[robotics-worldwide] ICRA Planetary Exploration Challenge 2009

[Andreas Birk]

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                         Call for Participation
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Planetary Exploration Challenge

International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2009
Kobe, Japan, May 12 – 17, 2009
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Planetary exploration through intelligent mobile robots is a fascinating 
endeavor. The tremendous success of the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit 
and Opportunity already shows the potential of this field where 
nevertheless many open problems remain. First of all, there are a large 
variety of different planetary environments and possible missions that 
are of scientific interest. Accordingly, various locomotion and 
manipulation challenges exist for planetary exploration robots. Second, 
communication delays or even dropouts make standard teleoperation very 
challenging. Intelligent autonomous functions are hence of tremendous 
interest to facilitate robot control.

The ICRA Planetary Exploration Challenge consists of different mission 
components that reflect these open problems. A description of the 
challenges planned for this event can be found at 
<http://icra.wustl.edu/?q=2009sandbox>

Teams interested in participation are welcome to make suggestions for 
the challenges. The event will be a demonstration of state of the art 
research relevant to planetary exploration, especially in form of robot 
designs and intelligent autonomous functions.

Teams interested in participating should send an email with subject 
“Planetary Exploration Challenge, ICRA 2009” to Andreas Birk ( a.birk @ 
jacobs-university.de ) by 28. February 2009 with following information:

     * Team Name
     * Affiliation
     * Team Leader
     * Email
     * Team size (number of team members)

For further information, please visit <http://icra.wustl.edu/?q=2009sandbox>


-- 
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Prof. Dr. Andreas Birk
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Jacobs University

School of Engineering and Science
Research 1, Campus Ring 12, 28759 Bremen, Germany

http://robotics.jacobs-university.de/
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