From mb at tum.de Sun May 4 07:33:42 2008 From: mb at tum.de (Martin Buss) Date: Sun May 4 08:10:18 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD / Research Assistant / PostDoc at Tech Univ Munich Message-ID: <481DC946.1060904@tum.de> In the Institute of Automatic Control Engineering and Autonomous Systems www.lsr.ei.tum.de, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Muenchen, Germany, several PhD / research assistant / PostDoc positions need to be filled. While exceptionally strong candidates are considered anytime, our specific, current needs are in the direction of multi-robot and multi-agent systems. The positions are embedded into the DFG excellence research cluster "Cognition for Technical Systems - CoTeSys" www.cotesys.org. A group of excellent people with strong disciplinary background (control, mechanical or electrical engineering, communication, information theory, computer science) and interest to work in an interdisciplinary environment are desired. The positions are fully paid according to the German rules (formerly BAT-IIa). Requirements are a successful degree (master/diploma/doctoral/PhD) with excellent records. Please send your application including your complete CV, relevant certificates, and some of your publications by Email to office@lsr.ei.tum.de with the Keyword "PosCoTeSys". TUM is especially encouraging minorities and women to apply, because of its strong commitment to diversity in engineering education, research, and practice. Closing date is 30 June 2008. -- --------------------------------------------------------- Univ.-Professor Dr.-Ing./Univ. Tokio Martin Buss Ordinarius Lehrstuhl f?r Steuerungs- und Regelungstechnik Fakult?t f?r Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik Technische Universit?t M?nchen 80290 M?nchen -- RO-MAN 2008 in M?nchen -> http://www.ro-man2008.org 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication -- "Kognition f?r technische Systeme", http://www.cotesys.org Tel.: 089 289-28395, Fax: 089 289-28340 mailto:mb@tum.de (or mailto:M.Buss@ieee.org) WWW: http://www.lsr.ei.tum.de --------------------------------------------------------- Martin Buss Professor, Chair, and Director, Institute of Automatic Control Engineering (LSR) Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Munich University of Technology D-80290 Munich, Germany -- RO-MAN 2008 in Munich -> http://www.ro-man2008.org 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication -- "Cognition for Technical Systems", http://www.cotesys.org http://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/coordinated_programmes/excellence_initiative/index.html Tel.: +49 89 289-28395, Fax: +49 89 289-28340 mailto:mb@tum.de (or mailto:M.Buss@ieee.org) WWW: http://www.lsr.ei.tum.de From urbano at deec.uc.pt Fri May 2 12:43:33 2008 From: urbano at deec.uc.pt (Urbano Nunes) Date: Sun May 4 08:11:40 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP - IEEE IROS 2008 "2nd Workshop on Planning, Perception and Navigation for Intelligent Vehicles Message-ID: <481B6EE5.8010909@deec.uc.pt> *************************************************************************** C A L L F O R P A P E R S 2nd WORKSHOP ON PLANNING, PERCEPTION AND NAVIGATION FOR INTELLIGENT VEHICLES http://www.isr.uc.pt/~urbano/WorkIROS08/ At 2008 IEEE INT. CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS (IROS 2008) 26 September 2008, Nice, France http://iros2008.inria.fr/ ***************************************************************************** Important Dates *************** Paper submission: June 1, 2008 Notification: July 1, 2008 Final submission: July 15, 2008 Workshop: Sept 26, 2008 IEEE IROS08: Sept 22-26, 2008 Scope *********** The purpose of this workshop is to discuss topics related to the challenging problems of autonomous navigation and of driving assistance in open and dynamic environments. Technologies related to application fields such as unmanned outdoor vehicles or intelligent road vehicles will be considered from both the theoretical and technological point of views. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): -Object detection, tracking and classification -Collision prediction and avoidance -Environment perception, vehicle localization and autonomous navigation -Probabilistic methods in navigation -Real-time perception, smart sensors and sensor fusion -Integrated in-vehicle and infrastructure systems -Road scene understanding, and lane keeping -Pedestrian and vehicle detection -Cooperative techniques -Human-centred driver assistance -Driver state, intent and activity sensing -Visual tracking and map building; SLAM in dynamic environments -Real-time motion planning in dynamic environments Submission *********** Authors are invited to submit their papers by email, in PDF format, to urbano@deec.uc.pt (include the paper title and author names in the email). The detailed information on the paper format is available from the IROS2008 page (http://iros2008.inria.fr/). Papers are limited to 4-6 pages. Journal Special Issue ********************* Selected papers will be considered for a special issue of an international Journal. Organizers ********************* Urbano Nunes, (UC, Portugal), http://www.isr.uc.pt/~urbano Christian Laugier (INRIA, France), http://emotion.inrialpes.fr/laugier Alberto Broggi (Univ. Parma, Italy), http://www.ce.unipr.it/broggi From philippe.poignet at lirmm.fr Mon May 5 02:34:03 2008 From: philippe.poignet at lirmm.fr (Philippe POIGNET) Date: Mon May 5 17:24:39 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Research Engineer Position Message-ID: <7B5FF069-621E-4E63-8305-A15A23487923@lirmm.fr> In the LIRMM lab (France), our medical robotics group is now recruiting a Research Engineer to work on teleoperation control, haptics and micro-scale medical robotics in the framework of a European project on robot assisted endoluminal surgery. The project partners include many European research institutes like SSS'A (Italy - Paolo Dario - coordinator), EPFL (Switzerland), Imperial College London (UK), etc. The Research Engineer candidates are expected to have experience in one or more of the following areas: control theory, robotics, haptics, teleoperation. The candidates are expected to have good programming skills in C/C+ +. The salary will be around 2,300 Euros/m. The position will be available since May 1, 2008. Candidates with a doctorate will be appreciated. Application or inquiry should be sent by email to : Prof. Philippe POIGNET Universit? Montpellier 2 - IUT LIRMM UMR 5506 CNRS UM2 T?l. +33 4 67 41 85 61 / Fax. +33 4 67 41 85 00 philippe.poignet@lirmm.fr More information is given in the attached file ? -------------- next part -------------- Skipped content of type multipart/mixed From john at mmmi.sdu.dk Mon May 5 22:49:23 2008 From: john at mmmi.sdu.dk (John Hallam) Date: Tue May 6 00:12:31 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Post Doc Position in Biorobotics at SDU, Odense Message-ID: Please circulate this advert to any students/colleagues who might be interested. The Maersk Institute at SDU in Odense, Denmark, invites applications for a post-doctoral research position working on active sonar perception inspired by bats as part of the ChiRoPing project. Closing date for applications is 15 May 2008. The principal objective of the project is to discover how to engineer embodied active sonar perception systems which can serve as a complement to vision and facilitate the deployment of robotic systems in situations where vision is infeasible. Applicants should have Ph. D. level expertise in one of the areas of acoustics, robotics or signal processing. Extensive expertise in programming and good mathematics, signal analysis and/or pattern recognition skills are necessary. For further details on the project, see the ChiRoPing web site www.chiroping.org. To apply, please follow the procedure specified at http://www.jobs.sdu.dk/vis_stilling.php?id=4138&lang=eng John Hallam From terry.fong at nasa.gov Tue May 6 00:54:45 2008 From: terry.fong at nasa.gov (Terry Fong) Date: Thu May 8 08:21:57 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Full-time robotics engineer position at the NASA Ames Research Center Message-ID: <48200EC5.2050303@nasa.gov> ROBOTICS ENGINEER (MANIPULATION/MOBILE ROBOTICS) Position: Full-time (IRG-08-3) Location: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA The Intelligent Robotics Group at the NASA Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, CA) has an immediate opening for a full-time robotics engineer. We are looking for an experienced developer to help NASA send robots to the Moon! Ideal candidates will have a solid history of implementing complex software systems for robotics and will have knowledge of manipulation, controls and robot software architectures. As NASA returns to the Moon and ventures on to Mars, a variety of mobile robotic and manipulation challenges will need to be addressed. This ranges from earth based inspection and construction tasks of critical space hardware, to autonomous interactions with the natural environment on remote planetary bodies, and to the control of walking robots to access difficult terrain. Responsibilities: * Software development for teleoperated robotic walking. This project, which is in its second year, is developing a ground support tool to analyze robot telemetry and to plan footfall locations and motion plans which are provided to operators. This project integrates software tools developed at multiple NASA centers and includes motion planning, stereo vision, interactive 3D visualization, and operator control user interfaces. * Develop trajectory planning and controls software for an Adept Viper 6-DOF manipulator on which a high precision laser scanner will be mounted. The system will be used to build models of the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle) heat shield for construction and fault detection purposes. * Develop mobile manipulation software (including navigation and motion planning) using a lightweight manipulator arm mounted on the NASA Ames K10 planetary rover. Emphasis will be placed on deploying and retrieving lightweight payloads, such as wireless communication relays and positioning beacons. Requirements: * B.S. (or higher) in computer science or robotics * At least 2 years experience with structured software engineering and process. Experience with UML and design patterns greatly preferred. * Advanced proficiency with C++ and/or Java, scripting (PHP, Python, PERL), and Linux development (GNU tools, svn, etc.) * Background and experience with robotic manipulation, mobile robotics (preferably including walking robots), and robot software architecture. * Strong team-based product development experience (configuration management, build management, regression testing, documentation). APPLICATION =========== To apply for this position, please send the following via email: - a letter describing your background and motivation - a detailed resume (text or PDF format) - contact details for two (or more) references to Terry Fong *** *** NOTE: U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status is *required*. *** The NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) is dedicated to enabling humans and robots to explore and learn about extreme environments, remote locations, and uncharted worlds. IRG conducts applied research in a wide range of areas with an emphasis on robotics systems science and field testing. IRG's expertise includes applied computer vision (navigation, 3D surface modeling, automated science support), human-robot interaction, interactive 3D user interfaces, robot software architecture, and planetary rovers. Recent projects include: NASA Updates to Google Moon: http://moon.google.com Google NASA Planetary Content: http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/projects/planetary Robotic Site Survey: http://haughton2007.arc.nasa.gov GigaPan GigaPixel Panoramas: http://gigapan.org From ppayeur at site.uOttawa.ca Tue May 6 09:25:46 2008 From: ppayeur at site.uOttawa.ca (Pierre Payeur) Date: Thu May 8 08:21:57 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP - ROSE 2008 - IEEE Intl Workshop on RObotic and Sensors Environments Message-ID: [Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement.] C A L L F O R P A P E R S - ROSE 2008 ROSE 2008 - IEEE International Workshop on RObotic and Sensors Environments - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 17-18 October 2008 http://www.site.uottawa.ca/ROSE2008 =============================================================== Important dates: PAPER SUBMISSION: 4 July 2008 Notification : 18 August 2008 Final manuscript: 5 September 2008 --------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS The focus of the ROSE conference series is on sensing and perception modalities, as well as their impact on autonomous robotics and intelligent systems development and applications. Papers are solicited on all aspects of Sensing Systems and Technologies for Robotics and Industrial Automation, Human-Robot Cooperation, Multimodal or Distributed Sensing, and Perception technologies. These include but are not limited to: sensor controlled system operation; collaborative manufacturing; automated failure handling; inspection and quality control; human and robot safety; robot teach-in; tele-operation; robot manipulation; stationary and mobile robots; emergent applications: rescue robots, swarm robotics, mems; robot sensors and vision; active environment perception; intelligent sensing; distributed sensor networks; multi-sensor surveillance systems; environment or workspace monitoring; machine vision and image processing; 3D sensing and modeling; signal processing and sensor fusion; and new sensor technologies. Submit your extended abstract (3-4 pages) or draft version of full paper electronically as a PDF-format file using the web submission form available at: http://www.site.uottawa.ca/ROSE2008 Accepted papers will be published in ROSE 2008 Proceedings and be included in IEEE Xplore. ROSE 2008 is organized by the following technical committees of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society: TC-15 Virtual Systems in Measurements TC-22 Intelligent Measurement Systems TC-27 Human-Computer Interface and Interaction TC-28 Instrumentation for Robotics and Automation TC-30 Security and Contraband Detection the Ottawa Chapter of the I&M Society General Chairs: Mel Siegel, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Pierre Payeur, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada Technical Program Chairs: Victor Aitken, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada Emil Petriu, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada ROSE 2008 will be collocated with HAVE 2008, IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments and Their Applications ------------- Best regards, Pierre Payeur & Mel Siegel ROSE 2008 - General Chairs ===================================================================== Dr. Pierre Payeur School of Information Technology and Engineering University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada ppayeur@site.uottawa.ca http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~ppayeur --------------------------------------------------------------------- From aude.billard at epfl.ch Tue May 6 11:12:34 2008 From: aude.billard at epfl.ch (Aude Billard) Date: Thu May 8 08:21:57 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Robot Comics Contest - ICRA 2008 Message-ID: <057101c8afa4$c25c8600$0291b280@sti.intranet.epfl.ch> Final Call for Participation in the ICRA 2008 Robot Comics Contest The ICRA'08 IEEE-RAS robot comics contest is an initiative sponsored by the Robotics and Automation Society (RAS). . People are invited to compete either as teams or on an individual basis. The jury will be composed of five experts in robotics and comics design. . RAS will award a prize of $500.00 US to the winning team. The best comics will be published in the IEEE-RAS magazine, with a photograph of the winning team. . All comics will be presented to the crowd during the conference banquet on Thursday May 22nd 2008 at the occasion of which the prize will also be awarded. Who can compete: Any registered participant at ICRA'08. Register for ICRA'08 at http://www.icra2008.org. How to compete: To enter the competition, you can either submit your comics in pdf or jpg format by registering at http://lasa.epfl.ch/icra08/comics.html or you can have it scanned at the desk on the first day of ICRA'08. What should the comics entail: The comics should be no longer than 1-page and entail no more than 6 strips. The comics should explicitly relate to robotics. Examples of scientific comics can be found at Jorge Cham's webpage: http://www.phdcomics.com/ The competition will close at 6:00 p.m. on the first day of the conference, May 20 2008. All entries must be accompanied by an IEEE copyright form dully signed stating that the work is original and all rights belong to the entrant. 13 February, 2008 : Opening of the Contest 21 May, 2008 : Closing date of the Contest 22 May, 2008 : Public display of comics + prize during the ICRA'08 conference Banquet Organizers: Aude Billard, EPFL - aude.billard@epfl.ch Jorge Cham, Caltech - jorge@phdcomics.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080506/971f12f3/attachment-0001.html From jonghyuk.kim at anu.edu.au Wed May 7 19:23:19 2008 From: jonghyuk.kim at anu.edu.au (Jonghyuk (Jon) Kim) Date: Thu May 8 08:21:58 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Paper for ACRA 2008 Message-ID: <002f01c8b0b2$7c44f3a0$382dcb96@engnet.anu.edu.au> ---------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS 2008 Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation 3-5 December 2008 Canberra, Australia http://www.araa.asn.au/acra/acra2008/ Dear Roboticists, The 2008 Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation (ACRA'08) will be held at the Australian National University (ANU) Canberra, during 3-5 December 2008. We invite participation in the conference by researchers in all areas of robotics, automation and mechatronics. At this year's conference we will be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of ACRA. For more information about CFP (Call for Paper), submission process and paper templates, please visit the conference website linked above. The important dates are: ---------------------------------------------------- Submission of papers: 5 September 2008 Notification of acceptance: 5 October 2008 Camera ready papers due: 5 November 2008 ACRA 2008 Begins: 3 December 2008 ---------------------------------------------------- We hope to see you in Canberra in December. Dr. Jonghyuk Kim A/Prof. Robert Mahony ACRA 2008 Co-chairs From gj at dfki.de Thu May 8 07:02:34 2008 From: gj at dfki.de (Geert-Jan Kruijff) Date: Thu May 8 08:22:01 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Job Opening: machine learning for interactive cognitive robots Message-ID: ------------------- JOB OPENING The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH) is seeking for its Language Technology Lab a SENIOR RESEARCHER in the area of cognitive systems, for a research position (Post-Doc, or senior) in the EU FP7 IP "Cognitive Systems that Self-Understand and Self-Extend" (CogX). The CogX project is a European project in the area of cognitive systems and will run from May 2008 till the end of June 2012. The project (which is a follow-up to the CoSy project, [http://www.cognitivesystems.org ] and [ http://cosy.dfki.de/ ] ) will have a strong emphasis on the theoretical and practical integration of capabilities in vision, manipulation, mobility, spatial cognition, planning, and dialogue processing. CogX will be focused on the dynamics of a system capable of actively extending itself to fulfill identified requirements: "Imagine a cognitive system that models not only the environment, but its own understanding of the environment and how this understanding changes under action. It identifies gaps in its own understanding and then plans how to fill those gaps so as to deal with novelty and uncertainty in task execution, gather information necessary to complete its tasks, and to extend its abilities and knowledge so as to perform future tasks more efficiently." In the cognitive systems we conceive of, a wide and heterogeneous set of learning problems can be identified. These scenarios typically Involve social contexts with a rich multimodal communication between human and robot. Across these potential learning problems, the appropriate representations, learning models and evaluation criteria differ widely. To create a unified theory that makes it possible for the robot to reason about its knowledge and lack thereof, and to communicate the essence of this reasoning, will most likely require insights from fields such as socially guided machine learning, traditional and novel forms of machine learning such as active learning, meta learning, human-robot interaction, and situated dialogue processing, We are looking for an experienced researcher with a PhD in computer science (or equivalent) to work on "interactive continuous learning of crossmodal concepts" in the CogX project. We need a person with * a strong background in machine learning, * preferably with experience in active learning, socially guided learning, interactive learning; * preferably with experience in robotics, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics. * strong analytical skills, * strong mathematical skills, * strong programming skills (e.g. C++, Java, Python), * experience in collaborative software development (our project software is usually developed across 6-7 international sites, with up to 15 developers) * a good command of English, spoken and written The person will work in an international team. Responsibilities will include leading the machine learning efforts in our group within the CogX project, theory development, implementation and evaluation of software in an integrated (robot) system. The person will be expected to write, or contribute to writing, scientific papers and articles set in the project context. Highly valued personal qualities include creativity, open-mindedness, team spirit, and a willingness to address novel challenges in unknown scientific territory. The applicant should have a completed PhD degree on commencing the job. The earliest starting date of the position is September 2008. The duration of the contract will probably be until the end of the project (June 2012). DFKI GmbH [ http://www.dfki.de ] is located on the campus of Saarland University in Saarbrucken, Germany. The university's research groups and curricula in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Computer Science are internationally renowned. The LT-Lab [ http://www.dfki.de/lt/ ] offers excellent working conditions in a well-established research group. The position provides opportunities to collaborate in a variety of international projects. The competitive salary is calculated according to qualifications based on DFKI GmbH scales. For more on our work at DFKI, see [ http://www.dfki.de/lt/ ]. and [ http://cosy.dfki.de ] Please send your electronic application (preferably in PDF format) to lt-jobs@dfki.de , referring to this job opening (No. 200820), not later than June 31, 2008. A meaningful application should include a cover letter, a CV, a brief summary of research interests, a statement of interest in the position offered, and contact information for three references. For questions concerning this job opening, please contact Dr.ir. Geert- Jan Kruijff gj@dfki.de [ http://www.dfki.de/~gj ] -- Dr.ir. Geert-Jan M. Kruijff Senior researcher/Project leader Language Technology Lab, DFKI GmbH, Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3, D-66123 Saarbruecken, Germany Email: gj@dfki.de Phone: +49.681.302.5153 Fax: +49.681.302.5338 Mobile: +49.179.479.5892 http://www.dfki.de/~gj/ http://www.dfki.de/cosy/ ----------------------------------------------------- Deutsches Forschungszentrum fuer Kuenstliche Intelligenz GmbH Firmensitz: Trippstadter Strasse 122, D-67663 Kaiserslautern Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Wahlster (Vorsitzender) Dr. Walter Olthoff Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Prof. Dr. h.c. Hans A. Aukes Amtsgericht Kaiserslautern, HRB 2313 ----------------------------------------------------- From jorge at isr.uc.pt Thu May 8 12:02:25 2008 From: jorge at isr.uc.pt (Jorge Manuel Miranda Dias) Date: Thu May 8 12:37:15 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: IROS-2008 WORKSHOP ON Grasp and Task Learning by Imitation Message-ID: <003e01c8b13e$10bc1730$32344590$@uc.pt> Call for Papers IROS-2008 WORKSHOP ON Grasp and Task Learning by Imitation Monday, 22nd of September, 2008 IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems - IROS 2008 - Acropolis Convention Center, Nice, France Objectives It is becoming clear that one keystone for the realization of robots carrying out accurate and intelligent tasks is their ability to handle autonomously all sorts of objects. Despite this topic is addressed periodically in robotics research over the last two decades, it remains a very challenging problem. Work in this field involves grasp planning and manipulation capabilities. The ease with which people skillfully handle objects to perform useful tasks inspire recent developments of grasp and manipulation learning by demonstration algorithms, which this workshop aims at assessing. The workshop will address the following fields (non-exhaustive list): - Imitation learning - Programming by demonstration - Grasp gesture recognition - Task and skill learning - Motor control and learning - Visual features extraction in imitation context Call for Papers We solicit papers relevant to the general workshop theme in the two categories: 1. Research papers 2. Application papers Call for Papers in PDF is available for download at http://iros08ws.robot.jussieu.fr/ Important Dates July 7, 2008 - Deadline for paper submission (firm deadline) July 21, 2008 - Notification of acceptance September 22, 2008 - Workshop Submission Instructions Researchers and students are encouraged to present ongoing work on grasp and task learning by imitation. Papers of at most 8 pages (pdf following IROS'08 format instructions at http://iros2008.inria.fr/submission.php) are solicited for inclusion in a single track program. Papers will be reviewed by an international program committee. Submissions must be done through Paper Plaza. Paper size should not exceed 2 Mb. All submissions will be acknowledged within a few days. Papers will be reviewed for quality and relevance and the decision of acceptance will be mailed to the corresponding author. Accepted papers will be included in the workshop notes, distributed at the workshop, and published on the workshop's web site. Organizers and Program Chairs Anis Sahbani Jorge Dias Paulo Menezes Inst. of Intell. Systems and Robots ISR -Inst. Systems and Robotics ISR -Inst. Systems and Robotics Pierre&Marie Curie Univ-Paris 6 University of Coimbra University of Coimbra email: anis.sahbani@upmc.fr email: jorge@isr.uc.pt email: pm@deec.uc.pt -- Jorge Manuel Miranda Dias (www.deec.uc.pt/~jorge) Institute Systems & Robotics Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Polo 2 from University of Coimbra University of Coimbra 3030-290 COIMBRA, Portugal (+351-91 87 11 531) (fax: +351-239 406672) From jorge at isr.uc.pt Thu May 8 12:14:08 2008 From: jorge at isr.uc.pt (Jorge Manuel Miranda Dias) Date: Thu May 8 12:37:16 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] RSS 2008:: Tutorial on Integration of Vision and Inertial Sensors InerVis 2008 Message-ID: <003f01c8b13f$b3fa4b00$1beee100$@uc.pt> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - InerVis2008 - Tutorial on Integration of Vision and Inertial Sensors - http://paloma.isr.uc.pt/inervis/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- InerVis2008 will be on the 28th of June 2008, associated with RSS 2008, Robotics Science and Systems Conference, taking place in Zurich, Switzerland The tutorial will address the integration of vision and inertial sensors. Starting from a biological perspective, some fundamental approaches for fusing this sensing data in robotic systems will be presented, together with a survey of the recent work in the field. - PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME -------------------------------------------------- Planned lectures for half-day tutorial?: -"Biological visuo -vestibular interactions" -"Fundamental approaches for fusing this sensing data in robotic systems and survey of the recent work in the field. Sensor models, camera and inertial data relationship" -"Integration of Vision and Inertial Sensing: camera and inertial data registration, setup calibration, the registration of a vertical reference" -"Robotic Applications of Inertial and Visual Sensor Fusion" -"Ego-motion from Multi-rate Fusion of Inertial and Visual Data, and Simultaneous Structure and Motion" - Discussion panel on the benefits and practicalities of having visuo-inertial fusion in robotic systems For the closing discussion, contributions will be accepted prior to the tutorial, with specific problems or target applications that already rely or could benefit from visuo-inertial sensing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The organizing committee, Jorge Dias and Jorge Lobo -- Jorge Manuel Miranda Dias (www.deec.uc.pt/~jorge) Institute Systems & Robotics Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Polo 2 from University of Coimbra University of Coimbra 3030-290 COIMBRA, Portugal (+351-91 87 11 531) (fax: +351-239 406672) From wenhui.wang at utoronto.ca Tue May 13 02:39:11 2008 From: wenhui.wang at utoronto.ca (Wenhui Wang) Date: Tue May 13 02:44:36 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: IJBMR Special Issue on Biomedical Robotics References: <014801c86780$70ef87c0$a23eb584@canterbury.ac.nz> Message-ID: <01a901c8b4dd$33a7b4a0$04000100@canterbury.ac.nz> Skipped content of type multipart/alternative-------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CFP_IJBMR_special issue_biomedical robotics.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 37838 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080513/7feffb89/CFP_IJBMR_specialissue_biomedicalrobotics-0001.pdf From paolo.fiorini at univr.it Thu May 8 13:21:34 2008 From: paolo.fiorini at univr.it (Paolo Fiorini) Date: Tue May 13 02:44:58 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Celebrating JPL Robotics In-Reply-To: <003e01c8b13e$10bc1730$32344590$@uc.pt> References: <003e01c8b13e$10bc1730$32344590$@uc.pt> Message-ID: Dear Collegues, the organization of ICRA 2008 in Pasadena (CA-USA) gives us an additional opportunity, besides the great technical and social exchanges that we expect at the conference. As most of you know, Pasadena is home to Caltech and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. However, perhaps some of you do not know the impact that JPL had on robotics research, since its very beginning. As former JPL roboticists, we felt that ICRA2008 is the best place to give a sign of appreciation to JPL for its contribution to robotics. In agreement with the conference organizers, we plan a small celebration at the Welcome Reception on Tuesday, May 20th, at 6.30 pm. Please join us for a brief review of JPL contributions to robotics and its future plans, and in a toast to the past and future accomplishments of JPL robotics. We look forward to seeing you at the welcome reception. Paolo Fiorini & Antal Bejczy Prof. Paolo Fiorini, Department of Computer Science, University of Verona Ca' Vignal 2 - Strada Le Grazie 15, 37134 VERONA - Italy Ph: +39 045 802 7963 -- Fax: +39 045 802 7068 http://www.sci.univr.it/~fiorini From msh at aber.ac.uk Mon May 12 03:12:50 2008 From: msh at aber.ac.uk (Martin Huelse) Date: Tue May 13 02:45:00 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP - IROS 2008 WS on "Current software frame in cognitive robotics" Message-ID: <48281822.2090902@aber.ac.uk> [Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement.] #################################################################### CALL FOR PAPERS Workshop on: Current software frameworks in cognitive robotics integrating different computational paradigms in conjunction with IROS 2008, Nice, France September 22nd, 2008 http://users.aber.ac.uk/msh/WS08/ ##################################################################### IMPORTANT DATES: paper submission: Jun 20th, 2008 notification : Jun 30th, 2008 final submission: Jul 6th, 2008 WS : Sep 22nd, 2008 IROS 2008 : Sept 22-26, 2008 OBJECTIVES The objective of this workshop is to highlight and discuss existing examples of software frameworks combining autonomous robot systems and cognition research. The WS is intended as a platform for exchange and discussion, open for researchers as well as hardware and software engineers. We are pleased to have invited speakers sharing their experience on this topic and presenting software systems which have been developed out of long experience in the integration of heterogeneous robot hardware and software for multi-disciplinary research projects. Authors are invited to submit papers presenting recent work on software frameworks able to combine high-level cognitive models and heterogeneous robot system in a direct and robust manner. The contribution must explicitly address at least one of the following topics: * existing software frameworks able to integrate different paradigms of computational intelligence for autonomous robot control * general software architectures explicitly dealing with the integration of robot hardware and cognitive models * frameworks for sustainable software design for heterogeneous robot platforms * software frameworks providing implementations of cognitive models grounded in specific computational paradigms, but which are proven to be open for different robot platforms, i.e. open for different sensor and actuator systems SUBMISSION If you are interested in participation or presenting your solutions at this event, please visit our WS websites: http://users.aber.ac.uk/msh/WS08/ or the official IROS 2008 websites: http://iros2008.inria.fr/workshops.php for further details about this WS and an extended version of this call. INVITED SPEAKERS: * Carle Cote, Canada * Fredrik Heintz, Sweden * Anthony Mallet, France * Nick Hawes, UK * Ben Mitchinson, UK * Monica Reggiani, Italy IMPORTANT DATES FOR SUBMISSION: June 20th, 2008 Submission deadline June 30th, 2008 Notification of acceptance July 6th, 2008 Camera ready papers CONTACT Martin Huelse Email: msh -AT- aber ac uk Phone: +44 (1970) - 622441 Manfred Hild Email: hild -AT- informatik hu-berlin de Phone: +49 (30) 2093 3931 -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Huelse, Dr. rer. nat. Intelligent Robotics Group email: msh -AT- aber ac uk Department of Computer Science, web: aml.somebodyelse.de University of Wales, office: +44 (0)1970-62 2441 Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DB, lab: +44 (0)1970-62 2403 United Kingdom. fax: +44 (0)1970-62 8536 --------------------------------------------------------------------- From ajd at doc.ic.ac.uk Mon May 12 16:49:14 2008 From: ajd at doc.ic.ac.uk (Andrew Davison) Date: Tue May 13 02:45:01 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Post-Doc and PhD Positions in Visual SLAM at Imperial College London Message-ID: <4828D77A.70508@doc.ic.ac.uk> One Research Associate/Two Research Assistants in Visual SLAM Visual Information Processing (VIP) Group Department of Computing Imperial College London Research Assistant: Salary in the range ?25,310 - ?28,140 per annum Research Associate: Salary in the range ?25,310 - ?36,880 per annum Fixed term appointments for 3 years We have 3 exciting new positions available within the Visual Information Processing (VIP) Group of the Department of Computing. One is a post-doctoral research associate position (starting July 2008) and two are research assistant positions intended for candidates who will register for PhD studies (starting October 2008). All of these research positions, under the supervision of Dr Andrew Davison, are associated with a new project funded by the European Research Council which aims to develop new techniques in high-performance Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) using computer vision. This is technology with a wide range of applications including autonomous robot navigation, wearable computing, augmented reality and interactive entertainment. Further information on the research area of the project can be found at http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ajd/ and informal queries can be directed to ajd@doc.ic.ac.uk. Applicants for the research associate position should have a PhD (or equivalent or be close to submitting for a doctorate) in Engineering, Computer Science or a related field, preferably with experience in computer vision and/or robotics. Applicants for the research assistant positions will need to have a good honours degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics or another related area and be able to demonstrate a strong mathematical background. A Masters degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics or another related area would be desirable but is not essential for this post. High levels of ability in computing and programming and a clear interest in robotics and vision are also desirable. All applicants must be fluent in spoken and written English. Imperial College is ranked the fifth best university in the world (Times Higher QS World University Rankings 2007). The Department of Computing is a leading department of Computer Science among the UK Universities. It has consistently been awarded the highest research rating (5*) in Research Assessment Exercises and was rated as "Excellent" in the previous national assessment of teaching quality. Detailed information about the department and its research areas can be found at http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk. Further particulars and and an application form can be found at the links below: Application Form http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/portal/page/portallive/0FDF9D28002543D0E0440003BACD13A5 Research Associate - Job Description and Person Specification http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portallive/docs/1/41605696.DOC Research Assistant - Job Description and Person Specification http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portallive/docs/1/41605697.DOC Applications must include the following:- ? A College application form ? State job reference number SLAM0508 on the application form and clearly mark whether the application is for the Research Associate or Research Assistant post. ? A full CV Including, University degrees and dates, past and present posts, list of publications and the names and addresses of three referees. ? A 1 page research statement should be provided indicating what you see are interesting research issues relating to the above posts, why your expertise is relevant, and what your future research plans are. Applications should be sent to:- Mrs Marina Hall Department of Computing Imperial College London South Kensington Campus London, SW7 2AZ Email: marina.hall@imperial.ac.uk Closing Date: 8 June 2008 Valuing diversity and commitment to equality of opportunity -- ------------------------------------------- Dr. Andrew Davison Lecturer Department of Computing Huxley Building (306) 180 Queen's Gate South Kensington Campus Imperial College London SW7 2AZ, UK +44-20-75948316 http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ajd/ ajd@doc.ic.ac.uk ------------------------------------------- From soh22 at ucmerced.edu Mon May 12 18:32:04 2008 From: soh22 at ucmerced.edu (Songhwai Oh) Date: Tue May 13 02:45:03 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Post-doc position in mobile sensor networks at UC Berkeley and UC Merced Message-ID: <4828EF94.2080105@ucmerced.edu> POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLAR POSITION IN MOBILE SENSOR NETWORKS AT UC BERKELEY AND UC MERCED A full-time postdoctoral scholar position is currently open at UC Berkeley and UC Merced. The position is in the area of wireless sensor networks and robotics. This is a joint appointment between UC Berkeley (Prof. Sastry, http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/) and UC Merced (Prof. Oh, http://isl.ucmerced.edu/). The position will involve collaborative research with graduate students and faculty at UC Berkeley and UC Merced. Applicants must have earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a closely-related discipline. Applicants must have a strong record in research and have a background in one or more of the following fields: distributed inference, machine learning, computer vision, networking, multi-robot control and coordination, and wireless sensor networks. Interested applicants should apply by sending an email to songhwai.oh@ucmerced.edu, including a list of publications, a Curriculum Vitae, and contact information for at least three references. From ecervera at icc.uji.es Tue May 13 07:40:32 2008 From: ecervera at icc.uji.es (Enric Cervera) Date: Tue May 13 08:48:32 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Summer School on Rescue Robotics in Benicassim (Spain) - Call for Participation Message-ID: Dear colleagues, Registration for IURS2008 is now OPEN: http://www.robot.uji.es/research/events/iurs08/ For the 8th edition of its well-known summer school, the Intelligent Robotics Lab of Jaume-I University, in collaboration with the Sheffield-Hallam University (UK) organizes a tutorial on the engineering, scientific and application domain of rescue robotics, sponsored by the IST-FP6 Guardians and ViewFinder EU Cognitive Systems projects: Rescue robotics has emerged in recent years as an active research field, providing valuable assistance in urban rescue tasks after catastrophes (e.g. earthquakes) or incidents like fire or accidents involving hazardous materials. According to this trend, the school will provide to an audience with an engineering background the basic insights about the technology, science, and domain issues that may be instrumental in successfully applying rescue robotics in the real world. The school instructors are leading world experts in the field, who work actively in past and present cross-disciplinary projects involving partners from technology and emergency responders. Confirmed lecturers: * Robin Murphy (Univ. South Florida, USA) * Roland Siegwart (ETH Zurich, Swtzerland) * Shigeo Hirose (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) * Anibal Ollero (University of Sevilla, Spain) * Andreas Birk (Jacobs University Bremen, Germany) * Hartmut Surmann (Fraunhofer Institute, Germany) * Jacques Penders (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) * Yvan Baudoin (Royal Military School, Belgium) * Lino Marques (ISR - University of Coimbra, Portugal) Graduate robotics students will have a unique training opportunity in this emergent and fast-evolving domain, closely interacting for one week with some of the top-level researchers in the world in this field, as well as with fellow students. The school will take place during next September, for the whole week 15-19, in Benic?ssim (Spain), at 300m from the Mediterranean coast. Four sessions of 90 minutes will be held every day, for a total of 30 hours of lesson. Attendance is limited to 40 students. Registration fees, covering course material, accommodation and meals, are 500? (or a reduced fee of 250 ? without accommodation). Remote participation is also offered. Registration fees, covering course material and attendace certificate, are 100?. The official site of the school will be the Hotel Intur Bonaire, and the lectures will be held in a special room of the hotel offering up- to-date technology for conferences and meetings. Speakers ans students will be accommodated in the Hotel Intur Bonaire and in the nearby (50 mts.) Hotel Intur Azor. The official language of the school is English. General Chair: * Jacques Penders, SHU, UK Program Chairs: * Enric Cervera, Jaume-I University, Spain * Yvan Baudoin, RMA, Belgium * Raul Marin, Jaume-I University, Spain Organization chair: * Leo Nomdedeu, Jaume-I University, Spain Request for information: http://www.robot.uji.es/research/events/iurs08/ iurs@uji.es Best regards, Enric Cervera UJI, Spain From Astrid.Weiss at sbg.ac.at Tue May 13 08:39:29 2008 From: Astrid.Weiss at sbg.ac.at (Astrid.Weiss@sbg.ac.at) Date: Tue May 13 08:48:34 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CfP Deadline Extension: Workshop on "Robots as Social Actors: Evaluating Social Acceptance and Societal Impact of Robotic Agents" - IEEE Ro-Man 2008 Message-ID: DEADLINE EXTENSION FOR POSITION PAPERS: 30 May 2008 Workshop on "Robots as Social Actors: Evaluating Social Acceptance and Societal Impact of Robotic Agents" https://workshops.icts.sbg.ac.at/roman2008/ at IEEE Ro-Man 2008 - The 17th International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication http://www.lsr.ei.tum.de/ro-man2008/ 1-3 August 2008, Munich, Germany CALL FOR PAPERS (apologies for multiple postings): The workshop on "Robots as Social Actors: Evaluating Social Acceptance and Societal Impact of Robotic Agents" will be held in Munich, Germany at the IEEE Ro-Man conference. * The workshop will discuss possible methodological approaches for evaluating social acceptance and societal impact of Human Robot Interaction (HRI) with a special focus on collaborative working environments. * Pros and cons of existing evaluation methods will be discussed to develop new variations and advancements for assessing social acceptance and societal impact of robotic agents. * The main challenge of the workshop is to develop instruments for measuring social acceptance and societal impact in the field in HRI. *Important dates* Submission of papers: Friday, 30 May 2008 (EXTENDED DEADLINE!) Feedback to authors: Monday, 30 June 2008 Workshop: Friday, 1 August 2008 *Workshop topics* Submissions are invited addressing one or more of the following questions: * What kind of metrics already exist in the field of HRI for measuring social acceptance and societal impact and how have they been used in user studies? * Do existing evaluation methods address needs for introducing robotic agents into real human areas of life? * Which parameters for social acceptance and societal impact can be defined for HRI like performance expectancy, self efficacy, quality of life, education and ethics? * Is there a common framework of methods that are appropriate to evaluate the social acceptance and societal impact for robotic frameworks? * What are the advantages and disadvantages of existing evaluation methods from different fields and how do they compare to other methods for HRI? * Discuss approaches of prototyping HRI as the basis of evaluation in different stages of development. Accepted position papers and other pre-workshop materials will be made available to the participants, so presentations during the workshop can be kept short, and reflection on the subject is stimulated before the workshop. Position papers will be grouped into several sessions, in order to organize the discussion thematically with break-out sessions. The workshop organizers commit to the publication of a revised version of the papers! *Guidelines for submission* Submissions are expected in the form of max. 4 page informal position papers (A4 IEEE Template http://ras.papercept.net/conferences/support/word.php ), describing the area of research, specific work (empirical or theoretical) on the workshop topic and the innovative character of the presented work. Insightful essays about the topic are also welcomed. We will select participants with diverse backgrounds based upon the relevance, insightfulness, and originality of their submissions based on an peer review process. At least one author of accepted papers needs to register for the workshop and for one day of the conference itself. *Organizing Committee* * Astrid Weiss, ICT&S Center - University of Salzburg, * Manfred Tscheligi, ICT&S Center - University of Salzburg, * Aude Billard, LASA Laboratory - EPFL Lausanne, * Kerstin Dautenhahn, Adaptive Systems Research Group, School of Computer Science - University of Hertfordshire, UK Mag. Astrid Weiss Research and Teaching Assistent HCI & Usability Unit ICT&S Center - Center for Advanced Studies and Research in Information and Communication Technologies & Society University of Salzburg Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18 5020 Salzburg, Austria Phone: +43.662.8044.4812, Fax: +43.662.6389.4800 E-Mail: astrid.weiss@sbg.ac.at www.icts.uni-salzburg.at -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080513/28693dae/attachment-0001.html From paulfitz at liralab.it Tue May 13 13:19:35 2008 From: paulfitz at liralab.it (Paul Fitzpatrick) Date: Tue May 13 23:37:02 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] VVV08: RobotCub Summer School Call for Participation Message-ID: <4829F7D7.4010208@liralab.it> [apologies if you receive multiple copies of this post] ---------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ---------------------------------------------------------- VVV 2008, the Third RobotCub Summer School http://www.robotcub.org/summerschool Aim: The RobotCub Summer School, "Veni Vidi Vici", serves to consolidate and disseminate skills in software engineering for humanoid robots. Our goal is to foster long-lived academic collaboration on robot software across the boundaries and lifetimes of individual projects. The school is hosted by the RobotCub consortium, a collection of institutions working towards an open platform for humanoid research. The RobotCub summer school is a peer-to-peer event; there are no lectures, and no strict division of instructors and students. All participants are expected to be competent C/C++ programmers with an interest in working with others (and an agenda of their own). The school schedule will be organized flexibly around informal tutorials from participants on modules they are working on or interested in. To participate: Those who would like to participate should email their name, affiliation, and CV to summerschool@robotcub.org no later than June 2nd, 2008. Places are limited. We will get back to you by June 9th and you are then expected to formally register and pay by June 16th. The school website is available at: http://www.robotcub.org/summerschool Format: The school is structured as a series of hands-on practical laboratory sessions, and informal talks. There will be real robots to work with (including at least one full humanoid). We will have a dedicated local network, with wireless. Participants are expected to bring their own laptop. Topics: Motor control, robot design, image processing, communication, software engineering, machine learning. Location: This year the school will be hosted at the Mediaterraneo Foundation in Sestri Levante, Liguria, Italy. See the school website for venue details. Timetable: We begin the school in the morning of Monday, July 21 2008, and finish in the evening of Wednesday, July 30 2008 (with people leaving during Thursday, July 31 2008). Sunday the 27th will be free. Cost: The summer school registration fee is 1250 euro. This fee includes the school itself, food, and accommodation. Rooms are shared between two people. A single room is 100 euro extra (and subject to availability). About RobotCub: RobotCub is a project to study cognition through robotics. Along the way, we are creating a completely open design for a humanoid robot - open hardware, open software, open mind. Our hardware designs and software are free and open source. The RobotCub consortium is composed of 16 partners, 11 from Europe, 3 from Japan and 2 from the USA. The coordinator is the LIRA-Lab at the University of Genoa, Italy. From rosen at u.washington.edu Tue May 13 14:33:17 2008 From: rosen at u.washington.edu (Jacob Rosen) Date: Tue May 13 23:37:03 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Job Opening: Post-Doc in Medical Robotics Message-ID: <29fd01c8b540$f56d8930$d1cd5f80@NINE> Opening for a post-doc position in medical robotics is currently available at the Biorobotics Lab - University of Washington, Seattle. Funding is secured for one year with a potential extension for two more years. The research and development will be focused on two classes of medical robotics: (1) wearable robot (lower limb Exoskeleton), and (2) surgical robot. The successful candidate will lead the simulation and the electro mechanical design of these two robotic systems. Desirable Background, Credentials, and Skills - Ph.D. in Mechanical or Biomedical Engineering (Bioengineering) - Fluent in SolidWorks - Solid background in gait analysis and simulation - Solid background in kinematics & dynamics of robotic systems - Real-Time implementation of servo control Please send your application to Jacob Rosen (rosen@u.washington.edu) including the following items - CV - Portfolio of design projects (Solidworks) - Selected publications - List of references Additional information about the research activities at the Biorobotics lab is available at http://brl.ee.washington.edu/ Thank you, jacob rosen _______________________________________ Jacob Rosen, Ph.D. Research Associate Professor Department of Electrical Engineering University of Washington, BOX 352500 Seattle, WA, 98195-2500, USA rosen@u.washington.edu Tel: 206-685-1600 Fax: 206-543-3842 http://brl.ee.washington.edu/ _______________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080513/844fec8f/attachment.html From pappasg at ee.upenn.edu Wed May 14 15:40:41 2008 From: pappasg at ee.upenn.edu (George Pappas) Date: Thu May 15 02:18:39 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] RSS 2008 Workshop: Topology and Minimalism in Robotics and Sensor Networks Message-ID: <0993DBEC0C4A4F8F8D26D50FB971D7B1@key.seas.upenn.edu> Topology and Minimalism in Robotics and Sensor Networks Robotics: Science and Systems Workshop Saturday, June 28, 2008 ORGANIZERS Robert Ghrist, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Steve LaValle, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign George J. Pappas, University of Pennsylvania MOTIVATION Can we do more with less? Although obtaining reams of sensor data is cheaper than ever, unstructured environments are extremely complicated and unpredictable. Rather than trying to learn and utilize precise and complete models, this workshop explores the theme of achieving well-specified robotic and sensor network tasks with as little information as possible. The push toward minimalism offers greater robustness and simplicity, but also requires the development of powerful new mathematical techniques and algorithms. Basic tools from algebraic topology and other areas not typically associated with robotics come to the rescue. Problems approached from the miminalist perspective in this workshop include guaranteeing sensor network coverage, counting targets, time synchronization, target tracking, robot navigation, and topological map building. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this full day workshop is to provide a forum for state-of-the-art research on the formulation and solution of robotic and sensor network tasks using minimal information. In particular, the objectives of the workshop are: To present state-of-the-art results in the area of minimal planning and sensing, especially for very common tasks for robotic and sensor networks. Bring together some of the leading researchers in the field in order to promote cross fertilization of ideas, results, tools, and ideas in order to stimulate further progress in the area. Attract new researchers in the field by providing tutorials exposing them to modern topological methods and distributed algorithms. The workshop will conclude with a panel discussion on how existing methods and concepts may be applied to a broader range of problems of current interest. SCHEDULE All speakers and presentations are confirmed. Presentations will be posted on the workshop website and be available to everyone after the workshop. 08:45-09:00 Welcome and Overview 09:00-10:00 Tutorial on Rips and Cech Complexes, Robert Ghrist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 10:00-10:30 Decentralized hole detection in sensor networks without localization, Ali Jadbabaie, University of Pennsylvania 10:30-11:00 Target enumeration unsing Euler characteristic, Yuliy Baryshnikov, Bell Labs 11:00-11:15 BREAK 11:15-11:45 Simple robots with minimal sensing: from local visibility to global geometry, Partol Widmayer, ETH Zurich 11:45-12:30 DISCUSSION: Open problems, modeling issues, engineering impact 12:30-14:00 LUNCH 14:00-15:00 Tutorial on information spaces and minimalism, Steve LaValle, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign 15:00-15:30 Localization with minimal sensing, Jason O' Kane, University of South Carolina 15:30-16:00 Path reconstruction with beams and obstacles, Fred Cohen, University of Rochester 16:00-16:15 BREAK 16:15-16:45 DISCUSSION: Open problems, modeling issues, engineering impact 16:45-17:15 Boundary partol using robotic networks without localization, Francesco Bullo, University of California at Santa Barbara 17:15-17:45 Topological complexity of consensus, George J. Pappas, University of Pennsylvania 17:45-18:15 DISCUSSION: Final discussions REGISTRATION You can register for the workshop through the main conference registration site at http://www.roboticsconference.org/registration.shtml More information about the work can be found at the workshop website at: http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~pappasg/RSS08.html George J. Pappas Joseph Moore Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering Deputy Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Pennsylvania http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~pappasg/ From Olivier.Sigaud at lip6.fr Thu May 15 00:23:32 2008 From: Olivier.Sigaud at lip6.fr (Olivier Sigaud) Date: Thu May 15 02:18:41 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Abstracts : IROS 2008 workshop "From motor to interaction learning in robots" Message-ID: <46244.132.227.203.164.1210836212.squirrel@mailtwo.lip6.fr> >From motor to interaction learning in robots An IROS 2008 workshop September 26, 2008 Acropolis Convention Center, Nice, FRANCE Deadline for abstract submission June 10 Organizers: * Olivier Sigaud ISIR, UPMC-Paris 6, Paris, France * Jan Peters Max Planck Institute, Tubingen, Germany * Sethu Vijayakumar University of Edinburgh, Scotland see : http://webia.lip6.fr/~sigaud/IROS2008workshop.html Objectives and topics: >From an engineering standpoint, in front of the increasing complexity of robotic systems and the increasing demand for more autonomous and more adaptive robots, the design of on-line, general purpose learning capabilities for their control becomes more and more mandatory. Furthermore, beyond autonomy and adaptation, in the case of humanoid robots in particular, the need for "natural" interaction capabilities with the human user(s) raises new challenges at the interface between interaction models and learning techniques. From neurophysiological studies of human subjects, it is more and more clear that there is much in common between motor learning processes and more cognitive learning and developmental processes, particularly dedicated to interaction. After the much celebrated discovery of the so called "mirror neurons" relating motor learning to imitation and language acquisition, several neurophysiological studies have revealed that brain areas generally considered as motor, such as the cerebellum, or dedicated to action selection, like the basal ganglia, are in fact implied in more general cognitive functions learning such as tool use, imitation, language and so forth. Taken together, these facts advocate for a hierarchical understanding of the brain architecture where motor learning and interaction learning are tightly coupled processes at the root of cognition. The complexity of the computational models resulting from this line of thinking raises the problem of their validation. Here, robotics plays a prominent role as a tool to evaluate the capability of these wide-scope models to give account of the phenomena they address. We particularly welcome papers on the following topics: * robotic implementation of computational or neuromimetic models of motor learning * robotic implementation of computational or neuromimetic models of interaction learning * robotic controllers combining motor learning and interaction learning * hierarchical models of mammal motor systems * computational principles underlying motor learning and/or interaction learning Intended audience: The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers in "engineering sciences" (roboticists, machine learning experts) interested in motor learning and interaction learning to design better robots, and researchers in "life science" (computational neurosciences researchers, developmental psychologists) interested in robotic implementation of models of these processes in animals and humans, to get a more accurate picture of what both learning processes share, how they interact and how they can eventually be combined in the design of robot controllers. Call for abstracts: We invite submission of abstracts to be discussed or shown as posters during the workshop. Abstract submissions should be sent electronically via email in pdf format to: Olivier.Sigaud at isir.fr, indicating in the subject line "IROS2008 workshop submission". Submitted abstracts should have a maximal length of 4 pages (one page is OK) in 10pt, one-column format. Please use the LNCS Springer-Verlag style at http://www.springeronline.com/comp/lncs/authors.html. Abstracts will be reviewed for acceptance by the program committee and the organizers. We plan to get post-workshop proceedings published based on extended versions (around 20 pages) of your contributions, either as a book or as a special issue of an international journal. Important dates: Deadline for abstract submission June 10 Notification of acceptance July 1 Final version of abstract due July 10 Workshop September 26 Post-proceedings full paper submission Before December 2008 Confirmed speakers: Philippe Gaussier University of Cergy-Pontoise, France Auke Jan Ijspeert EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland Giorgio Metta University of Genova, Italy Stefano Nolfi ISTC, Roma, Italy Pierre-Yves Oudeyer INRIA, Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, France Jan Peters Max Planck Institute, Tubingen, Germany Olivier Sigaud UPMC-Paris 6, Paris, France Marc Toussaint University of Berlin, Germany Sethu Vijayakumar University of Edinburgh, Scotland Program committee: Philippe Gaussier University of Cergy-Pontoise, France Auke Jan Ijspeert EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland Giorgio Metta University of Genova, Italy Pierre-Yves Oudeyer INRIA, Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, France Jan Peters Max Planck Institute, Tubingen, Germany Olivier Sigaud UPMC-Paris 6, Paris, France Marc Toussaint University of Berlin, Germany Sethu Vijayakumar University of Edinburgh, Scotland Feel free to distribute this call as widely as possible Best regards, Olivier Sigaud, Jan Peters and Sethu Vijayakumar Olivier Sigaud Institut des Syst?mes Intelligents et de Robotique Universit? Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6, CNRS FRE 2507 4 place Jussieu, F75252 Paris Cedex 05 http://animatlab.lip6.fr/~sigaud ------------------------------------------------- This message is displayed exclusively with recycled electrons Ce message est affich? exclusivement avec des ?lectrons recycl?s From ajd at doc.ic.ac.uk Thu May 15 07:05:58 2008 From: ajd at doc.ic.ac.uk (Andrew Davison) Date: Thu May 15 07:19:09 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Robotics: Science and Systems 2008 Early Registration Deadline Reminder Message-ID: <482C4346.5040208@doc.ic.ac.uk> Robotics: Science and Systems 2008 ETH Zurich, Switzerland, June 25th-28th 2008 http://www.roboticsconference.org/ We would like to remind the international robotics community that the early registration deadline of May 25th for RSS 2008 is now approaching soon and encourage everyone to take advantage of the reduced registration fees on offer. A couple of other important points: 1. We urge attendees to make hotel reservations in Zurich as soon as possible. There is particular pressure on hotels due to the 2008 FIFA European Championship football. Please see the information at: http://www.roboticsconference.org/accommodations.shtml 2. Student attendees are encouraged to apply for the travel grants and fellowships offered via generous sponsorship from NSF and NRL. We would like to clarify that the NRL Student Fellowships are open to applications from *all* student attendees, whether or not you are presenting a paper. http://www.roboticsconference.org/students.shtml 3. Timetabled tentative technical program now available online at: http://www.roboticsconference.org/program.shtml We very much look forward to joining you for an excellent program in Zurich. Oliver Brock University of Massachusetts Amherst General Chair Jeff Trinkle Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Program Chair Andrew Davison Imperial College London Publicity Chair -- ------------------------------------------- Dr. Andrew Davison Lecturer Department of Computing Huxley Building (306) 180 Queen's Gate South Kensington Campus Imperial College London SW7 2AZ, UK +44-20-75948316 http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ajd/ ajd@doc.ic.ac.uk ------------------------------------------- From Kanav.Kahol at asu.edu Thu May 15 15:02:31 2008 From: Kanav.Kahol at asu.edu (Kanav Kahol) Date: Sun May 18 08:17:47 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] FW: CFP IEEE Transactions on Haptics Special Issue on Ambient Haptic Systems References: <1A4207F8295607498283FE9E93B775B4043795BA@EX02.asurite.ad.asu.edu> <1A4207F8295607498283FE9E93B775B4043795BB@EX02.asurite.ad.asu.edu> Message-ID: <1A4207F8295607498283FE9E93B775B4043795BE@EX02.asurite.ad.asu.edu> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Call for Papers IEEE Transactions of Haptics Special Issue: Ambient Haptic Systems Publication Date: July- September 2009 Guest Editors: Kanav Kahol, Vincent Hayward Ambient systems employ devices that are seamlessly integrated in a user's environment, providing unobtrusive and interactive access to digital media. These devices, when networked in systems of sensors, actuators, and computational units, can support intelligent, adaptive machine behavior. Haptics as a modality has an important and indispensible role to play in the evolution of user-centered ambient interfaces. The haptic modality is largely untapped, while the vision and auditory modalities are often saturated. The advent of sophisticated haptic interfaces and tangible interfaces makes it possible to employ haptics in ubiquitous and veridical interactions between people and technology, providing supplementary and/or complementary information from a separate information channel. As a result, we see an explosion of applications of haptics in vehicle cockpits with clear benefits for safety; more effective portable information and communication devices; re-thought and re-tooled sensory substitution systems for adaptive technologies and accessibility; games in homes and in public places; home automation (domotics) with benefits for energy conservation; improved public furniture with better user interfaces; office equipment and engineering workstations; ambient interfaces to virtual worlds; medical devices evolving towards greater safety and accuracy; interactive museums; home appliances; emerging technologies for home assisted living; advanced prosthetics; etc. This special issue is about the art and science of haptics in such situations. 1. Haptic psychophysics, perception and cognition. Sensory interfaces in ambient systems need to adapt to the haptic modality to deliver information accurately in a fast and an efficient manner. The development of smart and effective haptic interfaces and devices requires extensive studies that link perceptual phenomena with measurable parameters and incorporate such domain knowledge in the engineering process. Papers that explore psychophysical and behavioral aspects of the haptic modality as applied to ambient interfaces are solicited. 2. Sensor actuator design, development and evaluation. Haptic sensing and actuation technology is maturing rapidly. Case studies of haptic devices and touch based interfaces can provide valuable insight in integration of such sensors and actuators in ambient systems. Papers are solicited on sensors and actuators designed to promote usage of haptics in ambient systems. 3. Tangible user interfaces. Ambient interfaces can be greatly enhanced by physical representations that are coupled with actively mediated digital representations. Multitouch interface and tangible user interface research is increasingly gaining traction and these interfaces are increasingly permeating through into commercial applications. Papers encompassing design, development and evaluation of tangible user interfaces are solicited for this special issue. 4. Applications of Haptic User Interfaces. Case studies on efforts to include haptic interfaces in the areas of haptically enhanced GUIs, vehicle cockpits, portable information and communication devices, sensory substitution systems for adaptive technologies and accessibility, games in homes and in public places, home automation (domotics), public furniture with haptic user interfaces, office equipment and engineering workstations with haptic user interfaces, home appliances, ambient interfaces to virtual worlds, medical devices, interactive museums, etc., are solicited. We also welcome papers on theoretical foundations and design of effective integration of haptics in various domains or across domains. 5. Usability Evaluation of Haptic user interfaces. Papers that cover fundamentals of learnability, efficiency, memorability, and productivity of haptic user interfaces as pertaining to ambient systems are solicited. Timeline 15 October 2008 Deadline for submission of papers 15 December 2008 First Round of Reviews Completed 23 December 2008 First Decisions to Authors 15 March 2009 Major Revisions Due 23 April 2009 Second Decision to Authors 06 May 2009 Minor Revisions Due 12 May 2009 Final Decision to Authors 19 May 2009 Publication Materials Due from Author July-September 2009 Publication Issue Submission Process You may visit http://www.computer.org/toh to view the formatting requirements for your submission. Submit your paper at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cs-ieee. When uploading your paper, please select the appropriate special issue title under the category "Manuscript Type." If you have any questions about this process, please contact the journal administrator, Hilary Price (hkprice@northwestern.edu). For more information about this special issue contact Dr Kanav Kahol (kanav@asu.edu ) or Dr Vincent Hayward (Hayward@cim.mcgill.ca ). %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CFP_AmbientHapticSystems.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 128110 bytes Desc: CFP_AmbientHapticSystems.pdf Url : http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080515/9a4a6c85/CFP_AmbientHapticSystems-0001.pdf From Dario.Floreano at epfl.ch Fri May 16 02:08:37 2008 From: Dario.Floreano at epfl.ch (Dario Floreano) Date: Sun May 18 08:17:49 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD position at EPFL-LIS in soft robotics Message-ID: <3633DA0F-DB85-4FB2-97A4-1AD94C1C2C8D@epfl.ch> Applications are invited for a PhD scholarship at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland: http://lis.epfl.ch The project will consists in the design, prototyping, and characterization of novel types of robotic building blocks made out of soft, deformable structures that can be assembled into multi-unit structures. Candidates should have a degree in electrical engineering, micro- engineering, mechanical engineering, or material science with hands-on experience in design of electronic circuits and possibly mechanical components. Candidates must have a good command of spoken/written English language. In order to be eligible for this position, candidates must be accepted by the EPFL doctoral program in Manufacturing Systems and Robotics: http://phd.epfl.ch/page55511.html In the application form, please mention the name of Prof. Dario Floreano and of this specific project. A copy of the application files should also be e-mailed to Dario.Floreano@epfl.ch . Please mention the name of the project in the subject field of the e- mail. The EPFL Laboratory of Intelligent Systems works on the design and artificial intelligence of bio-inspired micro-robots as well as in the application of those technologies to biomedical engineering. It has access to state of the art facilities for prototyping of electronic and mechanical components. ******************************************************************** Prof. Dario Floreano Tel: +41 21 693 5230 Laboratory of Intelligent Systems Fax: +41 21 693 5859 Station 11, EPF/ETH Lausanne Sec: +41 21 693 5966 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Dario.Floreano@epfl.ch CH-1015 Switzerland http://lis.epfl.ch ******************************************************************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080516/2ca84985/attachment-0001.html From Dario.Floreano at epfl.ch Fri May 16 02:09:11 2008 From: Dario.Floreano at epfl.ch (Dario Floreano) Date: Sun May 18 08:17:51 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD position at EPFL-LIS in deformable vision systems Message-ID: <3F6A7A2B-CE3C-49CF-946F-8D627B5D12BB@epfl.ch> Applications are invited for a PhD scholarship at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland: http://lis.epfl.ch The project will consists in the design, prototyping, and characterization of flexible vision systems which are spatially extended over deformable surfaces. Candidates should have a degree in electrical engineering, micro- engineering, optical engineering, or material science with hands-on experience in design of electronic circuits. Candidates must have a good command of spoken/ written English language. In order to be eligible for this position, candidates must be accepted by the EPFL doctoral program in Manufacturing Systems and Robotics: http://phd.epfl.ch/page55511.html In the application form, please mention the name of Prof. Dario Floreano and of this specific project. A copy of the application files should also be e-mailed to Dario.Floreano@epfl.ch . Please mention the name of the project in the subject field of the e- mail. The EPFL Laboratory of Intelligent Systems works on the design and artificial intelligence of bio-inspired micro-robots as well as in the application of those technologies to biomedical engineering. It has access to state of the art facilities for prototyping of electronic and mechanical components. ******************************************************************** Prof. Dario Floreano Tel: +41 21 693 5230 Laboratory of Intelligent Systems Fax: +41 21 693 5859 Station 11, EPF/ETH Lausanne Sec: +41 21 693 5966 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Dario.Floreano@epfl.ch CH-1015 Switzerland http://lis.epfl.ch ******************************************************************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080516/ce43b737/attachment-0001.html From aokamura at jhu.edu Fri May 16 08:55:44 2008 From: aokamura at jhu.edu (Allison Okamura) Date: Sun May 18 08:17:53 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] MICCAI 2008 Workshop on Needle Steering: Call for Posters References: Message-ID: <3BF373B8-3B6F-46F6-BC4A-A52E7E999895@jhu.edu> MICCAI 2008 Workshop on Needle Steering: Recent Results and Future Opportunities September 6th, 2008, Kimmel Center, New York University, New York City, USA Workshop Website: http://lcsr.jhu.edu/NeedleSteering/Workshop IMPORTANT DATES: May 31, 2008 - Deadline for abstract submission for poster presenters (see below for instructions) July 14, 2008 - Notification to poster presenters July 31, 2008 - Final abstracts due for poster presenters September 6, 2008 - Workshop date The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers from the biomedical engineering, imaging, and robotics communities to discuss recent results and open problems in the development of medical needle steering technologies. Needle insertion is a critical step in many diagnostic and therapeutic medical procedures, from biopsies to anesthesia injections to brachytherapy cancer treatment. Due to their improved maneuverability, steerable needles have the potential to enable clinicians to accurately and precisely insert needles to targets previously inaccessible to traditional stiff needles. The purpose of this workshop is to serve as a comprehensive forum to discuss all aspects of the development of steerable needles. The oral presentations and posters will cover a variety of topics including modeling needle/tissue interaction, simulation, planning and control, hardware system design, image-guidance, and clinical application. The workshop will consist of talks by invited speakers, a poster session, and a panel session to discuss open problems. These will be distributed throughout the day along with breaks to maximize discussion between attendees. The presentations of the invited speakers and all abstracts will be distributed to the attendees on CD- ROM at the workshop. Other workshop attendees will be invited to submit posters that will be presented during the poster session and included on the workshop CD-ROM. INVITED SPEAKERS: ? Gregory Chirikjian, Johns Hopkins University ? Noah Cowan, Johns Hopkins University ? Pierre Dupont, Boston University ? Gabor Fichtinger, Queens University ? Ken Goldberg, University of California, Berkeley ? Rajni Patel, University of Western Ontario ? Cam Riviere, Carnegie Mellon University ? Tim Salcudean, University of British Columbia ? Moshe Shoham, Technion ? Robert Webster, Vanderbilt University ORGANIZERS: ? Allison M. Okamura, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University ? Ron Alterovitz, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley POSTER SUBMISSIONS: Abstracts should be submitted by email to aokamura@jhu.edu by May 31, 2008. The abstract submission should include, in the text of the email: (1) poster title, (2) list of authors and affiliations, (3) a 150-300 word abstract, (4) references to your own related work, (5) relevant web links, and (6) a figure caption. The figure (in jpeg, gif, or png formats) should be an attachment to the email. An example abstract is shown at http://lcsr.jhu.edu/NeedleSteering/Workshop/goldberg.html . Submissions will be accepted for a poster presentation based on relevance to the workshop, quality, and available space. The abstracts of accepted posters will be published on the workshop web site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Allison M. Okamura, Associate Professor The Johns Hopkins University Department of Mechanical Engineering 125 CSEB, 3400 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21218 Tel: 410-516-7266 Fax: 410-516-7254 Email: aokamura@jhu.edu http://www.me.jhu.edu/~allisono ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From shen at ISI.EDU Fri May 16 10:03:56 2008 From: shen at ISI.EDU (Wei-Min Shen) Date: Sun May 18 08:17:55 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Self-Reconfigurable Robots Workshop at IROS-2008. Message-ID: <9D4FBFDF-AB90-4295-BBA6-9F52D0B17C7B@ISI.EDU> ======================================================================== CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATIONS IROS-2008 workshop on Self-Reconfigurable Robots and Applications Nice France, September 22, 2008 http://iros2008.inria.fr/ http://www.isi.edu/robots/iros08wksp ======================================================================== Self-reconfigurable modular robots is an exciting research area that attracts more and more attentions. This full-day workshop is to bring together all active researchers in this area and exchange the newest results, the latest ideas, and the coolest applications, even if they only preliminary. A similar workshop was held in IROS-2007 in San Diego USA, and it had more than 40 participants and 14 presentations. We expect this will be another exciting event because many new research groups for self-reconfigurable robots are emerging around the world. Self-reconfigurable modular robots are metamorphic systems that can autonomously change their logical or physical configurations (such as shapes, sizes, or formations), as well as their locomotion and manipulation, based on the mission and the environment in hand. Because of their modularity, versatility, self-healing ability and low cost reproducibility, such robots provide a flexible approach for achieving complex tasks in unstructured and dynamic environments. They are well suited for applications such as search and rescue, reconnaissance, self-assembly, inspections in hazardous environments, and exploration in space and ocean. They also pose fundamental research challenges for robotics and other major branches of computer science, mechatronics and control theory. Research in self-reconfigurable robots have been active in academic for many years, but it is only recently that the results of these research are beginning to be used and applied to serious real-world applications such as sustainable space exploration, homeland security, and others. This workshop comes at the right time because many researchers are seeing the values of the field, and many companies are beginning to investigate their resources, and because it has become ever convincing that modularity and reconfiguration are the keys to construct large systems reliably and economically. Specific research challenges for self-reconfigurable robots include the dynamic topology of the network of modules, the limited resource (power, size, torque, precisions, etc.) of individual modules, the difficulties in global synchronization, the preclusion of centralized decision makers, and the unreliability of communication among modules. This workshop will present the recent progress in the research community for these challenging tasks and their real-world applications in space and other related fields. We will present and discuss the latest hardware progress, distributed control software, plug-and-play mechatronics, topology-triggered behaviors, and theories of self-reconfiguration. The outcome of the workshop will be a set of papers and a list of new hardware/software challenges for the future of this exciting research area. We welcome all participants from universities, research labs, industrial companies, and government agencies, who are interested in either research such as modular robots, embedded systems, distributed control, sensor networks, robot swarms, coupling mechanisms, and mechatronics, or applications such as space, underwater, or other complex and difficult environments. Interested parties please submit your papers before July 25 2008 and the length of the paper should be 3 pages or more. For more information please visit the workshop's website or email to Dr. Wei- Min Shen at shen@isi.edu. Sincerely yours, Wei-Min Shen, USC Information Sciences Institute, shen@isi.edu Hod Lipson, Cornell University, Hod.Lipson@cornell.edu Kasper Stoy, University of Southern Denmark, kaspers@mmmi.sdu.dk Mark Yim, University of Pennsylvania , yim@grasp.cis.upenn.edu Greg Chirikjian, John Hopkins University, gregc@jhu.edu Behnam Salemi, USC Information Sciences Institute, salemi@isi.edu = = = = = = = = ======================================================================== From Rene.Mayorga at uregina.ca Sat May 17 14:44:40 2008 From: Rene.Mayorga at uregina.ca (Rene Mayorga) Date: Sun May 18 08:18:00 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Humanoid Robots Message-ID: <482EFD67.238F.0089.0@uregina.ca> Dear Colleague I would greatly appreciate that you distribute this notice. Call for Papers Special Issue on "Humanoid Robots" for the journal: Applied Bionics and Biomechanics http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/11762322.asp The deadline for Paper submissions is August 18, 2008. If you are interested in contributing to this Special Issue, please contact me at your earliest convenience (Email address below). Also, please prepare your Paper contribution following the "Instructions for Authors" guidelines at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/tbobauth.asp http://www.editorialmanager.com/abbi/ Best regards. Dr. Rene V. Mayorga Editor in Chief Applied Bionics and Biomechanics Faculty of Engineering University of Regina Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2 Tel: (306) 585-4726 Email: Rene.Mayorga@uregina.ca Web Page: http://uregina.ca/~mayorgar From vkrovi at eng.buffalo.edu Sat May 17 19:02:03 2008 From: vkrovi at eng.buffalo.edu (Venkat Krovi) Date: Sun May 18 08:18:01 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ASME Mechanisms & Robotics Committee Video Web Portal Message-ID: <482F8E1B.90108@eng.buffalo.edu> Dear Colleagues, On behalf of the Video Sub-Committee of the ASME Mechanisms & Robotics (M&R) Committee we would like to* invite you to visit the ASME Mechanisms & Robotics Video Web-Portal at* http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ASMEMechanismsRobots. The ability to visualize various mechanical system components and their relative motions -- from key-framed motion-animation to physics-based virtual-graphics visualizations to actual filmed physical-prototypes -- has played an important role in the design, analysis and control of mechanical, mechatronic and robotic systems. In recent times, advances in computation and video technologies have enabled creation of a new class of digital video content that coupled with the ubiquitous Internet-based communication offers novel means for dissemination. While these technologies may have been adopted individually by community members, there has arisen a need for a coordinated effort to capture, archive and provide easy access to the rich variety of such material for the benefit of the community-at-large. To this end, the M&R committee established the Video Subcommittee to address these goals. The first outcome of our efforts is the creation of a clearinghouse for high-quality digital video content that will enable members of the M&R community to disseminate and archive their research-efforts and educate current and future generations of students. * We utilize the foundation provided by YouTube to create the prototype of such a clearinghouse in the form of a YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ASMEMechanismsRobots). * A companion web-site (http://macmotion.eng.sunysb.edu/ASMEM&RVideo/ ) has also been created, which among other things provides an online submission form for including your videos to the ASME Mechanisms and Robotics YouTube Channel. * The submitted videos will be reviewed by the Video Sub-Committee members based primarily on the relevance to Mechanisms and Robotics prior to inclusion in the YouTube Channel. *We would like to solicit your help on two fronts:* *(i) First, we would like you to encourage you (and your students) to submit your various research- and/or educational-videos pertaining to mechanisms and robotics to our YouTube channel. * *(ii) Further, we would like you to forward this message to your professional contacts thereby giving the widest possible circulation.* We thank you in advance for all your help. Please feel free to contact us with any comments/suggestions/criticisms. M&R Video Sub-Committee Members: ? *Venkat N. Krovi * (vkrovi@eng.buffalo.edu ) Associate Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engg., State University of New York, Buffalo ? *Anurag Purwar* (anurag.purwar@stonybrook.edu ) Research Asst. Professor, Mechanical Engg., State University of New York at Stony Brook ? *Phil Voglewede* (philip.voglewede@marquette.edu ) Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engg., Marquette University ? *Craig Lusk* (clusk2@eng.usf.edu ) Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engg., University of South Florida -- 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@eng.buffalo.edu University at Buffalo (SUNY) http://mechatronics.eng.buffalo.edu Buffalo, NY 14260 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080517/0411331a/attachment-0001.html From auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch Sun May 18 07:51:45 2008 From: auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch (Auke Ijspeert) Date: Sun May 18 08:18:03 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] AMAM 2008, call for participation and WebCast Message-ID: <48304281.2050802@epfl.ch> Dear all, Please find below a message from Roy Ritzmann, the General Chair of AMAM 2008. Best regards Auke Ijspeert AMAM: Adaptive Motion in Animals and Machines June 1-6, 2008, Cleveland, OH, USA http://amam.case.edu The fourth meeting of Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines (AMAM 2008) is about to happen at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. This conference occurs every 3 years and brings together engineers and biologists interested in movement for a one week conference. The date of the conference is June 1-6. We have put together an impressive list of speakers from both fields. There is still time to register to attend the meeting. Visit our web site at http://amam.case.edu/ for registration and information regarding the program and housing. If you cannot travel to attend the meeting for any reason, but would still like to hear the talks, we have another option. Assuming there is sufficient interest, we are planning to WebCast the meeting. For the modest cost of $150, which should defer our expenses, we will provide you with a PIN number that will allow you to access streaming video of the talks from the comfort of your own office or home. These files will be available for viewing for one year. Thus, if you are in a distant time zone or have other conflicts during that week, you do not have to view them in real time. The files will NOT be available for download, but you will be able to view them repeatedly during the 1 year archive period. If you would like to take advantage of this offer and join us, if only through cyberspace, visit our web site at http://amam.case.edu/. There you can register and purchase a PIN number. Roy Ritzmann, General Chair of AMAM 2008. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080518/a4a5cde9/attachment.html From daeeun.kim at googlemail.com Mon May 19 03:15:13 2008 From: daeeun.kim at googlemail.com (DaeEun Kim) Date: Wed May 21 09:53:22 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: Special Issue of IEEE Wireless Communications (Network Robotics) Message-ID: <8cd89b4c0805190315t15d63b87m469887b1b0e9a10d@mail.gmail.com> [CFP]Special Issue of IEEE Wireless Communications on "Wireless Communications in Networked Robotics" [Apologies for possible multiple copies] =================================================== Call for Papers IEEE Wireless Communications (Impact Factor 2.577) Special Issue on: Wireless Communications in Networked Robotics http://www.comsoc.org/dl/pcm/cfpwcm0209.htm =================================================== Background: Wireless communication has been a key driving force in recent years both in academia and in industry. It has currently expanded to wireless multihop networks, which include ad hoc radio networks, sensor networks, wireless mesh networks and mobile multihop relay systems. With multihop capability, wireless communication can be combined with cooperative communications and network coding, which has attracted even more researchers to this field. In many wireless multihop networks, the merits of capacity enhancement as well as coverage exceed the delay caused by multihop relay. Still, however, there are unresolved issues that may not be necessarily technical; one question regards the real motivation of a relay node that allows packet relay for the other transmitting nodes by consuming its own energy. There is also a security issue in multihop communications, in the sense that one's own data transmission is received by someone else in close proximity. On the other hand, in the networked robotics area, researchers try to realize group behaviors found in small insects or animals, in order to control and coordinate a team of robots. Especially, real-time wireless communication can help dynamic resource management and self-organization for a team of cooperative robots. The multiple robots communicate with each other, sharing the same mission, naturally through wireless communications. In this respect, wireless communication is an excellent candidate for inter-robot information exchange. This special issue is an attempt to bridge these two dynamic areas. We welcome submissions on all aspects of these themes, which include (but are not limited to) the following topics: - Communication architecture for collaborative robot systems - Biologically inspired swarm robotics with networking functionality - Multiple robot networking with multihop- and cooperative communications - Network coding and wireless relay technologies for cooperative robotics - Applications of multi-robot network systems - Ad hoc robot networks - Cognitive communication technologies for inter-robot team work - Exploiting robot mobility in wireless relay networks - QoS support and resource management in networked robotics - Wireless networks under node mobility Manuscript Submission With regard to both the content and formatting style of the submissions, prospective contributors must follow the IEEE Wireless Communications guidelines at http://www.comsoc.org/pubs/pcm/sub_guidelines.html. Submitted papers must be original and must not be under current consideration for publication in other venues. Authors should submit a PDF format of their complete papers via EDAS at http://edas.info (direct link: http://edas.info/newPaper.php?c=6595&) Important Dates: - Paper submission deadline: July 31, 2008 - Notification of acceptance: October 15, 2008 - Final manuscript Due: November 15, 2008 - Publication date: February, 2009 Guest Editors: - Seong-Lyun Kim, Yonsei Univ., Korea (slkim AT yonsei.ac.kr) - Jean-Yves Le Boudec, EPFL, Switzerland (jean-yves.leboudec AT epfl.ch) - Wolfram Burgard, Univ. Freiburg, Germany (burgard AT informatik.uni-freiburg.de) - DaeEun Kim, Yonsei Univ., Korea (daeeun AT yonsei.ac.kr) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080519/c12a4a20/attachment.html From shen at ISI.EDU Tue May 20 07:58:25 2008 From: shen at ISI.EDU (Wei-Min Shen) Date: Wed May 21 09:57:16 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] (Date Correction) Self-Reconfigurable Robots Workshop at IROS-2008. Message-ID: <68493AEE-67FE-4B03-B9E0-2E8A7D8121ED@ISI.EDU> Corrections: Submission deadline: July 1st, 2008 Page format: no less than 4 pages ======================================================================== CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATIONS IROS-2008 workshop on Self-Reconfigurable Robots and Applications Nice France, September 22, 2008 http://iros2008.inria.fr/ http://www.isi.edu/robots/iros08wksp ======================================================================== Self-reconfigurable modular robots is an exciting research area that attracts more and more attentions. This full-day workshop is to bring together all active researchers in this area and exchange the newest results, the latest ideas, and the coolest applications, even if they are only preliminary. A similar workshop was held in IROS-2007 in San Diego USA, and it had more than 40 participants and 14 presentations. We expect this will be another exciting event because many new research groups for self-reconfigurable robots are emerging around the world. Self-reconfigurable modular robots are metamorphic systems that can autonomously change their logical or physical configurations (such as shapes, sizes, or formations), as well as their locomotion and manipulation, based on the mission and the environment in hand. Because of their modularity, versatility, self-healing ability and low cost reproducibility, such robots provide a flexible approach for achieving complex tasks in unstructured and dynamic environments. They are well suited for applications such as search and rescue, reconnaissance, self-assembly, inspections in hazardous environments, and exploration in space and ocean. They also pose fundamental research challenges for robotics and other major branches of computer science, mechatronics and control theory. Research in self-reconfigurable robots have been active in academic for many years, but it is only recently that the results of these research are beginning to be used and applied to serious real-world applications such as sustainable space exploration, homeland security, and others. This workshop comes at the right time because many researchers are seeing the values of the field, and many companies are beginning to investigate their resources, and because it has become ever convincing that modularity and reconfiguration are the keys to construct large systems reliably and economically. Specific research challenges for self-reconfigurable robots include the dynamic topology of the network of modules, the limited resource (power, size, torque, precisions, etc.) of individual modules, the difficulties in global synchronization, the preclusion of centralized decision makers, and the unreliability of communication among modules. This workshop will present the recent progress in the research community for these challenging tasks and their real-world applications in space and other related fields. We will present and discuss the latest hardware progress, distributed control software, plug-and-play mechatronics, topology-triggered behaviors, and theories of self-reconfiguration. The outcome of the workshop will be a set of papers and a list of new hardware/software challenges for the future of this exciting research area. We welcome all participants from universities, research labs, industrial companies, and government agencies, who are interested in either research such as modular robots, embedded systems, distributed control, sensor networks, robot swarms, coupling mechanisms, and mechatronics, or applications such as space, underwater, or other complex and difficult environments. Interested parties please submit your papers before July 1 2008 and the length of the paper should be 4 pages or more. For more information please visit the workshop's website or email to Dr. Wei- Min Shen at shen@isi.edu. Sincerely yours, Wei-Min Shen, USC Information Sciences Institute, shen@isi.edu Hod Lipson, Cornell University, Hod.Lipson@cornell.edu Kasper Stoy, University of Southern Denmark, kaspers@mmmi.sdu.dk Mark Yim, University of Pennsylvania , yim@grasp.cis.upenn.edu Greg Chirikjian, John Hopkins University, gregc@jhu.edu Behnam Salemi, USC Information Sciences Institute, salemi@isi.edu = = = = = = = = ======================================================================== From rvoyles at du.edu Sun May 18 15:08:15 2008 From: rvoyles at du.edu (Richard Voyles) Date: Wed May 21 09:59:24 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2008) CFP Message-ID: <001a01c8b933$aba46ed0$9f80fd82@CAMARO> Skipped content of type multipart/alternative-------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CFP-SSRR2008.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 26787 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080518/88171254/CFP-SSRR2008-0001.pdf From dsw at ri.cmu.edu Mon May 19 05:05:29 2008 From: dsw at ri.cmu.edu (David Wettergreen) Date: Wed May 21 09:59:26 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: JFR Special Issue on Space Robotics Message-ID: <5C5A7A5A-8CB7-45A4-8DDD-C3630A5669E1@ri.cmu.edu> Journal of Field Robotics - Special Issue on Space Robotics Space applications present many challenges to robotic systems: from extremes of temperature, vacuum, shock and gravity, to limitations on power and communication, from the intricate complexity of systems engineering, to requirements for reliability, robustness and autonomy. The Journal of Field Robotics (JFR) announces a special issue on space robotics to examine these and other issues related to robots and space. This special issue will present and discuss the state of the art in space robots, their theory and practice. We invite papers that exhibit theory and methods applied to robotic systems in space including: - specification and evaluation of system concepts and designs; - effects of the space environment on robotic devices; - methods of sensing, actuation, and mobility; - experiments in manipulation, assembly, construction and excavation; - algorithms for localization and navigation, and task or mission planning; - experiments in planetary exploration and scientific investigation; - efforts related to deep space navigation and autonomous operation; - techniques for safe and precise entry, descent, and landing; and - analysis of human robot interaction and robot autonomy. Papers for this special issue must also provide technical descriptions of systems and results and analysis of experimentation. We invite technical descriptions and analysis of orbital robots/spacecraft and planetary rovers as well as prototype systems in hat have been field tested in terrestrial analogue environments. Lessons learned in development and operation are also pertinent. We encourage papers addressing all aspects of space robotic systems. Our emphasis is on systems that fulfill a specific space-relevant application. Robotic systems in Earth orbit, traveling in deep space, and operating on the surfaces of planets, moons, comets, or asteroids are of particular interest, as well systems envisioned for space application but developed and demonstrated in relevant environments here on Earth. The JFR encourages multimedia content and this special issue seeks inclusion of movies illustrating system concept and operation, engineering experiments, and of course space operation. Deadlines: June 2, 2008 ? Submit manuscripts July 14, 2008 ? Reviews completed July 28, 2008 ? Decisions and author notification September 1, 2008 ? Final manuscripts for publication January 2009 - Publication of journal special issue Submission: Electronically to http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org Special Issue Guest Editors: David Wettergreen, Carnegie Mellon Terry Fong, NASA Ames Research Center Keiji Nagatani, Tohoku University Authors with questions can contact the special issue editors, David Wettergreen , Terry Fong and Keiji Nagatani . Submissions can be made through to the journal website. From jkur at informatik.uni-bremen.de Mon May 19 06:01:52 2008 From: jkur at informatik.uni-bremen.de (Joerg Kurlbaum) Date: Wed May 21 09:59:28 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: Workshop "Inside Data Association" at RSS08 (Reminder) Message-ID: <20080519130152.GD4893@horkheimer.informatik.uni-bremen.de> ************************************************************************ *** CALL FOR PAPERS *** *** WORKSHOP: "Inside Data Association" *** *** =================================== *** *** at the *** *** ROBOTICS: SCIENCE AND SYSTEMS (RSS) 2008 *** *** *** *** ETH Zurich, Switzerland, 25. - 28. June 2008 *** *** *** ************************************************************************ Short Description ================= Data association is an important problem for many fields. In this workshop we want to take a deeper look at fundamental methods and problem analysis of the data association problem. We invite researchers from the different disciplines involved to contribute to the discussion. Inside Data Association ======================= Correctly associating sets of features is a core problem in many applications including robot self-localization and mapping (SLAM), visual tracking, and object recognition. Features usually need to be extracted from sensor data and extraction itself can be a difficult application-specific task in its own right. However, there are many common characteristics of data association problems which are worth studying. In this workshop we want to take a deeper look at the data-association problem and we explicitly encourage insightful contributions focussing on theoretical or empirical analysis, providing novel views on the problem, or even proposing a candidate for a gold-standard algorithm. To facilitate evaluation of data association methods, we particularly encourage using a SLAM data set which is available from the workshop homepage (see below). The data set is preprocessed to provide geometric features and ground-truth is also available. Please take a look at the video on the workshop homepage. Request for Participation ========================= The workshop features a plenary discussion "Fundamental questions in data association." and we call everyone to submit pertinent questions to the organizers beforehand. Program Commitee ================ Martin Adams -- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Tim Bailey -- The University of Sydney Michael Bosse -- CSIRO Australia Andrew Davison -- Imperial College London Tom Duckett -- University of Lincoln Ryan Eustice -- University of Michigan Patric Jensfelt -- Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Michael Kaess -- Georgia Institute of Technology John Leonard -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology Favio Masson -- Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina Ian Reid -- University of Oxford Nicholas Roy -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cyril Stachniss -- University of Frieburg Olivier Stasse -- Joint Japanese-French Laboratory Juan Tardos -- University of Zaragoza Sebastian Thrun -- Stanford University Submissions =========== For dates see below. Extended abstract: ------------------ For the review process an extended abstract is sufficient. Please include motivation, problem statement any related work as well as new contributions with results and experiments. The extended abstract should not exceed three pages. Full paper: ----------- Accepted authors will be invited to submit a full paper. Full paper should be formatted in the official RSS layout (http://www.robotics-conference.org/submissions.shtml). Please submit your extended abstract and paper as PDF and your questions for the plenary discussion to the organizers via email: dataassociation@informatik.uni-bremen.de Accepted papers will be published on the workshop website. Important Dates =============== May 26. Submission of extended abstract (23:59 PST) May 30. Notification of acceptance June 18. Submission of final paper version June 28. Workshop at RSS08 URLs ==== Conference: http://www.robotics-conference.org Workshop homepage: http://www.sfbtr8.spatial-cognition.de/insidedataassociation/ Best Regards, the organizers: Jos? Neira Udo Frese Diedrich Wolter J?rg Kurlbaum From palindromoroz at yahoo.com Tue May 20 06:16:11 2008 From: palindromoroz at yahoo.com (Zoran Zivkovic) Date: Wed May 21 09:59:30 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: IROS 2008 Workshop: Network Robot Systems - human concepts of space and activity, integration and applications Message-ID: <47718.33453.qm@web90405.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ----------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS NRS - IEEE/RSJ IROS 2008 Workshop Network Robot Systems: Human concepts of space and activity, integration and applications September 26, 2008, Nice, France http://www.science.uva.nl/research/ias/FS2HSC/workshops/IROS2008/ ----------------------------------------------- This workshop combines the ninth 'Network Robot Systems' workshop with the third 'From Sensors to Human Concepts' workshop. Building on the success of our previous workshops, it will cover all aspects of the use of robots as apart of a sensor network (Network Robot Systems) for the co-existence of robots and humans in everyday environments. The workshop will place special emphasis on 'platform, integration, and application'. Five years have passed since the inception of many network robot system research projects, and we believe it is important to showcase the variety of successful network robot system applications which have been developed. People will be invited to share their firsthand experiences and lessons learned from these projects. The workshop will also focus on 'human concepts of space and activity'. The information obtained from the sensor network and robot sensors can be used to interact intelligently and naturally with a human-inhabited environment. The aim of the workshop is also to bring together researchers that work on representations appropriate for communicating with humans and on developing algorithms for relating the sensory network data to the human concepts. There will also be a session in which the results of field trials will be reported, including the human-robot interaction (HRI) aspect of network robot systems. In addition, as the field of network robot systems research grows, interpretations of the definition of "network(ed) robot" tend to diverge. Thus, it is important to coordinate this definition for the purpose of community building. We plan to extend previous discussions to bring together traditional robotics technology issues with user interaction considerations, a cross-disciplinary focus essential to the design of other user-oriented technologies such as software agents and mobile phones. Finally, we aim to discuss requirements for a common testbed for network robot systems, as well as benchmarks for evaluating several aspects of the performance of network robot systems, including human-robot interaction. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to the following areas: - sensor network and sensing devices for network robot systems - distributed networked environment sensing/actuation - representations of space and human activities from sensor networks - space and human activity representations appropriate for communicating with humans - comparison and/or combination of the different sensor modalities - socially situated sensor networks and robots - human's interaction with sensor network and networked robot system - coordination and cooperation among multiple types of robots - ubiquitous robotics - network robot platform - security for network robot systems - common testbed, common research platform, and performance metrics - applications of network robot systems Organisers: ----------------------------------------------- Dr. Norihiro Hagita (hagita@atr.jp) ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories, Japan ? Prof. Alberto Sanfeliu? (sanfeliu@iri.upc.es) Institute of Robotics, Technical University of Catalonia, Spain ? Dr. Young-Jo Cho (youngjo@etri.re.kr) Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute (ETRI), Korea Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro (ishiguro@ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp) Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, Osaka University, Japan Ben Kr?se (krose@science.uva.nl) University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Zoran Zivkovic (zoran.zivkovic@nxp.com) NXP Semiconductors Research, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Hideki Hashimoto (hashimoto@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp) Intelligent Control System Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Japan Dr. Takayuki Kanda (kanda@atr.jp) ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories, Japan Important dates: ----------------------------- Paper submission---- June 20, 2008 Notification-------- July? 7, 2008 Camera ready copy--- July 20, 2008 Preliminary list of invited speakers: ----------------------------------------------- Dr. Norihiro Hagita (ATR) (confirmed) Prof. Alberto Sanfeliu (Technical University of Catalonia) (confirmed) Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro (Osaka Univ.) (confirmed) Dr. Nobuto Matsuhira (JST, Toshiba Corporation) (confirmed) Dr. Young-Jo Cho (ETRI) (confirmed) Prof. Paolo Dario (not confirmed) Prof. Tsutomu Hasegawa (Kyushu Univ.) (not confirmed) Dr. Miwako Doi (Toshiba Corporation) (confirmed) Dr. Shuichi Nishio (ATR) (confirmed) From pnewman at robots.ox.ac.uk Tue May 20 10:49:55 2008 From: pnewman at robots.ox.ac.uk (Paul Newman) Date: Wed May 21 09:59:33 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] FABMAP - topological mappingand loop closing software and API available Message-ID: <88F22B97-7BD4-4AB1-B18C-07AC7435E40A@robots.ox.ac.uk> For those interested in loop closing place recognition and appearance based SLAM ******************************************************************************************* The Fast Appearance Based Mapping (FABMAP) toolset is available for download and use from : www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~mobile (on the software page) The C++ API provided allows you to send regular images to the FABMAP algorithm and it then returns to you a pdf over places (including the "new place"). We would be delighted to receive feedback about this release and hope it can be of use to the community. Mark Cummins and Paul Newman Oxford Mobile Robotics Group From serge.stinckwich at doesnotunderstand.org Wed May 21 05:33:02 2008 From: serge.stinckwich at doesnotunderstand.org (Serge Stinckwich) Date: Wed May 21 09:59:35 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD student position on robotics Message-ID: <1ea823c30805210533m1d17a17fl77b8f4ea26522d0e@mail.gmail.com> There is a Phd position available in France, Douai. More details here : http://vst.ensm-douai.fr/noury/18#2008-05-16 -- Serge Stinckwich From kaspers at mmmi.sdu.dk Wed May 21 08:35:24 2008 From: kaspers at mmmi.sdu.dk (Kasper Stoy) Date: Wed May 21 09:59:37 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ROBOCOMM 2009: Call for Papers Message-ID: <4834413C.10809@mmmi.sdu.dk> ROBOCOMM 2009: Call for Papers Second International Conference on Robot Communication and Coordination Marts 31 - April 2, 2009 Odense, Denmark http://robocomm.org/ The Second International Conference on Robot Communication and Coordination targets the convergence of robotics and communications, acting as a common forum for the two communities. The event will promote cross-pollination of these two areas, adding to our understanding of the interaction between these two exciting computer science research areas. Robotics is an interdisciplinary field, having benefited greatly from interactions with mechanics, control theory, and electronics. Lately, with the unprecedented growth of wireless communication technologies, the growing attention devoted to sensor networks and ad-hoc networks, and the emergence of commodity robotics platforms, networked robotics represents an exciting new research direction. Networked robotics offers a framework for coordination of complex mobile systems, thus providing the natural common ground for convergence of information processing, communication theory and control theory. It poses significant challenges, requiring the integration of communication theory, software engineering, distributed sensing and control into a common framework. Furthermore, robots are unique in that their motion and tasking control systems are co-located with the communications mechanisms. This allows the co-exploitation of individual subsystems to provide completely new kinds of networked or distributed autonomy. ROBOCOMM is a leading-edge conference where prominent researchers with different backgrounds can exchange ideas for a common framework that will enable new applications based on large scale networks of mobile or modular robots. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: ? Robotic interactions with sensors ? Communication protocols for tele-operated and tele-reflexive robots ? Intra-sensor communications within individual robots ? Communication protocols for flocks and swarms of networked robots ? Distributed coordination of modular robots or mobile robots ? Situated and embodied communication ? Biologically-inspired or biomimetic robot communication ? Exploiting the interactions between communications and autonomy ? Localization and tracking using robotic communications ? Industrial applications of networked robotics ? Real-time software for robot teams or modular robots ? Wired networking for robots ? Advanced communication systems for single tele-operated robots The proceedings will be published by Springer as part of the new series Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering (LNICST) and will be available through Springer?s digital library (SpringerLink). The conference will take place in modern conference facilities located at the University of Southern Denmark. The university is on the outskirts of Odense, which is the 4th largest town in Denmark and the birthplace of the fairytale-writer H.C. Andersen. Two workshops will be held on Monday 30 April. The precise topics are to be announced and will most likely focus on the theoretical foundation of the field. ############## Important Dates ################# Full paper due: 15 November 2008 Notification of acceptance: 15 January 2009 Final version due: 15 February 2009 Conference: 31 Marts - 2 April 2009 ############## Organizers ##################### General Chairs: Ramesh Govindan (Univ. Southern California) Kasper Stoy (Univ. Southern Denmark) General Vice Chairs: Brian Gerkey (Willow Garage, California) Kamin Whitehouse (University of Virginia) Program Chairs: Saikat Ray (Univ. of Bridgeport) Luca Schenato (Univ. of Padova) Bruno Sinopoli (CMU) Publicity Chair: Sonia Martinez (Univ. of California, San Diego) Industry Chair: Roberto Sannino (STMicroelectronics) Steering Commitee Chair: Imrich Chlamtac (CREATE-NET) Steering Commitee Members: P.R. Kumar (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana Campaign) Francesco Dr Pellegrini (CREATE-NET) Jason Redi (BBN) Alcherio Martinoli (EPFL) Magnus Egerstedt (GATECH) Demo Chair and Vice Chair: Francesco Mondada (EPFL) David Brandt (Univ. Southern Denmark) Local Chair: Ulrik Pagh Schultz (Univ. Southern Denmark) Conference Organizer and Financial Chair: Karen Decker (ICST) From fabio.bonsignorio at gmail.com Wed May 21 09:46:10 2008 From: fabio.bonsignorio at gmail.com (Fabio Bonsignorio) Date: Wed May 21 09:59:39 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Reminder: CFP: RSS'08 WS on Experimental Methodology and Benchmarking in Robotics Research In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: (Apologies if you receive this twice) Dear All, this a reminder that there are a few days left before the deadline of the RSS workshop on GEM and benchmarking, which will be a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas on a somehow 'hot' topic All the best Fabio *CALL FOR EXTENDED ABSTRACTS* 2008 Robotics: Science and Systems Workshop on *EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY AND BENCHMARKING IN ROBOTICS RESEARCH* Half-day workshop to be held in conjuntion with the 2008 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference at Zurich on June 28. http://www.roboticsconference.org/workshops.shtml Important dates: - *May 25 - Submission of a 1-2 page extended abstract* - June 2 - Notification of acceptance - June 16 - Full papers due Rationale and goals As the complexity of current robotic and embodied intelligent systems grows, it is more and more necessary to define proper experimental approaches and benchmarking procedures. On the one hand, reliable benchmarks are called for in order to allow the comparison of the many research results in robotics research, so that their industrial application is eventually possible. On the other hand, if robotics aims to be regarded as serious science, replication of experiments deserves consciencious attention; it is necessary to be able to verify if and by which measure new procedures and algorithms proposed in research papers constitute a real advancement and can be used in new applications. New more successful implementations of concepts already presented in the literature, but not implemented with exhaustive experimental methodology, risk to be ignored, if appropriate benchmarking procedures are not in place, allowing to compare the actual practical results with reference to standard accepted procedures. Both replication and benchmarking are needed to foster a cumulative advancement of our knowledge of intelligent physical agents and even to correctly appreciate disruptive innovation in the science and technology of robots. Should we take inspiration from experimental practice in disciplines such as biology or medicine? In order to address these needs the European Robotics Network of Excellence (EURON) has funded a Special Interest Group on Good Experimental Methodology and Benchmarking. This workshop aims to provide a discussion forum on these topics and to identify guidelines for the future. The workshop will be organized in such a way as to generate fruitful discussions, it will consist of invited presentations and regular presentations with a significant amount of additional time for discussions. The primary audience of the workshop is intended to be researchers and practitioners both from academia and industry with an interest in experimental robotics, benchmarking and objectively evaluating performance of robots. Accordingly, it is envisioned to be useful for anyone who has an interest in quantitative performance evaluation of robots and/or robot algorithms. Some controversial issues will be discussed such as: measuring autonomy or information metrics of intelligent systems, or the concept itself of replicability or benchmarking of research results in robotics. List of topics o Good Experimental Methodology in Robotics Research o Replication in embodied cognitive systems o Methodological/experimental best practices o Benchmark/comparison examples o Benchmarking autonomy o Information metrics of cognitive natural and artificial systems o Benchmarking autonomy and robustness to changes in the environment/task o Requirements, theories, architectures, models and methods that can be applied across multiple engineering and application domains o Detailing and understanding better the requirements for robots in terms of performance, the approaches to meeting these requirements, the trade-offs in terms of performance o The development of experimental scenarios to evaluate performance, demonstrate generality, and measure robustness Workshop Organizers Angel P. del Pobil, Universitat Jaume I, Spain, John Hallam, University of Southern Denmark, Fabio Bonsignorio, Heron Robots, Italy, Related event Please be aware that there is another related RSS workshop on: Quantitative Performance Evaluation of Navigation Solutions for Mobile Robots co-organized by Raj Madhavan, Chris Scrapper and Alex Kleiner Both are half-day events and will share the same room. -- Fabio P. Bonsignorio Ceo Heron Robots s.r.l. Via R.Ceccardi 1/18 I-16121 Genova Italy www.heronrobots.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080521/0d362fd8/attachment.html From jakebeal at MIT.EDU Wed May 21 13:41:17 2008 From: jakebeal at MIT.EDU (Jacob S Beal) Date: Wed May 21 14:09:23 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Papers: Spatial Computing Workshop at IEEE SASO Message-ID: <200805212041.m4LKfHGR029003@mass-toolpike.mit.edu> We are pleased to announce a workshop on Spatial Computing, to be held at this year's IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems in October, 2008. The Call for Papers is attached below, and more information is available at: http://projects.csail.mit.edu/scw08/ Please distribute this Call for Papers on to other interested colleagues. Thanks, -Jake Beal (on behalf of the organizing committee) CALL FOR PAPERS Spatial Computing Workshop at IEEE SASO 2008 Many self-organizing or self-adaptive systems are "spatial computers" -- collections of local computational devices distributed through a physical space, in which: * the difficulty of moving information between any two devices is strongly dependent on the distance between them, and * the "functional goals" of the system are generally defined in terms of the system's spatial structure. Systems that can be viewed as spatial computers are abundant, both natural and man-made. For example, in wireless sensor networks and animal or robot swarms, inter-agent communication network topologies are determined by the distance between devices, while the agent collectives as a whole solve spatially-defined problems like "analyze and react to spatial temperature variance" or "surround and destroy an enemy." Similarly, in reconfigurable microchip platforms, moving data between adjacent logic blocks is much faster than moving it across the chip, which in turn favors problems with spatial structure like stream processing. In biological embryos, each developing cell's behavior is controlled only by its local chemical and physical environment, but the eventual structure of the organism is a global property of the cellular arrangement. Moreover, a variety of successful established techniques for self-organization and self-adaptation arise from explicitly spatial metaphors, e.g., self-healing gradients. On the other hand, not all spatially distributed systems are spatial computers. The Internet and peer-to-peer overlay networks may not in general best be considered as spatial computers, both because their communication graphs have little relation to the Euclidean geometry in which the participating devices are embedded, and because most applications for them are explicitly defined independent of network structure. Spatial computers, in contrast, tend to have more structure, with specific constraints and capabilities that can be used in the design and analysis of algorithms. The goal of this workshop is to explicitly identify the idea of "spatial computing" as a theme in self-organizing and self-adaptive systems, and further to develop the study of spatial computation as a subject in its own right. We believe that progress towards identifying common principles, techniques, and research directions -- and consolidating the substantial progress that is already being made -- will benefit all of the fields in which spatial computing takes place. And, as the impact of spatial computing is recognized in many areas, we hope to set up frameworks to ensure portability and cross-fertilization between solutions in the various domains. We are soliciting submissions on any aspect of spatial computing. Examples of topics of interest include, but are by no means limited to: * Languages for programming spatial computers and describing spatial tasks and patterns * Methods for compiling global programs to local rules that produce the desired global effect * Characterization of spatial self-organization phenomena as algorithmic building blocks * Characterization of error in spatial computers (e.g., error from approximating continuous space with networks of devices) * Analysis of tradeoffs between system parameters (e.g., communication radius vs. device memory consumption) * Studies of the relationship between time, propagation of information through the spatial computer, and computational complexity * Application of spatial computing principles to novel areas, or generalization of area-specific techniques * Device motion in spatial computing algorithms (e.g. the relationship between robot speed and gradient accuracy in multi-robot swarms) We encourage authors to submit papers in one of two formats: (1) Papers that develop "unifying" principles or techniques in spatial computing -- these papers should be suitable in format and quality for a conference track, but avoid incrementalism. (2) Papers that demonstrate how a technique or problem from a specific area of application can usefully be generalized -- these papers should be a combination of review paper and position paper, presenting the material from one area in a form comprehensible to researchers of another area, as well as a coherent technical argument generalizing the material to other areas. Although our interests are broad, we discourage authors from submitting reviews of particular application areas unless the paper explicitly connects the material to the larger technical issues of spatial computing. FORMAT AND SUBMISSION: Papers should be no longer than 10 pages in standard IEEE two-column format, but shorter papers are encouraged when possible. All manuscripts should be submitted in PDF form to scw08@csail.mit.edu. Please direct all questions to scw08@csail.mit.edu. IMPORTANT DATES: * July 5: Submission deadline * August 5: Notification of acceptance * October: Workshop held at IEEE SASO in Venice, Italy ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: * Dr. Jonathan Bachrach (MIT) * Dr. Jacob Beal (MIT) * Prof. Olivier Michel (University of Evry) * Dr. Justin Werfel (NECSI / Harvard Medical School) * Dr. Dan Yamins (Harvard) PROGRAM COMMITTEE: * Dr. William Butera (MERL) * Prof. Daniel Coore (University of West Indies, Mona) * Prof. Andre DeHon (U Penn) * Julius Degesys (Harvard) * Prof. Murat Demirbas (SUNY Buffalo) * Prof. David De Roure (University of Southampton) * Prof. Peter Dittrich (University Jena) * Dr. Simon Dobson (University College Dublin) * Dr. Rene Doursat (Institut des Systemes Complexes) * Prof. Chris Dwyer (Duke) * Dr. Seth Gilbert (EPFL) * Prof. Seth Copen Goldstein (CMU) * Prof. Frederic Gruau (University Paris Sud) * Dr. Sudha Krishnamurthy (Deutsche Telekom) * Dr. Marco Mamei (Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia) * Prof. Radhika Nagpal (Harvard) * Prof. Gerald Jay Sussman (MIT) * Prof. Ron Weiss (Princeton) * Chih-Han Yu (Harvard) * Prof. Franco Zambonelli (Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia) From auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch Thu May 22 05:50:42 2008 From: auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch (Auke Ijspeert) Date: Thu May 22 08:40:12 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] RSS2008 WS on locomotion control, June 28: Call for participation and poster-abstracts Message-ID: <48356C22.8080700@epfl.ch> Control of locomotion: from animals to robots Workshop at the "Robotics: Science and Systems" Conference */RSS2008/* , Zurich, Switzerland, Saturday, June 28, 2008. *Organizers*: *Auke Ijspeert *(EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland), *Paolo Dario * (SSSA, Italy), and *Sten Grillner * (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) Workshop website: http://birg2.epfl.ch/rss2008/ *Description*: The goal of the workshop is to discuss how inspiration from the animal kingdom can help improving locomotion skills in robots, and how robots can be used as scientific tools in animal motor control. All aspects of locomotion will be considered including materials, actuators, sensors, control, and learning. In particular, the workshop aims at exploring how these different aspects can collectively be designed to improve the locomotor skills of future robots. We will discuss possible roads to tackle the challenges related to having robots get out of the labs and move in unstructured and partially unknown terrains. While robotics has clearly something to gain from biological inspiration, we will also discuss how robotics can give something back to biology, namely how robots can be used as scientific tools in animal motor control. For instance, how robots can be used to test hypotheses about neural circuits and/or biomechanical principles in invertebrate and vertebrate animals. *Topics*: Neuro-mechanical coupling, central pattern generators, compliant robots, passive and dynamic walkers, gait transitions, motor learning, swimming robots, crawling robots, walking robots, jumping robots, /etc/. *Format: *The workshop will have an interesting mix of biologists and roboticists as invited speakers (see list below) together with a poster session, whose participants will be selected after an open call for poster (see below). The workshop will be organized such as to provide ample time for discussions. We aim at a 75-25% ratio between presentations and discussions. We therefore suggest having each talk followed by a discussion, i.e. an alternation between talks and discussions. To guide the discussions, we will distribute beforehand a set of strategic questions (emails to speakers and participants + on this web page), and invite speakers and participants to exchange their thoughts about them. For more information, see the workshop website: http://birg2.epfl.ch/rss2008/ *Invited speakers:* ***Paolo Arena*, University of Catania, Italy* Holk** Cruse*, University of Bielefeld, Germany* Paolo Dario*, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy.* Robert Full*, UC Berkeley, USA. * Sten** Grillner*, The Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology, Karolinska Institute, Sweden. * Auke Ijspeert*, EPFL, Switzerland. * Hiroshi Kimura*, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan. * Roger Quinn*, Case Western Reserve University, USA. * Stefan Schaal*, University of Southern California, USA. * Andre Seyfarth*, University of Jena, Germany. *Call for posters* Researchers in animal and robot locomotion are invited to submit a *2-page abstract* for presenting a poster at the workshop. Accepted poster presenters will also have the opportunity to make a *2-min poster teaser* (i.e. a very short oral presentation) to advertise their poster. Please send your abstract to auke.ijspeert@epfl.ch before *June 14*. Feel free to send it before, since we will review abstracts as they come in and we might have to restrict the number of accepted posters due to space restrictions. *Registration *Participants will need to register to the RSS2008 conference, see http://www.roboticsconference.org/ and http://www.roboticsconference.org/registration.shtml Note that the early registration for RSS2008 with a 100 Swiss Francs discount ends on May 25 (i.e. very soon!). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080522/0c01ff96/attachment-0001.html From ajd at doc.ic.ac.uk Thu May 22 06:43:02 2008 From: ajd at doc.ic.ac.uk (Andrew Davison) Date: Thu May 22 08:40:14 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Robotics: Science and Systems 2008 Early Registration Deadline This Sunday Message-ID: <48357866.3050902@doc.ic.ac.uk> Robotics: Science and Systems 2008 ETH Zurich, Switzerland, June 25th-28th 2008 http://www.roboticsconference.org/ One final brief reminder that the early registration deadline for RSS 2008 is *this Sunday May 25th*. We encourage everyone to take advantage of the reduced registration fees on offer at: http://www.roboticsconference.org/registration.shtml Please also note the following: 1. We urge attendees to make hotel reservations in Zurich as soon as possible. There is particular pressure on hotels due to the 2008 FIFA European Championship football. Please see the information at: http://www.roboticsconference.org/accommodations.shtml 2. Student attendees are encouraged to apply for the travel grants and fellowships offered via generous sponsorship from NSF and NRL. We would like to clarify that the NRL Student Fellowships are open to applications from *all* student attendees, whether or not you are presenting a paper. http://www.roboticsconference.org/students.shtml We very much look forward to joining you for an excellent program in Zurich. Oliver Brock University of Massachusetts Amherst General Chair Jeff Trinkle Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Program Chair Andrew Davison Imperial College London Publicity Chair From cetin.mericli at boun.edu.tr Thu May 22 00:47:31 2008 From: cetin.mericli at boun.edu.tr (=?ISO-8859-9?Q?=C7etin_Meri=E7li?=) Date: Thu May 22 10:44:07 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Application - Nao simulation competitions Message-ID: <48352513.1050509@boun.edu.tr> Dear all, The official call for applications for Nao simulation competitions is now open. You can find the detailed information at https://www.tzi.de/4legged/bin/view/Website/CallNaoSimulation2008 All teams planning to compete should send their team names to myukiko@symbio.jst.go.jp *before* registration. The deadline for application is May 31st (GMT) Best regards, RoboCup 2008 Standard Platform League Technical and Organizing Committees From dsw at ri.cmu.edu Fri May 23 10:13:09 2008 From: dsw at ri.cmu.edu (David Wettergreen) Date: Fri May 23 11:23:39 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: JFR Special Issue on Space Robotics - REVISED SCHEDULE Message-ID: <3CFBAA1C-BBB1-48E3-BECC-F4B0566B4CB2@ri.cmu.edu> Journal of Field Robotics - Special Issue on Space Robotics MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS DUE: JULY 2, 2008 Space applications present many challenges to robotic systems: from extremes of temperature, vacuum, shock and gravity, to limitations on power and communication, from the intricate complexity of systems engineering, to requirements for reliability, robustness and autonomy. The Journal of Field Robotics (JFR) announces a special issue on space robotics to examine these and other issues related to robots and space. This special issue will present and discuss the state of the art in space robots, their theory and practice. We invite papers that exhibit theory and methods applied to robotic systems in space including: - specification and evaluation of system concepts and designs; - effects of the space environment on robotic devices; - methods of sensing, actuation, and mobility; - experiments in manipulation, assembly, construction and excavation; - algorithms for localization and navigation, and task or mission planning; - experiments in planetary exploration and scientific investigation; - efforts related to deep space navigation and autonomous operation; - techniques for safe and precise entry, descent, and landing; and - analysis of human robot interaction and robot autonomy. Papers for this special issue must also provide technical descriptions of systems and results and analysis of experimentation. We invite technical descriptions and analysis of orbital robots/spacecraft and planetary rovers as well as prototype systems in hat have been field tested in terrestrial analogue environments. Lessons learned in development and operation are also pertinent. We encourage papers addressing all aspects of space robotic systems. Our emphasis is on systems that fulfill a specific space-relevant application. Robotic systems in Earth orbit, traveling in deep space, and operating on the surfaces of planets, moons, comets, or asteroids are of particular interest, as well systems envisioned for space application but developed and demonstrated in relevant environments here on Earth. The JFR encourages multimedia content and this special issue seeks inclusion of movies illustrating system concept and operation, engineering experiments, and of course space operation. REVISED DEADLINES: July 2, 2008 ? Submit manuscripts August 15, 2008 ? Reviews completed August 29, 2008 ? Decisions and author notification October 3, 2008 ? Final manuscripts for publication March 2009 - Publication of journal special issue Submission: Electronically to http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org Special Issue Guest Editors: David Wettergreen, Carnegie Mellon Terry Fong, NASA Ames Research Center Keiji Nagatani, Tohoku University Authors with questions can contact the special issue editors, David Wettergreen , Terry Fong and Keiji Nagatani . Submissions can be made through to the journal website. From cetin.mericli at boun.edu.tr Sat May 24 04:24:52 2008 From: cetin.mericli at boun.edu.tr (=?ISO-8859-9?Q?=C7etin_Meri=E7li?=) Date: Mon May 26 00:04:54 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Update - Call for Application - RoboCup Nao simulation competitions Message-ID: <4837FB04.6090603@boun.edu.tr> Dear All, A few additions/corrections to the previous Call for Applications mail: - The correct link for the Call for Application details is http://www.tzi.de/4legged/bin/view/Website/CallNaoSimulation2008 - There was a misunderstanding so please do not send your information to Yukiko Matsuoka right now. Instead, just follow the qualification procedure. The information of the qualified teams will be collected and delivered to the RoboCup Federation by the Organizing Commitee. - The qualified teams will have to register by following the procedure for the senior teams (http://www.robocup-cn.org/en/registration.php). This condition applies even if you have another team already registered. - The registration deadline is May 31 but the registration for Nao Simulation Demonstration will be handled separately so do not worry. - The qualified teams will have to apply for the visa immediately after registration since issuing visas may take a while. Do not forget to send your qualification materials. Remind that the deadline is May 31(GMT). Hope to see you all in Suzhou. Best regards, RoboCup 2008 Standard Platform League Technical and Organizing Committees From gregc at jhu.edu Sat May 24 06:12:08 2008 From: gregc at jhu.edu (Greg Chirikjian) Date: Mon May 26 00:04:57 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] WAFR'08 Message-ID: The Eighth International Workshop on Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR'08) will be held December 7-9, 2008 in Guanajuato, M?xico. The deadline for paper submissions is July 1. See www.wafr.org for details. Regards, Greg Chirikjian Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Johns Hopkins University (on behalf of the organizing committee) From E.Guglielmelli at unicampus.it Sun May 25 01:49:28 2008 From: E.Guglielmelli at unicampus.it (Guglielmelli Eugenio) Date: Mon May 26 00:04:59 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP T-RO Special Issue on Rehabilitation Robotics References: <83134CAD576988499F9A03D5B756C15107CC3424@elrond.unicampus-int.it> Message-ID: <83134CAD576988499F9A03D5B756C15107CC346B@elrond.unicampus-int.it> ****Apologies for multiple posting******** Call for Papers IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS Special Issue on Rehabilitation Robotics Rehabilitation Robotics aims at the development of novel medical solutions for assisted motor therapy and functional assessment of patients with reduced motor and/or cognitive abilities in order to ultimately favor the best achievable functional recovery. Robot-assisted therapy emphasizes the central role of the patient during the motor exercise. This poses major technical challenges for the design of safe and effective robotic platforms. Typical requirements include high backdriveability, easy adaptation to different anthropometric parameters, adaptive control schemes for interaction control, friendly human-machine interfaces for motivating the patient and for allowing customization of robot performance by the doctor or therapist. A new generation of rehabilitation robots, to be conceived and developed in tight cooperation with medical experts and end users, is expected to come in the near future. Researchers working in the academy or industry are invited to submit papers to this Special Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO) on the theoretical, technological and experimental aspects of design, development, and validation of novel rehabilitation robotic systems. Topics - Novel robotic systems for application to rehabilitation - Human-centred design methods and case studies of rehabilitation robots - Robotic platforms for functional assessment and human behavioral analysis - Exoskeletons and operational machines for lower and\or upper limb rehabilitation - Robotic systems for telerehabilitation and homecare - Portable robotics systems for ubiquitous rehabilitation - Backdriveable mechanisms, compliant actuators and other innovative components for rehabilitation robots - Physical human-robot interaction control in rehabilitation applications - Impedance control, adaptive motor control and learning in rehabilitation robotics - Multimodal and natural human-robot interfaces for rehabilitation - Robotic systems for cognitive rehabilitation and for diagnosis and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders - Magnetic-imaging (MI) compatible robotic systems - Application of robotic systems for biomechanical modeling of the human body - Robotic systems for prevention of age-related motor disabilities Important dates May 15, 2008: Call for Papers September 15, 2008: Deadline for Paper Submission December 31, 2008: Completion of First Review March 15, 2009: Completion of Final Review June 2009 (tentative): Publication Submission and Review of Papers This is the first T-RO Special Issue on this topic and also the first one that will be fully handled electronically via the papercept system. Author information is available at the T-RO web site http://www.ieee-ras.org/tro. Submissions should go to T-RO PaperCept at http://ras.papercept.net/journals/tro. T-RO considers also accompanying multimedia material. Papers submitted to the Special Issue undergo the usual T-RO review process. Please refer your T-RO submissions to this Special Issue following the guidelines provided on the papercept system. For downloading the PDF release of this CFP and further information on the Special Issue, please check the IEEE RAS TC on Rehabilitation & Assistive Robotics web site at http://tab.ieee-ras.org/. We look forward to receiving your submissions. The Guest Editors of the T-RO Special Issue on Rehabilitation Robotics Dr. Takanori Shibata, AIST, Japan - shibata-takanori@aist.go.jp Dr. Michelle J. Johnson, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA - mjjohnso@mcw.edu Prof. Eugenio Gugliemelli, Universit? Campus Bio-Medico, Roma, Italy - e.guglielmelli@unicampus.it -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080525/926ad079/attachment.html From simone.anderhub at iais.fraunhofer.de Mon May 26 00:07:45 2008 From: simone.anderhub at iais.fraunhofer.de (Simone Anderhub) Date: Mon May 26 00:05:02 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Doctoral Positions at Fraunhofer IAIS Message-ID: <483A61C1.7000303@iais.fraunhofer.de> *Doctoral Positions at Fraunhofer IAIS* **The Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS focuses on the research and development of innovative software and hardware systems for the purpose of data analysis and information extraction. From sensor data to business intelligence, from media analysis to visual information systems, our research allows companies to do more with their data. As a doctoral candidate at Fraunhofer IAIS you will do research on challenging topics in the context of our national and international projects and be awarded your doctoral degree from renowned universities such as the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms-Universit?t in Bonn which is closely connected to IAIS through joint professorship appointments. * Facts* Applications by: 1 June 2008 Earliest start day: 1 October 2008 For additional information see: doc.iais.fraunhofer.de *Requirements* ? Students of computer science or relevant subjects with strong links to computer science ? Outstanding academic performance ? Graduates or students due to graduate within the coming months ? Strong interest in research at the highest level based on real industrial application ? Excellent command of the English language *Contact* Ms. Simone Anderhub Tel: +49 2241 14-3500 simone.anderhub@iais.fraunhofer.de -- Simone Anderhub Office of Prof. Dr. Thomas Christaller ************************************************************ mail to: simone.anderhub@iais.fraunhofer.de Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS Schloss Birlinghoven D-53754 Sankt Augustin Germany http://www.iais.fraunhofer.de/ Phone: +49 22 41 14 - 3500 Fax: +49 22 41 14 - 2384 ************************************************************ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080526/bc3ae978/attachment-0001.html From simone.anderhub at iais.fraunhofer.de Mon May 26 07:54:20 2008 From: simone.anderhub at iais.fraunhofer.de (Simone Anderhub) Date: Tue May 27 08:03:35 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Amendment: Doctoral Positions at Fraunhofer IAIS Message-ID: <483ACF1C.5020100@iais.fraunhofer.de> Earlier today we announced our vacant positions for doctoral candidates. Please note that the correct link to these positions is:* doc.iais.fraunhofer.de * We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.* * * * *Doctoral Positions at Fraunhofer IAIS* **The Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS focuses on the research and development of innovative software and hardware systems for the purpose of data analysis and information extraction. From sensor data to business intelligence, from media analysis to visual information systems, our research allows companies to do more with their data. As a doctoral candidate at Fraunhofer IAIS you will do research on challenging topics in the context of our national and international projects and be awarded your doctoral degree from renowned universities such as the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms-Universit?t in Bonn which is closely connected to IAIS through joint professorship appointments. * Facts* Applications by: 1 June 2008 Earliest start day: 1 October 2008 For additional information see: doc.iais.fraunhofer.de *Requirements* ? Students of computer science or relevant subjects with strong links to computer science ? Outstanding academic performance ? Graduates or students due to graduate within the coming months ? Strong interest in research at the highest level based on real industrial application ? Excellent command of the English language *Contact* Ms. Simone Anderhub Tel: +49 2241 14-3500 simone.anderhub@iais.fraunhofer.de -- Simone Anderhub Office of Prof. Dr. Thomas Christaller ************************************************************ mail to: simone.anderhub@iais.fraunhofer.de Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS Schloss Birlinghoven D-53754 Sankt Augustin Germany http://www.iais.fraunhofer.de/ Phone: +49 22 41 14 - 3500 Fax: +49 22 41 14 - 2384 ************************************************************ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080526/5ccd4e28/attachment-0001.html From Thomas.Mergner at uniklinik-freiburg.de Tue May 27 07:57:39 2008 From: Thomas.Mergner at uniklinik-freiburg.de (Thomas Mergner) Date: Tue May 27 08:03:37 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Neuro-Robotics Symposium Message-ID: The Neurology Department of the University of Freiburg, Germany, organises a symposium with the title "Recent Advances in Neuro-Robotics Symposium - Sensorimotor Control" (Freiburg, July 20-22, 2007). The program can be found under http:/www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/neurologie/live/forschung/sensorfusion.html We like to invite young researchers (docs, post-docs, students) to apply for participation in the form of a poster, sending to us (mergner@uni-freiburg.de ) a half page abstract. The poster should be within the framework of the symposium (see program). The dead line is June 16, 2008. A local committee from the Neurology and the Informatics Departments will select 15 posters and will award the responsible author with a travel support of 400 Euro (note, there are, in addition, no conference fees). Prof.Dr. T. Mergner Neurologische Klinik, Neurozentrum Breisacher Str. 64, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany Tel. ++49 761 270 5313 (5306) Fax ++49 761 270 5390 email: mergner@uni-freiburg.de -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080527/7fb7e446/attachment.html From frederic.colledani at cea.fr Mon May 26 05:07:54 2008 From: frederic.colledani at cea.fr (=?iso-8859-1?Q?COLLEDANI_Fr=E9d=E9ric_218857?=) Date: Tue May 27 08:03:59 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Positions at French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) Message-ID: <28C81D1080B38F4890D5E9D34F035219068E0CAB@LaBeaujoire.intra.cea.fr> Interactive Robotics Unit of French Atmoic Energy Commission (CEA-LIST - http://www-list.cea.fr) is offering 2 positions within the framework of European project FreeSubNet: one post-graduate, and one PhD position. The aim is to develop assistances for deep sea underwater interventions such as operations on Prestige type wrecks, or on sub sea infrastructures, for example during docking and underwater manipulation with a robot arm. The arm is mounted on an Autonomous Undersea Vehicle dedicated to intervention tasks in submarine applications. Assistance will rely mainly on using vision and force control. Force control might be used when in contact. The operator being situated in a remote place (in a surface boat or in another submarine), manipulation tasks will have to be autonomous and not too demanding for him. Robustness and accuracy will therefore be key elements for the function. Control issues are related to robust control, delay systems, ... More details can be found here: http://www.freesubnet.eu/ We seek highly motivated applicants with a strong background in control and or robots engineering. Interested candidates should contact Fr?d?ric Colledani (frederic(dot)colledani at cea(dot)fr) or Franck Geffard (franck(dot)geffard at cea(dot)fr). Applicants must have spent less than 12 months in France. Women applications are particularly sollicited. Frederic Colledani. ________________________________ T?l : +33(0)1.46.54.84.36 Interactive robotics Unit CEA-LIST - Fontenay-aux-Roses Bat 38/1 - pi?ce 123A mailto:frederic.colledani@cea.fr ________________________________ From doetomo at unimelb.edu.au Wed May 28 17:46:08 2008 From: doetomo at unimelb.edu.au (Denny Oetomo) Date: Wed May 28 23:58:27 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Opening: Faculty position, the University of Melbourne References: <0FBC6473-3607-4BE3-AC6B-8A1161C2135E@cse.unsw.edu.au> Message-ID: Dear Robotics Community!! Openings for faculty positions are being offered at the department of mechanical engineering, the University of Melbourne. The summary of the official advertisement is given in text below and is attached as a pdf file. There are 4 openings and among them are positions for Biomechanical Engineering. A background in Biomedical Robotics is strongly desirable. The department is going through a big push to strengthen this area and high quality candidates looking for a faculty position with good support to develop robotics in biomedical related topics is strongly encouraged to apply. For informal information regarding the Biomedical Engineering position, you can contact Professor Marcus Pandy - Biomechanics (pandym@unimelb.edu.au) or Denny Oetomo - robotics (doetomo@unimelb.edu.au). The application itself should be addressed to the HR department and the infomation is given in the pdf file attached. The summary of the official advertisement for the openings: "Applications are invited for four Academic (Faculty) positions at the Lecturer or Senior Lecturer level (equivalent to Assistant or Associate Professor in the US) in the areas of Fluids and Thermal Sciences or Biomechanical Engineering. A PhD in Mechanical Enginereing, Biomedical Engineering or associated discipline is required. You will be expected to build a well-funded research program and supervise research students. Active collaboration with other research groups in the Melbourne School of Engineering is encouraged, as is interaction with industry and government agencies. A strong commitment to teaching a variety of subjects in a traditional undergraduate program as well as Masters level courses is required. Application must include a mature research plan and a statement of the applicant's teaching philosophy." We look forward to your application. Sincerely, Denny Oetomo Lecturer Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Melbourne, VIC 3010 Australia Phone: +61 3 8344 6795 Email: doetomo@unimelb.edu.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080529/8143c0a1/attachment.html From doetomo at unimelb.edu.au Tue May 27 16:54:40 2008 From: doetomo at unimelb.edu.au (Denny Oetomo) Date: Wed May 28 23:58:45 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: JFR Special Issue on Agricultural Robotics Message-ID: Journal of Field Robotics Special Issue: Advances in Agricultural Robotics -------------------------------------------------------------------- Guest Editors: John Billingsley, University of Southern Queensland John Reid, Intelligent Machine Systems, John Deere Denny Oetomo, University of Melbourne Automation is one of the most important reasons in the improvement of farming efficiency. The maturing technologies being developed by the robotics community are paving the way for the exciting deployments of robust robotic systems in the environment of large scale farming, one that is semi-structured. Not only does this have the potential to increase the productivity and the quality of agricultural facilities, it can also significantly alter the way in which the farming industry is modeled and conducted. The future vision of the emerging trend in autonomous farming is of great interest, not only to the robotics and agricultural communities, but also to the industries and wider community. Advances in agricultural efficiency provided by the robotics technology and automation greatly impacts the sustainability of our natural resources in satisfying the demand of the growing world population. The Journal of Field Robotics (JFR) announces a special issue on the advances in agricultural robotics. Submissions are sought to present various state-of-the-arts applications of robotic techniques to the area of agricultural robotics and automation. Field experimentation results as well as conceptual ideas with potentials to define the future of agricultural automation are of great interest. Perspective from agricultural experts on robotics and automation is also of great interest. We invite papers that exhibit theory and methods applied to field of agricultural robotics, including: * Examples of robust implementation of robotics technology deployed on the farm * Methods of sensing, identification, and localisation in the semi-structured farming environment * Modelling and control of autonomous systems in agricultural tasks * Mechanism analysis, design, as well as manipulation strategies specific to the tasks required in the agricultural processes * Techniques for reliable information sharing in an integrated farm automation framework * 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 It is of great interest that papers for this special issue provide technical descriptions of systems as well as results and analysis of fielded experimentations. Lessons learned in development and operation are also pertinent. Contacts: For further information, please do not hesitate to contact Denny Oetomo (doetomo@unimelb.edu.au) For information on paper format and submission procedures, please refer to the JFR website: http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org/Home.html Submission of papers is done online: http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org/Submission.html Deadlines: July 25, 2008 - Submission of manuscripts September 25, 2008 - Complete reviews October 15, 2008 - Notification of acceptance December 15, 2008 - Final manuscripts due for publication -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080528/510a899f/attachment-0001.html From berg at cs.unc.edu Tue May 27 13:16:46 2008 From: berg at cs.unc.edu (Jur van den Berg) Date: Wed May 28 23:58:53 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Announcement Public Release of RVO Library for Real-Time Multi-Agent Simulation Message-ID: <483C6C2E.5030803@cs.unc.edu> Dear Roboticists, We have just released the publicly available C++ RVO Library for Real-Time Multi-Agent Simulation. It is available for download at http://gamma.cs.unc.edu/RVO/Library/ . Please see below for a short description. Best regards, Jur van den Berg University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill INTRODUCTION Simulations of multiple agents sharing a common workspace have gained increasing attention recently, for various purposes such as crowd simulation, navigating a team of mobile robots, computer games, studying natural flocking behavior, traffic engineering, architecture and design, emergency training simulations, etc. We have presented a novel approach for interactive navigation and planning of large amounts of agents in two-dimensional (crowded) environments. Our formulation uses a precomputed roadmap that provides macroscopic knowledge for wayfinding and combines it with fast and localized navigation for each agent. At runtime, each agent senses the environment independently and computes a collision-free motion based on the ?Reciprocal Velocity Obstacle? concept. Our algorithm ensures that each agent exhibits no oscillatory behaviors. RVO Library is a publicly available C++ implementation of our algorithm. It has a very simple API for third-party applications. The user has to specify obstacles, a roadmap around the obstacles, and the agents and their goals, and the simulation can be performed step-by-step by a simple call to the library. The simulation is fully accessible and manipulable during the simulation. The library automatically exploits multiple processors if they are available for efficient parallellization of the simulation. Please refer to the documentation for details regarding the API and the contents of the distribution. REQUIREMENTS AND DEPENDENCIES None. The RVO library is a stand-alone library that does not depend on third-party packages. It should work with any C++ compiler on any platform. It uses OpenMP to exploit multiple processors if they are available on the system, but having multiple processors is not a requirement. From morri at cse.unsw.EDU.AU Wed May 28 15:26:17 2008 From: morri at cse.unsw.EDU.AU (Maurice Pagnucco) Date: Wed May 28 23:59:42 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Research Fellow/Senior Research Fellow in Autonomous Systems (Level B/C): closing June 13, 2008 References: <0FBC6473-3607-4BE3-AC6B-8A1161C2135E@cse.unsw.edu.au> Message-ID: Research Fellow/Senior Research Fellow in Autonomous Systems (Level B/C) Faculty of Engineering School of Computer Science and Engineering REF. 5862NET The ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems (CAS) at the University of New South Wales School of Computer Science and Engineering seeks to employ up to three research fellows to conduct high quality and innovative research in autonomous systems. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems is an Australian Research Council funded research centre with nodes at UNSW, the University of Sydney and the University of Technology, Sydney. It is one of the leading centres of research in autonomous systems world-wide. The centre's current research themes are: persistent autonomy, multi-robot cooperation and human-machine interaction. Within these themes the UNSW node of CAS conducts research in robot learning, knowledge representation and planning, human robot interaction, urban search and rescue and tactile sensing. It has won awards in competitions including the RoboCup Four-Legged Robot Soccer League and in RoboCup Rescue. Successful candidates may work in any of three projects. CAS has been actively developing robots for urban search and rescue for several years. Research opportunities exist in perception and mapping in unstructured environments; machine learning to autonomously drive robots over rough terrain; and human-robot interaction. A humanoid torso has been constructed for the purpose of exploring human-robot interaction, including teaching by demonstration, speech and gesture interfaces. This project also includes the development of novel tactile sensors. The third major project focusses on multi-robot planning and co-operation. This follows approaches from Cognitive Robotics, Constraint Solving and Machine Learning. Candidates should have a PhD in Computer Science, Computer, Software, Electrical, Mechatronic Engineering or similar, as well as demonstrated ability to see your research integrated on real robotic systems. The successful candidate should combine strong theoretical knowledge with a background in building software and hardware systems. We particularly seek candidates with track records in Machine Learning, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Constraint Programming, Speech and Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision (including visual gesture recognition or face recognition). Positions are fixed term for 3 years. The salary range for Research Fellow is A$71,779 - A$84,618 and for Senior Research Fellow is A $87,182 - A$100,022 per year (plus up to 17% employer superannuation plus leave loading). Membership of a university approved superannuation scheme is a condition of employment. Level of appointment and responsibility will be commensurate with qualifications and experience Applicants should systematically address the selection criteria in their application. All applications must be completed online by visiting the University of New South Wales Human Resources web site: http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/services/recruitment/application.html The Information Package can be found at:http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/services/recruitment/jobs/info/pd16050805.pdf Enquiries maybe directed to Associate Professor Maurice Pagnucco, by telephone (61 2) 9385 6925 or email: morri@cse.unsw.edu.au For further information about the School, please visit: www.cse.unsw.edu.au Applications close : 13 June 2008 __ Maurice Pagnucco email: morri@cse.unsw.edu.au School of Computer Science and Engineering phone: +61-2-9385 6925 The University of New South Wales fax : +61-2-9385 5995 NSW 2052, AUSTRALIA WWW: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~morri/ From oli at cs.umass.edu Wed May 28 19:00:12 2008 From: oli at cs.umass.edu (Oliver Brock) Date: Wed May 28 23:59:44 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] NSF/CRA/CCC Roadmapping Workshop: Domestic and Professional Service Robotics Message-ID: <2330F00E4A3C924AB7F7297AE42D35352400C6@zor.ads.cs.umass.edu> Call for Participation NSF/CRA/CCC Roadmapping for Robotics Workshop: A Research Roadmap for Domestic and Professional Service Robotics San Francisco, CA August 7-8, 2008 Co-Chairs: Oliver Brock, University of Massachusetts Amherst Bill Thomasmeyer, Tech Collaborative Henrik Christensen, Georgia Tech To participate, please submit 2-page proposals by June 20, 2008. Expenses for approved participants will be covered by NSF/CCC/CRA. This two-day workshop will: 1) identify a focused set of major U.S. research goals for Domestic and Professional Service Robotics, and 2) develop a roadmap for achieving these research goals in the coming decade. The workshop will include leaders from the U.S.A. in academia, industry, and government. Even though the American robotics research community is highly diversified, analogous efforts in Europe and Japan to reach consensus and develop unified research roadmaps for their regions have been extremely successful in creating new partnerships and attracting major research funding. The results of this workshop will culminate in a report for the US Congress. This workshop one of four under the project: "From Internet to Robotics: The Next Transformative Technology", accepted by the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) with the goal of ensuring that basic research addresses the key problems that will allow American companies to have a leading role in the deployment of future generations of robots: http://www.us-robotics.us/ Rationale Already today the services sector makes up 80% of the US gross national product. The need for professional services will continue to grow as the economy becomes increasingly service-oriented in today's global market place. There will also be an growing need for domestic services caused by a growth of 50% in the elderly population over the next two decades. Robotics will provide the technological foundation to support the evolution in the domestic and professional service industry, thereby enabling substantial economic growth. The development of the necessary competencies in robotics therefore will become an important strategic national objective to ensure global competitiveness of the US economy. This workshop will bring together leading roboticists from industry and academia as well as government representatives to explore strategies of addressing the technological challenges associated with the emerging service economy. Format In focused plenary discussions and break-out sessions we will explore robotics for Domestic and Professional Service Robotics. The participants will identify (a) new application areas that will maximize socio-economic impact; (b) core competency areas for U.S. research and development; and (c) formulation of the roadmap. Travel, meals, and lodging expenses for up to 30 approved participants will be reimbursed by the CCC We encourage interested experts from industry, government, and academia to submit short proposals via email by June 20, 2008. These proposal should contain 1) Name, affiliation, and contact info 2) promising application areas, critical research challenges, viable solution strategies Proposals must be under 2 pages in plain text or PDF format. Please put "Research Roadmap Proposal" in the subject line and email to service-ws@us-robotics.us. Applicants will be notified by July 7, 2008. Due to funding limitations, we can accept only 30 participants. Anyone who submits a proposal will receive a copy of the final workshop report and information on how they might participate in the CCC robotics effort. This workshop is being held as part of a group of CCC robotics workshops examining the areas of manufacturing, service, healthcare, and emerging topics in robotics. From russt at mit.edu Wed May 28 12:50:55 2008 From: russt at mit.edu (Russ Tedrake) Date: Thu May 29 00:51:11 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IEEE RAS Workshop on Robot Learning In-Reply-To: <4B499AB5-C1E7-4880-9BBE-713BABB9AFE8@jan-peters.net> References: <6A59B869-660F-4293-BC2C-C230F6D9E785@jan-peters.net> <67C59DBC-B611-4EF6-A8C3-05885A16D544@mit.edu> <483CC76A.1060209@mit.edu> <483CC919.50402@mit.edu> <67C0C59A-A133-41C3-968F-7015D78FB1D3@mit.edu> <483CCAF4.2060007@mit.edu> <1211956741.3784@hedberg2.cns.atr.jp> <483D9B3E.8010001@mit.edu> <4B499AB5-C1E7-4880-9BBE-713BABB9AFE8@jan-peters.net> Message-ID: =========================================================== Call for Participation IEEE RAS Workshop on Robot Learning =========================================================== We are soliciting papers in the second Workshop on Robotics Challenges for Machine Learning, to occur on September 22nd, 2008, at IROS 2008 in Nice, France (http://www.learning-robots.de/TC/ IROS2008). Contributions are sought in the following areas: * learning models of robots, tasks or environments * learning plans and control policies by imitation and reinforcement learning * representations which facilitate learning, such as low-dimensional embeddings of movements * learning representations and task abstractions by unsupervised learning * probabilistic inference of task parameters from multi-modal sensory information * integration of learning into control architectures. This workshop will also serve to kick-off the new IEEE Technical Committee (TC) on Robot Learning. Contributions to the workshop are solicited in the form of poster presentations. In order to present a poster at the workshop, please send a 1 page abstract including a title, list of authors and affiliations, and brief description of the work (challenge, problem formulation, or solution technique) to chairs@learning-robots.de. The intended audience is robotics researchers who are actively engaged in machine learning research, or who are interested in exploring machine learning ideas in their future work. We would specifically like to encourage students to participate. Important Dates: * July 21 - Abstract Submission Deadline * July 28 - Notification of Acceptance * September 22 - Workshop at IROS. See http://www.learning-robots.de/TC/IROS2008 for more information. From mail at jan-peters.net Thu May 29 00:42:57 2008 From: mail at jan-peters.net (Jan Peters) Date: Thu May 29 00:51:13 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Robot Learning Message-ID: <6783EB45-0A7D-44F0-97CF-BC80FB60E293@jan-peters.net> =========================================================== Call for Participation IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Robot Learning =========================================================== To foster the development of learning robots, we are pleased to announce the formation of the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Robot Learning. We invite people interested in participating in this technical committee to contact the corresponding chair, Nicholas Roy, at nickroy@mit.edu, or one of the other chairs. There is an increasing interest in machine learning and statistics within the robotics community. At the same time, there has been a growth in the learning community in using robots as motivating applications for new algorithms and formalisms. Considerable evidence of this exists in the use of learning in high-profile competitions such as RoboCup and the DARPA Challenges, and the growing number of research programs funded by governments around the world. Additionally, the volume of research is increasing, as shown by the number of learning papers accepted to IROS and ICRA, and the corresponding number of learning sessions. The primary vision of our technical committee is as a focus for widely distributing technically rigorous results in shared areas of interest. Without being exclusive, areas of shared research interest include * learning models of robots, task or environments; * learning deep hierarchies or levels of representations from sensor & motor representations to task abstractions; * learning of plans and control policies by imitation and reinforcement learning; * integrating learning with control architectures; * methods for probabilistic inference from multi-modal sensory information (e.g., proprioceptive, tactile, vison); * structured spatio-temporal representations designed for robot learning such as low-dimensional embedding of movements. Our activities will include regular meetings at the primary robotics conferences, including a workshop series beginning at IROS 2008. See http://www.learning-robots.de for more information. Jun Morimoto, ATR Jan Peters, Max Planck Institute Nicholas Roy, MIT (Corresponding chair) Russ Tedrake, MIT From morri at cse.unsw.EDU.AU Thu May 29 04:46:04 2008 From: morri at cse.unsw.EDU.AU (Maurice Pagnucco) Date: Fri May 30 09:35:08 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Autonomous Systems Engineers (Level 5/6/7): closing June 13, 2008 References: <77F07A2E-A2C6-402B-BB34-DD0FFDB3F0B9@cse.unsw.edu.au> Message-ID: <1A06AB95-FA1D-4AC8-94B1-825A7ADB9D97@cse.unsw.EDU.AU> Autonomous Systems EngineersFaculty of Engineering School of Computer Science and Engineering REF. 5863NET Fixed Term: Salary Level 5/6/7: A$49,771 - A$69,174 per year dependent on level (plus up to 17% employer superannuation plus leave loading). The UNSW node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems (CAS) in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW is seeking to employ up to two autonomous systems engineers to assist in developing the centre's hardware and software applications in autonomous systems. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems (www.cas.edu.au) is an ARC funded research centre with nodes at UNSW, the University of Sydney and the University of Technology, Sydney. It is one of the leading centres of research in autonomous systems world-wide. The centre's current research themes are: persistent autonomy, multi-robot cooperation and human-machine interaction. Within these themes the UNSW node of CAS conducts research in urban search and rescue, knowledge representation and planning, human robot interaction, genetic algorithms and tactile sensing. It has won several awards and competitions including the RoboCup Soccer Legged League and placed well in RoboCup Rescue. This is an outstanding opportunity to further develop your career in the sought-after field of robotics. You will find great satisfaction in making a name for yourself in a challenging role, and can look forward to many interesting opportunities to apply your work in the field. We have an outstanding position available for a dynamic and enthusiastic Autonomous Systems Engineer to undertake development of software and/or hardware platforms related to robotics. This role is suited to an individual who has a strong background in autonomous systems, excellent team work skills, a responsible nature and an enthusiasm for seeing their work integrated into real platforms. To succeed, you will need to possess an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical, Mechatronic Engineering or similar. Experience in software development and working with complex systems, particularly real robotic systems, will also be considered an asset. The positions are fixed term for up to three-years and broad-banded across level 5 to level 7. The Faculty reserves the right to appoint at the most appropriate level. Applicants should systematically address the selection criteria in their application. All applications must be completed online by visiting the University of New South Wales Human Resources web site: http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/services/recruitment/application.html The Information Package can be found at: http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/services/recruitment/jobs/info/pd16050810.pdf Enquiries maybe directed to Associate Professor Maurice Pagnucco, by telephone (61 2) 9385 6925 or email: morri@cse.unsw.edu.au For further information about the School, please visit: www.cse.unsw.edu.au Applications close : 13 June 2008 __ Maurice Pagnucco email: morri@cse.unsw.edu.au School of Computer Science and Engineering phone: +61-2-9385 6925 The University of New South Wales fax : +61-2-9385 5995 NSW 2052, AUSTRALIA WWW: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~morri/ From J.Katupitiya at unsw.edu.au Thu May 29 05:29:25 2008 From: J.Katupitiya at unsw.edu.au (Jay Katupitiya) Date: Fri May 30 09:35:11 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Lecturer/Senior Lecturer position at UNSW Mechatronics Message-ID: Hi, If you are interested in applying, please see the advertisement at http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/services/recruitment/jobs/18040810.html Regards. Jay Dr Jayantha Katupitiya Senior Lecturer Director of Postgraduate Research Training and Coordinator of Mechatronic Engineering Plan School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 9385 4096 Fax: +61 2 9663 1222 CRICOS Provider Code - 00098G ********************************************************************* This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender. Views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and are not necessarily the views of UNSW. ********************************************************************* From msh at aber.ac.uk Fri May 30 02:46:23 2008 From: msh at aber.ac.uk (Martin Huelse) Date: Fri May 30 09:35:13 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PostDoc_POSITION_IN_ROBOTICS_IN_UK Message-ID: <483FCCEF.2060507@aber.ac.uk> RESEARCH POSITION IN ROBOTICS Post-Doctoral Research Associate Robotics Research Group, Department of Computer Science, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK ?22,332 - ?33,780 Applications are invited for the post of postdoctoral Research Associate for a project on robot interaction in the context of sensory-motor learning. This is a three year EC FP 7 funded project with 5 other partners (see http://www.rossiproject.eu). The successful applicant should have a doctorate in a relevant field, excellent software engineering skills, and good writing and communication skills. For informal enquiries contact: Prof. Mark Lee, email: mhl@aber.ac.uk, phone: +44 (0)1970 622420 (direct). Ref: CS.07.09 Closing date: 20 June 2008 This project is entitled "ROSSI; Emergence of communication in Robots through Sensorimotor and Social Interaction", and focuses on the development of communication between robots and humans (http://www.rossiproject.eu). In particular, the project is addressing the question of how critical it is for communicating agents to share the same general view of the world. Agents possessing different sensory and motor systems may have different views of the world and therefore may have difficulties in communicating. We are exploring to what extent and which aspects of world models must be shared in order to facilitate communication between robots and humans. We wish to increase understanding of the requirements of affordance based world models, shared models and communication provided by such models, based on understanding of objects, actions, and processes in their environment. The focus of this project is the construction of robots that are able to process simple commands and to respond appropriately by interacting with different kinds of objects and entities in their environment. This project has 6 partners in Italy, Germany, Sweden and Turkey, involving psychologists, neuroscientists, computer scientists and robotics engineers. We are involved in all stages but especially the implementation of the models in a robotic manipulation system and the testing and experimentation with real application tasks. We wish to appoint a Post-Doctoral Research Associate who will take major responsibility for the programme of research in the context of our robotics team. This post is available on a three-year fixed-term contract. We expect to appoint for a start date of 1 March 2008. - Applicants should have a doctorate in computer science, artificial intelligence, engineering, or a related scientific field, and be able to demonstrate research experience. - The post requires excellent software skills for the implementation and running of a range of experimental components. - The successful applicant will also be involved in writing scientific documents and papers and will be expected to travel and give presentations as necessary. For informal enquiries contact Mark Lee: mhl@aber.ac.uk +44 (0)1970-622420 For further details of the post and an application form please see the link below: http://www.aber.ac.uk/human-resources/en/vacancies.shtml Ref: CS.07.09 Closing date: 20 June 2008 NOTE: Please put the post reference on the front of your envelope and on your application form. Completed Applications Forms should be signed and returned to the Operations Team by fax or post. E-mail attachments will not be accepted. Bilingual Institution which operates a Welsh Language scheme. Committed to Equal Opportunities. Operations Team: vacancies@aber.ac.uk / Tel: 01970 621591 / Fax: 01970 622975 -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Huelse, Dr. rer. nat. Intelligent Robotics Group email: msh@aber.ac.uk Department of Computer Science, web: aml.somebodyelse.de University of Wales, office: +44 (0)1970-62 2441 Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DB, lab: +44 (0)1970-62 2403 United Kingdom. fax: +44 (0)1970-62 8536 --------------------------------------------------------------------- From saroj_pradhan2000 at rediffmail.com Fri May 30 06:06:22 2008 From: saroj_pradhan2000 at rediffmail.com (saroj kumar pradhan) Date: Fri May 30 09:35:16 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Papers, NCMSTA'08 Message-ID: <20080530130622.26430.qmail@f5mail-237-243.rediffmail.com> Call for Papers National Conference on Mechanism Science and Technologies: from Theory to Applications, NCMSTA'08 The conference will be held during November 13 - 14, 2008, in NIT, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, 177005, India. The conference intends to deliberate high quality technical events in the field of science and technology which will promote research and developmental activities in the field of mechanical engineering and related fields in India and the rest of the world. This will also encourage flow of scientific information between researchers, developers, engineers, students, and practitioners working in India and abroad. English is the official language of the conference. Important dates May 15, 2008: Call for Papers September 15, 2008: Submission of titles and abstracts September 17, 2008: Abstract Confirmation September 29, 2008: Deadline for Paper Submission October 03, 2008: Notification to authors after review October 15, 2008: Submission of camera ready paper October 20, 2008: Early bird registration More information is available at http://www.nitham.ac.in/NCMSTA/index.html   Please distribute this Call for Papers to other interested colleagues.   We look forward to receiving your submissions.   Thanks & Regards,   Dr. S. K. Pradhan Faculty, Mechanical Engineering Department Web: www.nitham.ac.in Dr. S. K. Pradhan Faculty, Room Number: 107, Mechanical Engineering Department, N.I.T.,Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, INDIA, 177005. Phone 911972254740(0), 911972254741 (R) 919816797849(M), e.mail: saroj_pradhan2000@yahoo.com skpradhan@nitham.ac.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080530/4a3b4bfc/attachment-0001.html From jmh at cs.utah.edu Fri May 30 09:08:35 2008 From: jmh at cs.utah.edu (John Hollerbach) Date: Fri May 30 09:35:18 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CRA/CCC Workshop on Emerging Technologies and Trends Message-ID: <20080530160835.D5354B9C5D@veto.cs.utah.edu> Call for Participation, 2-page proposals due by June 13, 2008: CRA/CCC Roadmapping for Robotics Workshop: A Research Roadmap for Emerging Technologies and Trends Co-Chairs: John Hollerbach, University of Utah Matt Mason, Carnegie Mellon University Henrik Christensen, Georgia Tech August 14-15, 2008 Snowbird, Utah (All expenses for approved participants will be covered by CCC) This one-and-a-half-day CRA/CCC sponsored workshop will (1) identify a focused set of major US research goals for Emerging Technologies and Trends, and (2) develop a roadmap for achieving these research goals in the coming decade. The workshop will include US leaders in academia, industry, and government. Although the US robotics research community is highly diversified, analogous efforts in Europe and Japan to reach consensus and develop unified research roadmaps for their regions have been extremely successful in creating new partnerships and attracting major research funding. Results of this workshop will be presented to US government agencies. This workshop is one of four planned under the project: "From Internet to Robotics: The Next Transformative Technology", accepted by the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) with the goal of ensuring that basic research addresses the key problems that will allow American companies to have a leading role in the deployment of future generations of robots: http://www.us-robotics.us/. Rationale Robotics encompasses several technologies to enable computers to interact more effectively with the real world. A computer today has no awareness of its physical surroundings, and is largely unable to react to physical events. Robotics is developing techniques allowing computers to perceive their surroundings, to interpret those perceptions, and act effectively to accomplish physical tasks. Historically robotics arose and has been driven by advances in the underlying technologies such as computing technology, sensors, materials, actuators, control, and artificial intelligence. The purpose of this workshop is to examine continuing and likely future advances in technology, to explore their impact on robotics, and to map the implications for future robotics research directions and funding policy. Technologies of interest include, but are not limited to, advances in o computing technology, o information technology, o perception and sensing, o Artificial Intelligence, o Mechanisms and Materials. While many of these advances are occuring within robotics, outside developments also impact the future capabilities of robots. We seek participants who can project the future of these emerging technologies and trends. Format In this highly focused meeting, brainstorming sessions will identify and prioritize (a) new technologies and trends likely to impact the future of robotics; (b) core competency areas for U.S. research and development; and (c) formulation of the roadmap. Travel, meals, and lodging expenses for up to 30 approved participants will be reimbursed by the CCC. We encourage interested experts from industry, government, and academia to submit a short proposal via email by June 13, 2008. 1) Name, affiliation, and contact info 2) 2-3 broad research ideas relevant to the workshop goals outlined above Proposals must be under 2 pages in plain text or .pdf format. Please put "CCC Research Roadmap Proposal" on the subject line, and email to emerging-ws@us-robotics.us. Selected applicants will be notified by July 2, 2008. Due to funding limitations, we can accept only 30 participants. Anyone who submits a proposal will receive a copy of the final workshop report and information on how they might participate in the CCC robotics effort. This workshop is being held as part of a group of CCC robotics workshops examining the areas of manufacturing, service, healthcare, and emerging topics in robotics. From emg at dei.unipd.it Fri May 30 13:16:09 2008 From: emg at dei.unipd.it (Emanuele Menegatti) Date: Mon Jun 2 00:56:51 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CfP: First Workshop on Omnidirectional Robot Vision Message-ID: Workshop on Omnidirectional Robot Vision CALL FOR PAPER We invite scientists from omnidirectional vision and robotics communities to attend the ?Workshop on Omnidirectional Robot Vision? and to discuss sensors, algorithms and applications of omnidirectional vision for robotics. Omnidirectional vision research was always greatly stimulated by mobile robotics and it was finding its major applications there. Recently, a broader community has started working with omnidirectional sensors and commercial applications appeared also in surveillance and automotive industry. We wish to encourage active collaboration of computer vision and robotic researchers to develop more robust, practical and applicable systems in robotics and elsewhere. Topics of interest - Omnidirectional sensors for robotics - Omnidirectional vision for mobile robots, flying robots and manipulators - Omnidirectional vision for robot navigation and safety - Omnidirectional vision for multi-robot teams (including RoboCup legues) - Omnidirectional visual odometry - Omnidirectional SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) - Omnidirectional vision in industrial robotics and automotive industry IMPORTANT DATES: Deadline for submission of paper: September 1st, 2008 Notification of acceptance: October 5, 2008 Submission of final camera ready papers: October 20, 2008 VENUE: The workshop will be held in the antique palace Campo San Salvador - San Marco, Venice, Italy (a conference site of the Telecom Italia http://www.telecomfuturecentre.it/) in the first days of November (TBD) The workshop will be co-located with SIMPAR 2008 (SIMULATION, MODELING and PROGRAMMING for AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS) conference http://www.simpar-conference.org/ Co-Chairs: Emanuele Menegatti, University of Padua, Italy Tomas Pajdla, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic Program Committee: Eduardo Bayro-Corrochano, CINVESTAV, Mexico Ryad Benosman, Univ. of Paris VI, France Vincenzo Caglioti , Politecnico di Milano, Italy Stefano Cagnoni, University of Parma Italy Kostas Daniilidis, University of Pennsylvania, USA Andrew Davison, Imperial College London, UK Horst-Michael Gross, University of Ilmenau, Germany Simon Lacroix, LAAS/CNRS, France Marc Pollefeys, Institute of Computational Sciences, ETH Zurich, Swiss Domenico Pratichizzo, University of Siena, Italy Jos? Gaspar, Instituto Superior T?cnico, Lisbon, Portugal Domenico Sorrenti, University of Milan, Italy Tinne Tuytelaars, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Yasushi Yagi, Osaka University, Japan. Primo Zingaretti, Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy ------------------------------------------ Emanuele Menegatti, Ph.D. Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory (IAS-Lab) Department of Information Engineering The University of Padua via ognissanti 72 I-35129 Padova - ITALY Skype: emanuele.menegatti Phone: ++39 049 827 7840 FAX: ++39 049 827 7826 http://www.dei.unipd.it/~emg ------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080530/bed23b61/attachment-0001.html From scarpin at ucmerced.edu Sat May 31 18:25:31 2008 From: scarpin at ucmerced.edu (Stefano Carpin) Date: Mon Jun 2 00:56:54 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Deadline extension -- International Conference on Simulation, Modeling and Programming for Autonomous Robots (SIMPAR) Message-ID: <4841FA8B.5050804@ucmerced.edu> *Due to multiple requests the submission deadline has been extended to June 12, 2008.* ================= CALL FOR PAPERS ================= First International Conference on SIMULATION, MODELING and PROGRAMMING for AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS (SIMPAR 2008) Telecom Future Center, Venice (Italy) November, 3-7, 2008 http://www.simpar-conference.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots (SIMPAR) has the objective to bring together researchers from academia and industry to identify and solve the key issues necessary to ease the development of robot software and boost a smooth shifting of results from simulated to real applications. Topics of interests include, but are not limited to: * 3D robot simulation * reliability, scalability and validation of robot simulation * simulated sensors and actuators * offline simulation of robot design * online simulation with real?time constraints * simulation with software/hardware?in?the-loop * middleware for robotics * modeling framework for robots and environments * testing and validation of robot control software * standardization for robotic services * communication infrastructures in distributed robotics * interaction between sensor networks and robots * human robot interaction * multirobot systems --------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT DATES Deadline for submission: June 12, 2008 (note new deadline) Proposals for Tutorials/Workshops: May 15, 2008 Notification of acceptance: July 25, 2008 Submission of camera?ready papers: August 25, 2008 Conference proceedings will be published in the Springer LNCS/LNAI series. --------------------------------------------------------------------- General Chair E. Pagello, University of Padua (Italy) International Program Co-Chairs O. von Stryck, Technische Universitaet Darmstadt (Germany) S. Carpin, University of California, Merced (USA) I. Noda, Nat. Inst. of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan) -- Stefano Carpin Assistant Professor School of Engineering University of California, Merced http://eng.ucmerced.edu/people/scarpin http://robotics.ucmerced.edu -- Stefano Carpin Assistant Professor School of Engineering University of California, Merced http://eng.ucmerced.edu/people/scarpin http://robotics.ucmerced.edu From saroj_pradhan2000 at rediffmail.com Sat May 31 21:04:58 2008 From: saroj_pradhan2000 at rediffmail.com (saroj kumar pradhan) Date: Mon Jun 2 00:57:11 2008 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Workshop on mechatronics and robotics Message-ID: <20080601040458.30617.qmail@f5mail-237-209.rediffmail.com> MHRD/ AICTE Sponsored SHORT TERM COURSE ON ?Mechatronics and Robotics? (July 12 ? 21, 2008) http://www.nitham.ac.in/summer/summer.htm at Mechanical Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, [H.P], 177005 http://www.nitham.ac.in *Important dates*  July 01, 2008             :           Last date for receiving application July 02, 2008              :           Notification about the selection July 05, 2008              :           Confirmation from the participants We look forward to receiving your application form. Thanks & Regards,   Dr. S. K. Pradhan(organizing committee member) We look forward to receiving your application form. Thanks & Regards,   Dr. S. K. Pradhan(organizing committee member) Dr. S. K. Pradhan Faculty, Room Number: 107, Mechanical Engineering Department, N.I.T.,Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, INDIA, 177005. Phone 911972254740(0), 911972254741 (R) 919816797849(M), e.mail: saroj_pradhan2000@yahoo.com skpradhan@nitham.ac.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://duerer.usc.edu/pipermail/robotics-worldwide/attachments/20080601/cb61eae3/attachment.html From elrob at fgan.de Wed May 28 02:41:42 2008 From: elrob at fgan.de (elrob) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 11:41:42 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Information regarding official ELROB websites Message-ID: <483D28D6.1080601@fgan.de> Dear Roboticists, there has been a change in regards to the ELROB websites! _Official ELROB websites are ONLY_: 1. www.elrob.org (main site) 2. www.m-elrob.eu (military ELROB) 3. www.c-elrob.eu) (civil ELROB) The URL elrob2006.org is no longer owned by European Robotics and does not legally (re-)present any ELROB content. Please update you links and bookmarks! kind regards Frank E. Schneider