From scheding at acfr.usyd.edu.au Sat Aug 1 02:34:28 2009 From: scheding at acfr.usyd.edu.au (Steve Scheding) Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 19:34:28 +1000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] 2nd CFP: Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation Message-ID: 2nd Call For Participation: 2009 Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation 2-4 December 2009 Sydney, Australia http://www.araa.asn.au/acra/acra2009/ Dear Roboticists, The 2009 Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation (ACRA'09) will be held at the Sydney University, during 2-4 December 2009. Please distribute this to your colleagues and students. The important dates are: ---------------------------------------------------- Submission of papers: 4 September 2009 Notification of acceptance: 5 October 2009 Camera ready papers due: 6 November 2009 ACRA 2009: 2-4 December 2009 ---------------------------------------------------- We hope to see you in Sydney in December. Dr. Steve Scheding ACRA 2009 General Chair From amenezes at umich.edu Sat Aug 1 19:18:59 2009 From: amenezes at umich.edu (Amor Menezes) Date: Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:18:59 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: Robotica - Special Issue on "Robotic Self-X Systems" Message-ID: <20090801221859.71425exsa4v3qh0k@web.mail.umich.edu> Call For Papers: Robotica, Cambridge Journals Special issue on "Robotic Self-X Systems" Scope: Self-X systems are systems that are capable of self-assembly, self-organization, self-reconfiguration, self-repair, self-replication, or self-reproduction. The past 25 years have seen the development of several robotic self-X systems, often inspired by John von Neumann's seminal efforts on self-reproducing automata in the late 1940s. The field of Robotic Self-X Systems holds immense promise for advances in such diverse areas as autonomous manufacturing, bioengineering, evolutionary software, and space colonization. Theoretical and experimental works in this field of Robotic Self-X Systems are invited for a special issue of Robotica. The issue will balance novel papers on the hardware, planning, and control aspects of example systems. One of the strengths of self-X systems is their potential ability to respond to uncertain environments and execute a variety of tasks. Hence, contributions that analyze the response of robotic self-X systems to partial system failure and uncertain or changing environments are especially welcomed. Technologies that allow such systems to operate optimally in the presence of uncertainty, adapt to changes in the external environment, and respond rapidly to applied disturbances and disruptions to the internal system states are important because systems equipped with these advances can learn, adapt, evolve, and achieve resiliency to large-scale environment or state variations. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): * Morphology variations in self-assembling systems to accomplish changing goals. * System adaptation through repeated self-organization. * Scalability of hardware and control algorithms in self-reconfigurable systems. * Learning and minimization of module self-repair. * Self-replication in unstructured environments. * Evolutionary behaviors that result from self-reproduction. * Coordination between different types of self-X systems. Important Dates: * Submission Deadline: November 1, 2009 * Review Decision: January 1, 2010 * Final Submission: March 1, 2010 * Expected Publication: May 1, 2010 Submission: Authors are strongly encouraged to notify the guest editors of their intention to submit a paper. Manuscripts that are submitted to Robotica in a single-column double-spaced format should typically be 40 pages or less, and between 8,000 and 12,000 words. The journal website is: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=ROB The submission website is: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/robotica Instructions are available at: http://assets.cambridge.org/ROB/ROB_ifc.pdf Guest Editors: Pierre T. Kabamba kabamba at umich.edu Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan Amor A. Menezes amenezes at umich.edu Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan From russt at mit.edu Sun Aug 2 12:08:44 2009 From: russt at mit.edu (Russ Tedrake) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 15:08:44 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Positions available at the MIT Robot Locomotion Group Message-ID: <03933A7F-C4E1-4DAD-80FE-EDADCA258C63@mit.edu> The MIT Robot Locomotion Group ( http://groups.csail.mit.edu/ locomotion/ ) currently has a number of positions available. Position: Postdoc in Motion Planning for Robust Manipulation (position is joint with Leslie Kaelbling and Tomas Lozano-Perez) We are seeking exceptional candidates for a postdoctoral position in motion planning for manipulation, to work jointly with Russ Tedrake, Leslie Kaelbling, and Tomas Lozano-Perez. The position will involve research and algorithm development for robust manipulation planning under uncertainty, as well as working with a team to implement these algorithms on a pair of robotic arms for applications to a logistics scenario for the US Army. Applicants should have a Ph.D. in computer science, electrical or mechanical engineering, or a related field. Hands-on experience with robotic arms is a plus. Funding for the position is currently for the 2009-2010 academic year, with possibility of extension. Position: Robotics Software Engineer We are seeking exceptional candidates to participate in software development for the robust manipulation project. The selected individual will develop and debug computer code to interface with a pair of robotic arms and a variety of sensors and will aid in implementing advanced motion planning algorithms on this platform. Applications should have a B.S. or higher in computer science or related engineering field. Extensive programming experience (4+ years) in MATLAB and C++. Must work effectively in a team (with students). The ideal candidate will have a strong grasp of linear algebra, and experience with planning algorithms. Further background in dynamics, control and robotics is a strong plus. Postdoctoral positions in feedback motion planning and control. We are seeking exceptional candidates for a number of positions relating to feedback motion planning using direct computation of Lyapunov functions with applications to legged locomotion on rough terrain and supermaneuverable UAV flight. Ideal candidates would have a strong background in rigorous mathematical control theory and optimization for nonlinear systems, and interest in applying these concepts to experiments with very dynamic robots. To apply for any of these positions, please email Russ Tedrake ( russt at mit.edu ) with a cover letter describing your research background and career plans, a resume or CV, and the names and contact information for at least three references. From kyamane at disneyresearch.com Sun Aug 2 18:22:59 2009 From: kyamane at disneyresearch.com (Katsu Yamane) Date: Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:22:59 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] 2nd CfP: WS on Computer Vision for Humanoid Robots in Real Environments at ICCV2009 Message-ID: <20090802205515.8686.1B3C6057@disneyresearch.com> ----- Second Call for Poster Presentations ----- First IEEE Workshop on Computer Vision for Humanoid Robots in Real Environments in conjunction with ICCV 2009 September 27, 2009, Kyoto, Japan Updates - invited spearker list - proposal of Special Issue at IEEE Transactions on Robotics under review Objectives The goal of this workshop is to bring together experts from the fields of computer vision and robotics that are working on humanoid robots with vision as one of the primary modalities. Topics of interest include and are not limited to: * Human Robot Interaction * Grasping and Manipulation * Learning by Demonstration * Task Learning for Robots * Activity Recognition and Discovery for Robot * Humanoid Navigation in Real Environments * Vision Devices and Systems for Robot Applications * Application of Humanoid Robots (Indoor/Outdoor, Entertainment) Researchers from the robotics community are particularly encouraged to attend. This is the first attempt at a workshop that crosses from Humanoids Research to Computer Vision Research. Workshop Format The workshop will consist of about six invited talks as well as open poster presentations by the attendees. Every attendee is invited to bring a poster describing the work to facilitate open discussions among the attendees. Those who plan to present a poster are recommended to send the title and presenter’s name, affiliation and email address to Dr. Katsu Yamane (kyamane at disneyresearch.com) by August 31, 2009. This information will be used only to estimate the number of posters and there is no review process for the workshop. The poster format will be posted on the workshop website in early September. We are also proposing a special issue in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (http://www.ieee-ras.org/tro) on related topics. Call for papers will appear on the Transactions website once the proposal is accepted. Confirmed Invited Speakers - Minoru Asada (Osaka University) - Gary Bradski (Willow Garage) - Masatoshi Ishikawa (University of Tokyo) - Shunsuke Kudoh (University of Tokyo) - Takeo Kanade (Carnegie Mellon University) - Erhan Oztop (ATR) - Philippe Soueres (LAAS/CNRS) Organizers - Irfan Essa (Georgia Tech) - Atsushi Nakazawa (Osaka University) - Siddhartha Srinivasa (Intel Research) - Rahul Sukthankar (Intel Research) - Katsu Yamane (Disney Research, Pittsburgh) For more information, see workshop webpage: http://humanoidscv.ime.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp/ ICCV 2009 webpage: http://www.iccv2009.org/ or contact Dr. Yamane (kyamane at disneyresearch.com) directly. ---- Katsu Yamane ---- Senior Research Scientist Disney Research, Pittsburgh ---- Adjunct Associate Professor The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University ---- 4615 Forbes Ave. Suite 420 Pittsburgh, PA 15213, U.S.A. e-mail: kyamane at disneyresearch.com phone: 1-412-688-3400 fax: 1-412-578-9727 From adriana.tapus at ensta.fr Mon Aug 3 02:46:18 2009 From: adriana.tapus at ensta.fr (Adriana Tapus) Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 11:46:18 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD/Postdoc position in Human-Robot Interaction UPMC/France In-Reply-To: <260969127.231421249292721591.JavaMail.root@zomail> Message-ID: <1814849823.231441249292778133.JavaMail.root@zomail> The Pierre and Marie Curie University ? Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (France) (http://www.robot.jussieu.fr/?op=view_page&id=2&page=Object&lang=en)(an English language research institute) is soliciting applications for a Postdoctoral position (2 years appointment) or a PhD scholarship. The selected candidate will be part of the ?ROBADOM: Impact of a robot ?butler? at home on psychological and cognitive state of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment?, a 3 year project. The candidates for the PhD position are expected to have an Engineering MSc degree (EE, CS or Physics/Maths). The candidates for the postdoctoral position are required a PhD degree in Robotics/Computer Science with a strong background in machine learning, human-machine systems, HRI, and/or cognitive modeling. Strong programming skills in C, C++, MATLAB or equivalent are also required. Applicants demonstrating excellence in other related areas are encouraged to apply. International applications are encouraged and will receive logistic support with visa issues. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. Salaries will be dependent on experience and will be in the range 25k-40k Euros per year excluding additional pension, health, etc benefits. For further information contact Asst. Prof. Adriana Tapus (tapus at ensta.fr) and Asst. Prof. Mohamed Chetouani (mohamed.chetouani at upmc.fr). Applications, including cover letter, CV, and the contact information for at least three references should be emailed to Asst. Prof. Adriana Tapus and Asst. Prof. Mohamed Chetouani by September 1st, 2009. From marko at robo.fe.uni-lj.si Tue Aug 4 01:45:25 2009 From: marko at robo.fe.uni-lj.si (Marko Munih) Date: Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:45:25 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IEEE TNSRE Special Issue on Bio-Coopertative Control Message-ID: <4A77F525.3080905@robo.fe.uni-lj.si> Dear colleagues, may we invite you to submit a paper to our special theme issue (see http://tnsre.bme.jhu.edu/pdfs/rbpp.pdf, http://tnsre.bme.jhu.edu/): CALL FOR PAPERS for a Special Theme Issue of the IEEE TNSRE on Rehabilitation via Bio-Cooperative Control of Mechanical, Physiological and Presence States in Humans organized by Robert Riener & Marko Munih Topics ? Assist-as-needed strategies for rehabilitation robots ? Subject-centered control of neuroprostheses systems ? Adaptive Automation of virtual environments ? Control of heart rate during locomotion or exercise ? Interactive control of presence and psycho-physiological states ? Classification and monitoring of sleepiness ? Shared human-robot control Schedule ? April 1, 2009: Call ? Oct. 1, 2009: Deadline for submissions ? Dec. 1, 2009: Completed first review ? Feb. 1, 2010: Completion final revisions ? April 1, 2010: Publication Kind regards Marko Munih & Robert Riener PS: Feel free to forward this announcement to anybody else who might be interested. -- ============================================== Prof. Dr. Marko Munih Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana Trzaska 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia t: +386 1 4768 219, f: +386 1 4768 239 mailto: marko[at]robo.fe[.]uni-lj[.]si URL: http://robo.fe.uni-lj.si ================================================ Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert Riener Sensory-Motor Systems Lab ------------------------------------------------ ETH Zurich Department of Mechanical & Process Engineering Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems TAN E 4, Tannenstrasse 1, CH-8092 Zurich Phone: +41-44-632 66 79 /-632 59 17 Fax: +41-44-632 18 76 riener at mavt.ethz.ch http://www.sms.mavt.ethz.ch ------------------------------------------------ University Hospital Balgrist, SCI Center Forchstr. 340, CH-8008 Zurich Tel.: +41-44-386 37 37 rriener at paralab.balgrist.ch ================================================ From comport at i3s.unice.fr Tue Aug 4 08:29:01 2009 From: comport at i3s.unice.fr (Andrew Comport) Date: Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:29:01 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD position URGENT - Multi-view SLAM for the control of space robots - CNRS-I3S, Sophia Antipolis, France Message-ID: <4A7853BD.9030105@i3s.unice.fr> The computer vision and robotics group at the CNRS-I3S, Sophia-Antipolis, France is seeking an outstanding PhD candidate for a CNRS funded scholarship. Candidates are asked to apply rapidly as the project should begin in October 2009. The position is under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Comport and Professor Tarek Hamel and is associated with a project developing new techniques in real-time Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) using multi-view computer vision. This project will focus on applying these techniques to Space Exploration in collaboration with Thales Alenia Space. This will involve the study of autonomous navigation of space robots in unknown environments and safe landing. The primary part of this study concerns developing a visual perception system that localises the spacecraft with respect to reference bodies and performs visual servoing to achieve environment mapping and safe landing. The interest here will be to use the theory of multi-view differential geometry to perform closed-loop visual servoing control. It will be necessary to develop an analytic relationship between the movement of the space vehicle and the movement of external bodies such as asteroids and planets perceived by the visual sensors. This will also include identifying pertinent control parameters that adhere to a rigorous set of criterion (robustness, stability, precision, efficiency) along with the choice of technical constraints such as the optimal placement of the cameras. In particular, it will be of interest to develop a global task function which allows the aircraft to behave correctly in accordance with the online dynamics (for example, the movement of an asteroid), changing illumination conditions (according to the luminosity and the visibility), perturbations (such as varying temperatures) or large differences in perceived scale of the environment. The second part will involve developing algorithms for mapping the environment both in an off-line learning phase and an online update phase. The former case will allow to reduce the computational complexity of the online problem by performing the bulk of the computational effort off-line. This will involve creation of a navigational framework that allows the creation of image-based maps within which a robot is to execute a global task. Given a set of training measurements, task planning consists in constructing optimal representations of these maps in such a way that localisation and control of the aircraft may be perform precisely whilst remaining invariant to dynamic changes in the environment. The online map will be updated and integrated into the control objective when new and better quality measurements become available such as during a landing phase where higher resolution images are available closer to the ground. The candidates for the PhD position are expected to have an Engineering MSc degree (EE, CS or Physics/Maths). Strong programming skills in C, C++, MATLAB or equivalent are required and experience in computer vision and robotics is desirable. Applicants demonstrating excellence in other related areas are encouraged to apply. International applications are encouraged and will receive logistic support with visa issues. The salary is 1757 Euro/month gross and will be indexed with inflation. A detailed description of this position can be found : - in english: http://www.i3s.unice.fr/~comport/sujet_these/these_i3s_comporthamel_09_en.pdf - in french: http://www.i3s.unice.fr/~comport/sujet_these/these_i3s_comporthamel_09_fr.pdf If you are interested in this position please contact : Dr. Andrew Comport - comport at i3s.unice.fr Professor Tarek Hamel - hamel at i3s.unice.fr and join a CV and a motivation letter. -- --------------------------------- Dr. Andrew Comport, Laboratoire I3S-CNRS, 2000, route des Lucioles, 06903 Sophia Antipolis, France T?l. +33 4 92 94 27 73 Fax : +33 4 92 94 28 98 http://www.i3s.unice/~comport/ From n-ando at aist.go.jp Tue Aug 4 18:38:28 2009 From: n-ando at aist.go.jp (Ando Noriaki) Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 10:38:28 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IROS2009 OpenRTM-aist-1.0 Tutorial Message-ID: Dear Colleagues, -------------------------------------------------------------------------- IROS2009 OpenRTM-aist-1.0 Tutorial - October 11 2009 at St. Louis, MO, USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Introduction to RT-Middleware (OpenRTM-aist) A tutorial about OpenRTM-aist is planned for October 11, 2009, as a full-day tutorial of IROS2009 that is held in St. Louis, MO, USA. This full-day tutorial will consist of a series of talks covering several topics concerning RT-Middleware, OpenRTM-aist and development of robot software useng these technologies. RT-Middleware is a framework design for distributed intelligent systems. The core concept of RT-Middleware is the RT-Component, a software component that conforms to a known interface style for interaction with the framework. OMG issued the "Robot Technology Component Specification" in April 2008, and it is available in public on the OMG website. * Motivation and Objectives The objective of the tutorial is to provide you (robotics researchers and robotics professionals) with information about OMG Robotic Technology Component specification, OpenRTM-aist robot software development, and to hold discussions about the Robot Technology (RT) Middleware software framework for robotics and the similar and preceding activities around the world. OpenRTM-aist is available at http://www.openrtm.org/. RT-Middleware tutorials have been given in Japan several times over the past several years, but so far no tutorials have been given in English to the international research community. IROS provides the ideal opportunity to do so. * Agenda (Tentative) 10:00-10:30: Part 1: OpenRTM-aist-1.0 Outline: An outline of RT Middleware; OMG standardisation and the RT Component standard; OpenRTM-aist-1.0; the cooperative platform of NEDO's Future Robot Technology Development project, "OpenRT Platform." 10:30-11:00: Part 2: Using RTCBuilder and RTSystemEditor Outline: Creating RT Components using RTCBuilder and integrating them into a complete system using RTSystemEditor. 11:15-12:00: Part 3: Component development practice 1 Outline: How to install and test OpenRTM. In preparation for the afternoon's development practice, install OpenRTM and perform simple tests using the sample components. 13:00-17:00: Part 4: Component development practice 2 Outline: Practice creating RT Components for OpenRTM-aist using RTCBuilder. Then, integrate the components into an RT system using RTSystemEditor. - Capacity about 20 - Fee Member $120 (Student Member $70) Non-member $150 (Student Non-member $80) - Registration available from IROS2009 registration site. See the following web page for details. IROS2009 http://www.iros09.mtu.edu/ IROS2009 Tutorials http://www.iros09.mtu.edu/index.php/Workshops/Tutorials OpenRTM-aist website http://www.openrtm.org IROS2009 Tutorial http://www.is.aist.go.jp/rt/OpenRTM-aist/html-en/Training.html Looking forward to meeting you in St. Louis, Best Regards Tetsuo Kotoku Noriaki Ando Geoffrey Biggs ---- Noriaki Ando, Ph.D. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Intelligent Systems Research Institute Tsukuba Central 2, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568 JAPAN. TEL: +81-29-861-5981 FAX: +81-29-861-5971 e-mail: n-ando at aist.go.jp, n-ando at ieee.org From raj.madhavan at nist.gov Wed Aug 5 11:36:49 2009 From: raj.madhavan at nist.gov (Raj Madhavan) Date: Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:36:49 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PerMIS'09 Call for Participation Message-ID: <4A79D141.9070309@nist.gov> Please include the following announcement in the next posting. Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 2009 Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems (PerMIS'09) Workshop http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/PerMIS_2009/ September 21-23, 2009 NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. General Chair Elena Messina, NIST Program Chair Raj Madhavan, ORNL/NIST The Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems workshop is the only one of its kind dedicated to defining measures and methodologies of evaluating performance of intelligent systems. Started in 2000, the PerMIS series focuses on applications of performance measures to practical problems in commercial, industrial, homeland security, and military applications. It has proved to be an excellent forum for discussions and partnerships, dissemination of ideas, and future collaborations between researchers, graduate students, and practitioners from industry, academia, and government agencies. The main theme of the ninth iteration of the workshop, PerMIS?09, seeks to address the question: "Does performance measurement accelerate the pace of advancement for intelligent systems?" In addition to the main theme, as in previous years, the workshop will focus on applications of performance measures to practical problems in commercial, industrial, homeland security, and military applications. Topic areas include, but are not limited to: * Defining and measuring aspects of a system: The level of autonomy Human-robot interaction Collaboration & coordination Taxonomies Biologically inspired models * Evaluating components within intelligent systems: Sensing and perception Knowledge representation, world models, ontologies Planning and control Learning and adapting Reasoning * Infrastructural support for performance evaluation: Testbeds and competitions for intercomparisons Instrumentation and other measurement tools Simulation and modeling support * Technology readiness measures for intelligent systems * Benchmarks and applied performance measures in various domains, e.g., Industrial and manufacturing systems Intelligent transportation systems Emergency response robots (e.g., search and rescue, bomb disposal) Homeland security systems Defense robotics Intelligent systems for hazardous environments (e.g., nuclear remediation) Smart grid Space robotics Medical robotics & assistive devices PLENARY ADDRESSES * David Bruemmer, Idaho National Labs: Measuring the Benefits of Intelligent Behavior for Robotic Threat Detection * Paul Cohen, University of Arizona: Against Sophistication: Why Worry About Performance Assessment * Raffaello D'Andrea, ETH Zurich: Towards a Ten Thousand Mobile Robot Warehouse * Ben Kuipers, Univeristy of Michigan: Evaluating the Robot Cognitive Mapper * Tom Mitchell, Carnegie Mellon University: How does Brain Activity Represent Word Meanings? (Banquet Speaker) * Lora Weiss, Georgia Institute of Technology: Assessing Autonomous Systems As They Evolve SPECIAL SESSIONS * SS1 Test and Evaluation of Unmanned and Autonomous Systems * SS2 Performance Metrics for Sustainable Manufacturing * SS3 TRANSTAC: Performance Evaluation of Speech Translation Systems for Military Applications * SS4 Is an Agent Theory of Mind (ToM) Valuable for Adaptive, Intelligent Systems? * SS5 Performance Measurements Towards Improved Forklift Safety SPONSORS NIST, DARPA, IEEE Technical Committee on Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Robotic and Automation Systems (TC-PEBRAS), IEEE Washington Section Robotics and Automation Society Chapter, and in-cooperation with the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence REGISTRATION http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/PerMIS_2009/registration.htm (Deadline Sept. 14th) -- Raj Madhavan, Ph.D. Intelligent Systems Division National Institute of Standards and Technology 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8230 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230. Tel: (301) 975-2865 Fax: (301) 990-9688 URL: aser.ornl.gov/madhavan/ & www.nist.gov/mel/isd/ks/madhavan.cfm From nakajima at mein.nagoya-u.ac.jp Thu Aug 6 03:33:27 2009 From: nakajima at mein.nagoya-u.ac.jp (Masahiro Nakajima) Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:33:27 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ***Post Doc position in Fukuda Laboratory, Department of Micro-Nano Systems Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan Message-ID: <4A7AB177.2090302@mein.nagoya-u.ac.jp> Post doc position for 12 months from October, 2009 -Please send your documents within two weeks- A post doc position is available in Prof. Fukuda Laboratory, Department of Micro-Nano Systems Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan. The applicant should have the technical field on Robotic Control; especially related on Robotic Manipulation, and Imaging Processing. The applicants should have a Dr. degree in mechanical, electrical or information science engineering. In order to apply candidates, please send us your CV, a letter of motivation, and a letter of recommendation to sect at mein.nagoya-u.ac.jp within two weeks (20th, August, 2009). ---------------------------------------------------------------- Fukuda Laboratory Department of Micro-Nano Systems Engineering, Nagoya University http://www.mein.nagoya-u.ac.jp/index.html E-mail: sect at mein.nagoya-u.ac.jp ----------------------------------------------------------------- From hanafiah at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp Fri Aug 7 16:36:01 2009 From: hanafiah at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp (Hanafiah Yussof) Date: Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:36:01 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IRIS2010--Reminder of Abstract Submission Dateline-- Message-ID: <200908072336.AA02535@P3C.nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp> [We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this email] ***International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors (IRIS2010)*** The dateline for abstract paper submission is September 15, 2009. Prospective authors are invited to submit an extended abstract of their proposed contributions electronically in PDF or MS Word format. Detailed instructions for abstract submission can be found on the conference website http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~iris_admin . Please submit your papers to: iris_admin at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp Accepted papers for IRIS2010 proceedings will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Computer Science by Science Publications. Journal of Computer Science is indexed by SCOPUS, IET, Thomson Gale, etc. and available in both online and print formats. We are also welcome proposals for special sessions and workshops. Sponsorship, exhibit and demonstration opportunities are also available. Please contact the conference secretary at hanafiah at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp for further details. ********************************************************************* _____________________________________________________________________ CALL FOR PAPERS International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors IRIS2010 http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~iris_admin March 8-9, 2010, Nagoya, Japan _____________________________________________________________________ *Aim and Scope* IRIS2010 is intended to provide technical forum and discussion related with robotics and sensors. The symposium is aimed to bring together students, researchers, scientists, engineers and practitioners to present their latest research findings, ideas, developments and applications related to the various aspects of developmental robots, robot applications, development of intelligent sensors, sensor networks, sensor application in robotics, human sensing, human psychophysics and human-robot interaction. Detailed covered topics can be found on the symposium website. IRIS 2010 will include keynote addresses by eminent scientists as well as special, regular and poster sessions. *Important Dates* September 15, 2009: Submission of abstract (Two pages of paper abstract including text, figures, tables and references) October 31, 2009: Notification of acceptance January 15, 2010: Submission of camera-ready papers (Four pages of final camera-ready papers) January 31, 2010: Early registration *Awards* IRIS2010 will feature the following awards: 1) Best Robotic Paper Award 2) Best Intelligent Sensor Paper Award *Journals* The authors of selected best papers will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers after the conference for possible publication at the following journals: 1) International Journal of Social Robotics (Springer publication) 2) International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems Email: iris_admin at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp, hanafiah at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp (Secretariat) Website: http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~iris_admin Best regards, Hanafiah Yussof Secretariat IRIS 2010 Nagoya University Japan http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~iris_admin ============================================================= Dr. Hanafiah Yussof JSPS Posdoctoral Fellow Nagoya University Graduate School of Information Science Department of Complex Systems Science Furo-cho Chikusa-ku Nagoya 464-8601, Japan E-mail: hanafiah at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp hanafi3013 at hotmail.com Tel: +81-52-789-4251, Fax: +81-52-789-4800 or 3129 http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ohka_lab2/index_eng.html ============================================================= *************************[ CALL FOR PAPERS ]***************************** 2010 International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors IRIS2010 8-9 March 2010, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~iris_admin ************************************************************************* From kosuge at irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp Mon Aug 10 01:10:22 2009 From: kosuge at irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp (Kazuhiro Kosuge) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:10:22 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Nominations "IROS Harashima Award, for Innovative Technologies" Message-ID: <4A7FD5EE.4010406@irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp> Call for Nominations IROS Harashima Award for Innovative Technologies The IROS Harashima Award for Innovative Technologies is established by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, the Robotics Society of Japan, and the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers to honor Professor Fumio Harashima, the founding chair of the IROS conferences. The Harashima Award will recognize outstanding contributions of an individual of the IROS community who has pioneered activities in robotics and intelligent systems. This is an annual award starting from last year. To propose a candidate, please submit a letter of recommendation, which should summarize the candidate's qualifications for the award, to the nomination committee chair, Kazuhiro Kosuge Professor Department of Bioengineering and Robotics Tohoku University kosuge at irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp by email before August 20th, 2009. The following is the detailed description of the award. Purpose: To honor Professor Fumio Harashima, the founding chair of the IROS conferences, by recognizing outstanding contributions of an individual of the IROS community who has pioneered activities in robotics and intelligent systems. Prize: $ 2000 and a plaque Eligibility: The recipient must have created a new research area and/or technology for intelligent robots and systems. The recipient must have presented his or her contribution in one or more past IROS conferences. Basis for Judging: Factors that will be considered are: a created area and/or technology for intelligent robots and systems, achievements for the advancement of the field of intelligent robots and systems, and activities in robotics and intelligent systems. Selection: The Section Committee (separate from the Nominations Committee) of the Harashima Award for innovative technologies will evaluate the nominations and make the selection. Presentation: Up to one award will be given annually at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. -- ========================================== Kazuhiro Kosuge IEEE RAS President Elect 2008-2009 IEEE Fellow, JSME Fellow, SICE Fellow Professor Department of Bioengineering and Robotics Graduate School of Engineering Tohoku University Aoba-yama 01, Sendai 980-8579, JAPAN Telephone +81-22-795-6914 Mobile Phone +81-90-2366-2566 Fascimile +81-22-795-6915 http://www.irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp/ _______________________________________________ robotics-worldwide mailing list robotics-worldwide at usc.edu http://duerer.usc.edu/mailman/listinfo/robotics-worldwide From kyrki at lut.fi Mon Aug 10 05:09:34 2009 From: kyrki at lut.fi (Ville Kyrki) Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:09:34 +0300 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Postdoctoral position in "Learning in Sensor-based Grasping" Message-ID: <1249906174.6020.12.camel@ti521525> Machine vision and Pattern Recognition Laboratory (MVPR) of the Department of Information Technology, Lappeenranta University of Technology is seeking A postdoctoral researcher (tutkijatohtori) in Learning in Sensor-based Grasping and Manipulation. The candidate will work in the context of European FP7 research project GRASP (www.grasp-project.eu). The focus of the research will depend on the background of the candidate and personal initiative. The research environment will offer possibilities for strong international collaboration. A candidate should hold a Ph.D. or equivalent or be a Ph.D. Student in the final stage of their studies. Suitable disciplines include Computer Science, Robotics, Automatic Control, Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and other related areas. Modelling expertise, especially probabilistic models, is considered an advantage. Candidates are also expected to be experienced with programming in C++ and Matlab. The appointment will be full time for a period of one year to two years. Further information: professor Ville Kyrki, email: kyrki(at)lut.fi (putting 'Postdoctoral Researcher' in the message title). Applications, including a CV, a letter of motivation, a list of publications, and the names and contact information (email) of at least two references, are to be submitted by 31st August 2009, 15:00 Finnish time (EET) by e-mail to kirjaamo(at)lut.fi or kyrki(at)lut.fi. This position was already announced earlier, but due to the extension of the application period due to University regulations, it is announced again. All applications received will be considered. --- Dr Ville Kyrki Department of Information Technology Lappeenranta University of Technology From wil at mech.utah.edu Sun Aug 9 15:49:43 2009 From: wil at mech.utah.edu (William Provancher) Date: Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:49:43 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Papers: Haptics Symposium 2010 Message-ID: <4A7F5287.2090305@mech.utah.edu> Please forgive the multiple postings. ************************************************* C A L L F O R P A P E R S 18th IEEE Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environments and Teleoperator Systems http://www.hapticssymposium.org/next_conference.htm ************************************************* IMPORTANT DATES *************** Paper & Ext. Abstracts Due: October 5, 2009 (firm) Notification: November 30, 2009 Demo Descriptions Due: January 4, 2010 Final papers due: January 6, 2010 Conference dates: March 25-26, 2010 LOCATION ********** Westin Hotel, in Waltham (Boston Area) Massachusetts, USA DESCRIPTION ************* The Haptics Symposium is a bi-annual, single-track conference that brings together researchers who are advancing the human science, technology and design processes underlying haptic (force and tactile) interaction systems. Our community spans the disciplines of biomechanics, psychology, neurophysiology, engineering, human-computer interaction and computer science. We solicit high-quality, original submissions in all areas of haptics including, but not limited to: - Psychophysics and perception - Biomechanics and motor control - Haptic interactions and their design - Haptic device design and dynamics - Haptic rendering and modeling - Control system design and analysis - Systems and networks involving haptic interactions - Application of the above, including areas such as education, rehabilitation, medicine, computer-aided design, skills training, computer games, driver controls, simulation and visualization SUBMISSION ************ Submissions are sought in the following categories, which are more fully described at: http://www.hapticssymposium.org/next_conference.htm#Submissions - Full papers (maximum 8 pages) - Extended Abstracts (maximum 4 pages) - Demonstrations - Commercial Exhibits NEW IN 2010: Extended Abstracts are eligible for oral presentation. SPONSORSHIP ************* The Haptics Symposium is sponsored by IEEE's Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee (VGTC) and Technical Committee on Haptics (TCH). It is held in conjunction with the 2010 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ************************ General Chairs - Karon MacLean - University of British Columbia, Canada - Allison Okamura - Johns Hopkins University, USA Local Arrangements - John Morrell - Yale University, USA - Greg Fischer - Worcester Polytechnic University, USA Publications - Cagatay Basodogan - Koc University, Turkey Demonstrations & Exhibits - Katherine Kuchenbecher - University of Philadelphia, USA - Mark Colton - Brigham Young University, USA Awards - Jaydev Desai - University of Maryland, USA Publicity - William Provancher - University of Utah, USA Sincerely, William Provancher 2010 Haptics Symposium Publicity Chair -- ________________________________________ William Provancher, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Utah 50 S. Central Campus Dr. 2136 Merrill Engineering Building Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-9208 wil at mech.utah.edu (801) 581-4119 http://www.eng.utah.edu/~wil/ ________________________________________ From icra10pc at grasp.upenn.edu Sun Aug 9 13:58:56 2009 From: icra10pc at grasp.upenn.edu (ICRA2010 Program Chair) Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 16:58:56 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Accepting Submissions for ICRA 2010: September 15, 2009 deadline Message-ID: <078A1D11-C3AC-41E0-A7C6-D3253B3A0F20@grasp.upenn.edu> 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) May 3-8, 2010 Anchorage, Alaska, USA http://www.icra2010.org The 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation will be held in Anchorage, Alaska, May 3 - 8, 2010. The theme of the conference is "50 Years of Robotics,? reflecting on the amazing achievements of the field and the broad impact of robotics and automation research, development and education. We are now accepting all submissions through Paper Plaza. ------------------------------------------------------------ IMPORTANT DATES Website open to all contributions: August 1, 2009 Submission of all contributions: September 15, 2009 (this is a strict deadline with no extensions) Notification of acceptance: January 7, 2010 All final contributions due: February 8, 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------ PAPERS Prospective authors should submit their papers electronically in PDF format. Six pages in the standard ICRA format are allowed for each paper, including figures. A maximum of two additional pages is permitted at extra charge. Each paper can be accompanied by a short (1-2 minute) video. Each accepted paper may also be accompanied by a hardcopy poster for display and presentation at the conference venue. Detailed instructions for paper submission via PaperPlaza are available at www.icra2010.org. INVITED SESSIONS Invited sessions on new topics or innovative applications will be considered, consisting of four to six related papers submitted through the regular review process. Prospective organizers should include a brief statement of purpose for the sessions as well as the abstracts of the papers to be included. VIDEOS Videos of 1.5 to 3 minutes illustrating new and exciting results are sought for special video sessions. Videos should be submitted via the PaperPlaza system. Details are available at www.icra2010.org. WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS Proposals for half-day or full-day tutorials and workshops should be submitted according to the instructions at www.icra2010.org. EXHIBITS There will be an exhibition site at the conference. Information for prospective exhibitors is available at www.icra2010.org. ROBOT CHALLENGES The conference will feature Robot Challenge Competitions, designed to encourage participation by teams working in diverse areas of robotics. More information is available at www.icra2010.org. ANCHORAGE Embraced by six mountain ranges and warmed by a maritime climate, Anchorage is alive year round with adventure, spectacular wilderness, recreation, seasonal festivities, and sporting events. See links from www.icra2010.org for more information. Vijay Kumar ICRA 2010 Program Chair icra10pc at seas.upenn.edu http://icra2010.grasp.upenn.edu/ From Gabriel.Gruener at csem.ch Thu Aug 13 04:07:48 2009 From: Gabriel.Gruener at csem.ch (GRUENER Gabriel) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:07:48 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Position available - Expert R&D Engineer in Robotics Message-ID: <4A83F404.3010803@csem.ch> Expert R&D Engineer in Robotics Centre Suisse d'Electronique et Microtechnique Alpnach, Switzerland The Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM, http://csem.ch) is an independent, private, non-profit Swiss company for applied research, including technology, strategy and innovation consulting, focused on generating value for a sustainable world. The Microassembly and Robotics group located in Alpnach has an immediate opening for an Expert R&D Engineer in Robotics that will lead and contribute to our R&D projects in microassembly, industrial production systems and robotic technology platforms. The ideal candidate will have: * An M.S. or Ph.D. from a well-recognized institution in robotics, mechatronics and control (or equivalent training and experience). Exceptional candidates in related fields may also be considered. * Experience in the acquisition and management of projects involving the design, development and implementation of specific robot kinematics as well as the implementation and testing of software algorithms for control of industrial robot applications. * The necessary skills to build prototypes by herself or himself. * A multi-disciplinary team-player, a creative person able to work on several projects in parallel. Complete information on this opening: http://csem.ch/site/card.asp?nav=2572&sub=2576&title=Jobs CSEM offers competitive salaries and great employee benefits: http://csem.ch/site/card.asp?nav=2475&sub=2480&title=Working+environment For further information contact Philipp Glocker (+41 41 672 7517) or Gabriel Gruener (+41 41 672 7538). You may send your complete application including letter of intent, CV and 3 references to jobs at csem.ch From adriana.tapus at ensta.fr Thu Aug 13 11:15:50 2009 From: adriana.tapus at ensta.fr (Adriana Tapus) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:15:50 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] HRI 2010: CFP Workshops and Tutorials In-Reply-To: <1434422191.334021250187304538.JavaMail.root@zomail> Message-ID: <504374011.334041250187350053.JavaMail.root@zomail> Dear all, We would like to invite you to organize a Workshop or Tutorial at HRI2010. Tutorials and workshops will be held on March 2, one day before the main technical sessions. Participants in tutorials and workshops are required to register for the main conference as well. Submission instructions for organizers follow below. All tutorial/workshop proposals must be submitted by September 27th 2009. The proposals submitted will be subjected to a review process. Tutorials We invite experts in different areas to propose half-day or full-day tutorials relevant to the HRI2010 theme. Examples of topics are state-of-the-art overviews of particular HRI areas or design/research methods. Interdisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome. Please submit the following information (up to 2 pages) to the tutorial/workshop chairs, Selma Sabanovic (email: ssabanov at indiana.edu) and Adriana Tapus (email: tapus at ensta.fr), no later than September 27th 2009: ? Title of tutorial ? Tutorial speaker(s), including short CV?s ? Motivation or background ? Target audience or prerequisites ? Overview of tutorial including topics covered ? Links and references relevant to the tutorial If the tutorial is accepted, the submitted material will be used for advertising it as part of HRI2010. Workshops Workshops are an opportunity for participants to meet other members of the HRI community, to discuss problems, and to present their ideas around a common topic. The workshops can be half-day or full-day, and could cover any topic relevant to HRI research, development, or education. Interdisciplinary and user-centered approaches are particularly welcome. The format of the workshop may vary depending on the topic and audience. The responsibilities of workshop organizers include: (1) setting up a website for the workshop that will be linked to the HRI?2010 website; (2) organizing a high-quality peer review process of workshop contributions as well as decision of acceptance/rejection, and (3) (when applicable) putting together proceedings of the workshop consisting of accepted papers and/or materials. Please send your workshop proposal in the following form to Selma Sabanovic (email: ssabanov at indiana.edu) and Adriana Tapus (email: tapus at ensta.fr) no later than September 27th 2009: ? Title of workshop ? Organizer(s), including contact information and short CV?s ? Abstract of about 250 words with suggested length and format of the workshop ? Prerequisites for participation ? Required format of workshop contributions ? Plan for documentation of the workshop ? List of potential attendees ------------------------------ Workshop / Tutorials Co-Chairs Selma Sabanovic (Indiana University, Bloomington) and Adriana Tapus (ENSTA - ParisTech, France) From bushsf at research.ge.com Sat Aug 15 16:15:05 2009 From: bushsf at research.ge.com (Bush, Stephen F (GE, Research)) Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:15:05 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP Elsevier Journal on Ad Hoc Networks Special Issue on "Nanoscale Networking" Message-ID: <328DC56CE839BA49BC31BEE66564C1EF0825F84E@CINMLVEM12.e2k.ad.ge.com> s Ad Hoc Networks Special Issue on "Nanoscale Networking" "There is plenty of room at the bottom" as Feynman presciently stated about the atomic scale, and communication is needed down there. There is a growing trend of results from diverse approaches that both leverages and overcomes the environment at the nanoscale. These include molecular motors, random carbon nanotube networks, calcium signaling, and quantum networking to name a few. The goal of this issue is to focus upon ad hoc networking at the nanoscale and thus is not seeking static system-on-chip results unless they are in support of ad hoc nanoscale network approaches. The following list provides example topics (in no particular order): * Quantum Communication Networks: Hybrid classical quantum communication networks, repeaters, teleportation, entanglement swapping, nanoscale photon detectors, quantum dot networks, networks and quantum robotics, etc... * Applications for Nano-Networks: Wireless nanoscale transmitters and receivers, nano-sensors and actuators, nanorobotics, medical and in-vivo imaging and sensing, lab-on-a-chip, swarm micro- and nano-inspection, embedding sensing, etc... * Modeling, Simulation, Standards and Architectural Aspects of Nano-Networks: Physical characterization/modeling of nano-scale interconnects and devices, fault-tolerant and reliability of nano-devices, self-healing properties of nano-networks, energy efficiency, bio-inspired aspects, etc... * Novel Information and Graph Theory Aspects of Nano-Networks: Network architectures and topologies, statistical mechanics approach to nano-communications, routing/addressing issues in nano-networks, nano-coding, applications of complex network theory, self-organization in nano-scale systems, modeling of nano/bio communication channels, etc... * Device Physics and Interconnects: Nano-technologies and devices for nanoscale biological and ad hoc network on-chip interconnects (calcium signaling, molecular motors, CNTs, graphene nano-ribbons, semic., metallic and DNA-templated nanowires), optical and wireless interconnects, etc... * Nano-Robotics: Communication systems and networking protocols for sub-inch robotic systems, including low-bandwidth coordination schemes for nano-robot teams and range and bearing devices for inter-robot relative positioning, etc... * Bio-nano Applications: Bio-micro/nanoelectronics, molecular scale chemical and biosensors, bio-MEMS technology, data and power management, nano-scale and molecular communications and information processing, Information theory analysis of biological communications, molecular computation using molecular cells, chemical computing, etc... The list is not restrictive - authors are encouraged to contact the editors before submitting a paper to determine whether the proposed submission is within the scope of this Special Issue. Prospective authors should prepare their manuscripts according to the guidelines in the Guide for Authors, found at http://ees.elsevier.com/adhoc, and submit them to the online submission and reviewing tool, at http://www.editorialmanager.com/comnet, choosing the Article Type: SI-Nanoscale Networking. Important Dates Submission deadline: Sep 4, 2009 Notification: Feb 12, 2010 Revisions due: May 7, 2010 Final version due: Jul 9, 2010 Publication date: 2nd half 2010 Guest Editor Stephen F Bush, IEEE Nano-Scale, Molecular, and Quantum Networking Committee Chair, (bushsf at research.ge.com) Please contact bushsf at research.ge.com with requests to join the www.comsoc.org/nano sub-committee. From jmh at cs.utah.edu Tue Aug 18 10:52:36 2009 From: jmh at cs.utah.edu (John Hollerbach) Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:52:36 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IJRR OnlineFirst articles for the period 31 July to 14 August 2009 Message-ID: <4A8AEA64.7010508@cs.utah.edu> New IJRR OnlineFirst articles have been made available (for the period 31 July to 14 August 2009): The Belief Roadmap: Efficient Planning in Belief Space by Factoring the Covariance Samuel Prentice and Nicholas Roy The International Journal of Robotics Research published 31 July 2009, 10.1177/0278364909341659 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909341659v2 Distributed Kinematic Motion Control of Multi-Robot Coordination Subject to Physical Constraints Youngshik Kim and Mark Minor The International Journal of Robotics Research published 14 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909343217 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909343217v1 Visual Tracking via Particle Filtering on the Affine Group Junghyun Kwon and Frank Chongwoo Park The International Journal of Robotics Research published 14 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909345167 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909345167v1 Biomechanically Optimized Distributed Tactile Transducer Based on Lateral Skin Deformation Qi Wang and Vincent Hayward The International Journal of Robotics Research published 14 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909345289 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909345289v1 Grasping Non-stretchable Cloth Polygons Matthew Bell and Devin Balkcom The International Journal of Robotics Research published 14 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909344634 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909344634v1 Robustly Stable Haptic Interaction Control using an Energy-bounding Algorithm Jong-Phil Kim and Jeha Ryu The International Journal of Robotics Research published 14 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909338770 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909338770v1 Growing Hidden Markov Models: An Incremental Tool for Learning and Predicting Human and Vehicle Motion Dizan Vasquez, Thierry Fraichard, and Christian Laugier The International Journal of Robotics Research published 14 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909342118 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909342118v1 Mimesis Model from Partial Observations for a Humanoid Robot Dongheui Lee and Yoshihiko Nakamura The International Journal of Robotics Research published 14 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909342282 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909342282v1 Stability Analysis of Passive Dynamic Walking of Quadrupeds C. David Remy, Keith W. Buffinton, and Roland Siegwart The International Journal of Robotics Research published 14 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909344635 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909344635v1 From esposito at usna.edu Thu Aug 20 06:06:20 2009 From: esposito at usna.edu (Joel Esposito) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:06:20 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Release of version 1.0 for the Matlab Toolbox for the iRobot Create (MTIC) Message-ID: <6F09F9E82E7E4C4AADE906273E45D108@dynamic.usna.edu> We are please to release Version 1.0 (2009) of MTIC, which provides a set of intuitive, high-level Matlab functions that allow you to control the iRobot Create and Roomba robots from a PC running Matlab. New since the Beta (2008) version are: * The addition of two new functions for navigation via dead reckoning * Several bug fixes and documentation updates * An improved serial communication protocol that substantially improves reliability More information and downloads at: http://www.usna.edu/Users/weapsys/esposito/roomba.matlab/ We welcome all user feedback at: esposito at usna.edu Assoc. Professor Joel M. Esposito Systems Engineering United States Naval Acamdey http://www.usna.edu/Users/weapsys/esposito/ From tunstel at ieee.org Thu Aug 20 21:20:29 2009 From: tunstel at ieee.org (Edward Tunstel) Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:20:29 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PerMIS'09 Call for Participation Message-ID: <5db382060908202120g4afe84fci68a988a63b360dae@mail.gmail.com> Please include the following announcement in the next posting. Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 2009 Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems (PerMIS'09) Workshop http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/PerMIS_2009/ September 21-23, 2009 NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. General Chair Elena Messina, NIST Program Chair Raj Madhavan, ORNL/NIST The Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems workshop is the only one of its kind dedicated to defining measures and methodologies of evaluating performance of intelligent systems. Started in 2000, the PerMIS series focuses on applications of performance measures to practical problems in commercial, industrial, homeland security, and military applications. It has proved to be an excellent forum for discussions and partnerships, dissemination of ideas, and future collaborations between researchers, graduate students, and practitioners from industry, academia, and government agencies. The main theme of the ninth iteration of the workshop, PerMIS'09, seeks to address the question: "Does performance measurement accelerate the pace of advancement for intelligent systems?" In addition to the main theme, as in previous years, the workshop will focus on applications of performance measures to practical problems in commercial, industrial, homeland security, and military applications. Topic areas include, but are not limited to: * Defining and measuring aspects of a system: The level of autonomy Human-robot interaction Collaboration & coordination Taxonomies Biologically inspired models * Evaluating components within intelligent systems: Sensing and perception Knowledge representation, world models, ontologies Planning and control Learning and adapting Reasoning * Infrastructural support for performance evaluation: Testbeds and competitions for intercomparisons Instrumentation and other measurement tools Simulation and modeling support * Technology readiness measures for intelligent systems * Benchmarks and applied performance measures in various domains, e.g., Industrial and manufacturing systems Intelligent transportation systems Emergency response robots (e.g., search and rescue, bomb disposal) Homeland security systems Defense robotics Intelligent systems for hazardous environments (e.g., nuclear remediation) Smart grid Space robotics Medical robotics & assistive devices PLENARY ADDRESSES * David Bruemmer, Idaho National Labs: Measuring the Benefits of Intelligent Behavior for Robotic Threat Detection * Paul Cohen, University of Arizona: Against Sophistication: Why Worry About Performance Assessment * Raffaello D'Andrea, ETH Zurich: Towards a Ten Thousand Mobile Robot Warehouse * Ben Kuipers, Univeristy of Michigan: Evaluating the Robot Cognitive Mapper * Tom Mitchell, Carnegie Mellon University: How does Brain Activity Represent Word Meanings? (Banquet Speaker) * Lora Weiss, Georgia Institute of Technology: Assessing Autonomous Systems As They Evolve SPECIAL SESSIONS * SS1 Test and Evaluation of Unmanned and Autonomous Systems * SS2 Performance Metrics for Sustainable Manufacturing * SS3 TRANSTAC: Performance Evaluation of Speech Translation Systems for Military Applications * SS4 Is an Agent Theory of Mind (ToM) Valuable for Adaptive, Intelligent Systems? * SS5 Performance Measurements Towards Improved Forklift Safety SPONSORS NIST, DARPA, IEEE Technical Committee on Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Robotic and Automation Systems (TC-PEBRAS), IEEE Washington Section Robotics and Automation Society Chapter, and in-cooperation with the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence REGISTRATION http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/PerMIS_2009/registration.htm (Deadline Sept. 14th) From lafrenz at in.tum.de Thu Aug 20 23:54:05 2009 From: lafrenz at in.tum.de (Reinhard Lafrenz) Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:54:05 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ECHORD opening event Munich, Sept. 4 Message-ID: <4A8E448D.5070308@in.tum.de> Dear colleagues, It is with great pleasure that we announce the ECHORD Opening Event Deutsches Museum, Ehrensaal Munich, Germany September 4, 2009, 10 am ? 4 pm We welcome robotic experts, scientists and practitioners, both from academia and industry who are interested in participating in ECHORD. The focus of this event will be on the exchange of ideas and partner search for ECHORD experimenters. Since the first call for experiments will be issued September 28, this event will be the perfect opportunity to discuss the procedural requirements with experts from ECHORD and get information on upcoming calls and the selection process. Moreover, there will be the chance to discuss equipment details with industry, to find common ground between researchers and industry, and for pairing up of applicants and research expertise. Speakers will include: ? Horst Forster - Director of Directorate E "Digital Content and Cognitive Systems", Directorate-General for "Information Society and Media", European Commission ? Prof. Dr. Roland Siegwart ? Autonomous Systems Lab , ETH, Z?rich ? Ulf-G?ran Norefors - Vice President ABB Automation Technologies, Sweden As the number of participants is limited, please register on our website before August 21. For more information on ECHORD and how to register for this event, please visit the web site www.echord.info Kind regards, Reinhard Lafrenz -- Dr. Reinhard Lafrenz Department of Informatics VI Robotics and Embedded Systems Tel: +49.(0)89.289.18136 Technische Universit?t M?nchen Fax: +49.(0)89.289.18107 Boltzmannstr. 3, 85748 Garching b. M?nchen Email: lafrenz at in.tum.de Germany http://www6.cs.tum.edu/Main/Lafrenz From enric.cervera at icc.uji.es Fri Aug 21 02:31:58 2009 From: enric.cervera at icc.uji.es (Enric Cervera) Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:31:58 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: IARP Workshop RISE 2010 Message-ID: <88920C85-8126-47E1-BF62-D370C0DD5AF7@icc.uji.es> Apologies for multiple postings. IARP Workshop on ?Robots for Risky Interventions and Environmental Surveillance-Maintenance? January, 20-21, Sheffield, UK The general objective of the International Advanced Robotics Programme (IARP) is to encourage development of advanced robotic systems that can dispense with human work for difficult activities in harsh, demanding or dangerous environments, and to contribute to the revitalization and growth of the world economy. Through this fourth workshop, the IARP working group RISE (Risky Intervention and Surveillance /Maintenance of the Environment) and the the European partners of the FW6/FW7-IST projects(a.o. View-Finder (aiming the assistance of fire-fighting/protection services) and Guardians (aiming the use of swarm of robots for Rescue assistance) organise dedicated sessions on next topics: - Inspection of fire or crisis grounds - CBRN-E threats - Map building and reconstruction - Networked crisis management tools - Human-Machine Interfaces - Remote controlled, semi-autonomous, autonomous robot navigation - Multi-robot cooperation - Swarm of robots - Crisis Management tools An abstract (approximately 300 words in English) should be received not later than October 15, 2009. Electronic submissions of the abstracts (Word , PS-format, PDF-files) should be mailed to: rise2010 at shu.ac.uk - Paper proposal deadline: October 15, 2008 - Final selection and invitation of participants: November 1, 2008 - Receipt of full-papers: November 13, 2008 Workshop inquiries to: Workshop ?Risky Interventions and Environmental Surveillance RISE 2010 Jacques Penders MERI, Sheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield, UK rise2010 at shu.ac.uk From jmh at cs.utah.edu Fri Aug 21 11:54:41 2009 From: jmh at cs.utah.edu (John Hollerbach) Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:54:41 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IJRR September 2009 special issue on Medical Robotics Message-ID: <4A8EED71.9010109@cs.utah.edu> A new issue of The International Journal of Robotics Research is available online: Special Issue: Medical Robotics Part I: 1 September 2009; Vol. 28, No. 9 The below Table of Contents is available online at: http://ijr.sagepub.com/content/vol28/issue9/?etoc Editorial: Special Issue on Medical Robotics Jaydev P. Desai and Nicholas Ayache The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1099-1100 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/28/9/1099 Robot-assisted Active Catheter Insertion: Algorithms and Experiments J. Jayender, R.V. Patel, and S. Nikumb The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1101-1117 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1101 Robot-assisted Tactile Sensing for Minimally Invasive Tumor Localization A.L. Trejos, J. Jayender, M.T. Perri, M.D. Naish, R.V. Patel, and R.A. Malthaner The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1118-1133 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1118 Design and Integration of a Telerobotic System for Minimally Invasive Surgery of the Throat Nabil Simaan, Kai Xu, Wei Wei, Ankur Kapoor, Peter Kazanzides, Russell Taylor, and Paul Flint The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1134-1153 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1134 A Force Feedback Teleoperated Needle Insertion Device for Percutaneous Procedures O. Piccin, L. Barb?, B. Bayle, M. de Mathelin, and A. Gangi The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1154-1168 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1154 MRI-based Medical Nanorobotic Platform for the Control of Magnetic Nanoparticles and Flagellated Bacteria for Target Interventions in Human Capillaries Sylvain Martel, Ouajdi Felfoul, Jean-Baptiste Mathieu, Arnaud Chanu, Samer Tamaz, Mahmood Mohammadi, Martin Mankiewicz, and Nasr Tabatabaei The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1169-1182 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1169 The RAVEN: Design and Validation of a Telesurgery System Mitchell J. H. Lum, Diana C. W. Friedman, Ganesh Sankaranarayanan, Hawkeye King, Kenneth Fodero, Rainer Leuschke, Blake Hannaford, Jacob Rosen, and Mika N. Sinanan The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1183-1197 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1183 A Compact Modular Teleoperated Robotic System for Laparoscopic Surgery Peter Berkelman and Ji Ma The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1198-1215 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1198 A High-performance Redundantly Actuated Parallel Mechanism for Ankle Rehabilitation J.A. Saglia, N.G. Tsagarakis, J.S. Dai, and D.G. Caldwell The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1216-1227 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1216 Development and Experimental Evaluation of Oral Rehabilitation Robot that Provides Maxillofacial Massage to Patients with Oral Disorders Hiroyuki Ishii, Hiroki Koga, Yuichi Obokawa, Jorge Solis, Atsuo Takanishi, and Akitoshi Katsumata The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1228-1239 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1228 A Robotic Neural Interface for Autonomous Positioning of Extracellular Recording Electrodes Michael T. Wolf, Jorge G. Cham, Edward A. Branchaud, Grant H. Mulliken, Joel W. Burdick, and Richard A. Andersen The International Journal of Robotics Research 2009;28 1240-1256 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/9/1240 From gini at cs.umn.edu Sat Aug 22 03:41:27 2009 From: gini at cs.umn.edu (gini at cs.umn.edu) Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:41:27 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CRA-W/CDC Robotics Workshop at Grace Hopper, October 1 Message-ID: <200908221041.FAA03286@caesar.cs.umn.edu> The workshop will provide coverage of cutting edge research in robotics and present career paths in robotics. The workshop is intended for students, specifically undergraduate considering options for graduate school and beginning graduate students looking for a research topic, but will also be of value to faculty working in robotics and faculty using robotics as a motivator for studying computer science. Program * 10:00-11:00 "Engineering Self-Organizing Systems", Radhika Nagpal, Harvard University * 11:15-12:15 "Living Better With Robots", Cynthia Breazeal, MIT * 3:15-4:15 Panel on "Career Paths in Robotics" Maria Gini, University of Minnesota; Sonia Chernova, Postdoc, MIT; Ashley Stroupe, JPL; Kristen Stubbs, iRobot * 4:30-5:30 "Challenges and Results of Multi-Robot and Multi-Human Systems", Manuela Veloso, Carnegie Mellon University When: Thursday October 1 Where: Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, Tucson, AZ Additional information at http://gracehopper.org/2009/ The workshop is open to anyone registered for the Grace Hopper Celebration. - maria ------------------------------------------------------------------ Maria Gini, Professor and Associate Head Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota 200 Union St SE, Room 4-192, Minneapolis, MN 55455 phone 612-625-5582 fax 612-625-0572 http://www.cs.umn.edu/~gini ------------------------------------------------------------------ From behnke at cs.uni-bonn.de Sat Aug 22 09:00:02 2009 From: behnke at cs.uni-bonn.de (Sven Behnke) Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:00:02 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD position at Fraunhofer IAIS Message-ID: <4A901602.2020407@cs.uni-bonn.de> Dear Colleagues, Fraunhofer IAIS in Sankt Augustin, Germany, has an immediate opening for a PhD student in the area of robotics. One possible topic could be the development of a compliant manipulator, and learning strategies for controlling it. Required is a diploma or masters degree in computer science or a related area as well as knowledge in robotics. Further details are posted here: https://jobs.fraunhofer.de/Vacancies/39756/Description Best regards, Sven Behnke. http://www.ais.uni-bonn.de/behnke From terry.huntsberger at jpl.nasa.gov Sat Aug 22 16:42:50 2009 From: terry.huntsberger at jpl.nasa.gov (Terry Huntsberger) Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:42:50 -0700 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] First CFP - JFR: Special Issue on State of the Art in Maritime Autonomous Surface and Underwater Vehicles Message-ID: This is the first Call for Papers for the Journal of Field Robotics Special Issue on State of the Art in Maritime Autonomous Surface and Underwater Vehicles. Special Issue on State of the Art in Maritime Autonomous Surface and Underwater Vehicles Special Issue Guest Editors: Terry Huntsberger, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Michael Keegan, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport Division & Robert Brizzolara, Office of Naval Research This Special Issue focuses on state-of-the-art developments in maritime autonomy and control for autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The maritime domain poses a number of challenges for the development of autonomy algorithms for these types of vehicles. Among the these challenges are the oftentimes low bandwidth or no communication links with a control station, no easy access to GPS information for localization in the case of AUVs, widely varying sea-state conditions, possible limited sensing capabilities due to power and volume constraints, and strong currents and winds. A previous (June 2007) Special Issue of the Journal of Field Robotics on AUVs concentrated on platforms, monitoring and characterization of maritime environments, and vehicle health management. The goal of this Special Issue is to publish outstanding results in the maturation and testing of the autonomy technologies for both autonomous sea surface and underwater vehicles that are currently being fielded through collaborations between university, industry and military. The concentration of the Special Issue will be on systems that have been tested in the field. List of topics ? Autonomy for coordinated operations between autonomous maritime vehicles ? Real-time, onboard optimization of planning & execution ? Autonomy for heterogeneous maritime vehicles ? Adaptive and/or variable levels of autonomy ? Maritime image understanding for domain awareness ? Higher-level autonomy algorithms in the decision- making and control loops ? Sensors and sensor processing algorithms/fusion for maritime vehicle autonomy ? Obstacle avoidance, and other GNC functions for autonomous navigation ? Human-machine interfaces for control of single and multiple maritime autonomous vehicles ? Biologically inspired approaches to intelligent autonomy for autonomous maritime vehicles ? Collaborative control of multiple heterogeneous autonomous vehicles ? Fleet management of autonomous vehicles operating under heterogeneous constraints on control and communication Authors are encouraged to submit multimedia attachments to the paper (data sets, models and videos) as a means of enhancing the submission. Important Dates: ? December 1, 2009 ? Submission of manuscripts ? March 1, 2010 ? Reviews sent to the authors ? June 1, 2010 ? Final manuscripts due for publication Details for manuscript submission can be found at: http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org/Home.html under the "Info for Authors" tab at the top of the page. ------------------------------------- Terry Huntsberger http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Terrance_Huntsberger MS 198-219 Jet Propulsion Laboratory 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA 91109 PH: (818) 354-5794 CELL: (818) 648-0645 FAX: (818) 393-5007 From denis at icmc.usp.br Mon Aug 24 06:57:03 2009 From: denis at icmc.usp.br (Denis Wolf) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:57:03 -0300 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Final CFP - ROBOT Track - ACM SAC 2010 Message-ID: <4A929C2F.50108@icmc.usp.br> ACM SAC 2010 - Final Call For Papers Track: Intelligent Robotic Systems (ROBOT) http://www.icmc.usp.br/~lrm/sac2010/ The 25th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2010) Sierre, Switzerland - March 22-26, 2010 http://www.acm.org/conferences/sac/sac2010/ For the past twenty-four years, the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing has been a primary gathering forum for applied computer scientists, computer engineers, software engineers, and application developers from around the world. For the third year, the ACM SAC will have a specific track on robotics. It aims to be a forum for researchers to share experiences, expose issues, and discuss about this exciting research field. Robotics is a multidisciplinary area of study that presents an enormous commercial and research potential. While industrial robotics covers the study, design, and use of robot systems for manufacturing, mobile robotics concerns about developing systems that are capable of making decisions and acting autonomously in real and unpredictable environments to accomplish determined tasks. In the last decade, technological advances made possible the development of very efficient sensors and electronic devices at affordable prices. This fact has great impact on robotics research, allowing the development of efficient and relatively cheap sensors and computing devices. It also allows robots to accomplish more complex tasks, posing new challenges to scientists and engineers. This track focuses on all aspects of robotics, including related areas and applications. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Rehabilitation Robotics Humanoid Robotics Underwater Robots Search and Rescue Robots Entertainment Robots Multi-robot Coordination Active Perception and Vision Coverage and Deployment Learning Autonomous systems Navigation Localization and Mapping Evolutionary Robotics Grasping Control Architectures and Programming Bio-Inspired Robots Aerial Robotics Contact Modeling and Touching Educational Robotics Smart Actuators Micro/nano robotics Embedded Systems architectures Reconfigurable robotic platforms Vision-based Systems Multi-robot systems Simulation Swarms Important dates: Sep. 8, 2009: Paper submissions Oct. 19, 2009: Author notification Nov. 2, 2009: Camera-Ready Copy Denis Wolf, Eduardo Marques, and Fernando Osorio Intelligent Robotics Systems (ROBOT) Track Chairs ACM Symposium on Applied Computing 2010 From hanafiah at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp Tue Aug 25 06:26:30 2009 From: hanafiah at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp (Hanafiah Yussof) Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:26:30 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Second CFP IRIS2010 --Abstract Paper Submission Dateline Extended-- Message-ID: <200908251326.AA02577@P3C.nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp> [We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this email] ********************* SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS *************************** 2010 International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors (IRIS2010) http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~iris_admin Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan, March 8-9, 2010 The dateline for abstract paper submission is extended to September 30, 2009. *Aim and Scope* IRIS2010 is intended to provide technical forum and discussion related with robotics and sensors. The symposium is aimed to bring together students, researchers, scientists, engineers and practitioners to present their latest research findings, ideas, developments and applications related to the various aspects of developmental robots, robot applications, development of intelligent sensors, sensor networks, sensor application in robotics, human sensing, human psychophysics and human-robot interaction. Detailed covered topics can be found on the symposium website. IRIS 2010 will include keynote addresses by eminent scientists as well as special, regular and poster sessions. Accepted papers for IRIS2010 proceedings will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Computer Science by Science Publications. *Important Dates* September 30, 2009: Submission of abstract (Two pages of paper abstract including text, figures, tables and references) October 31, 2009: Notification of acceptance January 15, 2010: Submission of camera-ready papers (Four pages of final camera-ready papers) January 31, 2010: Early registration *Awards* IRIS2010 will feature the following awards: 1) Best Robotic Paper Award 2) Best Intelligent Sensor Paper Award *Journals* The authors of selected best papers will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers after the conference for possible publication at the following journals: 1) International Journal of Social Robotics (Springer publication) 2) International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems *Sponsors* Graduate School of Information Science, Nagoya University Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) -tentative- IEEE Region 10 Asia and Pacific -tentative- Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ) Institute of Engineering Malaysia (IEM) Centre of Excellence for Humanoid Robotics and Bio-Sensors (HuRoBs) Science Publication Journal of Computer Science International Journal of Social Robotics International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems *Contact* Email: iris_admin at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp, hanafiah at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp (Secretariat) Website: http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~iris_admin Best regards, Hanafiah Yussof, Ph.D Secretariat IRIS2010 Nagoya University Japan http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~iris_admin ============================================================= Dr. Hanafiah Yussof JSPS Posdoctoral Fellow Nagoya University Graduate School of Information Science Department of Complex Systems Science Furo-cho Chikusa-ku Nagoya 464-8601, Japan E-mail: hanafiah at nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp hanafi3013 at hotmail.com Tel: +81-52-789-4251, Fax: +81-52-789-4800 or 3129 http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ohka_lab2/index_eng.html ============================================================= *************************[ CALL FOR PAPERS ]***************************** 2010 International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors IRIS2010 8-9 March 2010, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan http://ns1.ohka.cs.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~iris_admin ************************************************************************* From d.campolo at ntu.edu.sg Tue Aug 25 19:15:16 2009 From: d.campolo at ntu.edu.sg (Domenico Campolo (Asst Prof)) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:15:16 +0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD position in Rehabilitation Robotics at NTU - Singapore Message-ID: <6E0578B70177A542A279045FE6CD1C83022BB75AF3@EXCHANGE32.staff.main.ntu.edu.sg> *** wishing to post the following opening *** [apologies for multiple postings] PhD position in Kinematic and Dynamic Synergies of the Human Wrist Location: School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore Starting date: Jan 2010 (recruitment starts immediately) Language: English A PhD Scholarship is available for research at the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University - Singapore, on the study of the kinematic and dynamic synergies of the human wrist as a basis for the development of upper limb rehabilitation robots. The work involves theoretical as well as experimental aspects including kinematic analysis of human movements, biomechanical characterization and modeling of the human wrist, development of ad-hoc setups for constrained and unconstrained assessment of motor strategies. The ideal candidate should have interests in Neuroscience (motor control), Biomechanics and Robotics. Programming skills are expected. To apply, please e-mail a Cover Letter, describing background and motivation, and CV including references to Dr. Domenico CAMPOLO at d.campolo at ntu.edu.sg ---------------------------------------- Domenico CAMPOLO, PhD School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Division of Mechatronics & Design Nanyang Technological University 50 Nanyang Avenue Singapore 639798 office: N3.2-02-33 phone: +65 6790 5610 FAX: +65 6792 4062 e-mail: d.campolo at ntu.edu.sg web: http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/d.campolo/ From serge.stinckwich at gmail.com Wed Aug 26 01:37:38 2009 From: serge.stinckwich at gmail.com (Serge Stinckwich) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:37:38 +0700 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] =?windows-1252?q?2nd_CFP=3A_International_Wo?= =?windows-1252?q?rkshop_on_=AB_Agent_Technology_for_Disaster_Manag?= =?windows-1252?q?ement_=BB_=28ATDM=9209=29?= Message-ID: ====================================================================================== 2nd CALL FOR PAPERS Second International Workshop on ??Agent Technology for Disaster Management?? (ATDM?09) December 13rd 2009, Nagoya, Japan Web site : http://doesnotunderstand.org/wikka.php?wakka=ATDM2009 ====================================================================================== This workshop will take place in December 2009 in Nagoya (????), during the 12th International Conference on Principles of Practice in Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA'09). A first workshop on the same topic already took place in May 2006 in Hakodate, Japan during the Fifth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. Description In the context of large natural disasters like the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 or Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005? but also man-made disasters like terrorist attacks, the topic of disaster management has become a key concern both from a social and political point of view. It is critical to provide rescue personnel with information technology tools that enable more effective and efficient mitigation during crisis response. A number of distinct actors and agencies (local and international rescue teams, NGOs, etc.), each with their own aims, objectives, and resources, should be able to coordinate their efforts in a flexible manner in order to prevent further problems or to effectively manage the aftermath of a disaster. This workshop will focus on the use of agent technology for disaster management and response and includes the following non-exhaustive list of special interest topics: - Dedicated frameworks and architectures for agent-based spatial decision support systems (SDSS) for natural and man-made disasters, - Coordination, communication and collaborative planning in large-scale multi-agent systems that deals with uncertainty and conflicting information during crisis management, - Coordination and deployment of multi-robots system or wireless sensors network on site, - Human-Agent or Human-Robot interactions (HRI) during search & rescue operations, - Security issues in agent-based systems for search and rescue missions, use of games, - Agent-based simulation systems, participatory simulations, - Behavioural modelling and simulation of rescue workers, - Development methods for agent based systems in emergency management. Multi-Agent Systems are being increasingly applied to real-life applications that deals with uncertain, complex and dynamic environments. Future disaster response systems may involve a complex mixture of humans performing high level decision-making, intelligent agents coordinating the response, sensors networks providing real-time observations and robots undertaking physical tasks in large-scale environments, which are prone to uncertainty, ambiguity and incompleteness given the dynamic and evolving nature of disasters. Although, this workshop will mainly focus on the potential of agent technology for disaster management and response, we also welcomes contributions focusing on potential problems and risks associated with the use of this technology. Important dates - Due date for full workshop papers submission: Sep. 15, 2009 - Final acceptance: Oct. 1, 2009 - Camera-ready paper due: Oct. 31, 2009 - Early registration deadline: Nov. 4, 2009 - Registration deadline: Dec. 1, 2009 - Workshop date: Dec. 13, 2009 (full-day workshop) Submission guidelines Springer has committed to publish the post-proceedings of all the PRIMA 2009 workshops in the "Studies in Computational Intelligence" book series. All accepted workshop papers will be published by Springer. All submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance, and clarity. At least two reviews for each paper will be conducted. All workshop papers should be submitted electronically in PDF format through the Easychair website: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=atdm09 and should use the Springer SCI format. You can find the format requirements on Springer SCI website : http://www.springer.com/series/7092 The final accepted papers are limited to 16 pages. If you prepair your paper with the LaTeX format, please use the authors template provide by Springer. Please create your account on Easychair website as soon as possible if you intend to submit a paper. Organizers - Serge Stinckwich, (UMI UMMISCO IRD/UPMC/MSI-IFI, Vietnam) - Sarvapali D. Ramchurn (University of Southampton, UK) Program committee - Narjes Bellamine-Bensaoud (RIADI-GDL lab., Tunisia) - Noury Bouraqadi (?cole des Mines de Douai, France) - Alexis Drogoul (UMI UMMISCO IRD/UPMC/MSI-IFI, Vietnam) - Julie Dugdale (MAGMA-LIG, France) - Alessandro Farinelli (University of Verona, Italy) - Frank Fiedrich (Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management, Georges Washington University, USA) - Alexander Kleiner (University of Freiburg, Germany) - Maurizio Marchese (University of Trento, Italy) - Stephen Potter (University of Edinburgh, UK) - Paul Scerri (Carnegie Mellon, USA) - Tomoichi Takahashi (Meijo University, Japan) - Gerhard Wickler (University of Edinburgh, UK) - Tomohisa Yamashita (AIST, Japan) - Khaldoun Zreik (Universit? de Paris 8, France) -- Serge Stinckwich UMI UMMISCO 209 (IRD/UPMC), Hanoi, Vietnam Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)] http://doesnotunderstand.org/ From theyer at iat.uni-bremen.de Wed Aug 26 04:27:23 2009 From: theyer at iat.uni-bremen.de (Torsten Heyer) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:27:23 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Invitation to presentation of care-providing robot FRIEND, October 14th Message-ID: <4A951C1B.5050801@iat.uni-bremen.de> Dear colleagues, the partners of the AMaRob project sincerely invite you to an informative meeting with a presentation of the research results regarding the new care-providing robot FRIEND (developed at the Institute of Automation (IAT) at the University of Bremen, Germany) on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 11:30 a.m. at the "Marktplatz Gehirn" in exibition hall 3 and from 3:15 p.m. at the REHACARE Congress "Wohn(t)raum" in D?sseldorf (Room 8, CCD S?d). We are also pleased to welcome you during the whole trade fair of REHACARE International 2009 at stand G40 in exibition hall 3 and to present the care-providing robot FRIEND. PROGRAM: ------------------- - Presentation within the opening event of the special exhibition "Marktplatz Gehirn" (in German) 11:30 a.m. Prof. Dr. Axel Gr?ser (IAT, University of Bremen): "Care-providing robot FRIEND - 90 minutes independence in private and professional life" - Presentations within the REHACARE Congress "Wohn(t)raum" (in German) 3:15 p.m. Prof. Dr. Axel Gr?ser (IAT, University of Bremen): "Independence in private and professional life by care-providing robot FRIEND" 3:45 p.m. Dipl.-Ing. Roko Tschakarow (Schunk): "Modern electro-wheelchairs and intelligent lightweight robots as a basis for care-providing robots" 4:45 p.m. Dr. med. Matthias Spranger (NRZ Friedehorst): "Field reports care-providing robots - Experiences of users, therapists and doctors when using care-providing robots" 5:45 p.m. Panel discussion The REHACARE is an international trade fair and congress for rehabilitation, care, prevention and integration (see www.rehacare.de) and takes place from October 14th until October 17th, 2009 in the exhibition centre of D?sseldorf, Germany (Entrance North and South). The opening times for visitors are: October 14th - 16th, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. October 17th, 1009 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Further informations, images and videos about FRIEND and the project you can find on www.amarob.de and www.iat.uni-bremen.de. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. We hope to see you. Best regards Torsten Heyer -- Dipl.-Math. Torsten Heyer Institute of Automation (IAT) University of Bremen Otto-Hahn-Allee, NW1, Room M1050 D-28359 Bremen, Germany Phone: +49-421-218-62432 Fax: +49-421-218-4596 theyer at iat.uni-bremen.de http://www.iat.uni-bremen.de From kyamane at disneyresearch.com Wed Aug 26 05:52:39 2009 From: kyamane at disneyresearch.com (Katsu Yamane) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:52:39 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Final CfP: WS on Computer Vision for Humanoid Robots in Real Environments at ICCV2009 Message-ID: <20090826084637.B9F7.1B3C6057@disneyresearch.com> ------ Final Call for Poster Presentations ------ POSTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Monday, August 31st First IEEE Workshop on Computer Vision for Humanoid Robots in Real Environments in conjunction with ICCV 2009 September 27, 2009, Kyoto, Japan Updates - tentative schedule - poster registration due approaching == Objectives == The goal of this workshop is to bring together experts from the fields of computer vision and robotics that are working on humanoid robots with vision as one of the primary modalities. Topics of interest include and are not limited to: * Human Robot Interaction * Grasping and Manipulation * Learning by Demonstration * Task Learning for Robots * Activity Recognition and Discovery for Robot * Humanoid Navigation in Real Environments * Vision Devices and Systems for Robot Applications * Application of Humanoid Robots (Indoor/Outdoor, Entertainment) Researchers from the robotics community are particularly encouraged to attend. This is the first attempt at a workshop that crosses from Humanoids Research to Computer Vision Research. == Workshop Format == The workshop will consist of about six invited talks as well as open poster presentations by the attendees. Every attendee is invited to bring a poster describing the work to facilitate open discussions among the attendees. Those who plan to present a poster are recommended to send the title and presenter's name, affiliation and email address to Dr. Katsu Yamane (kyamane at disneyresearch.com) by August 31, 2009. This information will be used only to estimate the number of posters and there is no review process for the workshop. The poster format will be posted on the workshop website in early September. We are also proposing a special issue in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (http://www.ieee-ras.org/tro) on related topics. Call for papers will appear on the Transactions website once the proposal is accepted. == Tentative Schedule == 9:30-9:40 Opening Remarks: Dr. Katsu Yamane (Disney Research, Pittsburgh) 9:40-10:10 Invited Talk I: "Art and Robotics," Professor Shunsuke Kudoh (University of Tokyo) 10:10-10:40 Invited Talk II: "Human Visuomotor Learning for Robot Skill Synthesis," Dr. Erhan Oztop (NICT-ATR) 10:50-11:10 Poster Fast-Forward I 11:10-11:30 Coffee Break 11:30-12:30 Poster Session I 12:30-14:00 Lunch 14:00-14:30 Invited Talk III: title TBD, Professor Minoru Asada (Osaka University) 14:30-15:00 Invited Talk IV: "Vision and Planning for Humanoid," Professor Takeo Kanade (Carnegie Mellon University) 15:10-15:30 Poster Fast-Forward II 15:30-15:45 Coffee Break 15:45-16:45 Poster Session II 16:45-17:15 Invited Talk V: "High Speed Vision and Its Applications in Robotics," Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa (University of Tokyo) 17:15-17:45 Invited Talk VI: title TBD, Dr. Gary Bradski (Willow Garage) 17:45-18:00 Closing Remarks: Professor Irfan Essa (Georgia Tech) == Organizers == - Irfan Essa (Georgia Tech) - Atsushi Nakazawa (Osaka University) - Siddhartha Srinivasa (Intel Research) - Rahul Sukthankar (Intel Research) - Katsu Yamane (Disney Research, Pittsburgh) For more information, see workshop webpage: http://humanoidscv.ime.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp/ ICCV 2009 webpage: http://www.iccv2009.org/ or contact Dr. Yamane (kyamane at disneyresearch.com) directly. ------------------------------------- ---- Katsu Yamane ---- Senior Research Scientist Disney Research, Pittsburgh ---- Adjunct Associate Professor The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University From agrawal at UDel.Edu Wed Aug 26 11:14:12 2009 From: agrawal at UDel.Edu (Sunil K. Agrawal) Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:14:12 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Post Doc/PhD students openings on a NIH Project - Robotic Exoskeletons for Gait Training Message-ID: <4A957B74.8050704@udel.edu> We have openings to hire (i) a Post-doc for a 2 year period and (ii) a PhD student on the following 5-year NIH funded project "Robotic Exoskeletons, FES, and Biomechanics: Treating Movement Disorders" at the University of Delaware (http://mechsys4.me.udel.edu). The post-doc should have strong experience in design, fabrication, sensing, data acquisition, and control in areas related to rehabilitation and human-machine systems. The PhD student should also have a related background. The candidates will work in a team with physical therapists and human subjects. Please send your CV, list of publications, and your references. Sunil Agrawal -- Sunil K. Agrawal, PhD Professor of Mechanical Engineering University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716 Phone: (302) 831-8049 Email: agrawal at udel.edu http://mechsys4.me.udel.edu From yrefanid at uom.gr Thu Aug 27 09:29:58 2009 From: yrefanid at uom.gr (Ioannis Refanidis) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:29:58 +0300 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ICAPS-2009 Last Call for Participation Message-ID: <003401ca2733$a29c7b60$e7d57220$@gr> [apologies for cross-posting] 19th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling ??? ???ICAPS-2009, http://icaps09.icaps-conference.org ????? ??? September 19-23, 2009, Thessaloniki, Greece This is the last call for participating at ICAPS-2009. This year's program includes: - 41 oral and 14 poster technical presentations - 3 invited talks by: . Maria Fox, University of Strathclyde, UK, on o Planning with Continuous Change . Stephen F. Smith, Carnegie Mellon University, US, on o Scheduling in Dynamic, Uncertain Environments: Closing the Loop with Execution . Sebastian Thrun, Stanford University, US, on o Towards Self-Driving Cars - 9 Workshops, please have a look at http://icaps09.uom.gr/workshops/workshops.htm - 5 Tutorials, please have a look at http://icaps09.uom.gr/tutorials/tutorials.htm - An Applications Showcase - The 3rd International Competition on Knowledge Engineering for Planning and Scheduling - A Doctoral Consortium More information on registering with ICAPS-2009 can be found at: http://icaps09.uom.gr/registration/registration.htm We look forward to seeing you in Thessaloniki this September. Best wishes, ICAPS-2009 Chairs From stachnis at informatik.uni-freiburg.de Fri Aug 28 03:50:41 2009 From: stachnis at informatik.uni-freiburg.de (Cyrill Stachniss) Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:50:41 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] JFR Special issue on Visual Mapping and Navigation Outdoors extended to October 1 Message-ID: <4A97B681.3080800@informatik.uni-freiburg.de> Please note that the deadline for the JFR Special issue on Visual Mapping and Navigation Outdoors has been extended to OCTOBER 1, 2009. Best Cyrill Stachniss ============================================================ ------------------------------------------------------- Journal of Field Robotics Special issue on Visual Mapping and Navigation Outdoors ------------------------------------------------------- Guest editors: Cyrill Stachniss, University of Freiburg Stefan Williams, Australian Centre for Field Robotics Jos? Neira, University of Zaragoza Mapping and navigation, the successful modeling and traversal of unknown environments using vehicles equipped with sensors, has been an extremely active research area in robotics. Recently, researchers have reported impressive results in this area, to the point that building 2D maps of indoor planar environments using laser sensors is considered a solved problem. For this reason, research has moved to addressing larger, non planar, less-structured and dynamic outdoor environments. Information rich visual sensors are being incorporated into these new systems because cameras have become inexpensive, light weight, and offer high performance in resolution and speed. Visual sensors offer much more detailed environmental information, but pose new challenges such as robust feature detection and tracking, data association, and 3D computation. Also, computationally efficient large-scale estimation is much harder using cameras than using a laser scanner. The goal of the special issue of the Journal of Field Robotics is to publish outstanding results on the use of visual sensors for mapping and navigation in challenging outdoor environments: urban, suburban, off-road, underwater, and airborne, in applications that include but are not limited to surveying, virtual and augmented reality, surveillance and search and rescue operations. This call for papers follows a very successful workshop on Visual Mapping and Navigation Outdoors at ICRA 2009. ------------------------------------------------------- List of topics: ? Bearing only/monocular systems, multi-camera systems, mapping with omni-directional cameras, active/passive cameras ? Vision + other sensors ? Environment representations: metric, topological, semantic, hybrid ? Visual loop closing techniques ? Place recognition ? Large scale visual navigation and mapping ? Urban, suburban and off-road mapping ? Underwater applications ? Airborne navigation and mapping ------------------------------------------------------- Important dates: September 1, 2009 - Submission of manuscripts THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 1, 2009 December 1, 2009 - Reviews sent to the authors March 1, 2010 - Final manuscripts due for publication ------------------------------------------------------- Links: Journal of Field Robotics http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org/Home.html Journal of Field Robotics - Special Issue page http://www.journalfieldrobotics.org/Special_Issues.html ICRA 2009 workshop page http://webdiis.unizar.es/~neira/icra2009/ ------------------------------------------------------- Questions: For comments, suggestions, or requests, please send email to Cyrill Stachniss , Stefan Williams , or Jose Neira . ------------------------------------------------------- From jmh at cs.utah.edu Sun Aug 30 02:08:11 2009 From: jmh at cs.utah.edu (John Hollerbach) Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:08:11 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IJRR OnlineFirst articles for the period 14 to 28 August 2009 Message-ID: <4A9A417B.3010306@cs.utah.edu> New IJRR OnlineFirst articles have been made available (for the period 14 Aug 2009 to 28 Aug 2009): Identification of Contact Parameters from Stiff Multi-point Contact Robotic Operations Diederik Verscheure, Inna Sharf, Herman Bruyninckx, Jan Swevers, and Joris De Schutter The International Journal of Robotics Research published 28 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909336805 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909336805v1 An Active Vision System for Detecting, Fixating and Manipulating Objects in Real World B. Rasolzadeh, M. Bj?rkman, K. Huebner, and D. Kragic The International Journal of Robotics Research published 28 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909346069 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909346069v1 Requirements for Safe Robots: Measurements, Analysis and New Insights Sami Haddadin, Alin Albu-Sch?effer, and Gerd Hirzinger The International Journal of Robotics Research published 20 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909343970 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909343970v1 Parallel Elastic Actuators as Control Tool for Preplanned Trajectories of Underactuated Mechanical Systems Uwe Mettin, Pedro X. La Hera, Leonid B. Freidovich, and Anton S. Shiriaev The International Journal of Robotics Research published 20 August 2009, 10.1177/0278364909344002 http://ijr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0278364909344002v1 From ryad.benosman at upmc.fr Mon Aug 31 13:58:57 2009 From: ryad.benosman at upmc.fr (R.B Benosman) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:58:57 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] DELAYED (3rd Symposium on Language and Robots - LANGRO'2009) Message-ID: =================================================================== 3rd Symposium on Language and Robots - LANGRO'2009 September 9-11, Paris, France http://isir.robot.jussieu.fr/langro09/ =================================================================== Our apologies for the delay in annoucing this news. Due to some technical problems, the conference organization schedule could not be satisfied. The organization committee has decided to postpone the event to the next spring. The exact calendar will be announced soon. We apologize again for the induced inconveniences. From giorgio.metta at iit.it Sun Aug 30 16:35:50 2009 From: giorgio.metta at iit.it (Giorgio Metta) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:35:50 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] 8 phd positions available at the Italian Institute of Technology Message-ID: <039301ca29ca$9c4a7b60$d4df7220$@metta@iit.it> Doctoral School on "life and humanoid technologies" PhD Fellowships - Deadline September 25th, 2009 Eight PhD positions are available at the Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department (RBCS) of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) within the Doctoral Course ?Robotics, Cognition and Interaction Technologies?. The Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Science department directed by Professor Giulio Sandini, is a multidisciplinary community of scientists sharing research interests and contributing jointly to the emerging field of human centered research and technologies with a focus on learning and development and, in general, on the dynamics of knowledge acquisition and update in the framework of goal directed actions. Among the Senior Scientists coordinating RBCS research activities are Franco Bertora (Brain Imaging), Luciano Fadiga (Brain Machine Interface), Giorgio Metta (Cognitive Robotics), Pietro Morasso (Motor Learning and Robot Rehabilitation), Concetta Morrone (Visuo-haptic Perception), Stefano Panzeri (Brain Signal Analysis), Thierry Pozzo (Physiology of Action and Perception). Collaborations with international research centers and industries is carried out through formalized projects and teaching-oriented international networks. RBCS is the home of the iCub humanoid robot (www.icub.org). For more information about RBCS research visit: http://www.iit.it/en/robotics-brain-and-cognitive-sciences.html Within the department?s Research Agenda, proposals for PhD fellowships are accepted with reference to three main streams: 1. Humanoid Robotics and Cognition, 2. Human Behavior, Perception and Biomechanics, 3. Brain Machine Interface. In particular, the Humanoid Robotics stream, targets the humanoid platforms of the lab among which iCub (the platform of the RobotCub project: http://www.robotcub.org) and "James" (a one-arm humanoid built to investigate manipulation and object affordances). The research themes proposed are examples of the planned activities in areas such as cognitive systems, sensorimotor coordination, advanced materials for actuation and sensing. - Theme 3.1: Composite materials design for biocompatible robotic structural elements. - Theme 3.2: Finite element analysis and CAD design of robotic components made from variable stiffness composite materials - Theme 3.3: Learning body dynamics in humans and robots - Theme 3.4: Manipulation and Learning in Humanoid Robots - Theme 3.5: Reaching and Moving in the Peripersonal Space for a Humanoid Robots - Theme 3.6: Neuromorphic sensors for humanoid robots - Theme 3.7: Event-driven vision for robot control Short abstract and scientist in charge of the research themes 3.1 to 3.7 are included below and are to be considered as indications of this year?s priorities. Interested applicants should read the procedure described below and/or refer to the IIT?s website (http://www.iit.it) to download instructions for application and/or contact directly the scientists in charge for more information regarding the individual research plans. ------------------------------------ SUBMISSION PROCEDURE IN SHORT Application letters and the required accompanying documents as detailed in the call for applications (http://www.iit.it/media/call/ciclo25_iit_bando_en.doc) should be prepared following the outline of Annex B (application form) and be sent within September, 25th 2009 to Magnifico Rettore dell?Universit? degli Studi di Genova. Besides completing the application form (Annex B) you must provide the following documents: * Curriculum vitae et studiorum dated and signed * A photocopy of a valid identity document; * Title and synthetic description of dissertation (also on cd-rom); * A list of exams with the grades; * At least one letter (and not more than three) of presentation of the candidate signed by a university lecturer or an expert in the subject; * A signed research project concerning one or more of the research themes described above you intend to apply (maximum 10 pages); * A statement of actual knowledge of the English language; foreign nationals may also state their knowledge of the Italian language; * Any other qualifications relative to the subject areas of the research dealt with in the course, papers shall not be more than 10 pages long. On the envelope you should indicate the name of the course (Robotics, Cognition an Interaction Technologies) and the number of the research theme you are applying as described above. Application letters and the required documents can be delivered: 1. by mail Applications can be sent using a registered letter. The envelope must include in the header the following wording: ?Concorso per ammissione al XXIV ciclo del Dottorato di Ricerca? Doctoral Course: Robotics, Cognition and Interaction Technologies and has to be addressed as follows: Magnifico Rettore dell?Universit? degli Studi di Genova Servizio Alta Formazione e Ordinamenti Didattici Via Balbi 5 16126 ? Genova Italy 2. by hand Letters can be handed personally to the following office (opening time: 9:00 ? 12:00, Monday to Friday; extra opening on Tuesday and Wednesday from 14:30 to 16:00): Universit? degli Studi di Genova Servizio Alta Formazione e Ordinamenti Didattici Via Bensa 1 - 2nd floor 16124 Genova Italy For any further information regarding the application procedure please contact: Ms Anastasia Bruzzone Doctoral School UNIGE-IIT Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Via Morego, 30 - 16163 Genova Tel. +39 010 71781472 Fax. +39 010 7170817 Email: anastasia.bruzzone at iit.it ------------------------------------ ABSTRACTS OF THE RESEARCH TOPICS PROPOSED STREAM 1: Humanoid Robotics and Cognition Theme 3.1: Composite materials design for biocompatible robotic structural elements. Tutors: Dr. Davide Ricci, Dr. Alberto Barone This Ph.D. thesis proposal originates from the collaboration of the IIT Robotic, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department with the IIT Nanobiotechnology Facility. An essential task that needs to be addressed in the realization of robotic prosthetic devices is the coupling of structural elements of artificial limbs with bone tissue. Many pre-clinical and also clinical reports demonstrate that poor scaffold design and inadequate tissue culture conditions are currently the major problems in bone tissue engineering that may prevent its successful applications. To overcome these limitations, novel structural biomaterials and better bio-reactor processes are needed, capable of sustaining and guiding bone tissue precursors generation and differentation. Within this project, we will pursue the integration of bio-hybrid synthetic techniques, nanotechnologies and advanced material processing technologies to obtain three-dimensional scaffolds able to guide and control tissue growth, differentiation and proliferation. Requirements: Potential candidates should have basic background in one or more of the following fields: materials science, polymer science, biomechanics For further details concerning the research project, please contact: davide.ricci at iit.it alberto.barone at iit.it Theme 3.2: Finite element analysis and CAD design of robotic components made from variable stiffness composite materials Tutor: Prof. Giorgio Metta A traditional robot is made of mechanical parts that are assembled with screws, bearings, levers, gears and other components to obtain the desired functionality. An emerging trend in robot design relies instead on deriving the required functionality directly from the materials properties. Two approaches can be envisaged: either by appropriately combining functional materials with different properties via methods similar to the "shape deposition manufacturing" (Kutkosky et al. 1989) or by locally modifying a composite material properties changing the density and nature of fillers. To this end, CAD and FE simulations are essential tools to choose the appropriate materials and shape for the robot components. The goal of this project is the design of a robot hand for the iCub (http://www.robotcub.org) that includes variable stiffness mechanics, sensorization (proprioceptive and tactile), wiring and tendon driven actuation. Appropriate controllers are also required to match and exploit natural compliance but also to compensate for e.g. backlash. The reference task will be manipulation. The ideal candidate would have a background in mechanical engineering or related disciplines, and in particular, skills in finite element analysis/modelling, robotics, and more in general in the use of polymers in mechanical design. On the other hand, IIT will provide a fully equipped machine shop with CNC and rapid prototyping machines both on polymers and metal. The successful candidate is expected to work in a team and contribute substantially to the design of a future release of the iCub. Requirements: physics, mechanical or material engineering, For further details concerning the research project, please contact: giorgio.metta at iit.it Theme 3.3: Learning body dynamics in humans and robots Tutor: Dr. Francesco Nori Humans exhibit a broad repertoire of motor capabilities far beyond the capabilities of modern robots. Remarkably, there is strong evidence that these capabilities are strongly linked to human adaptability to novel dynamical contexts (J.R. Lackner and P. Dizio, 1994) (R. Shadmehr and F.A. Mussa-Ivaldi, 1994) (J. Konczak et al., 1995). Related neurophysiological experiments suggest that this adaptability can be the result of a modular organization of the central nervous system which forms forward and inverse dynamical representations by means of multiple modules. The final goal of this research project will be to enhance a ?state of the art? humanoid robot (http://www.icub.org) with a ?beyond the state of the art? adaptive dynamical controller. The project should focus on the robot ability to develop, learn and adapt a multisensory representation of its own body dynamics and of the surrounding dynamical environment, possibly exploiting the generalization potentialities behind a modular representation. Requirements: engineering background, confidence with dynamical system analysis, (optional) machine learning, adaptive control For further details concerning the research project, please contact: francesco.nori at iit.it and giorgio.metta at iit.it Theme 3.4: Manipulation and Learning in Humanoid Robots Tutor: Dr. Lorenzo Natale Object manipulation is a key ability for robots. However current robots are very poor at manipulating objects in dynamical or unmodeled environments. Unfortunately this situation is quite common in practical scenarios and seriously hampers the possibility to employ robots outside industries or research laboratories. In this project we will study the role of haptic information (touch, proprioception and force) for manipulation. The goals of the project are two: i) to implement control strategies for grasping and manipulating objects and ii) to investigate how to use the sensory information originating from the manipulation of objects (haptic but also visual or auditory) for learning about objects and the environment. The project will be carried out working on the robot iCub. The iCub is a 53 degree of freedom humanoid robot equipped with dexterous arms and hands (respectively 7 and 9 degrees of freedom). We have recently added torque sensing on the arm and realized tactile sensors to be mounted on the hand and the arm of the robot. We seek candidates with a strong background in computer science and engineering that are interested in studying perception and learning in artificial systems. Backgrounds of electronics and mechanics are not required, but the candidates should have a strong motivation to work on robotic systems. For further details concerning the research project, please contact: lorenzo.natale at iit.it and giorgio.metta at iit.it Theme 3.5: Reaching and Moving in the Peripersonal Space for a Humanoid Robots Tutor: Prof. Giorgio Metta, Prof. Luciano Fadiga Tantalizing evidence from neuroscience is showing that the control of reaching in humans and animals is correlated with the activation of several neural pathways, where touch, proprioception, and vision are intertwined with motor information in a multisensory representation of the space around the body (Fogassi, Gallese, di Pellegrino, Fadiga, et al. 1992). The goal of this PhD program is to model these multiple neural pathways in the form of a working controller for a humanoid robot. The robot in question is the iCub which is equipped with vision, proprioception and soon with a distributed sensorized skin. We will study how this multisensory representation can be acquired through learning and development during the interaction of the robot with the environment. We will formulate models that are in agreement with neuroscience (Rizzolatti, Fadiga, Fogassi, Gallese, 1997). We are seeking candidates with a strong motivation to implement biologically sound models in a humanoid robot, with a background in engineering or related disciplines, programming skills, and some machine learning or computer vision experience. The successful candidate is expected to work in a team and integrate with the existing development tools and methods. Requirements: engineering or computer science background, some experience in one of more of the following disciplines: machine learning, computer vision, control systems, neuroscience. For further details concerning the research project, please contact: giorgio.metta at iit.it or luciano.fadiga at iit.it Theme 3.6: Neuromorphic sensors for humanoid robots Tutor: Dr. Chiara Bartolozzi Biological sensory systems outperform conventional digital systems in almost all aspects of perception tasks, where the system must process noisy and ambiguous stimuli to produce appropriate behavioral responses. The goal of this project is to introduce in the field of robotic vision the principles of biological sensory systems design. Specifically we aim at combining the design of novel data-driven biologically inspired sensory devices with the development of new asynchronous event-driven computational paradigms, with structure and morphology that are matched to the requirements of the robots body and its application domain. The candidate shall work on testing of existing asynchronous vision sensors and on the design of new sensors, using analog real-time low-power VLSI neuromorphic circuits. The candidate will participate in the whole project development by also interacting with researchers developing supporting data-driven asynchronous computational paradigms for machine-vision methodologies, and participating to the testing of the developed vision system performance on advanced humanoid robotic platforms. Requirements: Applicants should have a strong interest in bio-inspired hardware engineering, fundamental notions of microelectronics and background in neuroscience. For further details concerning the research project, please contact: chiara.bartolozzi at iit.it Theme 3.7: Event-driven vision for robot control Tutor: Drs. Giorgio Metta, Chiara Bartolozzi, R. Benosman The goal of this project is to develop asynchronous event-driven computational paradigms for designing visual systems based on data-driven biologically inspired sensory devices providing spike-based outputs. Such sensors respond with spiking events to relative variations of contrast in their field of view. This approach reduces redundancies and produces a sparse image coding. The generated data are spatiotemporal volumes which size and information depend only on the dynamic content of observed scenes. The real-time asynchronous output nature of the sensors ensures precise timing information and low latency, yet requiring a much lower bandwidth used by frame-based image sensors of equivalent time resolution. The high temporal precision is crucial for real-time interaction with the environment and is especially suitable for tasks requiring fast evaluation of dynamic scenes, involving real time interaction with the environment. At the same time, the nature of the sensor's output requires a radically new framework of data-driven asynchronous computational paradigms for vision. The candidate will work on the development of event-driven algorithms for the visual system of a humanoid robot, the iCub, starting from stereo vision and binocular vergence control to end up with recognition and control of the robot?s own hands dynamics, with the final goal of objects dexterous manipulation. Requirements: Ideal candidates have a strong background in robotics or computer vision; candidates with background in neuroscience are also welcome. They should have potential for excellent research and the capability to collaborate within an interdisciplinary research group with people from all these disciplines. They should be highly motivated to use robotics for tackling fundamental issues in bio inspired perception. For further details concerning the research project, please contact: giorgio.metta at iit.it chiara.bartolozzi at iit.it ----------------- Giorgio Metta Italian Institute of Technology Via Morego, 30 16163 Genoa, Italy Ph: +39 010 7178-1411????????????????????? Fax: +39 010 7170-817 URL: http://pasa.liralab.it From jmlien at cs.gmu.edu Sat Aug 29 12:42:35 2009 From: jmlien at cs.gmu.edu (Jyh-Ming Lien) Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:42:35 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: 2010 ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers Message-ID: <4A9984AB.10809@cs.gmu.edu> Apologies if you get this CFP multiple times. Please forward to interested people. ========================================================================== CALL FOR PAPERS 2010 ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers www.computingfrontiers.org/2010 May 17 - 19, 2010, Bertinoro, Italy Sponsored by ACM SIGMICRO ========================================================================== The increasing complexity and performance needs of current and future applications require novel and innovative approaches for design of various types of computing systems: embedded, mobile, high-performance, and more. Boundaries between state of the art and revolutionary innovation constitute the computing frontiers that must be pushed forward to provide the computational support required for the advancement of science and engineering. This conference focuses on a wide spectrum of advanced technologies and radically new solutions relevant to development of computer systems and aims to foster communication among scientists and engineers to achieve this. Authors are invited to submit full papers and poster papers on all areas of innovative computing systems that extend the current frontiers of computer science and engineering. Submissions are sought on innovations in theory, methodologies, technologies, and implementation of advanced computer systems and focusing on computing paradigms, computational models, application paradigms, computer architecture, development environments, compilers, and operating environments. Papers are solicited in, but not limited to, the following areas: * Next-generation high performance computing and systems; * Applications, programming models and performance analysis of advanced architectures; * Accelerators: manycore, GPU, custom, reconfigurable, embedded, hybrid; * Active libraries, domain-specific languages and generative techniques; * Defect and variability-tolerant designs; * Power and energy efficiency ? in architectures, compilers and algorithms; * Virtualization and virtual machines; * Cloud-, internet-scale, service-oriented and smart infrastructure computing; * Compilers and operating systems - adaptive, run-time and auto-tuning; * System management and security; * Quantum and nano-scale computing; * Computational neuroscience, neuromorphic and biologically-inspired architectures; * Novel frontiers in computational science and scientific data repositories; * Computational aspects of intelligent systems and robotics; * Reconfigurable, autonomic, organic and self-organizing computation and systems; * Interfaces and visualization for emerging applications and systems: displays, VR, haptics. Submissions must be made electronically in PDF format through the conference web site at http://www.computingfrontiers.org/2010. Submitted papers should not exceed 20 double-spaced, single-column pages, including figures, tables, and references. Poster papers are also invited, and should not exceed 4 double-spaced, single-column pages, including figures, tables, and references. Additional submission guidelines will be available on the conference web site. Selected papers will be invited to appear in a special issue of the Springer International Journal of Parallel Programming (IJPP). ** IMPORTANT DATES ** Abstract Deadline: December 4, 2009 Paper Submission Deadline: December 11, 2009 Author Notification: February 17, 2010 ** ORGANIZATION ** General Chair: Nancy M. Amato, Texas A&M University, US Program Co-Chairs: Hubertus Franke, IBM Research, US Paul H J Kelly, Imperial College London, UK Finance/Registration Co-Chairs: Andreas Liehr, UniBw Muenchen, DE Carsten Trinitis, TU Muenchen, DE Posters Chair: Pedro Trancoso, University of Cyprus, CY Local Arrangements Co-Chairs: Gianfranco Bilardi, University of Padova, IT Luciano Margara, University of Bologna, IT Publicity Co-Chairs: Josef Weidendorfer, TU Muenchen, DE Jyh-Ming Lien, George Mason University, US Publication Chair: Roberto Gioiosa, BSC, SP Web Chair: Alex Heinecke, TU Munchen, DE Steering Committee: Monica Alderighi, INAF, IT Steven Beaty, Metro State College Denver, US Gianfranco Bilardi, University of Padova, IT Sergio D'Angelo, INAF, IT Kemal Ebcioglu, Global Supercomputing, US Georgi N. Gaydadjiev, TU Delft, NL Michael Gschwind, IBM STG, US Gearold Johnson, Colorado State U., US Sally A. McKee, Chalmers U. of Tech., SW Cecilia Metra, University of Bologna, IT Alex Ramirez, UPC, ES Valentina Salapura, IBM Research, US Giacomo Sechi, INAF, IT Carsten Trinitis, TU Munchen, DE Alex Veidenbaum, University of California, US FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit the conference web site at http://www.computingfrontiers.org -- *Jyh-Ming Lien* Assistant Professor, George Mason University +1-703-993-9546 http://cs.gmu.edu/~jmlien From Jadran.Lenarcic at ijs.si Mon Aug 31 23:48:55 2009 From: Jadran.Lenarcic at ijs.si (Jadran Lenarcic) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 08:48:55 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Advances in Robot Kinematics - open call for papers In-Reply-To: <4A9A417B.3010306@cs.utah.edu> References: <4A9A417B.3010306@cs.utah.edu> Message-ID: <001601ca2ad0$4656ac90$d30405b0$@Lenarcic@ijs.si> Dear coolleagues, It is my pleasure to inform you that the Call for papers of the 12th Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics is now open. Please visit www.ijs.si/ARK Best regards, Jadran Lenarcic From ECCCheah at ntu.edu.sg Mon Aug 31 20:01:43 2009 From: ECCCheah at ntu.edu.sg (CHEAH Chien Chern) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 11:01:43 +0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Job Opening for Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Robotics Message-ID: <4EA83AA20D28A8418A9ABFD14F5843C2054A253DE9@EXCHANGE31.staff.main.ntu.edu.sg> Job Opening for Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Robotics The Division of Control and Instrumentation, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore has a vacancy for tenure-track assistant professor to candidates with the following qualification: A Ph.D degree from a reputable university on topics of robotics; a track record of competitive research experience in terms of good journal publications; good command of English and able to teach at undergraduate and post graduate levels. Nanyang Technological University is a research-intensive university in Singapore. The Division of Control and Instrumentation, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering has a faculty with expertise ranging from control and applications, robotics, computer vision, machine learning, biomedical engineering and more. For information of the division, you can visit http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/eee/eee4/staff_acad.asp. Application Procedure Suitably qualified candidates are invited to submit a completed application. Please refer to the Guidelines for Submitting an Application for Faculty Appointment http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/eee/eee4/jobopening/Guidelines.pdf.? The post applied for should be clearly stated. Electronic submission of application is encouraged and can be forwarded to: Dr. C.C. Cheah School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Nanyang Technological University Block S1, Nanyang Avenue S(639798), Singapore? E-mail:? EEE4SSR at ntu.edu.sg? Application closes when the position is filled. From andreas at nuechti.de Mon Aug 31 23:43:30 2009 From: andreas at nuechti.de (Andreas Nuechter) Date: Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:43:30 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Open source 6D SLAM software Message-ID: <4A9CC292.9010808@nuechti.de> Dear Colleagues, the first release of our 6D SLAM open source program is now available for you. You may download the software from http://slam6d.sourceforge.net The software solves reliably scan matching based GraphSLAM considering robot poses with 6DoF. It implements the algorithms found in the book "3D Robotic Mapping - The Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Problem with Six Degrees of Freedom" (Springer STAR vol. 52, 2009). Furthermore, I want to point out our Robotic 3D Scan repository, were you can download a wide variety of 3D laser scans. You find the repository following the link http://kos.informatik.uni-osnabrueck.de/3Dscans/ Do not hesitate to contact me regarding the software or the data repository. I encourage every robotics group to submit their 3D data sets to this repository. I am looking forward to receiving your data! Very best, Andreas Nuechter -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Andreas Nuechter Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH School of Engineering and Science Res. I, Room 105 Campus Ring 12 D-28759 Bremen Germany private: Grimmener Str. 15 +49-421-200-3181 D-49356 Diepholz +49-5441-5009328 (homeoffice) Germany ICQ: 19506497 skype: nuechter76 +49-5441-5009326 a.nuechter at jacobs-university.de andreas at nuechti.de www.faculty.jacobs-university.de/anuechter/ www.nuechti.de -------------------------------------------------------------------