair, IJCAI-09 Department of Computer Science University of Toronto Toronto, ON, M5S 3H5, CANADA Email: pcchair09 at ijcai.org For further information please visit the conference web site: http://www.ijcai-09.org List of keywords: Agent-based and Multi-agent Systems * Agent/AI Theories and Architectures * Agent-based Simulation and Emergent Behavior * Agent Communication * Argumentation * Auctions And Market-Based Systems * Coordination And Collaboration * Distributed AI * E-Commerce * Game Theory * Information/Mobile/Software Agents * Multiagent Learning * Multiagent Planning * Multiagent Systems (General/other) * Negotiation And Contract-Based Systems * Social Choice Theory Constraints, Satisfiability, and Search * Applications * Constraint Optimization * Constraint Satisfaction (General/other) * Distributed Search/CSP/Optimization * Dynamic Programming * Search, SAT, CSP: Evaluation and Analysis * Global Constraints * Heuristic Search * Search, SAT, CSP: Meta-heuristics * Meta-Reasoning * Quantifier Formulations * Satisfiability (General/other) * SAT and CSP: Modeling/Formulations * Search (General/other) * SAT and CSP: Solvers and Tools Knowledge Representation, Reasoning and Logic * Action, Change and Causality * Automated Reasoning and Theorem Proving * Belief Change * Common-Sense Reasoning * Computational Complexity of Reasoning * Description Logics and Ontologies * Diagnosis and Abductive Reasoning * Geometric, Spatial, and Temporal Reasoning * Knowledge Representation Languages * Knowledge Representation (General/other) * Logic Programming * Many-Valued And Fuzzy Logics * Nonmonotonic Reasoning * Preferences * Qualitative Reasoning * Reasoning with Beliefs Machine Learning * Active Learning * Case-based Reasoning * Classification * Cost-Sensitive Learning * Data Mining * Ensemble Methods * Evolutionary Computation * Feature Selection/Construction * Kernel Methods * Learning Graphical Models * Learning Preferences/Rankings * Learning Theory * Machine Learning (General/other) * Neural Networks * Online Learning * Reinforcement Learning * Relational Learning * Time-series/Data Streams * Transfer, Adaptation, Multi-task Learning * Semi-Supervised/Unsupervised Learning * Structured Learning Multidisciplinary Topics And Applications * AI and Natural Sciences * AI and Social Sciences * Art And Music * Autonomic Computing * Cognitive Modeling * Computational Biology * Computer Games * Computer-Aided Education * Database Systems * Philosophical and Ethical Issues * Human-Computer Interaction * Intelligent User Interfaces * Interactive Entertainment * Personalization and User Modeling * Real-Time Systems * Security and Privacy * Validation and Verification Natural-Language Processing * Dialogue * Discourse * Information Extraction * Information Retrieval * Machine Translation * Morphology and Phonology * Natural Language Generation * Natural Language Semantics * Natural Language Summarization * Natural Language Syntax * Natural Language Processing (General/other) * Psycholinguistics * Question Answering * Speech Recognition And Understanding * Text Classification Planning and Scheduling * Activity and Plan Recognition * Hybrid Systems * Markov Decisions Processes * Model-Based Reasoning * POMDPs * Plan Execution And Monitoring * Plan/Workflow Analysis * Planning Algorithms * Planning under Uncertainty * Planning (General/other) * Scheduling * Theoretical Foundations of Planning Robotics and Vision * Behavior And Control * Cognitive Robotics * Human Robot Interaction * Localization, Mapping, State Estimation * Manipulation * Motion and Path Planning * Multi-Robot Systems * Robotics * Sensor Networks * Vision and Perception Uncertainty in AI * Approximate Probabilistic Inference * Bayesian Networks * Decision/Utility Theory * Exact Probabilistic Inference * Graphical Models * Preference Elicitation * Sequential Decision Making * Uncertainty Representations * Uncertainty in AI (General/other) Web and Knowledge-based Information Systems * Information Extraction * Information Integration * Information Retrieval * Knowledge Acquisition * Knowledge Engineering * Knowledge-based Systems (General/other) * Ontologies * Recommender Systems * Semantic Web * Social Networks * Source Wrapping * Web Mining * Web Search * Web Technologies (General/other) From arras at informatik.uni-freiburg.de Wed Dec 10 08:49:13 2008 From: arras at informatik.uni-freiburg.de (Kai Oliver Arras) Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:49:13 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CfP: IEEE ICRA 2009 Workshop on People Detection and Tracking Message-ID: ----------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS IEEE ICRA'09 Workshop on People Detection and Tracking ----------------------------------------------------------- The full-day workshop "People Detection and Tracking" will be held during the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Kobe, Japan, on May 12, 2009. WORKSHOP HOMEPAGE ----------------- http://srl.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/conferences/icra09ws GOAL AND SCOPE -------------- As robots enter more domains in which they interact and cooperate closely with humans, the capacity of machines to detect and track people is becoming a key technology for many areas in robotics. Socially interact with humans, understanding their activities, tracking pedestrians in public or semi-public spaces or detecting intruders in a surveillance scenario are examples of tasks that rely on the ability to robustly detect and track people. Recent advances in estimation theory, data association, new techniques from machine learning as well as progress in sensor technology have enabled us to design people detection and tracking systems with decent classification rates. However, there is great demand for even more robust systems, especially over a wider range of conditions, and an increasing interest from industry for intelligent cars or surveillance of public areas. This workshop brings together key researchers in the domain of people detection and tracking with an emphasis to unite people from the vision community and the community that has mostly worked with range finders. The goal is to provide a representative survey of the state- of-the-art and to transfer knowledge within and across the communities. We will focus primarily on theoretical aspects (see list of topics) but are also interested in practical questions, e.g., pedestrian detection from mobile platforms or applications. TOPICS ------ Examples of topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * People detection and tracking with vision, laser and/or other sensors * Tracking of groups of people and/or interacting targets * Probabilistic frameworks for simultaneous segmentation, detection and tracking * Learning and model-based approaches * Advanced estimation and data association methods * Advanced handling of occlusion, fragmentation, and merging * Multi-hypothesis model selection methods * Multi-sensor fusion/integration approaches * Distributed sensors for people detection/tracking * Performance metrics and evaluation of people tracking systems * Practical applications: human-robot interaction, activity understanding, intelligent cars, surveillance etc. INVITED SPEAKERS ---------------- The workshop accomodates both, talks from invited speakers and contributions that went through a review process. * James Crowley, INRIA Grenoble, France * Bernt Schiele, University of Darmstadt, Germany * Josephine Sullivan, KTH Stockholm, Sweden * Luciano Spinello, ETH Z?rich, Switzerland * Kai O. Arras, University of Freiburg, Germany (Workshop Chair) * Oscar Martinez Mozos, University of Zaragoza, Spain (Workshop Chair) PROGRAM COMMITTEE ----------------- * Kai O. Arras, University of Freiburg, Germany * Wolfram Burgard, University of Freiburg, Germany * Henrik Christensen, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA * James Crowley, INRIA Grenoble, France * Tsutomu Hasegawa, Kyushu University, Japan * Patric Jensfelt, KTH Stockholm, Sweden * Ryo Kurazume, Kyushu University, Japan * Bastian Leibe, RWTH Aachen University, Germany * Ales Leonardis, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia * Oscar Martinez Mozos, University of Zaragoza, Spain * Bernt Schiele, University of Darmstadt, Germany * Roland Siegwart, ETH Zurich, Switzerland * Luciano Spinello, ETH Zurich, Switzerland SUBMISSION AND IMPORTANT DATES ------------------------------ Submissions are limited to six pages, two-column IEEE style. Send your submissions to arras (at) informatik (dot) uni-freiburg (dot) de. * Submission deadline: February 2, 2009 * Notification: February 15, 2009 * Camera-ready version: March 1, 2009 * Workshop: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 PROCEEDINGS AND SPECIAL ISSUE ----------------------------- The workshop proceedings will be published electronically. There will be a special issue on people detection and tracking in the Springer International Journal of Social Robotics in connection with this workshop. We will issue an open call after the workshop, submissions will go through a separate peer review process. From sergiustan at hotmail.com Wed Dec 10 02:27:44 2008 From: sergiustan at hotmail.com (Dan Stan) Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:27:44 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP, IEEE-HSI 2009, 2nd IEEE International Conference on Human System Interaction, University of Catania, Catania, Italy, May 21-23, 2009 Message-ID: ** Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement ** ----------------------------------------------------------------------HSI?09 2nd Annual International Conference on Human System Interaction: http://www3.unict.it/hsi09/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------May 21-23, 2009, University of Catania, Italy *** Submission Deadline: 15 January, 2009 *** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Track One: Intelligence: http://www3.unict.it/hsi09/download/HSI09_ss_cfp_S1.pdf ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call for Papers Human Systems Interaction 2009 aims to represent a meeting point for different communities, where to share experience and knowledge related to the interaction of human beings with such a broader range of systems. We seek novel, innovative and cutting-edge work in the following area for Track One: Track 1: Intelligence: Programming Intellect and Software of Intelligence, Data Mining, Web Intelligence, Decision Making, Machine & Robot Learning (Bioinspired, Reactive vs. Cognitive, Q-Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Self-Organized), Merging of Mind and Machine, Robot Intelligence (Behavioral, Autonomous Robotics, Swarm Colonies), Intelligent Control (Localization & Navigation, Formation Control, Robot Teams, Neurobotics) Intelligent Multimodal Sensor Systems and Haptics of Future (3D Touch, Artificial Muscles), Autonomous and Multi-Agent Systems. Online papers' submission system: http://www3.unict.it/hsi09/papers_submission_process.php?mm=7 Papers will be selected to the track based on the three peer reviews of the full manuscripts.All accepted papers will be included in the IEEE Xplore and the EI Compendex, the most comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering databases in the world. The best papers will be recommended for publication in the IEEE Transactions. Please note that only IEEE style papers in PDF format are acceptable for submission. For more information or questions, please email Track Co-Chairs: Prof. Milos Manic, misko at uidaho.edu Prof. Elizabeth Chang, Elizabeth.Chang at cbs.curtin.edu.au Dr. Sergiu-Dan Stan, sergiustan at ieee.org Join us at this major event in scenic Catania, Italy!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Senior Lecturer Dr. Eng. Dan StanTechnical University of Cluj-Napoca Department of Mechanisms, Precision Mechanics and MechatronicsB-dul Muncii, Nr. 103-105, Corp C, Et. III, C304 400641 Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA, EU Tel. +40-(0)264-401755e-mail. sergiustan at ieee.org http://www.mecanica.utcluj.ro/mmfm/Colegi/stan.html http://www.sergiustan.ro/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Wer erfand den Gl?ckskeks? Kleiner Tipp: Die Chinesen waren es nicht! - Mehr auf msn.de http://redirect.gimas.net/?n=M0812xMSNDE From ricardo.chavarriaga at idiap.ch Thu Dec 11 07:38:56 2008 From: ricardo.chavarriaga at idiap.ch (Ricardo Chavarriaga) Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:38:56 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD and postdoc positions: Non-invasive BCI at EPFL Message-ID: PhD Scholarship in Non-Invasive BCI at EPFL EPFL, one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (http://www.epfl.ch), has immediate openings for four PhD students in the field of brain-computer interaction (BCI) to work in the lab of Prof. Jos? del R. Mill?n (http://people.epfl.ch/jose.millan). Mill?n?s lab conducts research on non-invasive BCI and neuroprosthetics. His lab is part of the newly-launched Center for Neuroprosthetics (http://actualites.epfl.ch/presseinfo-com?id=661&newlang=eng), which carries out research at the interface of neuroscience and bioengineering in an environment of both theoretical and experimental research, rich for the development of novel enabling technologies as well as for seeking deeper understanding of fundamental mechanisms underlying the field of neuroprosthetics. The successful candidates will work in the framework of European and Swiss projects related to the development of novel non-invasive BCI for multimodal interaction. They will also investigate the underlying machine learning and signal processing principles for robust recognition of different cognitive processes. The candidates should have a masters degree (or equivalent) in computer science, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, or related fields. She or he should have good background in statistical machine learning, signal processing, EEG analysis, and/or human-machine interaction, and/or intelligent/adaptive robotics. Excellent programming skills are a must. Candidates must also have a good command of spoken/written English language. The positions are available immediately and will remain open until suitable candidates are found. Starting date is February 1, 2009, or at the earliest convenience afterwards. Application: Interested candidates should send a short letter of motivation, a detailed CV, and names of 3 references to Prof. Jos? del R. Mill?n (jose.millan AT epfl.ch). --------------- Postdoc Openings in Non-Invasive BCI at EPFL EPFL, one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (http://www.epfl.ch), has immediate openings for one postdoc in the field of brain-computer interaction (BCI) to work in the lab of Prof. Jos? del R. Mill?n (http://people.epfl.ch/jose.millan). Mill?n?s lab conducts research on non-invasive BCI and neuroprosthetics. His lab is part of the newly-launched Center for Neuroprosthetics (http://actualites.epfl.ch/presseinfo-com?id=661&newlang=eng), which carries out research at the interface of neuroscience and bioengineering in an environment of both theoretical and experimental research, rich for the development of novel enabling technologies as well as for seeking deeper understanding of fundamental mechanisms underlying the field of neuroprosthetics. The successful candidates will work in the framework of European and Swiss projects related to the development of novel non-invasive BCI for neuroprosthetics. They will also investigate the underlying machine learning and signal processing principles for robust recognition of different cognitive processes. The candidates should have a PhD in computer science, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, cognitive neuroscience or related fields. She or he should have good background in statistical machine learning, signal processing, EEG analysis, human-machine interaction, and/or intelligent/adaptive robotics. Excellent programming skills are a must. Candidates must also have a good command of spoken/written English language. The positions are available immediately and will remain open until a suitable candidate is found. Starting date is February 1, 2009, or at the earliest convenience afterwards. Application: Interested candidates should send a short letter of motivation, a detailed CV, and names of 3 references to Prof. Jos? del R. Mill?n (jose.millan AT epfl.ch). --- RICARDO CHAVARRIAGA ricardo.chavarriaga at a3.epfl.ch "Cogito Cogito Ergo Cogito Sum" From kavraki at cs.rice.edu Sat Dec 13 00:27:44 2008 From: kavraki at cs.rice.edu (Lydia Kavraki) Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:27:44 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Faculty Position in Complex Systems at Rice University Message-ID: <49437200.5040206@cs.rice.edu> Dear Colleagues, The Department of Computer Science at Rice University has an opening in Complex Systems. The topic is very broadly defined and certainly includes multi-agent systems, cooperating robots, distributed control, self-organizing systems both mechanical and biological, as well as theoretical, machine learning and other methodologies to understand, reason and predict the behavior of complex systems. Please spread the word around. Our job announcement can be found at http://www.cra.org/ads/adtext/ads48f761e1b935a.php Sincerely, Lydia Kavraki http://www.kavrakilab.org From jiang at gradschool.uni-luebeck.de Fri Dec 12 08:06:55 2008 From: jiang at gradschool.uni-luebeck.de (Chaoqun Jiang) Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:06:55 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Germany: 16 PhD scholarships for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences, Graduate School Luebeck Message-ID: <49428C1F.60000@gradschool.uni-luebeck.de> The Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences (funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG, and the German Government within the German university excellence program) at the University of Luebeck is now offering Ph.D. scholarships for the following 16 projects: Brach I: Neuroengineering, Robotics and Navigation I 1b - Correction of Susceptibility caused Distortions in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging I 1c - Endoscopic Optical Coherence Tomography in the Deep Brain I 1e - Transcranial sonography (TCS) in monogenic forms of Parkinsonism I 2a - Stroke Rehabilitation Robot I 2b - Parallel mode of action control: from human studies to intelligent robotic interfaces I 2d - Cardiac pacemaker localisation I 3b - Brain Modelling I 4c - Robot assisted navagation guided OCT operating microscope I 5a - Definition of cortical networlks for the control of eye and hand movements I 5c - 3-dimensional kinematic principles of eye, head and limb movements I 6a - Interfaces based on EEG, ECoG and DBS Brach II: Computing in Structural and Cell Biology II 2 - Inhibitor Design II 3b - Efficient Methods of Exact Solutions of Complex Problems in Molecular Biology II 3c - Synaptic Plasticity: Regulatory Mechanisms in Receptor Trafficking II 5 - Computational analysis of RNA structure II 7 - Analysis of adult stem cells by computer vision Please visit our website www.gradschool.uni-luebeck.de for more detailed descriptions of the projects. Ph.D. scholarships amounts to 1250 ? per month. Students with a master's degree in computer science, mathematics or engineering are invited to apply for admission. The application deadline is January 15, 2009. In certain cases, students must submit, as part of their application, the results of one of the acknowledged language tests to prove their English proficiency. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions via email: management at gradschool.uni-luebeck.de before sending your application. -- Chaoqun Jiang Secretary ================================================================ Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences ---------------------------------------------------------------- Universit?t zu L?beck Ratzeburger Allee 160 D-23538 L?beck Germany Tel: +49 451 500 5670 Fax: +49 451 500 5202 Email: jiang at gradschool.uni-luebeck.de http://www.gradschool.uni-luebeck.de ================================================================ From yoky at cs.washington.edu Sun Dec 14 09:40:10 2008 From: yoky at cs.washington.edu (Yoky Matsuoka) Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2008 09:40:10 -0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] RSS 2009: Now open for paper submissions Message-ID: <494544FA.8040205@cs.washington.edu> Robotics: Science and Systems 2009 (RSS 2009) http://www.roboticsconference.org/ University of Washington, Seattle, June 28 - July 1, 2009 RSS 2009 is now accepting high quality technical papers. This year, we will give two best paper awards: The Springer Best Student Paper ($2,500) and the iRobot Best Paper ($2,500 + special gifts). Author Instructions http://www.roboticsconference.org/authors.html Paper deadline: January 15, 2009 23:59:59 PST (firm) Call for Papers http://www.roboticsconference.org/papercall.html Call for Workshops and Tutorials http://www.roboticsconference.org/workshopcall.html We look forward to your contribution. Sincerely, Jeff Trinkle, General Chair Yoky Matsuoka, Program Chair From Alex.Zelinsky at csiro.au Sun Dec 14 17:48:24 2008 From: Alex.Zelinsky at csiro.au (Alex.Zelinsky at csiro.au) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:48:24 +1100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Applications: IEEE/IFR Invention & Entrepreneurship Award Message-ID: <2662DD637C5B50418BAD33D7A200034F1688CAFA@EXNSW-MBX01.nexus.csiro.au> *******************Call for Applications********************** IEEE/International Federation of Robotics Invention & Entrepreneurship Award for Outstanding Achievements in Commercializing Innovative Robot and Automation Technology in conjunction with IEEE/IFR Joint Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation May 12, 2009 - 1:00pm-5:00pm Kobe International Conference Center, Japan co-located with IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation - May 12-16, 2009 Kobe International Conference Center, Japan Sponsoring Organizations: International Federation of Robotics (http://www.ifr.org) IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (http://www.ieee-ras.org) Deadline for applications: February 1, 2009 http://www.ieee-ras.org/industrial Announcement: The purpose of this award is to highlight and honor the achievements of the inventors with value creating ideas and entrepreneurs who propel those ideas into world-class products. This is a key element to the continuing success of robotics and automation today. Active infusion of innovation and entrepreneurship into technological advancement is regarded critical at this juncture to strengthen a healthy balance between research and practice as well as a healthy growth of industrial and commercial sectors in robotics and automation. In a joint event the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and the International Federation of Robotics will therefore recognize and honor outstanding achievements of entrepreneurs in the commercialization of innovative robotic and automation technology. These achievements will be recognized in a specially organized IEEE/IFR Joint Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation, which is being held in conjunction the IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, the world's largest annual robotics conference. The selected finalists will have the opportunity to present their story of the genesis of a successful innovative product in robotics and automation from its very inception to the final state of commercialization in a series of plenary lectures. The ultimate winner will be chosen by an evaluation board, consisting of distinguished individuals from industry and academia. A prestigious plaque will be awarded to each finalist and a US$ 2,000 prize will be awarded to the winner. Applications should describe the original work that has been translated into a commercial success. The application must include statements regarding: * description of the innovation/product/application * stages of the product genesis * novelty/uniqueness of the product * market analysis, economic viability and pathway for commercialization * sustained competitive advantage * current and future impact on and relevance to industry Applications should not exceed a maximum length of 5 pages. Product descriptions and public relation material will not be accepted as an application. References and links to online material are permitted. Submission of Applications Please send as PDF document (< 6MB) no later than February 1, 2009 (any time zone) to klas at ieee.org Schedule February 1, 2009 Submission of applications February 28, 2009 Evaluation of applications and selection and notification of finalists May 12, 2009 Award Ceremony with plenary lectures of the finalists at the IEEE/IFR Joint Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation Contact Klas Nilsson Dept. of Computer Science, Lund University, Box 118, 221 00, Lund, Sweden phone: +46-46-2224304 / fax: +46-46-131021 / skype: klas_nilsson http://www.cs.lth.se/~klas e-mail: klas at ieee.org Honorary Chair Sukhan Lee (Sungkyunkwan University) General Chairs Alex Zelinsky (CSIRO, IEEE RAS VP Industrial Activities)?ke Lindqvist (ABB, IFR President) Organizing Committee Program Chair: Alex Zelinsky (CSIRO) Awards Chair: Klas Nilsson (Lund Univ.) Finance Chair: Erwin Prassler (BRS Univ.) Local Arrangements: Shin'ichi Yuta (Tsukuba Univ) Awards Committee IEEE: Klas Nilsson (Lund Univ.) Shin'ichi Yuta (Tsukuba Uni) Alex Zelinsky (CSIRO) IFR: Rolf-Dieter Schraft (IPA) Tokuo Iikura (JARA) Stefan M?ller (KUKA, EUnited Robotics) From stevehcollins at gmail.com Mon Dec 15 08:47:09 2008 From: stevehcollins at gmail.com (Steve Collins) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:47:09 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Dynamic Walking 2009 call for abstracts Message-ID: Dynamic Walking 2009 will be held at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, from June 8 to 11. The aim of this meeting, the fourth of an annual series, is to provide insight into the fundamental principles that underlie legged locomotion. Topics central to dynamic walking include energetics, stability, predictive principles and models, dynamic modeling, empirical data with a conceptual tie-in, and robot successes and failures. The dynamic walking approach puts less emphasis on vision, navigation, motion planning, kinematic data, kinematic control, and measurements that do not address a basic concept or principle. Participants are split roughly equally between students and professors, and between researchers studying human walking and those designing better walking robots. To promote open sharing of information, the meetings are organized to provide as much interaction between participants as possible. The format is highly informal and fluid, with a single track of presentations and extensive time scheduled for interaction, brainstorming and idea sharing. Each day includes an enjoyable and hands-on tutorial, on topics such as techniques for simulating dynamic walking and the construction and testing of dynamic walking robots. The abstract submission deadline is March 1, 2009. The format will be a single page document to be submitted on-line beginning February 1. Abstracts will be judged on both quality of research and relevance to dynamic walking. Registration and lodging costs will also be posted to the website by February 1, 2009. We are aiming to substantially offset conference costs for student and postdoc attendees. WEBSITE www.dynamicwalking.org Please subscribe to the newsletter on this page to receive regular meeting updates. FEATURED SPEAKERS Chris Atkeson, Carnegie Mellon University Hugh Herr, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Art Kuo, University of Michigan Tad McGeer, Aerovel Corporation David Reinkensmeyer, University of California at Irvine Andy Ruina, Cornell University Russ Tedrake, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Martijn Wisse, Delft University of Technology ORGANIZERS Max Donelan, Simon Fraser University Steve Collins, Delft University of Technology From alonzo at cmu.edu Mon Dec 15 13:45:32 2008 From: alonzo at cmu.edu (Alonzo Kelly) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:45:32 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Deadline for Submissions to FSR 2009 is Feb 27, 2009 Message-ID: <4946CFFC.5050905@cmu.edu> A reminder that the deadline for submissions to Field and Service Robotics 2009 is Feb 27. ------------------------ CALL FOR PAPERS The 7th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR?09) July 14-16 2009 Cambridge Massachusetts, USA. http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/fsr09 IMPORTANT DATES 27 February 2009 Receipt of full length papers 18 May 2009 Acceptance and Invitation 15 June 2009 Submission of Camera Ready Manuscripts 14-16 July2009 Conference DESCRIPTION The 7th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR'09) will be held in Cambridge Massachusetts, USA on July 14-16 2009. The conference will provide a forum for researchers, professionals and manufacturers to exchange up-to-date technical knowledge and experience. In addition to the technical sessions, there will be plenary and invited sessions. We invite papers describing original work in a number of technical areas, including: ? Mining, Agriculture and Forestry Robotics ? Construction Robots ? Search and Rescue Robotics ? Cleaning, Floor and Lawn Care Robotics ? Security Robotics ? Medical and Health Care Robotics ? Entertainment Robotics ? Autonomous Vehicles for Land, Air and Sea ? Planetary Surface Exploration Robots ? Intelligent Automobiles We also invite papers on technologies related to the above applications. SELECTED PAPERS FOR JOURNAL PUBLICATION Selected papers will be considered for publications on the following journals: - Special issue of the International Journal of Robotics Research - Special issue of the Journal of Field Robotics In addition, a book version of the Conference Proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in their STAR series. CONFERENCE LOCATION The conference will be held on the MIT campus in Cambridge. In addition to reserved blocks in nearby hotels, we will offer campus accommodation as a lower cost alternative. See the conference web site for details. SUBMISSION PROCEDURE Prospective authors should consult the conference web site for details of paper format and submission procedure. PROGRAM COMMITTEE Hajime Asama: U Tokyo, Japan Tim Barfoot: U Toronto, Canada Martin Buehler: IRobot, USA Wolfram Burgard: U Freiburg, Germany Raja Chatila: LAAS/CNRS, France Henrik Christensen: Georgia Tech, USA Peter Corke: CSIRO, Australia Toshio Fukuda: Nagoya University, Japan Aarne Halm: Helsinki U of Tech, Finland John Hollerbach: U of Utah, USA Andrew Howard: JPL / Cal Tech, USA Satoshi Kagami: AIST, Japan Oussama Khatib: Stanford U, USA Simon Lacroix: LAAS, France Christian Laugier: INRIA, France John Leonard: MIT, USA Agostino Martinelli: INRIA, France David P Miller: U Oklahoma, USA Eduardo Nebot: U Sydney, Australia Paul Newman: U Oxford, England Liam Pedersen: NASA Ames, USA Erwin Prassler: U App Sci Bonn, Germany Jonathan Roberts: CSIRO, Australia Daniela Rus: MIT, USA Miguel Angel Salichs: Univ. Carlos III, Spain Roland Siegwart: ETH Zurich, Switzerland Sanjiv Singh: Carnegie Mellon U, USA Gaurav Sukhatme: U Southern California, USA Salah Sukkarieh: U Sydney, Australia Satoshi Tadokoro: Tohoku U, Japan Chuck Thorpe: CMU, Qatar Sebastian Thrun: Stanford, USA Takashi Tsubouchi: U of Tsukuba, Japan Arto Visala: Helsinki U of Tech, Finland David Wettergreen: CMU, USA Kazuya Yoshida: Tohoku U, Japan Shin Ichi Yuta: U of Tsukuba, Japan Alex Zelinsky: CSIRO Australia Uwe Zimmer: ANU, Australia ORGANIZERS AND CONTACT INFO Alonzo Kelly - CMU, USA (alonzo at cmu.edu) Karl Iagnemma - MIT, USA (kdi at MIT.EDU) Contact: fsr09 at lists.rec.ri.cmu.edu From devin at cs.dartmouth.edu Mon Dec 15 14:29:48 2008 From: devin at cs.dartmouth.edu (Devin Balkcom) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:29:48 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] RSS deadline for workshop proposals extended to January 7 Message-ID: <66BAAAF3-747B-4A52-B39F-160349492FF6@cs.dartmouth.edu> The deadline for expressing interest to organize a workshop at RSS 2009 has been moved from December 15th to January 7 due to a number of requests. We request that workshop and tutorial organizers email a brief, single-paragraph description of the proposed topic and a list of organizers by January 7, 2008 to rss09workshops at cs.rice.edu. ------ Call for Workshop and Tutorial Proposals Robotics: Science and Systems Sunday, June 28 - Wednesday, July 1, 2009 University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA http://www.roboticsconference.org Important Dates: January 7, 2008 submission deadline for the proposed topic January 31, 2009 submission deadline for the full proposal March 15, 2009 acceptance decisions made June 28 and June 29, 2009 workshops and tutorials take place Description: The Organizing Committee for the 2009 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference (RSS 2009) requests proposals for full and half-day workshops and tutorials to be held on Sunday, June 28, 2009 and Monday morning June 29, 2009 at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. This day and a half of workshops and tutorials will precede the main conference, which takes place from the afternoon of Monday June 29, 2009 to Wednesday July 1, 2009. RSS brings together researchers working on algorithmic or mathematical foundations of robotics, robotic applications, and the analysis of robotic systems. The workshops and tutorials have consistently provided high-quality, topically-focused forums for researchers at the forefront of robotics. Submissions: We request that workshop and tutorial organizers initially email a brief, single-paragraph description of the proposed topic and a list of organizers by January 7, 2008 to rss09workshops at cs.rice.edu. A template for the final proposal will be mailed to all interested parties. The simple template will inform the organizers of the expected constraints of full-day and half-day workshops and tutorials (including starting and ending times, coffee-breaks, capacity of available rooms) and will request information for the full proposal to be considered. As it will be indicated in the template, the full proposal submission should include a title, an abstract appropriate for promotion of the event on the RSS website, a description of the proposed content, a tentative schedule, a plan for soliciting participation, and expected requirements for space and equipment, among others. We expect full proposals to be approximately 3 pages in length. Full proposals for review will be due by January 31, 2009. Full proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage early submissions. All decisions will be made by March 15, 2009. We recommend that workshops and tutorials be designed to promote discussion among the participants. Priority will be given to proposals that effectively address this issue. Previous Workshops and Tutorials: Examples of previous workshops and tutorials with websites and on-line schedules can be found through the following links: http://robotics.ethz.ch/rss/workshopcall.shtml http://rss2007.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/workshoplist.shtml http://robotics.cs.brown.edu/rss06/workshop_descriptions.shtml http://robotics.cs.umass.edu/rss05/workshop_descriptions.html Contact: Submissions rss09workshops at cs.rice.edu Inquiries rss09workshops at cs.rice.edu Workshop Chair Lydia E. Kavraki, Rice University (kavraki at rice.edu) From auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch Thu Dec 18 08:25:59 2008 From: auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch (Auke Jan Ijspeert) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:25:59 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Autonomous Robots, special issue in "Control of Locomotion: From Animals to Robots" Message-ID: <494A7997.9040209@epfl.ch> Dear colleagues,* *We invite manuscripts on robot locomotion control for the following special issue of Autonomous Robots, a journal with the second highest impact in robotics according to the ISI citation index (1.413). Deadline for submission: April 1, 2009. More information below. Best regards, Auke Ijspeert, Paolo Dario, and Sten Grillner * Autonomous Robots, special issue in "Control of Locomotion: From Animals to Robots"* Autonomous Robots website: http://www.springer.com/10514 Guest editors: Auke Ijspeert (EPFL, Switzerland), Paolo Dario (SSSA, Pisa, Italy), Sten Grillner (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden) *Description* The locomotion skills of current robots are still far behind those of animals in terms of energy efficiency, flexibility, and agility in complex unstructured terrains. The goal of this special issue of Autonomous Robots is to capture the state of the art in locomotion control in biorobotics. We seek articles that present interesting examples of interactions between biology and robotics, in particular articles that demonstrate how inspiration from the animal kingdom can help improving locomotion skills in robots, and/or that illustrate how robots can be used as scientific tools in animal motor control, e.g. to test hypotheses about neural circuits and/or biomechanical principles in invertebrate and vertebrate animals. All aspects of locomotion will be considered including materials, actuators, sensors, control, and learning. In particular, the special issue aims at exploring how these different aspects can collectively be designed to improve the locomotor skills of future robots capable of moving in unstructured and partially unknown terrains. *Topics* Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): ? neuro-mechanical coupling ? central pattern generators ? compliant robots ? passive and dynamic walkers ? swimming robots ? crawling robots ? walking robots ? jumping robots ? gait transitions ? motor learning *Important dates* ? Paper submission deadline: *April 1, 2009* ? Notification to authors: July 1, 2009 ? Camera ready papers: October 1, 2009 *Contact *For any additional information, please contact auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch *Websites* Autonomous Robots website: http://www.springer.com/10514 PDF version of the CFP: http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/CFP_10514_20081216.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-667298-p35619582 -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Auke Jan Ijspeert SNF (Swiss National Science Foundation) Assistant Professor School of Computer and Communication Sciences, EPFL EPFL-IC-ISIM-GRIJ EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne Station 14 CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland Office: INN 237 Tel: +41 21 693 2658, Fax: +41 21 693 3705 www: http://birg.epfl.ch Email: Auke.Ijspeert at epfl.ch Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California ----------------------------------------------------------------- From fferreira at isr.ist.utl.pt Wed Dec 17 15:01:46 2008 From: fferreira at isr.ist.utl.pt (Fausto Ferreira) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:01:46 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: Workshop on Roboethics at ICRA 2009 Message-ID: <494984DA.10504@isr.ist.utl.pt> [apologies for cross-posting] Call for Papers and Contributions: Full-Day Workshop on Roboethics A workshop at: ICRA 2009 (www.icra2009.org) Sunday, May 17th, 2009 Kobe, JAPAN URL: www.roboethics.org/icra2009 Abstract: Robotics research is increasingly raising ethical issues, related to the emerging interactions between robots and humans. Roboethics deals with the ethical aspects of the design, development and employment of Intelligent Machines. It shares many "sensitive areas" with Computer Ethics, Information Ethics and Bioethics. Along these disciplines, it investigates the social and ethical problems due to the effects of the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions in the Humans/Machines interaction's domain. The focus of this workshop includes the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect robotics research and robotics application to society. In turn, how robotics affects society, politics, and culture - the basic assumption being that that science and technology are socially embedded. This full-day workshop is open to - and it strongly encourages - the participation of researchers and scholars from other communities, both in science and humanities. This cultural openness provides the robotics researchers with a wide-range intellectual exchange, especially important in the perspective of educating young roboticists to interdisciplinarity among technical disciplines, and to transdisciplinarity among engineering, life science and humanities. This workshop invites submissions on the following topics (but are not limited to): ? Social (Robotics and job market; Cost benefit analysis; etc.); ? Psychological (Robots and kids; Robots and elderly, etc.); ? Legal (Robots and liability; Identification of autonomously acting robots; etc.); ? Medical (Robotics in health care and prosthesis; etc.); ? Warfare application of robotics (Responsibility, International Conventions and Laws; etc.) ? Environment (Cleaning nuclear and toxic waste, Using renewable energies, etc.). Tentative Submission Schedule: - January 14, 2009: Abstract Submission deadline - January 21, 2009: Notification of Acceptance/Rejection - February 25, 2009: Camera-Ready Submission deadline For further information, please contact: info at roboethics.org and solis at kurenai.waseda.jp Co-Organizers: Gianmarco Veruggio (CNR-IEIIT, ITALY), Ron Arkin (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA), Atsuo Takanishi (Waseda University, JAPAN) Jorge Solis (Waseda University, JAPAN), Matthias Scheutz (Indiana University, USA), Fiorella Operto (School of Robotics, Italy) From haoyong.yu at robotics.sg Wed Dec 17 08:42:36 2008 From: haoyong.yu at robotics.sg (haoyong.yu at robotics.sg) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:42:36 +0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ICIRA2009 Call for Papers Message-ID: <20081218004236.ggi6sndz404sw0kg@webmail.robotics.sg> Second International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications 16-18 December 2009 Singapore The market demands for skills, knowledge and personalities have positioned robotics to be one important field in both engineering and science. In order to meet these challenging demands, robotics has already seen its success in automating many industrial tasks in factories. And, a new era will come for us to see a greater success of robotics in non-industrial environments. In order to anticipate a wider deployment of intelligent and autonomous robots for tasks such as manufacturing, eldercare, homecare, edutainment, search and rescue, de-mining, surveillance, exploration, and security missions, it is necessary for us to push the frontier of robotics into a new dimension, in which motion and intelligence play equally important roles. After the success of the inaugural conference, the purpose of the 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications is to provide a venue where researchers, scientists, engineers and practitioners throughout the world can come together to present and discuss the latest achievement, future challenges and exciting applications of intelligent and autonomous robots. In order to benefit all participants, and also to maximize the interaction, the technical program of this conference is intentionally tailored to having relatively few parallel tracks. Each track will accommodate peer-reviewed articles dealing with theoretical, experimental and applicative works. In addition to the technical program, the conference will include several keynote speakers and a common poster session. The accepted and presented papers will be published in a proceedings book in the Springer?s lecture notes series on Artificial Intelligence, which is indexed by EI. General Chairs: Ming Xie, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Youlun Xiong, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Program Chairs: Caihua Xiong, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, P. R. China Honghai Liu, University of Portsmouth, UK Zhencheng Hu, Kumamoto University, Japan International Advisory Committee: Manuel Armada, Institute of Industrial Automation, Spain Minoru Asada, Osaka University, Japan Hegao Cai, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Rudiger Dillmann, University of Karlsruhe, Germany Jean-Guy Fontaine, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy Christian Freksa, Bremen University, Germany Toshi Fukuda, Nagoya University, Japan Norihiro Hagita, ATR, Japan Huosheng Hu, University of Essex, UK Oussama Khatib, Stanford University, USA Mark Lee, Wales University, UK Peter Luh, University of Connecticut, USA Grigory Panovko, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Shigeki Sugano, Waseda University, Japan Susumu Tachi, University of Tokyo, Japan Atsuo Takanishi, Waseda University, Japan Gurvinder Virk, Massey University, New Zealand Miomir Vukobratovic, Mihailo Pupin Institute, Serbia Michael Wang, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China Tianmiao Wang, Beihang University, China John Weng, Michigan State University, USA Lotfi Zadeh, University of California at Berkeley, USA International Program Committee: Abdel Aitouche, Hautes Etudes d'Ingenieur, France Kaspar Althoefer, King's College London, UK Marcelo Ang, National University of Singapore, Singapore H. Levent Arkin, Bogazici University, Turkey Philippe Bidaud, University of Paris 6, France Roland Chapuis, University of Blaise-Pascal Clerment-Ferrand, France Weekiang Cheng, DSTA, Singapore Cheemeng Chew, National University of Singapore, Singapore Jean-Daniel Dessimoz, Western University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland Hua Deng, Central South University, China Han Ding, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China Gary Feng, City University of Hong Kong, China Luigi Fortuna, University of Catania, Italy Dongbing Gu, University of Essex, UK Yongqiang Guo, DSTA, Singapore Loulin Huang, Massey University, New Zealand Makoto Itoh, University of Tsukuba, Japan Yunde Jia, Beijing Institute of Technology, China Rolf Johansson, Lund University, Sweden Shin Kato, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan Kazuhiko Kawamura, University of Vanderbilt, USA Naoyuki Kubota, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan Duanling Li, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China Yangmin Li, Macau University, China Youfu, Li, City University of Hong Kong, China Kianguan Lim, ST Engineering Ltd, Singapore Yonghuai Liu, Wales University, UK Benny Lo, Imperial College London, UK Chu Kiong Loo, Multimedia University, Malaysia Jiangzhou Lu, ST Kinetics Ltd, Singapore Qinggang Meng, Loughborough University, UK Rezia Molfino, University of Genova, Italy Sergiu Nedevschi, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania Aipeng New, DSO National Laboratories, Singapore Lilian Ngiam, DSTA, Singapore Palm Rainer, German Aerospace Center, Germany Jee-Hwan Ryu, Korean University of Technology, South Korea Andy Russell, Monash University, Australia Mario R. A. Saavedra, University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain Jon Selig, London South Bank University, UK Yandong, Tang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Yantao Tian, Jilin University, China Yugeng Xi, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China Zhouping Yin, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China Changjiu Zhou, Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore Limin Zhu, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China Important Dates: Submission of Full Papers : 15 June 2009 Paper Acceptance: 15 August 2009 Submission of Final Papers: 15 September 2009 Early Bird Registration: 30 September 2009 Technical Program: 30 September 2009 Conference: 16 ? 18 December 2009 Conference Website: http://icira2009.robotics.sg From O.Booij at uva.nl Tue Dec 16 07:18:46 2008 From: O.Booij at uva.nl (Olaf Booij) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:18:46 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CfP: IEEE ICRA 2009 Workshop on People Detection and Tracking In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20081216151846.GD4442@u014138.science.uva.nl> Wellicht interesant... On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 05:49:13PM +0100, Kai Oliver Arras wrote: > ----------------------------------------------------------- > > CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS > > IEEE ICRA'09 Workshop on People Detection and Tracking > > ----------------------------------------------------------- > > The full-day workshop "People Detection and Tracking" will be held > during the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and > Automation (ICRA) in Kobe, Japan, on May 12, 2009. > > > WORKSHOP HOMEPAGE > ----------------- > http://srl.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/conferences/icra09ws > > > GOAL AND SCOPE > -------------- > As robots enter more domains in which they interact and cooperate > closely with humans, the capacity of machines to detect and track > people is becoming a key technology for many areas in robotics. > Socially interact with humans, understanding their activities, > tracking pedestrians in public or semi-public spaces or detecting > intruders in a surveillance scenario are examples of tasks that rely > on the ability to robustly detect and track people. > > Recent advances in estimation theory, data association, new techniques > from machine learning as well as progress in sensor technology have > enabled us to design people detection and tracking systems with decent > classification rates. However, there is great demand for even more > robust systems, especially over a wider range of conditions, and an > increasing interest from industry for intelligent cars or surveillance > of public areas. > > This workshop brings together key researchers in the domain of people > detection and tracking with an emphasis to unite people from the > vision community and the community that has mostly worked with range > finders. The goal is to provide a representative survey of the state- > of-the-art and to transfer knowledge within and across the > communities. We will focus primarily on theoretical aspects (see list > of topics) but are also interested in practical questions, e.g., > pedestrian detection from mobile platforms or applications. > > > TOPICS > ------ > Examples of topics of interest include, but are not limited to: > > * People detection and tracking with vision, laser and/or other > sensors > * Tracking of groups of people and/or interacting targets > * Probabilistic frameworks for simultaneous segmentation, detection > and tracking > * Learning and model-based approaches > * Advanced estimation and data association methods > * Advanced handling of occlusion, fragmentation, and merging > * Multi-hypothesis model selection methods > * Multi-sensor fusion/integration approaches > * Distributed sensors for people detection/tracking > * Performance metrics and evaluation of people tracking systems > * Practical applications: human-robot interaction, activity > understanding, intelligent cars, surveillance etc. > > > INVITED SPEAKERS > ---------------- > The workshop accomodates both, talks from invited speakers and > contributions that went through a review process. > > * James Crowley, INRIA Grenoble, France > * Bernt Schiele, University of Darmstadt, Germany > * Josephine Sullivan, KTH Stockholm, Sweden > * Luciano Spinello, ETH Z?rich, Switzerland > * Kai O. Arras, University of Freiburg, Germany (Workshop Chair) > * Oscar Martinez Mozos, University of Zaragoza, Spain (Workshop > Chair) > > > PROGRAM COMMITTEE > ----------------- > > * Kai O. Arras, University of Freiburg, Germany > * Wolfram Burgard, University of Freiburg, Germany > * Henrik Christensen, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA > * James Crowley, INRIA Grenoble, France > * Tsutomu Hasegawa, Kyushu University, Japan > * Patric Jensfelt, KTH Stockholm, Sweden > * Ryo Kurazume, Kyushu University, Japan > * Bastian Leibe, RWTH Aachen University, Germany > * Ales Leonardis, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia > * Oscar Martinez Mozos, University of Zaragoza, Spain > * Bernt Schiele, University of Darmstadt, Germany > * Roland Siegwart, ETH Zurich, Switzerland > * Luciano Spinello, ETH Zurich, Switzerland > > > SUBMISSION AND IMPORTANT DATES > ------------------------------ > Submissions are limited to six pages, two-column IEEE style. > > Send your submissions to arras (at) informatik (dot) uni-freiburg > (dot) de. > > * Submission deadline: February 2, 2009 > * Notification: February 15, 2009 > * Camera-ready version: March 1, 2009 > * Workshop: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 > > > PROCEEDINGS AND SPECIAL ISSUE > ----------------------------- > The workshop proceedings will be published electronically. > > There will be a special issue on people detection and tracking in the > Springer International Journal of Social Robotics in connection with > this workshop. We will issue an open call after the workshop, > submissions will go through a separate peer review process. > > > > _______________________________________________ > robotics-worldwide mailing list > robotics-worldwide at usc.edu > http://duerer.usc.edu/mailman/listinfo/robotics-worldwide -- Intelligent Systems Lab Amsterdam University of Amsterdam Kruislaan 403 1098 SJ Amsterdam room no. F1.24B phone +31 20 525-7536 From ron at cs.unc.edu Wed Dec 17 22:12:00 2008 From: ron at cs.unc.edu (Ron Alterovitz) Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:12:00 -0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Faculty Position in Robotics at UNC-Chapel Hill Message-ID: <43492E98-9580-4CF5-802A-27BD00AB545A@cs.unc.edu> Faculty Position in Robotics at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Applications are invited for two tenure track faculty positions at the level of Assistant Professor with a primary or joint appointment in the Curriculum in Applied Sciences and Engineering (CASE) to begin on or after July 1, 2009. Preferred areas of expertise include biomedical instrumentation, materials science, microfluidics, multiphase systems, photonics, and robotics. Successful candidates are expected to provide instruction in our undergraduate Biomedical Engineering program. Examples of teaching opportunities include biomechanics, biomedical instrumentation design, introductory engineering thermodynamics or thermal-fluid sciences, and linear controls. There will also be opportunities to develop new courses at the graduate level. Outstanding candidates who would strengthen or complement other existing research groups on campus, especially those associated with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, are encouraged to apply. Joint appointments will be considered for applicants with appropriate credentials and research interests in the following academic units: Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology (IAM), Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy. Applicants should submit electronically a letter of application, curriculum vitae/resume, research and teaching statements on-line at http://hr.unc.edu/jobseekers/search.htm and arrange to have four letters of recommendations (PDF or MS Word format) sent to: appliedsci at unc.edu . Please address all correspondence to: Chairman, CASE Search Committee. Curriculum in Applied Sciences and Engineering, Chapman Hall 141, CB #3287, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3287 http://www.unc.edu/depts/appl_sci/ . Review of applications will begin March 1, 2009, and will continue until the position is filled. UNC-CH is an equal opportunity employer. Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply. From raj.madhavan at nist.gov Thu Dec 18 08:16:47 2008 From: raj.madhavan at nist.gov (Raj Madhavan) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:16:47 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] [Call for Papers] Autonomous Robots Journal Special Issue: Characterizing Mobile Robot Localization and Mapping Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20081217111401.022b5748@mailhub.mel.nist.gov> Autonomous Robots Journal Special Issue: Characterizing Mobile Robot Localization and Mapping Editors: Raj Madhavan, Chris Scrapper, and Alexander Kleiner Stable navigation solutions are critical for mobile robots intended to operate in dynamic and unstructured environments. In the context of this special issue, stable navigation solution is taken to mean the ability of a robotic system "to sense and create internal representations of its environment and estimate pose (where pose consists of position and orientation) with respect to a fixed coordinate frame". Such competency, usually termed localization and mapping, will enable mobile robots to identify obstacles and hazards present in the environment, and maintain an estimate of where they are and where they have been. A myriad of approaches have been proposed and implemented, some with greater success than others. Since the capabilities and limitations of these approaches vary significantly depending on the requirements of the end user, the operational domain, and onboard sensor suite limitations, it is essential for developers of robotic systems to understand the performance characteristics of methodologies employed to produce a stable navigation solution. Currently, there is no way to quantitatively measure the performance of a robot or a team of robots against user-defined requirements. Additionally, there exists no consensus on what objective evaluation procedures need to be followed to deduce the performance of various robots operating in a variety of domains. Lack of reproducible and repeatable test methods have precluded researchers working towards a common goal from exchanging and communicating results, inter-comparing robot performance, and leveraging previous work that could otherwise avoid duplication and expedite technology transfer from the "drawing board" to the field. For instance, currently, the evaluation of robotic maps is based on qualitative analysis (i.e. visual inspection). This approach does not allow for better understanding of what errors specific systems are prone to and what systems meet the needs. It has become common practice in the literature to compare newly developed mapping algorithms with former methods by presenting images of generated maps. This procedure turns out to be suboptimal, particularly when applied to large-scale maps. The absence of standardized methods for evaluating emerging robotic technologies has caused segmentation in the research and development communities. This lack of cohesion hinders the attainment of robust mobile robot navigation, in turn slowing progress in many domains, such as manufacturing, service, health care, and security. Providing the research community access to standardized tools, reference data sets, and an open-source library of navigation solutions, researchers and consumers of mobile robot technologies will be able to evaluate the cost and benefits associated with various navigation solutions. The primary focus of this special issue is to bring together what is so far an amorphous research community to define standardized methods for the quantitative evaluation of robot localization algorithms and/or robot-generated maps. The performance characteristics of several approaches will be documented towards developing a stable navigation solution by detailing the capabilities and limitations of each approach and by the inter-comparison of experimental results, as well as the underlying mechanisms used to formulate these solutions. Through this effort, we seek to start the process, which will compile the results of these evaluations into a reference guide that documents lessons learned and the performance characteristics of various navigation solutions. This will enable end users to select the "best" possible method that meets their needs and will also lead to the development of the adaptive systems that are more technically capable and at the same time are safe thus permitting collaborative operations of man and machine. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): * Characterizing navigation in complex unstructured domains & requirements imposed by dynamic nature of operating domains * Evaluation frameworks and adaptive approaches to developing stable navigation solutions * Probabilistic methodologies with particular attention to uncertainty in assessing robot-generated maps * Visualization tools for assessing localization and mapping * Methods for ground truth generation from public map sources * Multi-robot localization and mapping * Testing in various domains of interest ranging from manufacturing floors to urban search and rescue * Applications with demonstrated success or lessons learnt from failures The above topics are by no means exhaustive but are only meant to be a representative list. We particularly encourage submissions related to mobile robot field deployments, challenges encountered, and lessons learnt during such implementations. Theoretical investigations into assessing performance of robot localization and mapping algorithms are also welcome. Please contact the guest editors if you are not sure if a particular topic fits the special issue. IMPORTANT DATES * Paper submission deadline: February 1, 2009 * Notification to authors: May 1, 2009 * Camera ready papers: August 1, 2009 SUBMISSION INFORMATION See journal webiste at http://www.springer.com/10514 Manuscripts should be submitted to: http://AURO.edmgr.com This online system offers easy and straightforward log-in and submission procedures, and supports a wide range of submission file formats. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Raj Madhavan, Ph.D. Intelligent Systems Division National Institute of Standards and Technology 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8230 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230. Tel: (301) 975-2865 Fax: (301) 990-9688 URL: http://aser.ornl.gov/madhavan/ From jfraczek at meil.pw.edu.pl Tue Dec 16 14:44:37 2008 From: jfraczek at meil.pw.edu.pl (Janusz Fraczek) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:44:37 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics Warsaw Poland, 2009 Message-ID: Dear subscribers on behalf of the Organizing Committee of the ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics, Warsaw, Poland, 29th June - 2nd July, 2009, ?I would like to kindly ask all interested researchers to submit abstracts for our conference and take part in this excellent event. One of the invited sessions organized by Prof. E. Papadopoulos and Prof. Vincenzo Parenti-Castelli is entitled Control, Mechatronics and Robotics. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is December 19th, 2008. Multibody dynamics is an exciting area of computational mechanics, which merges and blends various disciplines such as structural dynamics, multi-physic mechanics, robotics, mechatronics, computational mathematics, control theory and computer science in order to deliver methods and tools for the virtual prototyping of complex mechanical systems. Multibody dynamics plays today a central role in the modeling, analysis, simulation and optimization of mechanical systems in a variety of fields and for a wide range of industrial applications. The abstract submission procedure is described at www.multibody2009.org. With kind regards Janusz Fr?czek On behalf of Organizing Committee Eccomas Thematic Conference Multibody Dynamics 2009 Warsaw, Poland From nts at ks.informatik.uni-kiel.de Thu Dec 18 09:13:50 2008 From: nts at ks.informatik.uni-kiel.de (Nils T Siebel) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:13:50 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] 1st CFP: HYCAS 2009 @ IJCAI-09: Hybrid Control of Autonomous Systems Message-ID: [Apologies if you receive this more than once!] ************************************************************************ HYCAS 2009 INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON HYBRID CONTROL OF AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS Integrating Learning, Deliberation and Reactive Control Held in conjunction with IJCAI-09 in Pasadena, California in July 2009 http://www.hycas.org/ ************************************************************************ Call for Papers Objectives High-level control for Autonomous Systems (e.g. robots) is concerned with selecting the next action the system should perform. Known paradigms for this action selection problem are learning, deliberation, reactive control schemes or combinations of these, i.e. hybrid approaches. These paradigms have been known for over two decades, and in today's applications often combinations of learning, deliberation, and reactive control are used. Usually these combinations are used in an ad-hoc or even unconscious fashion. Although there is a number of proposed architectures and huge body of literature, the issue of combining learning, reactive and deliberative control never has been intensively investigated. With this workshop we wish to bring together researchers from different areas who concentrate on combinations of learning, planning, and/or reactive schemes for decision making and the control of autonomous systems. The workshop is open to all members of the AI and Robotics community. We would specifically like to encourage students to participate. Relevant Topics The questions to be addressed in this workshop are: * How can learning, deliberation and/or reactive control be combined such that the methods can benefit from each other ? e.g. by using a common representation? * What are the challenging domains demanding for hybrid control? * What are its successful applications? Papers are invited on all aspects of hybrid methods for the control of autonomous systems, including, but not limited to: * Decision Making * Modelling of Domains, Capabilities/Affordances and Robot Behaviours * Agent Learning * Cognitive Robotics * Behaviour-based Robotics and Emergent Control * Developmental and Epigenetic Robotics * Architectures and Architectural Patterns Important Dates * March 6 2009: Paper Submission * April 17 2009: Notification of paper acceptance * May 8 2009: Camera ready paper submission * May 15 2009: Early registration deadline * July 11, 12 or 13 2009 (tba): Workshop Authors of selected articles will be invited to submit an extended version of their workshop paper to a special issue of an international journal on robotics and automation. Workshop Chairs Nils T Siebel Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany Gerald Steinbauer Graz University of Technology, Austria Alexander Ferrein RWTH Aachen University, Germany Josef Pauli University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany Programme Committee Alexander Ferrein Alfredo Gabaldon Fredrik Heintz Christian Igel Yohannes Kassahun Tim Kovacs Gerhard K Kraetzschmar Gerhard Lakemeyer Ales Leonardis Pedro U Lima Daniele Nardi Josef Pauli Jan Peters Daniel Polani Martin Riedmiller Juergen Schmidhuber Nils T Siebel Gerald Steinbauer Ron Sun Marc Toussaint Hans Utz Markus Vincze ************************************************************************ More information on the workshop website: http://www.hycas.org/ ************************************************************************ Nils T Siebel Cognitive Systems Group Institute of Computer Science Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel Olshausenstr. 40 24098 Kiel, Germany. From murphy at cse.tamu.edu Thu Dec 18 09:17:19 2008 From: murphy at cse.tamu.edu (Robin Murphy) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:17:19 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Faculty position in robotics at Texas A&M Message-ID: With the recent flurry of postings about positions, just a reminder that Texas A&M also has a position open and we're beginning interviews at the end of January. If you're interested, please apply ASAP! The original posting is below: I've moved to Texas A&M where I am chairing a faculty search for a tenure-track position (assistant professor). Of particular interest is for an enthusiastic researcher in artificial intelligence for robotics with a focus in one or more of the following: human-robot interaction, machine learning for robots and agents, biologically inspired control, or cooperative autonomy. High priority will be given to candidates who are interested in field applications and advanced experimental demonstrations of their basic research in extreme environments such as disasters, underwater, or space, as an active collaborator in multi-disciplinary teams, including academics, users and industry. Texas A&M is a fantastic place and working environment! It is a top 10 engineering research university with a large, comprehensive computer science department, and active research in land, sea, and aerial vehicles. The college is a leader in graduating women and minorities and has a diverse, supportive faculty and administration. Robotics and related areas span multiple departments and routinely cross boundaries to work together. As the only Land, Sea, and Space grant college in the US, Texas A&M has unique facilities, including the 52 acre Disaster City for response research and training, the Riverside Campus for UAV and MOUT work and several coastal facilities. NASA Johnson is near-by. The Department of Computer Science currently has 40 tenure-track faculty members. The faculty holds over 60 important and influential professional positions, including editorships for scientific journals and general chairs of technical conferences. The faculty is also well-recognized for contributions to their fields, with research known throughout the international academic community and global industry alike. The department currently has one National Academy of Engineering member, five IEEE fellows, one ACM Fellow, and over 25% of our faculty are PYI/NYI/CARREER awardees. Additional information about faculty recruiting is available at http://www.cs.tamu.edu/facprospective. Prospective candidates should apply online at https://apply2.cs.tamu.edu/gts/applicant/faculty/. If interested, please apply before December 1, as we will begin inviting candidates as early as January. -- Prof. Robin R. Murphy, PhD Raytheon Professor of Computer Science & Engineering Texas A&M University office phone: 1-979-845-8737 location: HR Bright 333C profile in Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/2004/innovators/200406/murphy.html From rvoyles at du.edu Thu Dec 18 09:32:50 2008 From: rvoyles at du.edu (Richard Voyles) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:32:50 -0700 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Faculty Positions in Robotics/Mechatronics at Universtiy of Denver In-Reply-To: <43492E98-9580-4CF5-802A-27BD00AB545A@cs.unc.edu> References: <43492E98-9580-4CF5-802A-27BD00AB545A@cs.unc.edu> Message-ID: <875F204AAD8942138D5DCD7002F88F7C@richardd620> ECE Department Faculty Positions The Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Denver (DU) is growing rapidly and it will continue its expansion over the next five years. In the past two years we have brought onboard four new faculty at all ranks in the areas of MEMS/NEMS, robotics, computer vision, and unmanned systems. ECE is currently seeking at least two outstanding candidates at the Assistant / Associate Professor rank to complement these new hires, preferably in the areas of: i) Wireless Communication with applications in networks, sensors, bio-systems, security, and smart infrastructure networks, and, ii) Renewable Energy with applications to solar, wind energy, fuel cells, hybrid, clean energy and sustainable systems. However, very exceptional candidates at all ranks and in all areas of Electrical and Computer Engineering will be considered, particularly those that support DU's existing strengths in Mechatronics/Robotics, MEMS/NEMS, and related areas. Applicants should have a PhD in Electrical or Computer Engineering or closely related fields with outstanding credentials demonstrating ability to conduct independent research, be capable of establishing high-quality educational and research programs leading to peer-reviewed publications and funding, as well as willingness to teach undergraduate courses. Partnership with industry, our global community, and other programs within DU is at the core of our School's mission. Tenure-track entry-level junior faculty members are offered reduced teaching load for a five-year period. ECE and the School offer very diverse undergraduate and graduate degrees, interdisciplinary and cross-discipline courses coupled with very well equipped laboratories. Research focus areas include nano/micro systems, networks, photonics, mechatronics, robotics, embedded systems, and unmanned systems. DU offers a very competitive salary and start-up package, and has a generous benefit package. The University of Denver is an AA/EOE. Applicants should apply online at www.dujobs.org and provide: (1) cover letter and position applying for; (2) curriculum vitae; (3) at least four references with contact information; (4) statement of research vision; and (5) statement of teaching interests. These positions will stay open until filled. Review of applications begins immediately. For specific questions, contact Richard Voyles at rvoyles at du.edu or Kimon Valavanis at Kimon.Valavanis at du.edu. _______________________________________________________ 2390 S. York Street | (303) 871-2481 CMK 200 | rvoyles at du.edu Denver, CO 80208 | www.du.edu/~rvoyles From K.Dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk Fri Dec 19 13:30:42 2008 From: K.Dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk (Kerstin Dautenhahn) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:30:42 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction (Symposium at AISB2009) Message-ID: For those of you involved in HRI research: if you have interesting work to write up, please consider submitting it to the AISB symposium! The submission deadline is approaching fast. regards, Kerstin Dautenhahn ----apologies if you receive multiple copies of this email------ NEW FRONTIERS IN HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION A two-day symposium, 8-9 April 2009, at AISB 2009, Edinburgh, Scotland http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/HRI-AISB2009-Symposium.html SUBMISSION DEADLINE 5 JANUARY 2009 Motivation and Background: Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is a growing research field with many application areas that could have a big impact not only economically, but also on the way we live and the kind of relationships we may develop with machines. Due to its interdisciplinary nature different views and approaches towards HRI need to be nurtured. This symposium will provide a platform to discuss collaboratively recent findings and challenges in HRI. Different categories of submissions are encouraged that reflect the different types of research studies that are being carried out. The symposium will encourage a diversity of views on HRI and different approaches taken. In the highly interdisciplinary research field of HRI, a peaceful dialogue among such approaches is expected to contribute to the synthesis of a body of knowledge that may help HRI sustain its creative inertia that has drawn to HRI during the past 10 years many researchers from HCI, robotics, psychology, the social sciences, and other fields. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: - Developments towards robot companions - User-centred robot design - Robots in personal care and health care - Robots in search and rescue - Sensors and interfaces for HRI - Human-aware robot perception - Dialogue and multi-modal human-robot interaction - Robot architectures for socially intelligent robots - HRI field studies in naturalistic environments - Robot assisted therapy - Robots in HRI collaborative scenarios - Robots in schools and in other educational environments - Robots as personal assistants and trainers - Robot and human personality - New methods and methodologies to carry out and analyze human-robot interaction - Robots as companions and helpers in the home - Robots as assistive technology - Long-term or repeated interaction with robots - Creating relationships with robots - Expressiveness in robots - Sustaining the engagement of users - Personalizing robots and HRI interfaces - Human-robot teaching - Robots that learn socially and adapt to people - User experience in HRI - User needs and requirements for HRI - Robots as autonomous companions - Robots as remote-controlled tools - Embodied interfaces for smart homes - Ethnography and field studies - Cross-cultural studies Note, articles that are specifically addressing ethical issues in HRI are encouraged to submit to the AISB09 Symposium on .Killer robots or friendly fridges: the social understanding of Artificial Intelligence. (http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/krff.html), and may consider to attend both symposia which will run back to back. The symposium encourages submissions in any of the following categories. The submission should clearly state which category the article falls under: *N* Completed empirical studies reporting novel research findings In this category we encourage submissions where a substantial body of findings has been accumulated based on precise research questions or hypotheses. Such studies are expected to fit within a particular experimental framework (e.g. using qualitative or quantitative evaluation techniques) and the reviewing of such papers will apply relevant (statistical and other) criteria accordingly. Findings of such studies should provide novel insights into human-robot interaction studies. *E* Exploratory studies Exploratory studies are often necessary to pilot and fine-tune the methodological approach, procedures and measures. In a young research field such as HRI with novel applications and various robotic platforms, exploratory studies are also often required to derive a set of concrete research questions or hypothesis, in particular concerning issues where there is little related theoretical and experimental work. Although care must be taken in the interpretation of findings from such studies, they may highlight issues of great interest and relevance to peers. *S* Case studies Due to the nature of many HRI studies, a large-scale quantitative approach is often neither feasible nor desirable. However, case study evaluation can provide meaningful findings if presented appropriately. Thus, case studies with only one participant, or a small group of participants, are encouraged if they are carried out and analyzed in sufficient depth. *P* Position papers While categories N, E and S require reporting on HRI studies or experiments, position papers can be conceptual or theoretical, providing new interpretations of known results. Also, in this category we consider papers that present new ideas without having a complete study to report on. Papers in this category will be judged on the soundness of the argument presented, the significance of the ideas and the interest to the HRI community. *R* Replication of HRI studies To develop as a field, HRI findings obtained by one research group need to be replicated by other groups. Without any additional novel insights, such work is often not publishable. Within this category, authors will have the opportunity to report on studies that confirm or disconfirm findings from experiments that have already been reported in the literature. This category includes studies that report on negative findings. *D* Live HRI Demonstrations Contributors may have an opportunity to provide live demonstrations (live or via Skype), pending the outcome of negotiations with the local organization team. The demo should highlight interesting features and insights into HRI. Purely entertaining demonstrations without significant research content are discouraged. If authors feel that their particular paper does not fit any of the above mentioned categories, then they should indicate this when submitting their paper so that the reviewing process can take this into consideration. Symposium Chair: Kerstin Dautenhahn, Adaptive Systems Research Group, School of Computer Science, University of Hertfordshire, UK (use K.Dautenhahn "@" herts "." ac "." uk for any inquiries regarding the workshop) Submission of Contributions: We invite unpublished, original work as extended abstracts (up to 3 pages) or full papers of up to 8 pages (double column). In category *D* we invite one page descriptions detailing the demo and its associated research questions. Please send the PDF submissions to HRI-AISB09 (aisb-hri "@" herts "."ac "." uk) (files bigger than 2MB will not be accepted) AND send an email to Kerstin Dautenhahn (K.Dautenhahn "@" herts "." ac "." uk) with the following information: title of paper, author list, contact email, file name (as submitted to HRI-AISB09) and category of paper. All submissions will be peer reviewed. Proceedings: Authors of accepted contributions will be asked to prepare the final versions (up to 8 pages) for inclusion in the symposium proceedings. A special journal issue will be considered and/or a book publication. Important Dates: - 5th January 2009 : Submission deadline - 2th February 2009: Deadline for notifications sent to authors - 23rd February 2009 : Camera read copies due - 8-9 April 2009: Symposium Programme Committee: Takayuki Kanda, ATR, Japan Ben Krose, UVA, the Netherlands Aude Billard, EPFL, Switzerland Kerstin Severinson Eklundh, KTH, Sweden Takanori Shibata, AIST, Japan Henrik I. Christensen, Georgia Tech, USA Nuno Otero, University of Minho, Portugal Michael Beetz, TUM, Germany Greg Trafton, Naval Research Laboratory, USA Yiannis Demiris, Imperial College, UK Hatice Kose-Bagci, University of Hertfordshire, UK Kolja Kuehnlenz, TUM, Germany Michael A. Goodrich, Brigham Young University, USA Yoshihiko Nakamura, University of Tokyo, Japan Christoph Bartneck, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands Michael L. Walters, University of Hertfordshire, UK Karl F. MacDorman, Indiana University, USA Hisato Kobayashi, Hosei University, Japan Tatsuya Nomura, Ryukoku University, Japan Dirk Wollherr, TUM, Germany Kheng Lee Koay, University of Hertfordshire, UK Astrid Weiss, University of Salzburg, Austria Monica Nicolescu, University of Nevada, Reno, USA Sandra Hirche, TUM, Germany Ben Robins, University of Hertfordshire, UK Christine Lisetti, Florida International University, USA Holly Yanco, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, USA Aaron Steinfeld, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Yoshihiro Miyake, Tokio Institute of Technology, Japan Tomio Watanabe, Okayama Prefectural University, Japan Haizhou Li, Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore Adriana Tapus, USC, USA Andrea Thomaz, Georgia Tech, USA Jong-Hwan Kim, KAIST, South Korea Sylvain Calinon, EPFL, Switzerland Reid Simmons, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Julie Adams, Vanderbilt University, USA Aris Alissandrakis, Tokio Institute of Technology, Japan Yorick Wilks, University of Sheffield, UK Shuzhi Sam Ge, The National University of Singapore Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, Brown University, USA Dong-Soo Kwon, KAIST, South Korea Wolfram Erlhagen, University of Minho, Portugal Illah Nourbakhsh,Carnegie Mellon University, USA Catherina Burghart, University of Karlsruhe, Germany Manfred Tscheligi, University of Salzburg, Austria Matthias Scheutz, Indiana University Bloomington, US ----------------------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn Professor of Artificial Intelligence Adaptive Systems Research Group The University of Hertfordshire, School of Computer Science College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, United Kingdom URL: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd E-mail: K.Dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk Fax: +44-1707-284-303 Tel: +44-1707-284-333 From michael.gauthier at femto-st.fr Thu Dec 18 23:43:03 2008 From: michael.gauthier at femto-st.fr (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Micha=EBl_Gauthier?=) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:43:03 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Post doc position in Robotics applied to microforce measurement. Message-ID: <494B5087.8020000@femto-st.fr> Post-doctoral position in Robotics A post-dococtoral position in the field of robotics is available in the FEMTO-ST Institute (Besan?on, France - www.femto-st.fr) and is entitled "Calibration and control of a parallel robot in order to improve measurement of microforces in a Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)". The general aim is to improve three-dimensional positioning during adhesion forces measurement in an AFM by using high precision robots. This work will de done in the "Automated Systems for Micromanipulation and Microassembly" group headed by Philippe Lutz. More information on the objectives is available on the website of the project http://nanorol.cnrs.fr/proposals.php. Expertise on one or more of the following topics is required: robot calibration, automation, force control, parallel robotics, microrobotics. This position is available immediately and applicants should send a C.V. and journal publications to michael.gauthier at femto-st.fr by email in pdf format. Dr. Micha?l Gauthier, Scientist researcher, FEMTO-ST, France -- ------------------------------- Micha?l Gauthier Institut FEMTO-ST - Dept. AS2M 24 rue Savary - 25000 BESANCON, France, EU GPS (47?15'06, 05?59'39) ------------------------------- Tel: +33 (0)381.402.810, +33(0)677.378.410 www.femto-st.fr ------------------------------- Tel Personnel : +33 (0)952.579.686 ------------------------------- From stephane.viollet at univmed.fr Fri Dec 19 01:11:47 2008 From: stephane.viollet at univmed.fr (stephane viollet) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:11:47 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Reminder AuRo-special issue on vision-based control for small UAVs - Deadline 1st February 2009 Message-ID: <34CB9778-894B-441F-997D-C6EC6CCE3B3F@univmed.fr> Dear Members, We invite you to submit manuscripts on visual guidance system for small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for the following special issue of Autonomous Robots (AuRO), a journal with the second highest impact in robotics according to the ISI citation index (1.413). Deadline for submission: Frebruary 1, 2009. More information below. Please visit the website for detail : http://www.springer.com/computer/artificial/journal/10514 Best regards. Stephane Viollet. --------------------------------------------------------------------- St?phane Viollet Charg? de Recherche - Researcher http://www.laps.univ-mrs.fr/~viollet Equipe Biorobotique - Biorobotics B?t. IRPHE-IOA UMR 6233 Institut Science du Mouvement CP 938 163, avenue de Luminy F-13288 Marseille Cedex 09 From b.macdonald at auckland.ac.nz Sun Dec 21 15:53:22 2008 From: b.macdonald at auckland.ac.nz (Bruce MacDonald) Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:53:22 +1300 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Postdoc, PhD, Masters positions in robotics for caring for older people Message-ID: <494ED6F2.8030604@auckland.ac.nz> ======================================================================= Postdoc, PhD, Masters positions in robotics for caring for older people Robotics Laboratory, Electrical and Computer Engineering UniServices/University of Auckland, New Zealand ======================================================================= Due to a combination of cutting-edge projects, leading innovation and renowned excellence, UNISERVICES is not only Australasia's largest commercialisation company of its kind (wholly owned by the University of Auckland); it is the ideal place to truly enhance your career. The environment is knowledge-rich, creative and stimulating. We now require a number of people to work as Postdoctoral, PhD and Masters researchers. POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER - Robotics, speech and human-robot interaction We now require a talented individual to work as a postdoctoral researcher in the Robotics laboratory, applying robotic technology to help care for older people. The Robotics laboratory, based in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is undertaking a multidisciplinary project including robotics engineers, scientists, psychologists, health informaticians, and healthcare specialists. As Research Engineer, your role will be varied as you will be integrating the variety of technology developed for the project, working alongside researchers in a variety of disciplines, and supporting the practical studies of robots in older care facilities. You will bring to the role a passion for research and engineering, interpersonal skills that enable you to interact comfortably with a range of people, excellent computing skills (including a high level of programming ability), strong practical and problem solving ability. Please apply by sending your CV, covering letter and application form no later than 15th February 2009 to jobs at uniservices.auckland.ac.nz quoting the title of the advert. The application form and position description and further details are available at: https://wiki.auckland.ac.nz/display/csihealthbots/Postdoc+in+Robotics For further information please contact Bruce MacDonald (b.macdonald at auckland.ac.nz) PHD AND MASTERS POSITIONS We now require PhD and Masters researchers in the following areas. See https://wiki.auckland.ac.nz/display/csihealthbots/Positions+available PhD: Programming tools and Robot programming by demonstration https://wiki.auckland.ac.nz/display/csihealthbots/Robotics+PhD PhD: Speech recognition https://wiki.auckland.ac.nz/display/csihealthbots/Speech+recognition+PhD Masters: Vital signs measurement https://wiki.auckland.ac.nz/display/csihealthbots/Robotics+masters Masters: Speech generation for a Healthcare robot https://wiki.auckland.ac.nz/display/csihealthbots/Speech+masters+1 Masters: Wireless Propagation in facilities for older care https://wiki.auckland.ac.nz/display/csihealthbots/Wireless+masters+(draft) For further information please contact the staff listed, or Bruce MacDonald (b.macdonald at auckland.ac.nz) From charlie.kemp at bme.gatech.edu Sun Dec 21 18:45:19 2008 From: charlie.kemp at bme.gatech.edu (Charlie Kemp) Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:45:19 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] *DEADLINE EXTENDED* CFP: Autonomous Robots - Special Issue on Autonomous Mobile Manipulation Message-ID: <494EFF3F.90800@bme.gatech.edu> Due to a large number of requests, we have decided to extend the deadline for this call. =================================== *** EXTENDED DEADLINE *** Call for Papers on Autonomous Mobile Manipulation for a special issue of the journal Autonomous Robots http://www.edmgr.com/auro/ ----------------------- Research in autonomous mobile manipulation seeks to develop mobile robotic systems that autonomously perform manipulation tasks in unstructured environments. Such robotic systems could have a profound impact on many application areas of societal, economic, and scientific importance, including domestic assistance, healthcare, flexible manufacturing, automated supply chain management, planetary exploration, and emergency services. The development of robotic systems for autonomous mobile manipulation is inherently interdisciplinary. Successful systems are likely to require new approaches and innovations involving multiple areas of robotics, such as perception, control, mechanisms, motion planning, manipulation, navigation, human-robot interaction, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. This special issue seeks to capture the state of the art in autonomous mobile manipulation. Special attention will be given to novel approaches validated on real robots that address challenges arising from complex problem domains. Each submission should clearly explain how its contribution is important to autonomous mobile manipulation. We especially encourage submissions that include empirical validation using a real mobile manipulator operating in an unstructured environment. ----------------------- Relevant Topics Include ----------------------- - Approaches to perception - Grasping and dexterous manipulation - Motion planning and control - Hardware designs for increased performance and/or safety - Human-robot interaction - Multi-robot systems - Learning and reasoning - Navigation - Architectures for system integration - Applications with empirically demonstrated success Given the breadth of related research, this is only a partial list of appropriate topics. We encourage authors interested in submitting work from other areas to contact the guest editors. --------------- Important Dates --------------- Paper submission deadline: January 22, 2009 ***EXTENDED*** Date of publication: Summer of 2009 ----------- Submissions ----------- Submissions to this special issue should be made through the journal's web site: http://www.edmgr.com/auro/ During the online submission process, please select article type "SI: Mobile Manipulation". ------------- Guest Editors ------------- Oliver Brock University of Massachusetts Amherst oli[at]cs.umass.edu Charlie Kemp Georgia Tech charlie.kemp[at]bme.gatech.edu =================================== From doetomo at unimelb.edu.au Mon Dec 22 14:47:43 2008 From: doetomo at unimelb.edu.au (Denny Oetomo) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:47:43 +1100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: ICRA 2009 Workshop on Agricultural Robotics References: Message-ID: Sent to: robotics-worldwide at usc.edu Call for Participation The workshop on Agricultural Robotics is held in conjuction with the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Kobe, Japan, on the 13th of May 2009 (morning session). We are calling for researchers and experts in the area of agricultural robotics and automation to present their work at the workshop. Information on this workshop can be found in: http://www.usq.edu.au/users/billings/ieee/icraw2009/icraw2009.html To participate, please contact the workshop organisers. Best Regards, Den ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The workshop on Agricultural Robotics Organised by: The Technical Committee on Agricultural Robotics IEEE Robotics and Automation society Title: Autonomous Agriculture Contact for Session organizers: Professor John Billingsley Faculty of Engineering & Surveying Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba Qld 4350Australia Phone: + 61 7 4631 2513Email: billings at usq.edu.au Dr Denny Oetomo, Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Melbourne VIC 3010 Australia Tel: +61 3 8344 6795 Fax: +61 3 9347 8784 Email: doetomo at unimelb.edu.au Abstract Automation is one of the most significant factors in the improvement of farming efficiency. At present, the maturing technologies within the robotics community pave the way for the exciting deployment of robust robotics systems in the semi-structured environment of large scale farming. This has the potential to increase productivity and the quality of agricultural facilities. The way farming the industry in general is modeled and executed may also be drastically modified. The autonomous operation of agricultural activities is discussed in this workshop, critically explored through the presentation of the new technologies available today. After a successful workshop in ICRA 2008, the IEEE RAS Technical Committee is proposing to organize another workshop at ICRA 2009, inviting a new set of speakers to present their work. While the presenters in the last workshop came mostly from the US and Australia (and just one presenter from Japan), the Technical Committee is seeking to widen its network by inviting more participation from Europe and Japan for this round of the workshop. This session is proposed as a half-day workshop at ICRA 2009. Papers presented at the workshop will form the seed of a journal special issue on the advances Agricultural Robotics. Motivation and Objectives: * To present the concept of autonomous agriculture through the robust application of robotics and automation strategies. * To generate awareness and interest on the role and impact of robotics and automation in agricultural applications. * To present state-of-the-art technology in autonomous systems deployed on the agricultural tasks. List of topics Topics of the workshop is focused on the technical concept and realization of autonomous agriculture, which can be focused on (but not limited to): * Modeling, planning, sensing, and control of autonomous field robots * Robots for automated inspection and handling of farm produce * Methods of sensing, identification, and localisation in the semi-structured farming environment * Strategies for effective human-machine coordination and cooperation in farming tasks * Algorithm for efficient interaction between the systems and the environment * Other novel ideas, concepts, applications that would be of significant contribution to the field of autonomous agriculture Dates Feb 10, 2009 Program finalized for each workshop and tutorials Feb 25, 2009 Final workshop/tutorials material due for CD-ROM May 13 2008 9:00-12:00 The workshop From fabio.bonsignorio at gmail.com Tue Dec 23 01:10:24 2008 From: fabio.bonsignorio at gmail.com (Fabio Bonsignorio) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:10:24 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CfP: Workshop on GEM and Benchmarking at Euron AGM - Leuven 6-8 April In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: -- Apologies for multiple postings -- Dear All, There will be a Workshop on GOOD EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY AND BENCHMARKING IN ROBOTICS RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS --- GEMBENCH09 during the Euron Annual General Meeting 2009 in Leuven, Belgium, April 6-8, 2009. Many people agree that replication of reported results and their comparison by means of benchmarks are needed to foster a quicker cumulative advancement of our knowledge of intelligent physical agents and even to correctly appreciate disruptive innovation in robotics research. Despite that there are a number of open issues: should we take inspiration from biology and medicine?Are replication and benchmarking really possible in robotics?Are current limits in reporting a bottleneck to industrial exploitation? Is there an impact on robotics research funding policy evaluation? We will check where we are and speculate on what's ahead. If you are interested to speak, please submit an abstract by email to one of the organizers by January 15th. At Euron AGM in Leuven there will be the official startup of Euron 3, too :-) Happy Holidays Fabio Workshop Highlights: -- Registration is Free -- Seminar Format: This forum aims to provoke a public discussion of the challenges, problems, possible approaches and doubts raised, related to this program and to identify the possible ways to cope (or fail) with them. The forum will consist of presentations interleaved with a significant amount of additional time for discussions between the presentations and at the end of the half-day single track session. --Post Proceedings: The speakers and the attendees will be invited to send a 'real' paper AFTER the discussion for a post proceedings book, with no hurry :-) -- Advance Booking of Zipped Talks: If you want to book in advance for a 3 minutes talk on one of the topics, just send an email to the organizers, with a 'title'. -- Unconference style interaction is encouraged: This will be a 'working' :-) workshop interaction in person and by social networking media with people in the room and outside is welcome DATES: Abstract submission deadline: January 15th Notification of acceptance: Januaty 25th Organizers:Fabio Bonsignorio CEO & Founder Heron Robots srl V.R. Ceccardi 1/18, 16121 Genova, Italy. Email: fabio.bonsignorio at heronrobots.com Tel: +39-339-8406011 Angel P. del Pobil, Ph.D. Co-Chair for Research, European Robotics Research Network EURON Professor, Department of Engineering and Computer Science Universitat Jaume-I Campus Riu Sec, Edificio TI, E-12071 Castellon, Spain. Email: pobil at icc.uji.es Tel: +34-964-72.82.93 John Hallam, M?rsk Mc-Kinney M?ller Institute, University of Southern Denmark (SDU) Odense, Denmark Email:john at mmmi.sdu.dk Tel: +45-65503546 -- Fabio P. Bonsignorio Ceo Heron Robots s.r.l. Via R.Ceccardi 1/18 I-16121 Genova Italy www.heronrobots.com From vkrovi at eng.buffalo.edu Tue Dec 23 19:42:17 2008 From: vkrovi at eng.buffalo.edu (Venkat N. Krovi) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:42:17 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] SECOND Call for Papers: IEEE/ASME TMECH Focused Section on Anthropomorphism in Mechatronic Systems -- Submission Deadline: FEB 15th In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: *Second Call for Papers* *Focused Section on Anthropomorphism in Mechatronic Systems* IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics Anthropomorphism has served as a useful guiding principle for design and control of robotic systems in man's pursuit of "making a machine in his own image". The renewed interest in recent years arises from the need to develop human-like robotic and mechatronic systems (and subsystems) to operate, interact with and cohabit in human built-environments. >From a morphological perspective, numerous novel designs have been proposed ranging from prosthetic/robotic hands, for performing dextrous grasping and manipulatory tasks, to lower-limb exoskeletons/ walking robots, for enabling ambulation in our homes and the outdoors. From a social perspective, the new generation of robots participate in social interactions with humans, taking and giving verbal and non-verbal cues, and sensing or appropriately evoking human emotional and affective states. This new generation of anthropomorphic mechatronic systems (and subsystems) capitalize on advances in miniaturization of sensing/actuation and the ongoing revolutions in embedded computation and wireless communication. This Focused Section of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (TMECH) is dedicated to the new advances in modeling, design, analysis, control, implementation and validation of such anthropomorphic mechatronic systems being developed as we pursue the dream of reaching the level of mobility, manipulation, fluidity and expressivity of humans. Multidisciplinary papers combining Robotics and Life Sciences (e.g., biomechanical modeling, computational neuroscience) are encouraged. The papers should contain both the theoretical and practical/experimental results and are subject to the TMECH review procedures. Potential topics include but are not limited to: ? State-of-art research and technological development survey in the field ? Issues in anthropomorphic system design and promising solutions ? Conceptual and algorithmic contributions to understanding human motion ? Enabling sensor/actuator/computational technologies ? Experimental results from prototype and fielded systems ? Exoskeletons/Prosthetics/Walking robots ? Facially Expressive and Gestural Robots ? Emulation of the human subsystems (sensory, musculoskeletal etc.) *Manuscript Submission* Please submit the manuscripts in PDF format to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tmech-ieee, and indicate on your cover letter that *"This paper is submitted for possible publication in the Focused Section on Anthropomorphism in Mechatronics Systems." *Instructions for authors are available online at: http://www.ieee-asme-mechatronics.org. If you have any questions relating to this Focused Section, please email one of the guest editors. * * *Important Dates: * February 15, 2009 Paper Submission May 15, 2009 Completion of First Review July 15, 2009 Submission of Revised Paper September 1, 2009 Completion of Final Review September 15, 2009 Submission of Final Manuscripts December 2009 Publication * * *Guest Editors* *Venkat Krovi* Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering SUNY Buffalo Buffalo, NY 14260 E-mail: vkrovi at eng.buffalo.edu *Jean-Paul Laumond* Directeur de Recherche LAAS-CNRS Toulouse, France E-mail: jpl at laas.fr *Michael Goldfarb* Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN E-mail: michael.goldfarb at vanderbilt.edu *Shigeki Sugano* Dept. of Mech.Engg. School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Japan Email: sugano at waseda.jp -- Venkat N. Krovi Associate Professor Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering State University of New York at Buffalo Office: 1012 Furnas Hall Mailing Address: Tel: (716) 645-2593 x2264 318 Jarvis Hall Fax: (716) 645-3668 MAE Department E-mail: vkrovi at eng.buffalo.edu University at Buffalo (SUNY) http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/~vkrovi Buffalo, NY 14260 LAB: http://mechatronics.eng.buffalo.edu From solis at kurenai.waseda.jp Fri Dec 26 00:26:50 2008 From: solis at kurenai.waseda.jp (solis at kurenai.waseda.jp) Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:26:50 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CfP: ICRA2009 Workshop on RobotEthics Message-ID: ********************************************* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Full-Day Workshop on Roboethics ********************************************* A workshop at: ICRA 2009 (www.icra2009.org) Sunday, May 17th, 2009 Kobe, JAPAN URL: www.roboethics.org/icra2009 Abstract: Robotics research is increasingly raising ethical issues, related to the merging interactions between robots and humans. Roboethics deals with the ethical aspects of the design, development and employment of Intelligent machines. It shares many "sensitive areas" with Computer Ethics, Information ethics and Bioethics. Along these disciplines, it investigates the social and ethical problems due to the effects of the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions in the Humans/Machines interaction's domain. The focus of this workshop includes the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect robotics research and robotics application to society. In turn, how robotics affects society, politics, and culture - the basic assumption being that that science and technology are socially embedded. This full-day workshop is open to - and it strongly encourages - the participation of researchers and scholars from other communities, both in science and humanities. This cultural openness provides the robotics researchers with a wide-range intellectual exchange, especially important in the perspective of educating young roboticists to interdisciplinarity among technical disciplines, and to transdisciplinarity among engineering, life science and humanities. This workshop invites submissions on the following topics (but are not limited to): 1. Social (Robotics and job market; Cost benefit analysis; etc.); 2. Psychological (Robots and kids; Robots and elderly, etc.); 3. Legal (Robots and liability; Identification of autonomously acting robots, etc.); 4. Medical (Robotics in health care and prosthesis, etc.); 5. Warfare application of robotics; 6. Environmental (underwater robotics noise pollution, etc.) Tentative Submission Schedule: - January 14, 2009: Abstract Submission deadline - January 21, 2009: Notification of Acceptance/Rejection - February 25, 2009: Camera-Ready Submission deadline Contributed abstracts are limited to 3000 characters, including title, authors, affiliations. Six pages in the standard ICRA format are allowed for each paper, including figures. A maximum of two additional pages is permitted. Prospective authors should submit their contributions electronically in PDF format to the address: icra2009 at roboethics.org Co-Organizers: Gianmarco Veruggio (CNR-IEIIT, ITALY) Ron Arkin (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) Atsuo Takanishi (Waseda University, JAPAN) Jorge Solis (Waseda University, JAPAN) Matthias Scheutz (Indiana University, USA) Fiorella Operto (School of Robotics, ITALY) From silvia.coradeschi at oru.se Fri Dec 26 05:53:18 2008 From: silvia.coradeschi at oru.se (silvia.coradeschi at oru.se) Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:53:18 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Int. Masters in Robotics and Intelligent Systems Message-ID: ***** Robotics and Intelligent Systems - International Master Program ***** 2 years program, Orebro University, Sweden The International Master in robotics and intelligent systems at ?rebro University is an exciting new 2 year study programme for students with a bachelor degree in a scientific and technological subject. It aims to give students a solid practical and theoretical knowledge in intelligent systems with a particular emphasis on robotics systems, and to prepare them for a career in modernized industry, service organizations or academia. Intelligent systems are becoming an integral part of our everyday life as well as an important competitive factor in service-oriented organizations and in industrial production. Next application deadline: (second selection) 1st of February 2009 Start of Program: September 2009 Requirements: 3-years Bachelor degree including courses in mathematical calculus, algebra, programming, algorithms and data structures. Language: English (English proficiency test required) No tuition costs, living expenses: circa 8000$ per year More information at about the program: www.oru.se/nt/robotics More information about the application procedure: www.oru.se/master/robotics Best, Amy Loutfi Program Coordinator From PatrickPfaff at kuka-roboter.de Wed Dec 24 01:48:18 2008 From: PatrickPfaff at kuka-roboter.de (Pfaff Patrick) Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:48:18 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] APPROACHING DEADLINE: Journal of Field Robotics, Special Issue on Three-Dimensional Mapping Message-ID: <9188EBADF1DD1A44AEE31CD4E0E78BB50380F032@deau1svmail1.roboter.kuka.de> Call for Papers on -------------------------------------------------- Three-Dimensional Mapping -------------------------------------------------- for a special issue of the Journal of Field Robotics http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org/ Special Issue Guest Editors: Patrick Pfaff, Kuka Roboter GmbH, Wolfram Burgard, University of Freiburg. Recently, three-dimensional representations of environments have gained substantial interest in the robotics community as such maps provide better support for a wide variety of tasks including navigation, localization, and perception. For example, robots that know about the three-dimensional structure of the environment can better avoid obstacles, can more reliably localize themselves, and can more robustly detect objects. Accordingly, three-dimensional representations provide benefits in all applications in which robots are deployed in real-world scenarios. Additionally, three-dimensional models of environments are envisioned to be useful in a wide area of applications, which goes far beyond robotics, like architecture, emergency planning, interaction, and visualization. In all of these application domains, there is a need for methods that can automatically construct 3D-models. The goal of this special issue of the Journal of Field Robotics is to collect recent advances and state-of-the-art results in the area of learning three-dimensional maps with mobile robots with a particular emphasis on fielded systems and systems that operate in unstructured and dynamic environments. We particularly seek papers that both cover fundamental aspects of mapping along with those that describe the acquisition or maintenance of three-dimensional representations in natural, unstructured environments. Authors are invited to submit papers that cover relevant areas of three-dimensional mapping for field robotic systems including (but not limited to) stereo vision, autonomous cars, navigation, dynamic objects, cooperative systems, approximation and reconstruction techniques, and 3D-SLAM. Important Dates: January 5 , 2009 - Submission of manuscripts April 5, 2009 - Reviews sent to the authors July 5 , 2009 - Final manuscripts due for publication For comments, suggestions, or requests, please send email to Pfaff Patrick > or Wolfram Burgard > From skoenig at usc.edu Fri Dec 26 09:42:13 2008 From: skoenig at usc.edu (skoenig) Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:42:13 -0800 (PST) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: 2009 Symposium on Combinatorial Search (SoCS-09) Message-ID: The following IJCAI workshop encourages submissions on path and motion planning! Cheers, Sven Call for Papers International Symposium on Combinatorial Search July 9-10, 2009 in Lake Arrowhead, California (directly before IJCAI in Pasadena, California) Submission Deadline: April 7, 2009 www.search-conference.org This event continues the tradition started last year by the Symposium on Search Techniques in AI and Robotics (STAIR-08), but with an even broader scope to include techniques originating in any computing field, including contraint programming, operations research, planning, and bioinformatics. Papers on both complete and incomplete methods are welcome. Work discussing a specific application domain (for example, robotic motion planning, timetabling, temporal planning, ...) is welcomed, as long as the emphasis is on the search strategy employed and an effort is made to suggest how the ideas could be relevant in another domain. Relevant topics include (but are not limited to): * Analysis of search algorithms * Continuous problem solving * External-memory and parallel search * Incremental and active learning in search * Meta-reasoning and search * Methodology and critiques of current practice * Model-based search * Random vs systematic search strategy selection * Pattern databases * Portfolios of search algorithms * Real-time search * Search focus in goal-directed problem solving * Search space discretization for continuous state-space problems * Self-configuring and self-tuning algorithms * Time, memory, and solution quality tradeoffs Attendence will be limited to those who have either a regular technical paper (AAAI style, 6 pages preferred, 8 pages maximum) or short research statement (2 pages maximum) accepted. Papers will be carefully peer-reviewed by multiple reviewers and low-quality or off-topic papers will not be accepted. Please see the website for more information. SoCS is organized in cooperation with SARA (Symposium on Abstraction, Reformulation, and Approximation). SARA is focussed on abstraction, while SoCS is focussed on search. The last day of SARA and the first day of SoCS will be an overlap day on the use of abstraction in search. It will be possible to register for either or both symposia. Organizing Committee Sven Koenig, University of Southern California Wheeler Ruml, University of New Hampshire Rong Zhou, Palo Alto Research Center Program Committee Adi Botea (NICTA) Blai Bonet (Universidad Simon Bolivar) Ariel Felner (Ben-Gurion University) Eric Hansen (Mississippi State University) Malte Helmert (Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg) Robert Holte (University of Alberta) Maxim Lihkachev (University of Pennsylvania) Michela Milano (Universita di Bologna) Nathan Sturtevant (University of Alberta) Patrik Haslum (NICTA) Bart Selman (Cornell University) Sheila McIlraith (University of Toronto) Stefan Edelkamp (Technische Universitat Dortmund) Susan Epstein (Hunter College, CUNY) Youssef Hamadi (Microsoft Research, Cambridge) Weixiong Zhang (Washington University in St Louis) --- Sven Koenig University of Southern California (USC) Computer Science Department Henry Salvatori Computer Center (SAL) 312 941 W 37th Street Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781, USA Email: skoenig at usc.edu WWW: idm-lab.org From jeedward at yahoo.com Sun Dec 28 12:23:31 2008 From: jeedward at yahoo.com (John Edward) Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 12:23:31 -0800 (PST) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ARCS-09 call for papers Message-ID: <279373.88195.qm@web45904.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> ARCS-09 call for papers ? The 2009 International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Control Systems (ARCS-09) (website: http://www.PromoteResearch.org ) will be held during July 13-16 2009 in Orlando, FL, USA. We invite draft paper submissions. The conference will take place at the same time and venue where several other international conferences are taking place. The other conferences include: ????????? International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (AIPR-09) ????????? International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics and Chemoinformatics (BCBGC-09) ????????? International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems and Web Technologies (EISWT-09) ????????? International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking and Communication Systems (HPCNCS-09) ????????? International Conference on Information Security and Privacy (ISP-09) ????????? International Conference on Recent Advances in Information Technology and Applications (RAITA-09) ????????? International Conference on Software Engineering Theory and Practice (SETP-09) ????????? International Conference on Theory and Applications of Computational Science (TACS-09) ????????? International Conference on Theoretical and Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (TMFCS-09) ? The website http://www.PromoteResearch.org contains more details. ? Sincerely John Edward Publicity committee From jitan at mtu.edu Sun Dec 28 12:10:26 2008 From: jitan at mtu.edu (Jindong Tan) Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:10:26 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IROS 2009 Call For Papers Message-ID: <703FCB48-6247-4DF1-B99B-58CFCD2748D1@mtu.edu> IROS 2009 Call For Papers The 2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) will be held at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront at St. Louis, Missouri, USA, from October 11 to 15, 2009. St. Louis is known as the "Gateway City", as it is seen as the Eastern/Western US dividing mark. It?s also called "Gateway to the West" on behalf of the many people who migrated west through St. Louis via the Missouri River. Following the exploration spirit of St. Louis, the conference theme is ?Exploring New Horizons in Intelligent Robots and Systems,? reflecting the growing spectrum and recent developments in intelligent robots and systems. Papers are solicited in all related areas in robotics and intelligent systems. All papers must be in PDF format prepared strictly following the IEEE PDF Requirements for Creating PDF Documents for Xplore. The standard number of pages is 6 and the page limit is 8 with extra payment for pages beyond 6. Detailed instructions are available on the conference website. We also solicit organized/special sessions on emerging areas and innovative applications of new technologies. Papers in organized/special sessions must be submitted through the regular submission process, while the proposals must be submitted to the co-chairs. Proposals for tutorials and workshops are welcome, and are encouraged to address the conference theme, to discuss new technologies in robots and intelligent systems, and to attract industrial participations. Proposals must be submitted directly to one of the co-chairs of workshop/tutorials. IMPORTANT DATES February 15, 2009: Proposals for organized/special sessions March 1, 2009: Submission of full-length papers and videos March 1, 2009: Proposals for tutorials/workshops May 31, 2009: Notification of paper and video acceptance General Chair: Ning Xi, Michigan State University, USA Program Chair: William R. Hamel, University of Tennessee, USA Website: http://www.iros09.mtu.edu Contact: iros09 at mtu.edu ------------------------------------------------------- Jindong Tan Associate Professor, Computer Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 121 EERC, 1400 Townsend Drive Houghton, MI 49931-1295 Phone: (906) 487-3115(O), (906) 281-6989(Cell) Fax: 906 487 2949 email: jitan at mtu.edu ------------------------------------------------------- From kmiller at mech.uwa.edu.au Sun Dec 28 19:27:35 2008 From: kmiller at mech.uwa.edu.au (Karol Miller) Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:27:35 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD and MSc positions in medical robotics Message-ID: <82F65DD714EC40D29859591FAD1B64C9@kmnmtpc> PhD and MSc positions Intelligent Systems for Medicine Laboratory. School of Mechanical Engineering. The University of Western Australia http://www.mech.uwa.edu.au/ISML/ "Medical Robotics" Applications are invited for PhD and MSc positions in the Intelligent Systems for Medicine Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Western Australia. The University of Western Australia is a medium-size research-intensive university located in Perth, on the banks of Swan River, 7 km from the Indian Ocean beach. Perth offers unparalleled living environment at reasonable costs. Our group comprises a multi-disciplinary research team with projects in the areas of surgical simulation, medical robotics, medical image registration and biomechanics. For further project details please consult http://www.mech.uwa.edu.au/ISML/projects.htm or contact Prof. Karol Miller at kmiller at mech.uwa.edu.au . Three positions, funded through The Australian Research Council and National Institute of Health (USA) are available immediately. Further funding to collaborate with ETH Zurich is forthcoming. Candidates with a Bachelor degree or equivalent in any area of Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, Neuroscience, Anatomy or other related fields are encouraged to apply. Experience with image analysis or graphics hardware would be a distinct advantage. Approved candidates with First Class Honours or equivalent will receive tuition fee waiver and scholarships of A$20000 - A$28000, depending on the choice of the project. Teaching assistantships are available on top of the scholarship. Funding is available for three and a half years for PhD candidates and for two years for MSc candidates. Interested candidates should send their expressions of interest to: Karol Miller, Dr habil. Professor of Applied Mechanics Director, Intelligent Systems for Medicine Lab. Deputy Chair of Mechatronics School of Mechanical Engineering The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009, AUSTRALIA Phone: + (61) 8 6488 8545 Fax: + (61) 8 6488 1024 Email: kmiller at mech.uwa.edu.au http://www.mech.uwa.edu.au/~kmiller/ http://www.mech.uwa.edu.au/ISML/ The University of Western Australia: CRICOS Provider No. 00126G From aude.billard at epfl.ch Mon Dec 29 12:01:10 2008 From: aude.billard at epfl.ch (Aude Billard) Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:01:10 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] HRI09: CFP LATE BREAKING PAPERS References: <1931471061CF4B76B8129C2127D4C84F@lasalap1> Message-ID: <9AB73D0096894B06A90DD0EA4FA7AA29@lasalap1> CALL FOR LATE BREAKING SHORT PAPERS 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI?09) http://hri2009.org March 11-13, 2009, San Diego, CA ******************************************************************************************* HRI-2009 will be accepting Late-Breaking Abstracts (2 pages) until 11:59 pm EST on Monday, January 5th. Although abstracts will be screened for relevance to the HRI conference area, our goal is to have a very high acceptance rate, so the review process will be lenient. Accepted abstracts will be presented at a poster session during HRI 2009. Accepted abstracts will be made available after the conference in the ACM digital library. These library entries will be non-archival, allowing authors to re-submit to other venues while still providing visibility to researchers worldwide. Submissions can be made at http://www.precisionconference.com/~hri. Further details are available at http://www.hri2009.org. ****************************************************************************************** General Co-Chairs Matthias Scheutz (mscheutz at indiana.edu) Indiana University Fran?ois Michaud (Francois.Michaud at USherbrooke.ca) Universit? de Sherbrooke Program Co-Chairs Pamela Hinds (phinds at stanford.edu) Stanford University Brian Scassellati (scaz at cs.yale.edu) Yale University Video Session Co-Chairs Aaron Steinfeld (steinfeld at cmu.edu) Carnegie Mellon University Christoph Bartneck (c.bartneck at tue.nl) Eindhoven University of Technology Publicity Co-Chairs Aude Billard (aude.billard at epfl.ch) Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne (EPFL) Christine Lisetti (lisetti at cis.fiu.edu) Florida International University Patrick Rau (rpl at mail.tsinghua.edu.cn) Tsinghua University From brugali at unibg.it Wed Dec 31 03:20:30 2008 From: brugali at unibg.it (Davide Brugali) Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:20:30 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP ICRA 2009 Workshop on "Software Development and Integration in Robotics" Message-ID: <495B557E.70405@unibg.it> IV Edition of the Full Day Workshop on Software Development and Integration in Robotics (SDIR-IV) http://robotics.unibg.it/tcsoft/sdir2009/ to be held in conjunction with ICRA 2009, Kobe, Japan Tuesday May 12, 2009 Call for Papers/Participation --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOTIVATION AND OBJECTIVES This new edition of the SDIR workshop will focus on software engineering principles that specifically promote robotic software and system flexibility. Flexibility is the ease with which a system or component can be modified for use in applications or environments other than those for which it was specifically designed. The term environment refers to the complete range of elements in an robot installation that interact with the software system and components, i.e. the computer and network platform, the operating system, the software libraries, the sensing and actuating devices.The objective of this workshop is to identify software requirements for robotic applications, to compare existing approaches, software environments and tools, and to discuss why current practice does not address the problem of designing reusable robot software in a satisfactory way. TOPICS The workshop focuses on a few mainstream topics closely related to robotic software development, such as: * Analysis of issues and challenges in robotic software development * Analysis of the evolution of robotic software requirements * Software architectures that lead to reusable robotic software design * Models of reusable robot software components and systems * Description of state-of-the art research projects, innovative ideas, field-based studies Please refer to your robotic system implementation and possibly generalize your experience to the development of similar systems. IMPORTANT DATES Submission due : Febrary 2nd, 2009 Notifications : February 15, 2009 Final Copies due : March 1st, 2009 Workshop: May 12, 2009 SUBMISSIONS Papers are limited to 6 pages. Please, use the ICRA2009 author kit to format the papers. Papers should be submitted in pdf by email to Davide Brugali (brugali at unibg.it). Authors acknowledge that no paper of substantially similar content has been or will be submitted to another conference or workshop during the review period. Papers will be reviewed for quality and relevance and the decision of acceptance will be mailed to the corresponding author. PUBLICATION Accepted papers will be included in the ICRA 2009 CD as Workshop notes, distributed at the workshop, and published on the workshop's web site. As for previous editions of this workshop, the possibility to start a new editorial project to publish the authors' contributions will be discussed during the workshop. ORGANIZERS Prof. Davide Brugali (point of contact), Universit? degli Studi di Bergamo, Italy, brugali at unibg.it, http://robotics.unibg.it Prof. Dr. Christian Schlegel, HochSchule Ulm, Germany, schlegel at hs-ulm.de, http://www.hs-ulm.de/schlegel Dr. Roberto Sannino, STMicroelectronics, Italy, roberto.sannino at st.com -- Davide Brugali, PhD Chair IEEE RAS - Technical Committee on "Software Engineering for Robotics and Automation" http://robotics.unibg.it/tcsoft/ Assistant Professor at University of Bergamo - DIIMM V.le Marconi, 5 - 24044 Dalmine, Italy Tel. ++39 035 2052354 Fax ++39 035 562779