From andrew.b.howard at jpl.nasa.gov Sun Nov 1 08:54:46 2009 From: andrew.b.howard at jpl.nasa.gov (Howard, Andrew B (3474)) Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2009 08:54:46 -0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] FSR 2009 Proceedings Available On-line Message-ID: <653F9106E9B1CC45AB0074198A714C5E466E4084E4@ALTPHYEMBEVSP10.RES.AD.JPL> Greetings fellow roboticists: Papers from the 7th International Conference on Field and Service Robots (FSR 2009) are now available on-line at: http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/fsr09/ A book version of the Conference Proceedings will also be published by Springer-Verlag in their STAR series. Andrew Howard FSR 2009 Program Chair DESCRIPTION The 7th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR'09) was held in Cambridge Massachusetts, USA on July 14-16 2009. The conference provides a forum for researchers, professionals and manufacturers to exchange up-to-date technical knowledge and experience. In addition to the technical sessions, there are plenary and invited sessions. Papers describe original work in a number of technical areas, including: ? Mining, Agriculture and Forestry Robotics ? Construction Robots ? Search and Rescue Robotics ? Cleaning, Floor and Lawn Care Robotics ? Security Robotics ? Medical and Health Care Robotics ? Entertainment Robotics ? Autonomous Vehicles for Land, Air and Sea ? Planetary Surface Exploration Robots ? Intelligent Automobiles ORGANIZERS AND CONTACT INFO Alonzo Kelly - CMU, USA (alonzo at cmu.edu) Karl Iagnemma - MIT, USA (kdi at MIT.EDU) Andrew Howard - JPL, USA (Andrew.B.Howard at jpl.nasa.gov) From kuipers at umich.edu Sun Nov 1 15:22:56 2009 From: kuipers at umich.edu (Benjamin Kuipers) Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2009 19:22:56 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] post-doc at U.Michigan on Learning, Vision and Robotics Message-ID: Post-Doctoral Researcher on Learning, Vision and Robotics Benjamin Kuipers Silvio Savarese How can a robot learn to perceive an unknown sensorimotor world, and learn to act effectively in it? How can it start with pixel-level perception and motor babbling, and create its own higher-level concepts of objects and actions applied to them, and places and motions connecting them? What primitive capabilities should the individual learner possess, and how could these be learned over evolutionary time? What are suitable hierarchical representations for the 3D structure of object instances or classes that can be exploited for recognition and action affordances? How can different kinds of spatial constraints be used for joint recognition of scenes and the objects within them? We invite applications for a post-doctoral position at the University of Michigan to address these and related problems, working with two faculty researchers (Benjamin Kuipers and Silvio Savarese), four graduate research assistants, and others in our laboratories. This project currently has three years of NSF funding. The focus of this project is to develop and evaluate a hierarchy of representations for the perception of objects by an embodied agent, intended to support robust learning and effective use of object descriptions in service of actions and plans. You can read more about our project at http://eecs.umich.edu/~kuipers/research/ssh/sense-robustly-act-effectively.html, or at our individual web pages. We are looking for an individual with a strong background in machine learning and computer vision and/or robotics, and with a significant research track record. To apply, please send us the URL of a web page describing yourself and your interests and accomplishments. This should include: a CV, a statement of your research accomplishments and goals, and a listing of published papers including links to download the papers as PDF files. (If it is impossible to create such a web page, then just send email with the documents as attachments.) Send your application by email to Professor Benjamin Kuipers (kuipers at umich.edu). (At the next step in this process, we will want to receive letters from three references.) The position will remain open until a suitable candidate has been identified. The University of Michigan is a Non-Discriminatory/Affirmative Action Employer. Thank you. Professor Benjamin Kuipers Computer Science and Engineering University of Michigan kuipers at umich.edu http://eecs.umich.edu/~kuipers/ Professor Silvio Savarese Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Michigan silvio at eecs.umich.edu http://eecs.umich.edu/~silvio/ -- Benjamin Kuipers, Professor email: kuipers at umich.edu Computer Science and Engineering tel: 1-734-647-6887 University of Michigan fax: 1-734-763-1260 2260 Hayward Street http://eecs.umich.edu/~kuipers Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 USA From elrob at fgan.de Mon Nov 2 02:09:08 2009 From: elrob at fgan.de (elrob) Date: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:09:08 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] M-ELROB 2010 - 5th European Land-Robot Trial - 17.-20. May 2010 - Hammelburg, Germany Message-ID: <4AEEAFC4.1090406@fgan.de> M-ELROB 2010 5th European Land Robot Trial 17.-20. May 2010 Hammelburg, Germany www.m-elrob.eu Dear participants, spectators, and roboticists, We would like to invite you to participate in the European Land Robot Trial 2010 (M-ELROB 2010). Featured scenarios this time: 1. Reconnaissance and surveillance - Approach (day/night) 2. Reconnaissance and surveillance - RSTA (day/night) 3. Transport - Movements 4. Transport - Mule 5. CBRNE and IED reconnaissance ELROB is a trial! It allows to demonstrate and compare the capabilities of unmanned systems in realistic scenarios and terrains. Therefore it is as close as possible to the typical deployment scenario for today. ELROB is designed to assess current technology to solve problems at hand, using whatever strategy to achieve it. We believe that we are all committed to demonstrating at ELROB is presenting cutting edge robotics technology, applied to real world applications, that can save lives now and shape the direction of research for the short and medium term. ELROB will enable Europe to re-engage in the benefits robotics can deliver now and the future. The philosophy of the trial: * ELROB is conducted with a focus on short-term realisable robot systems * ELROB is explicitly designed to assess current technology to solve real world problems at hand * ELROB in addition is an opportunity to bring together users, researchers and industry to build a community For more information please visit our web-page "http://www.m-elrob.eu/". regards Frank E. Schneider PS: We would highly appreciate if you could publish this note on your web site and provide the link to "http://www.elrob.org". Thank you very much for your support! From andrew at compsci.bristol.ac.uk Wed Nov 4 10:46:44 2009 From: andrew at compsci.bristol.ac.uk (Andrew Calway) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 18:46:44 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Post-Doc Research Posts in Computer Vision/Personal Robotics, UK Message-ID: Research Assistant/Associate in Computer Vision (two posts) University of Bristol - Department of Computer Science, UK We are seeking outstanding and ambitious post-doctorate researchers to join the FP7 project COGNITO: Cognitive Workflow Capturing and Rendering with On-Body Sensor Networks. This high profile multi-disciplinary project aims to automatically capture and learn human workflow patterns in skilled manufacturing tasks. The primary application will be online content generation for Augmented Reality systems such as Virtual Handbooks. Data capture will be via on-body sensor networks incorporating miniature cameras and inertial devices. The project involves academic and industrial partners from Germany, France, Portugal and the UK. The University of Bristol will lead the Computer Vision research. Applicants should have a PhD in Computer Vision or a closely related area, and have gained international recognition through publications and previous work. Successful applicants will take a lead role in carrying out the research in close collaboration with the two principal investigators, and will also collaborate closely with the project partners, involving regular trips to Europe. In particular, we are looking for proven expertise in one or more of the following areas: real-time vision, hand detection and tracking, visual SLAM, gaze and head tracking, and object recognition. We are also looking for proven ability in rapid software prototyping, programming and mathematical analysis, including experience with C++ and Matlab. Appointments are expected to commence early in 2010 and will be for up to three years. Successful applicants may be appointed either on a fixed term or a permanent contract depending on the extent of previous relevant research experience. Further information can be found at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/personnel/ftc/ Salary: 29,704-37,651 GBP Contact for informal enquiries: Dr Andrew Calway, Andrew.Calway at bristol.ac.uk Further particulars and details of the application process can be found at: http://www.bris.ac.uk/boris/jobs/ads?ID=84388 Closing date for applications: 9.00 am on 30 November 2009 -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew Calway, Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UB. Tel 0117 9545149 Fax 0117 9545208 Andrew.Calway at bristol.ac.uk http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~andrew/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From aruta at versita.com Wed Nov 4 11:29:31 2009 From: aruta at versita.com (Andrzej Ruta / Versita) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 14:29:31 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for papers - Paladyn. Journal of Behavioral Robotics Message-ID: <305F28E3255CDD48961B6A36EE36F1389F739892F8@VMBX112.ihostexchange.net> Dear Robotics Worldwide subscriber, I am a Managing Editor of "Paladyn. Journal of Behavioral Robotics" (http://www.versita.com/science/engineering/paladyn/). Paladyn is a new initiative of Versita (www.versita.com), one of the leading science publishers in Central and Eastern Europe. As the very first issue of the journal is just to be launched, we would like to cordially invite you to submit your contributions. Paladyn is a peer-reviewed, online only journal intended to serve as a premier source of knowledge and an exchange platform for all those who are engaged or interested in the emerging field of behavioral robotics. The journal focuses on the original high-quality research results that cover such topics as: cognitive robotics, evolutionary robotics, robot control, learning and adaptation, artificial intelligence, machine vision, affective robotics and many more. Full Paladyn's scope, subject to constant changes, can be viewed at http://www.versita.com/science/engineering/paladyn/authors/aims_and_scope/ . In general, we will welcome good manuscripts whenever they present novel behavior-based or nature-inspired concepts, designs or applications of robots and other autonomous and intellligent systems. We are open to the contributions from all over the world and we are ready to promote different viewpoints on robotics, regardless of the authors' research background, from robot engineers and computer scientists to physicists, biologists or psychologists. Regarding the journal's organization, Paladyn will start publishing quarterly, with approximately ten papers per issue, depending on the manuscript inflow. The first issue of Paladyn is scheduled for January 2010. Paper submission is handled online via Editorial Manager platform available at http://www.editorialmanager.com/paladyn/ . The paper processing overview is given at http://www.versita.com/editool/em-review/ . The Editor-in-Chief of Paladyn is Prof. Raja Chatila, LAAS-CNRS, France. Our new publishing project is also supported by a professional editorial team and a number of Editorial Advisory Board members - all being worldwide-recognized experts in their disciplines. For full details, please refer to http://www.versita.com/science/engineering/paladyn/editors/ . As an author of Paladyn you can have a range of benefits: - fast and constructive peer review, - international range, - convenient, web-based paper submission system - Editorial Manager, - high-quality electronic publication technology based on Metapress platform, - extensive promotion of each published article to hundreds of researchers working in the same field, - free language-correction services for non-English-speaking authors of accepted papers, - no publication charge. We look forward to your manuscripts! Sincerely yours, Andrzej Ruta, Ph.D. Managing Editor Paladyn. Journal of Behavioral Robotics www.versita.com/science/engineering/paladyn/ aruta at versita.com From aude.billard at epfl.ch Thu Nov 5 09:38:02 2009 From: aude.billard at epfl.ch (Billard Aude) Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 18:38:02 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] HRI2010: Call For Videos and Late Breaking Reports In-Reply-To: <33DA0D789951914A95F9E8D3BA6583E767A6D67FC0@rex5.intranet.epfl.ch> References: <33DA0D789951914A95F9E8D3BA6583E767A6D67FC0@rex5.intranet.epfl.ch> Message-ID: <33DA0D789951914A95F9E8D3BA6583E767A6D67FC1@rex5.intranet.epfl.ch> ************************************************************************ Call For Videos and Late Breaking Reports 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2010) http://hri2010.org March 2-5, 2010, Osaka, Japan ************************************************************************ HRI 2010 Videos Session: HRI 2010 invite videos related to all aspects of HRI. This is a peer-reviewed session: besides the importance of the lessons learned and the novelty of the situation, the entertainment value will be judged. The videos will be played on a projected screen during a plenary session of the conference and will be published in the conference proceedings and archived in the ACM Digital Library. Submission Website for Videos: http://www.hri-metrics.org/hri10videos/ Call for Late Breaking Reports (LBR): The HRI 2010 submission website is open for Late-Breaking Reports (2 pages, following the same guidelines as the full papers).The LBR session is a venue for early stage research results, as compared to the full-paper track of the conference. Accepted abstracts will be presented at a poster session during HRI 2010. Late-Breaking Reports will be available to attendees via the conference DVD. Being non-archival, this format enables authors to publish their completed work in other venues, while still allowing this early version to remain visible to HRI researchers worldwide. Submission Website for LBR: https://precisionconference.com/~hri Important Dates 15 December 2009: Submission of video & late-breaking short papers 4 January 2009: Notification of acceptance of Videos and Late Breaking Report, Final camera-ready full papers due 2-5 March 2010: Conference Video Session Co-Chairs Jacob Crandall (MASDAR Institute) Aaron Steinfeld (CMU) Late-Breaking Report Co-Chairs Bilge Mutlu (University of Wisconsin-Madison) e-mail Andrea Thomaz (Georgia Tech) General Co-Chairs Pamela Hinds, Stanford University Hiroshi Ishiguro, Osaka University Program Co-Chairs Takayuki Kanda, ATR Peter Kahn, Univ of Washington Publicity Co-Chairs Dong-Soo Kwon, KAIST Greg Trafton, NRL Aude Billard, EPFL Dikai Liu, Univ. of Tech. Sydney From bpw26 at cam.ac.uk Tue Nov 3 11:45:22 2009 From: bpw26 at cam.ac.uk (Brian Williams) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 19:45:22 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Post Doc Position - University of Cambridge UK Message-ID: <61f9792b0911031145q287e2877w594f7eefc44fb5aa@mail.gmail.com> Research Associate in Visual Sensors and Control Department of Engineering University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Vacancy Reference No: NA05908??Salary: ?27,183-?35,469 Two positions exist for Research Assosciates to work on Visual Sensors and Control. The project is funded by the EU Framework 7 program and will involve collaboration with academic and commercial instutions in Europe including EPFL, TU-Graz and Ubisense. The project has two main parts: to create 3D topographic maps with thermal overlays from a remote controlled blimp and to create a system perform tracking system for implementing an outdoors augmented reality application on a hand-held PC. The aim of the project is to provide software infrastructure to support teams of users in on-site monitoring of events and analysis of natural resources. The successful candidate will have a PhD in computer vision or a related discipline. Preference will be given to candidates with experience in real-time computer vision, robot guidance or machine learning. Good experiance with C++ programming and mathematical methods such as linear algebra and numerical optimization is required. Further details may be obtained from Tom Drummond ( twd20 at cam.ac.uk ). The cover sheet for applications, PD18 is available from www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/personnel/forms/pd18/. Parts I, II and III should be sent, with a letter and CV to [Dr Tom Drummond], Department of Engineering, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, (Tel +44 01223 765960, Fax +44 01223 332662, email twd20 at eng.cam.ac.uk). * Limit of tenure: 31 May 2011 Closing date: 26 November 2009. Planned Interview dates: Selected candidates will be interviewed as soon as possible after the closing date.. The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity. The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK. From dw at tum.de Tue Nov 3 04:42:44 2009 From: dw at tum.de (Dirk Wollherr) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 13:42:44 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD student positions at Technische Universitaet Muenchen Message-ID: <5BD0CB18-D97E-4235-8240-D5214657A9A0@tum.de> The Institute of Automatic Control Engineering, Technische Universt?t M?nchen, is seeking up to 4 Research Assistants/wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter with opportunity for dissertation within the EU STREP project IURO. The goal is to develop a robot capable of navigating to a designated area in the city of Munich. Since the robot does not dispose of GPS information or prior map knowledge, missing information is retrieved by asking passers-by for help. The IURO project is an international collaboration with 5 partners from 5 different countries funded by the EU commission. For this project, we are employing ambitious young researchers with interest in the following areas: 1. Environment perception ? 3D SLAM ? Topologic structures ? Moving obstacle tracking 2. Environment modeling and representation ? 3D environment representation considering dynamics ? Global path planning ? Multimodal sensor fusion 3. Information handling ? Information validation, plausibility verification ? Information fusion and abstraction ? Confidence assessment and action selection 4. Multi-camera foveated vision and attention control ? Multi-camera vision and visual information fusion ? Information modeling ? Fusion of top-down/bottom-up information ? Human/environment recognition 5. Nonverbal communication ? Control of non-verbal expression (face/gesture) ? Task-dependent modeling of non-verbal communication ? Recognition of human non-verbal signals This challenging project requires a team of excellent researchers with strong disciplinary background (control, mechanical or electrical engineering, communication, information theory, computer science) and interest to work in an interdisciplinary environment. A strong capacity for teamwork is indispensable as well as excellent programming skills. Advanced programming skills and experience (C/C++, etc.) are an asset. The positions are fully paid according to German rules (formerly BAT- IIa). Requirements are a successful degree (master/diploma) with excellent records. Please send your application including your complete CV, relevant certificates, and some of your publications by Email to office at lsr.ei.tum.de with the Keyword "PosIURO". TUM is especially encouraging minorities and women to apply, because of its strong commitment to diversity in engineering education, research, and practice. Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing./Univ. Tokio Martin Buss Lehrstuhl f?r Steuerungs- und Regelungstechnik Technische Universit?t M?nchen 80290 M?nchen -- ------------------------------------------------- Dr.-Ing. Dirk Wollherr Senior researcher and lecturer Director of the robotics group Lehrstuhl f?r Steuerungs- und Regelungstechnik/ Institute of Automatic Control Engineering (LSR) Technische Universit?t M?nchen D-80290 M?nchen, Germany Tel.: +49 89 289-23401, Fax: +49 89 289-28340 mailto:dw at tum.de WWW: http://lsr.ei.tum.de From Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr Wed Nov 4 12:47:29 2009 From: Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr (Pissaloux) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 21:47:29 +0100 (CET) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD position Message-ID: <8aba4b8cefe1e2ccd0dd49ffcb177195.squirrel@webmail.isir.upmc.fr> Dear Colleague, Thank you for the distibution of the below PhD position opened at UPMC (Paris 6). Edwige Pissaloux ================== PhD studentship at UPMC-Paris 6 University PhD studentship is open at Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR) (http://www.isir.upmc.fr/) University of Paris Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC)?Paris 6 (http://www.upmc.fr/) under prof. Edwige Pissaloux supervision (Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr) The position will be funded within the framework of a FP7 ICT project. Thesis title is ?Detection and tracking of 3D scene features?. Thesis summary. The ISIR (Institute of Intelligent Systems & Robotics, former Laboratoire de Robotique de Paris) of the UPMC (University Pierre and Marie Curie, former Paris 6 University), through various National, European and International research projects, studies neuro-cognitive human-space interaction in order to design and realize prototypes of intelligent systems, robotics and mechatronics systems, highly autonomous and/or able to assist healthy and handicapped in performing everyday life tasks. The ability to interact with the environment, and especially to move in it, is a key element for human and robot autonomy. The autonomous navigation seems to be mainly supported by vision and balance which, conveniently combined, allow the elaboratation of adequate motor stimulis for the interaction progressing. The precise process of human vision and balance data combination when navigating is unknown; however it is hypothesized that the vision detectes & helps to memorize 3D scene (not only geometric) features, while balance assist the selection and tracking of pertinent features in image sequence. This thesis aims to design and prototype a system - a new nomad eye-tracker- which detects and tracks image geometric and cognitive features of a 3D scene when navigating, ie. which determines the gaze direction of subject carrying the system at any time. New hardware system will be designed and prototyped with commercially available components. The dedicated software will encompass new and spatio-temporal optimized algorithms for feature detection and tracking and for vision & inertial data combination; both classes of the algorithms could be bases upon present knowledge of neuro-cognitive sciences for which a new computational models will be designed. A new nomad eye-tracker will be validated through real applications which aim to assist the interactions of arm and hand motor handicapped people in execution of everyday tasks. Finally the designed system (simulating partly the human head) will be integrated in a more global system. Key words: feature and gaze detection and tracking in images and 3D scenes, visual perception, inertial data, vision and inertial data combination, statistical methods (particle filter, EKF, MCMC, etc), assistance of the control of the environment for arm/hand motor impaired Candidate profile: - strong background in mathematics, a strong interest in the scientific study of human visual perception and in vision system for humanoid and autonomous robotics application (shown by specific master subjects); - good knowledge of computer architecture and algorithm design and optimisation; - excellent programming skills (assembly, DSP, C/C++, Java) ; - good experience with practical system development - good level of written/spoken English (French not required) - maximum 30 years old Highly appreciate candidate should show creativity, open-mindedness, team spirit, and a willingness to address novel challenges in unknown research area. PhD Starting date: January 2010 Duration: 3 years Financial support The successful candidate will be hired as PhD student and receive an equivalent of Ministry of Education scholarship with social benefits (amount : around 1600?/month before taxes). Deadline for application : November 27, 2009 If interested, please post, e-mail (pdf format only): 1- C.V. 2- Motivation letter (career plan, motivation for PhD, statement of research interest) 3- Copy of original study certificates with list of subjects, grades, and scale (indicate min, max, and pass threshold for your class) for Master degree in Engineering, EE, Computer Science, Robotics, Mechatronics, Mathematics, Physics or similar 4- Contact addresses of two reference persons 5- Copy of international publications, if any (max 3) to: Prof. Edwige Pissaloux Contact : Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr ISIR/UPMC, Pyramide tour 55, bo?te courriers 173 4 place Jussieu, 75 252 Paris, France Fax : 33 1 44 27 51 45 Given the high number of applications and enquiries, further information can be provided only to applicants who have submitted all items listed above. ================================================= Edwige Pissaloux ph. 33(0)144272874 Professeur fax : 33(0)144275145 Vision VLSI/System Design email:Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr ISIR/UPMC & CNRS UMR 7220 Pyramide tour 55 4 place Jussieu 75 252 Paris Cedex 05, France IEEE France Section EMBS Chapter Founder and Past Chair Pr?sidente de la Section Signal & Image du Club EEA =============================================== From hirata at irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp Fri Nov 6 02:55:01 2009 From: hirata at irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp (Yasuhisa Hirata) Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:55:01 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Advanced Robotics : Vol. 23, No. 14 issue Message-ID: <4AF40085.7090801@irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp> ************************************************************************ The Official International Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan Advanced Robotics Volume 23, Number 14, 2009 Robot and Human Interactive Communication ************************************************************************ You have free access to the abstracts of all papers below from the following link, and can access the pdf files if you or your institution is subscribing to Advanced Robotics: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/vsp/arb/2009/00000023/00000014 Table of Contents Preface pp. 1829-1830(2) Authors: K?hnlenz, Kolja; Buss, Martin Gaze Guidance Using a Facial Expression Robot pp. 1831-1848(18) Authors: Hashimoto, Minoru; Kondo, Hiromi; Tamatsu, Yukimasa Implementation of an Auditory Feedback Control System on an Anthropomorphic Flutist Robot Inspired on the Performance of a Professional Flutist pp. 1849-1871(23) Authors: Solis, Jorge; Taniguchi, Koichi; Ninomiya, Takeshi; Petersen, Klaus; Yamamoto, Tetsuro; Takanishi, Atsuo Human Action Recognition Using Global Point Feature Histograms and Action Shapes pp. 1873-1908(36) Authors: Rusu, Radu Bogdan; Bandouch, Jan; Meier, Franziska; Essa, Irfan; Beetz, Michael Influence of Social Presence on Acceptance of an Assistive Social Robot and Screen Agent by Elderly Users pp. 1909-1923(15) Authors: Heerink, Marcel; Kr?se, Ben; Evers, Vanessa; Wielinga, Bob Semi-Autonomous Robot Avatar as a Medium for Family Communication and Education pp. 1925-1949(25) Authors: Lee, Jun Ki; Stiehl, Walter Dan; Toscano, Robert Lopez; Breazeal, Cynthia Effects of Embodiment and Gestures on Social Interaction in Drumming Games with a Humanoid Robot pp. 1951-1996(46) Authors: Kose-Bagci, Hatice; Ferrari, Ester; Dautenhahn, Kerstin; Syrdal, Dag Sverre; Nehaniv, Chrystopher L. These are the relevant links to Advanced Robotics: http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/index_e.html [Advanced Robotics Home Page] http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/Subscribe_e.html [How to Subscribe] http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/Submit_e.html [Paper Submission] -- Shigeki Sugano (Waseda University, Japan) Editor-in-Chief, Advanced Robotics Tetsunari Inamura (National Institute of Informatics) Committee Chair of RSJ International Journal e-info at rsj.or.jp From holly at cs.uml.edu Fri Nov 6 07:42:22 2009 From: holly at cs.uml.edu (Holly Yanco) Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:42:22 -0500 (EST) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] UMass Lowell hiring Associate Professors Message-ID: <200911061542.nA6FgMma187834@venus.cs.uml.edu> We have openings for several Associate Professors in the Computer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell this year. The job announcement can be found at http://jobs.uml.edu under Faculty Positions. You can also contact me (holly at cs.uml.edu) or Fred Martin (fredm at cs.uml.edu) for more information about our department and robotics research programs. Holly ----------------------------------------------------------------- Holly Yanco Associate Professor University of Massachusetts Lowell Computer Science Department One University Avenue, Olsen Hall Lowell, MA 01854 Phone: (978)934-3642 Fax: (978)934-3551 Web: http://www.cs.uml.edu/~holly http://robotics.cs.uml.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------- From kkim at hrl.com Wed Nov 4 11:10:08 2009 From: kkim at hrl.com (Kim, Kyungnam (Ken)) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:10:08 -0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Two Postdocs in Neuro-inspired/Vision/Robotics/Learning at HRL (Malibu, CA) Message-ID: Post Doc - 0921F (code: 0921F) Post Doc - 0921G (code: 0921G) "Special Requirements": U.S. citizen or permanent resident status required. Education Desired: Ph.D. in EE, Computer Science, Applied Math, Electrical Engineering, Computational Neurobiology or related fields. Essential Job Functions: Primary job function is to develop neuro-inspired models and algorithms for sensory (particularly visual) processing, navigation, motor control, memory, and learning. Tasks will include the development, simulation, evaluation, and implementation of neuromorphic algorithms applied to a variety of applications. Additional job functions include writing invention disclosures and publishing papers. Experience Desired: Research experience in one or more of the following areas: Neurobiological modeling of vision, audition, control, language, memory, learning or cognition; building neuro or biologically inspired cognitive systems (software and hybrid software/hardware) with applications to robotic control, navigation, and visual scene analysis; neuromorphic engineering and construction of brain-based devices; machine learning. Experience developing innovative solutions based upon the application of relevant research results from a wide variety of sources. Knowledge Desired: Required: Background in brain modeling and simulation, computational neuroscience, cognitive modeling; machine learning; strong programming skills, particularly proficient with C, C++, JAVA, and/or Matlab Essential Physical/ Mental Requirements: Good communication (verbal and written) skills, active participation in R & D team activities is required. Please apply at http://fmudmz.hrl.com/resumes/jobs/cars_jobs5.lasso ========================================= Kyungnam (Ken) Kim, Ph.D. Research Staff Member HRL Laboratories, LLC, 3011 Malibu Canyon Rd. Malibu, CA 90265 (310)317-5024 | kkim at hrl.com | http://www.linkedin.com/in/KyungnamKim From kenji at ieee.org Mon Nov 2 08:41:33 2009 From: kenji at ieee.org (Kenji Suzuki) Date: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:41:33 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ARSO2009: Call for Participation Message-ID: <4AEF0BBD.4090900@ieee.org> * We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this announcement. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ARSO2009 Call for Participation The 2009 IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts http://www.arso2009.org/ -------------------------------- ARSO2009 will be held on Nov 23-25, 2009 at AIST Tokyo Waterfront, Tokyo, Japan. The workshop series started in Nagoya in year 2005, and traveled through Beijing (2006), Hsinchu (2007), and Taipei (2008), and will bring the spirits to Tokyo. The 5th workshop is overlapping with The 2009 International Robot Exhibition scheduled from November 25 to November 28, 2009 at Tokyo Big Site nearby AIST Tokyo Waterfront. http://www.nikkan.co.jp/eve/irex/english/index.html ARSO2009 aims at discussing advanced robotics R&D and its implications to economic and social systems. Participants will be world class robotic researchers, investors, economists, and representatives of industry and government. The workshop consists of single session with discussions on cutting edge technologies, business opportunities and the social impact to societies. * Plenary Talks Dr. Steve Cousins, CEO, Willow Garage, Inc., USA Mr. Dai Akimoto, Segway Japan, Ltd., Japan * Invited Talks Dr. Takanori Shibata, Government of Japan, Japan Dr. Boo-Ho Yang, Soft Servo Systems, Inc., USA Dr. Kyung Chul Shin, Yujin Robot Co., Ltd., Korea Mr. Bruno Bonnell, Robopolis, France Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - Service Robot - Security Robot - Surgical Robot - Entertainment and Amusement Robot - Education Robot - Assistive and Rehabilitation Robot - Foresight and Prospect - New Business Models - New Initiatives and Strategies for New Industries - Socio-economic Impacts - Culture Creation - Education and Skill Transfer - Traceability and Safety ARSO2009 is sponsored by IEEE, in cooperation with: - Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry - New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology - The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers - The Robotics Society of Japan - The Society of Instrument and Control Engineers For a detailed program and schedule, please refer to the workshop website: http://www.arso2009.org/program.html ARSO2009 Program Chair Hajime Asama --- On behalf of the ARSO2009 Program Chair Kenji Suzuki ARSO2009 E-Media Chair --- Kenji Suzuki kenji at ieee.org LPPA, College de France, France University of Tsukuba, Japan http://www.iit.tsukuba.ac.jp/~kenji/ From pierre at bu.edu Tue Nov 3 09:42:29 2009 From: pierre at bu.edu (Pierre Dupont) Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:42:29 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Postdoctoral / Programming Positions in Image-guided Robotic Surgery at Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School Message-ID: The BU BioRobotics Lab is moving to Children's Hospital Boston in Spring 2010. In anticipation of this move, the following positions are available immediately. Postdoctoral Fellow (Robot Control) ? This position is to develop and implement real-time control algorithms for complex medical robotic systems. It is expected that the successful candidate will have a PhD in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering or computer science. It is also expected that the candidate will have hands-on experience in controller implementation. Postdoctoral Fellow (Image Processing) ? This position is to develop real-time algorithms using open-architecture 3D ultrasound systems to enable robot navigation within the body. It is expected that the successful candidate will have a PhD in electrical engineering or computer science and have experience in medical image processing. Robot Programmer ? This position is to implement real-time control algorithms for complex medical robotic systems. The successful candidate will possess experience with robot control and the ability to thrive in a research environment. Our Lab's mission is to embed creative young engineers and scientists in one of the world's leading pediatric hospitals. This ensures that we work on clinically important problems and enables us to rapidly transition engineering prototypes to a clinical setting for testing. More information on our projects can be found at: http://www.childrenshospital.org/cfapps/research/data_admin/Site2822/mainpag eS2822P0.html and http://biorobotics.bu.edu Qualified applicants should respond by email as soon as possible to Prof. Pierre Dupont (Pierre.Dupont at childrens.harvard.edu) with a description of their qualifications, academic background, PhD thesis, publications, career goals and availability. The initial appointments will be for one year with the possibility of extension. Postdoctoral appointments will be made through Harvard Medical School. Pierre E. Dupont Children's Hospital Boston Harvard Medical School From srikanth.saripalli at asu.edu Wed Nov 4 14:35:42 2009 From: srikanth.saripalli at asu.edu (Srikanth Saripalli) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 15:35:42 -0700 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU : Faculty Position in Environmental Sensor Networks Message-ID: Faculty Position in Environmental Sensor Networks Established in 2006, the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) is the focal point for earth and space science at Arizona State University, one of the largest and fastest growing institutions of higher learning in the United States. An essential part of the SESE mission is an effective integration of disciplines such as astrophysics, biogeochemistry, geology, geophysics, hydrology and engineering for scientific exploration. Over the next two years, SESE will be hiring a large number of faculty ? at a variety of ranks ? in order to build its capacity for transdisciplinary research and education in earth and space science and engineering. (A full listing of current searches may be found at http://sese.asu.edu /opportunities.) One priority for SESE is to welcome new faculty with interests in sensor networks and robotics. Specifically, we seek applicants who are interested in developing techniques for integrating large arrays of static and mobile sensors and robots to monitor physical, chemical, and biological processes that shape the evolution of Earth?s surface and near surface environments. Research interests could range from the development of control and distributed sensing algorithms to the field deployment of sensor networks and robots for environmental observations. A demonstrated track record in research, teaching and grantsmanship is preferred. Opportunities are available for joint appointments with other academic units within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Applications should include: 1) a cover letter that includes a description of the applicant?s research and teaching interests, 2) a current CV, and 3) the names, addresses and telephone numbers of three references. Inquiries and applications must be addressed to Kip Hodges, Director, School of Earth and Space Exploration, and submitted electronically to sesenewfac at asu.edu. Submissions in pdf format are preferred. ASU is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer that actively seeks diversity among applicants and promotes a diverse workforce. From jjb at alum.mit.edu Wed Nov 4 01:32:22 2009 From: jjb at alum.mit.edu (Joanna J Bryson) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 10:32:22 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Real-time humanoid AI doctoral position at Bath & Lionhead (fully funded for UK residents) Message-ID: Dear Roboticists: This is a VR position, but someone with previous experience in autonomous robotics could be ideal. Come work on a system without torque :-) Joanna Doctoral Student in Real-Time Humanoid AI, Lionhead Studios and The University of Bath We are looking for an AI researcher and programmer of exceptional promise to complete a four-year doctoral degree. The dissertation would be supervised by Dr. Joanna Brysonof the University of Bath , but three of the four years would be conducted largely on site at Lionhead Studios in Guildford. The target of the research is to use upcoming game technology to create a humanoid character that will enhance the human computer interaction experience. The research should make use of multiple concurrent sensory inputs including 3-dimensional optical and audio, as well as user pose. These inputs may be used as part of communication exchanges, emotional empathy, and possibly physical interactions of some kind such that under a restricted set of circumstances it would appear that the Turing test had been passed between the character on the computer and the human subject. Systems AI engineering will be emphasised, as we aim to develop not only impressive demonstrations, but reusable components for human-like AI systems. The doctoral position is funded through the Centre For Digital Entertainment, an EPSRC-funded joint initiative of Bath & Bournemouth, with additional support from Lionhead. The degree includes a taught component, with courses negotiated between the candidate, the university & Lionhead. Candidates are asked to make an application through the the Centre's ordinary procedure ( http://www.digital-entertainment.org/info-applicants.html), however please emphasise experience in artificial intelligence (e.g. real-time perception & action selection, machine learning, affective / interactive humanoid intelligence) rather than focussing exclusively on animation. Also, be certain to mention the specific project. The CDE positions are fully funded for UK & EU citizens who have been resident in the UK for at least three years, and partially funded for EU citizens who are not resident. Other international applicants are welcome, but must provide their own funding. Queries not answered by the Centre For Digital Entertainment's website may be directed to Dr. Bryson . [ For a version of this advertisement with hyperlinks, see http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/~jjb/here/LionheadCDE1Nov09.html ] -- Joanna Bryson http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/~jjb/ From chernova at mit.edu Thu Nov 5 07:06:32 2009 From: chernova at mit.edu (Sonia Chernova) Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:06:32 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CFP: AAAI 2010 Learning by Demonstration Challenge Message-ID: <1EE5E6CF-6A41-4B56-9EA7-75F54C71854F@mit.edu> AAAI 2010 Robot Learning by Demonstration Challenge July 11-15, 2010 Atlanta, GA, USA http://web.media.mit.edu/~chernova/aaai2010lbd ------------------------------------------------------ Call for Participation The 2010 AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence will be hosting the second annual exhibit and challenge on robot Learning by Demonstration (LbD). The purpose of this event is to bring together research and commercial groups to demonstrate complete platforms performing LbD tasks. Our long-term aim is to define increasingly challenging experiments for future LbD events and greater scientific understanding of the area. We welcome contributions that demonstrate physically embodied robots learning a task or skill from a human teacher. This year?s LbD Challenge will consist of two components: 1) Individual demonstrations using live hardware and/or short video presentations showcasing Learning by Demonstration abilities. Participants will be able to demonstrate their own unique demo highlighting the abilities of their robot. 2) Optional challenge event in which all participants will perform an object relocation task that involves teaching the robot to move an object from one place to another. Each participating team will be provided with sample objects for practice in the weeks before the event. Due to differences in embodiment and learning algorithms, we expect to see a wide variety of approaches for performing the target behavior. A video showcasing the results will be compiled by the event organizers. The LbD Challenge will be held July 11-15, 2010 as part of the AAAI Robotics Exhibition and Workshop. Please visit the challenge website for the latest information: http://web.media.mit.edu/~chernova/aaai2010lbd Submissions Those interested in contributing should submit a 1-2 page proposal, by March 1, 2010, containing the following information: ? the names and affiliation of the exhibitors ? summary of objectives and methods of the underlying research ? description of the LbD demonstration ? statement of intent of participation in the organized challenge ? citations to relevant or supporting papers ? if proposing a live hardware demonstration, a list and short description of the hardware you will be using at the Challenge. Please email submissions to aaai2010lbd at googlemail.com Notifications of acceptance will be sent by May 1st, 2010. Participants interested in the optional challenge event are encouraged to contact the organizers for additional information. Travel support Travel support may be possible for selected participants, depending on available funds and level of demand. Organizers Sonia Chernova, MIT Media Lab (chernova at media.mit.edu) Monica Anderson, University of Alabama (anderson at cs.ua.edu) Andrea L. Thomaz, Georgia Tech (athomaz at cc.gatech.edu) ------------------------------------ Sonia Chernova Postdoctoral Associate Personal Robots Group M.I.T. Media Lab E-15 #468 | 617-452-5602 http://web.media.mit.edu/~chernova From jsabater at iiia.csic.es Fri Nov 6 08:26:06 2009 From: jsabater at iiia.csic.es (Jordi Sabater Mir) Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:26:06 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] [AAMAS-2010] - Call for industry track Message-ID: <4AF44E1E.1080305@iiia.csic.es> **************************************************************** Call for Papers: Industry and Applications track - AAMAS-2010 **************************************************************** **** We encourage the robotics community to consider submitting papers to the Industry and Applications track at AAMAS-2010 describing industrial robotic/cybernetic systems **** **** Introduction The AAMAS Industry Track is a special track of the AAMAS conference that offers a globally unique opportunity to present and promote industrial and commercial applications of agent technologies. Due to the growing maturity of the field there are now agent-based applications in widespread use across multiple domains that are responsible for the generation of significant revenue. This event provides the ideal forum to present and discuss your work; to inform and inspire the largest international gathering of agent technology researchers and practitioners with presentations and demonstrations of your compelling applications, success stories and new business ideas. It is our intention that the 2010 event actively works to promote the fostering of mutually beneficial relationships between members of the AAMAS community who are engaged in foundational scientific research and those who are working to make autonomous agents and multi-agent systems a commercial reality. **** Topics and Issues of Interest The AAMAS Industry Track invites submissions of short (4-page) or long (8-page) papers that describe autonomous agent and multi-agent systems that have been incorporated into for-profit or non-profit products or services, or that demonstrate a clear potential to be so included. Application domains of interest include, but are not limited to: * telecommunication, media and entertainment * bio-technology, pharmaceutical and health care * financial systems and services * manufacturing, automation, and logistics * industry robotic and cybernetic systems * enterprise systems * large-scale and grid systems management * transportation and telematics * ambient intelligence, intelligent buildings and smart cities * surveillance and security * e-government Authors are advised and encouraged to address the following questions in their paper: * Why is your chosen application domain important to industry and/or society? What are typical use cases? * What is the rationale for using agent-based technology in your application, as opposed to a more traditional approach? * If you have deployed your technology commercially, what specific or general insights have you gained from the experience? * Have you experienced (or do you foresee) technical challenges or market-based barriers to adoption, and if so how did (or might) you address them? * What improvements or external factors might facilitate wider-spread adoption of your technology? * What improvements in fundamental agent technology might improve your application, or enable it to be adopted more broadly? * In financial terms, or any other appropriate measure of benefit, what is the present value of your technology to customers, industry, or government, and what is its ultimate potential? **** What is the relationship between AAMAS Industry Track and AAMAS? The AAMAS Industry Track is an essential and integral part of the AAMAS conference. It runs concurrently with the regular AAMAS scientific track, and all accepted papers are included in the general conference proceedings. The AAMAS Industry Track mandates the same high level of quality that has come to be expected of the AAMAS scientific track. The expectation is that authors must make a concerted effort to address the issues and questions identified in "Topics and Issues of Interest", as appropriate to their paper. We discourage the submission of purely speculative papers or papers whose primary contribution is scientific, as these ought to have been submitted to the regular conference track. Authors submitting a paper to the AAMAS Industry Track are encouraged to submit a demo of their agent-based application to the AAMAS Demonstration session http://www.cse.yorku.ca/AAMAS2010/index.php#content=call4_demo_proposal **** Submission instructions and dates Please format your paper according to standard AAMAS guidelines. AAMAS style guides, as well as templates and style sheets for Microsoft Word and LaTeX can be found here. http://www.cse.yorku.ca/AAMAS2010/index.php#content=authors_instructions Papers must be 8 pages (regular paper) or 4 pages (short paper), including figures and references, when formatted using the specified style. Papers should be formatted for standard Letter paper size. (i.e. not A4). Over-length papers will be rejected. Notification of receipt of the electronic paper will be mailed to the first author (or designated author) soon after receipt. To submit your paper, please register your abstract at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aamas2010industrytrack) before 11:59pm, December 8, 2009 (UTC), and then submit an electronic copy of your completed paper to the same site by 11:59pm, December 15, 2009 (UTC). We strongly encourage submissions in PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format), but will accept submissions in Postscript if PDF is infeasible. We will not accept papers in any other format (e.g., MS Word) because of compatibility problems between software versions, machines, and nationalities. We cannot accept title pages or papers submitted by FAX. Submissions received after this deadline will not be considered for review. Notification of acceptance or rejection of submitted papers will be mailed to the first author (or designated author) by January 23, 2010. Note that at least one author of each accepted paper is required to register and to attend the conference to present the work. In summary, here are the critical dates: * Deadline for paper information: December 8, 2009 * Deadline for paper submission: December 15, 2009 * Notification of acceptance or rejection: January 23, 2010 * Final versions due: February 8, 2010 For more information, see the AAMAS Industry and Applications Track web site at http://www.cse.yorku.ca/AAMAS2010/index.php#content=call_for_industry_track or contact the track co-chairs at aamas2010industrytrack at easychair.org **** Policy on Multiple Submissions The AAMAS 2009 Industry Track will not accept any paper which, at the time of submission, is under review for or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. Authors are also expected not to submit their papers elsewhere during the AAMAS review period. These restrictions apply only to journals and conferences, not to workshops and similar specialized presentations with a limited audience and no formal proceedings. **** Track Co-Chairs Dominic Greenwood Whitestein Technologies, Switzerland Jeff Kephart IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center, USA **** Program Committee Jeremy Baxter, QinetiQ Michael Berger, DocuWare AG Sven Br?ckner, NewVectors LLC Paul Buhler, Modus 21 Bernard Burg, Panasonic Laboratories Klaus Dorer, Offenburg University James Hanson, IBM Research Tarek Helmy, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Martin Hofmann, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories Takahiro Kawamura, Toshiba Michael Kerstetter, Boeing Dejan Milojicic, Hewlett Packard Laboratories James Odell, CSC Michal Pechoucek, Czech Technical University Michael Pirker, Siemens AG Maarten Sierhuis, NASA Elizabeth Sklar, Brooklyn College, City University of New York Simon Thompson, BT Research Shigeo Matsubara, Kyoto University Steven Willmott, 3Scale Networks Gaku Yamamoto, IBM and Tokyo Institute of Technology From wmayol at compsci.bristol.ac.uk Tue Nov 3 15:23:08 2009 From: wmayol at compsci.bristol.ac.uk (W Mayol-Cuevas) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 23:23:08 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Tutorial on Real-Time Computer Vision for Localisation and Mapping Message-ID: As part of IEEE Humanoids, on the 7th of December 2009 in Paris. Early registration for this tutorial is about 30Euros or less before Nov 5th Speakers: Andrew Davison (Imperial College) Andrew Calway (Univ of Bristol) Olivier Stasse (AIST/ISRI-CNRS/STIC) Walterio Mayol-Cuevas (Univ of Bristol) Motivation: For a highly dexterous and agile platform such as a humanoid robot, a pre-requisite for efficient task or motion planning is to be able to know where it is relative to its surroundings. In recent years, there has been significant effort in developing real-time mapping and localisation using vision sensors only. The attractiveness of visual sensors is not only their size, low cost and availability but importantly the different kind of features they can recover. Moreover, a humanoid requires fast algorithms able to provide pose within a few milliseconds and therefore the visual techniques required must be robust and consider real-time constraints. This tutorial will concentrate on the following topics: -Basics of Visual Localisation -Introduction to Visual Mapping -Real-time and robust feature matching and description -Creating larger maps and discovering map structure -Navigation and visual sensor planning Length: Half-day Registration to IEEE Humanoids, this tutorial and more details are available at: http://www.humanoids2009.org/ From rsiegwart at ethz.ch Wed Nov 4 14:42:04 2009 From: rsiegwart at ethz.ch (Siegwart Roland) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 23:42:04 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CogSys 2010, January 27&28, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Message-ID: CogSys 2010 - Call for Contributions 4th International Conference on Cognitive Systems January 27 & 28, 2010, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Pre-registration of Poster Contributions: December 15, 2009 --- http://www.CogSys2010.ethz.ch/ --- =================================================== -- Objective: The goal of the CogSys Conference is to bring together researchers in cognitive systems and robotics from academia, government and industry. The conference intends to present the state-of-the-art in cognitive systems and robotics in Europe and beyond. It aims to spotlight European research activities in the field and generate a lively discussion and interaction across disciplinary and institutional borders. -- Symposium Format: The conference will be held as a two-day single track conference with invited talks from selected EU projects in the field and four keynote talks from outstanding individuals. It will be enhanced by an open poster session presenting the very rich and diverse activities in European's research in cognitive systems and robotics. The posters will be published on the conference webpage and be freely available to the community and the public. -- Venue: The conference will be held at ETH Zurich downtown campus in the heart of Europe. ETH's campus is easy to reach by direct trains and trams from Zurich Airport and by fast train from various major cities in Europe. The oral and poster presentation as well as the banquet on January 27 will be in ETH's historic main building overlooking Zurich. -- Poster Submissions: Poster submission is open to all individuals or groups active in the field of Cognitive Systems and Robotics. Submissions from EU funded projects are particularly encouraged. Submitted posters are expected to focus on innovative research and scientific/technological advances. Simple project overviews not enhancing scientific results and innovations will not be accepted as posters. The posters have to be submitted in A4 format for our on-line database and have to presented with A0 printout at the conference. It is therefore highly important that they are arranged so that they are readable in both formats. Please avoid putting too much and too lengthy text. A simple review process will enforce that all posters comply with this concept. -- Submission Procedure: Poster submissions have to be pre-registered (announced) through the CogSys 2010 webpage by December 15, 2009. Late pre-registration will be accepted only if space availability permits it. The final poster has to be uploaded by January 10, 2010. -- Related Events: The EUCogII Members' Conference 2010 will be held in conjunction with CogSys 2010 on January 29 at the same location. -- Registration Fee: 50 Euros, including reception, dinner and coffee breaks -- Important Dates: Important Dates: - December 15, 2009: Pre-registration for Poster contribution - January 10, 2010: Submission of Posters - January 10, 2010: Deadline for Symposium Registration - January 27 & 28, 2010: Symposium at ETH Zurich - January 29, 2010: EuCogII Meeting at ETH Zurich -- Committee: General Co-Chairs: Roland Siegwart, ETH Zurich Rolf Pfeifer, University of Zurich Program Co-Chairs Thierry B?cheler Cedric Pradalier Rudolph Triebel Webpage Jerome Maye Ralf K?stner Administraition Eve Lasserre Cornelia Della Casa EU - Liaison Bjoern Juretzki EUCogII - Liaison Vincent C. M?ller EURON - Liaison Herman Bruyninckx CogSys 2008 - Liaison Tamim Asfour _________________________ Prof. Dr. Roland Siegwart Autonomous Systems Lab Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems ETH Z?rich, CLA E 33 Tannenstrasse 3 CH-8092 Z?rich, Switzerland Office: +41 44 632 23 58 Fax: +41 86 079 214 49 27 Mobile: +41 79 214 49 27 E-Mail: rsiegwart at ethz.ch > WWW: www.asl.ethz.ch > From oliver.brock at tu-berlin.de Fri Nov 6 12:23:40 2009 From: oliver.brock at tu-berlin.de (Brock, Oliver) Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 21:23:40 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD Position at TU Berlin Message-ID: Open Research Position in Robotics: Motion Generation for Mobile Manipulation Position: Ph.D. student Topic: motion generation for mobile manipulation http://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/stellenangebote/robotik/ The Robotics and Biology Laboratory in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Technische Universit?t Berlin has an immediate opening! About the Research The Robotics and Biology Laboratory conducts cutting-edge research in the area of autonomous mobile manipulation, including work on manipulation, interactive perception, grasping, computer vision, motion generation, motion planning, and robotic cognition. Our work is motivated by the desire to create robotic systems that perform dexterous manipulation tasks in everyday environments with a level of competency rivaling that of humans. We strive to demonstrate our research on real-world robotic systems in everyday environments. This requires the tight integration of autonomous capabilities in manipulation, perception, planning, control, machine learning, and reasoning. Researchers in our lab work at the intersection of at least two of these areas, creating innovative solutions to long-standing research challenges in robotics and artificial intelligence. Research projects will be tailored to the preferences, skills, and experience of the successful applicant. Desired Skills The successful applicant has completed a Masters degree in computer science or a closely related discipline. He or she should possess excellent skills and practical experience in one or more of the following research areas: motion planning, control, hybrid systems. Experience at the intersection of one or more of these areas is desirable. Experience with programming and operating real-world robots and with the development of large integrated software is a plus. Proficiency in written and spoken English is required. Knowledge of German is useful but not required. About the Robotics and Biology Laboratory The Robotics and Biology Laboratory is an international leader in the field of autonomous mobile manipulation. The lab is generously funded through the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt-Professorship by the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation. It has large, newly renovated laboratory and office space on the campus of the TU Berlin in the middle of Berlin. The lab home to top-notch, state-of-the-art mobile manipulators and robots; it is equipped with all the toys and bells and whistles that a roboticist might desire. The lab maintains close research ties to top universities in Germany, Europe, and the USA. The Robotics and Biology Laboratory provides an ideal environment for launching a successful career in academia or industry. About Berlin Berlin is a thriving center for science, culture, politics, and media right in the middle of Europe. Berlin is the most populous city in Germany, but through its many parks, forests, and lakes within the city limits, it provides a quality of life that is quite unique among large cities in the world. At the same time, the cost of living is very low. Berlin is home to three high-quality universities and many academic, governmental, and industrial research organizations. Wikipedia about Berlin: "The metropolis is home to world-renowned universities, research institutes, sporting events, orchestras, museums and personalities. Berlin's urban landscape and historical legacy has made it a popular setting for international film productions. The city is recognized for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts and a high quality of living. Berlin has evolved into a global focal point for young individuals and artists attracted by a liberal lifestyle and modern zeitgeist." How to Apply International applications are encouraged to apply and will receive logistic support with visa issues. Applications will be evaluated on an ongoing basis until the positions are filled. Please email your application, including cover letter, CV, scanned transcripts, diplomas, publications, theses, other supporting material, and the contact information for at least two references as a single PDF file with "Application Motion Generation" in the subject line to robotics at robotics.tu-berlin.de. If you have questions regarding the position, please contact Mrs Gudrun Pourshirazi Tel. +49 30 314-73 110 Fax +49 30 314-21 116 robotics at robotics.tu-berlin.de TU Berlin, Fakult?t IV Robotics, EN 10 Einsteinufer 17 10587 Berlin Germany From pal at isr.ist.utl.pt Fri Nov 6 12:43:55 2009 From: pal at isr.ist.utl.pt (Pedro M. U. A. Lima) Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:43:55 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Papers: ROBOTICA 2010, 10th Conference on Mobile Robots and Competitions Message-ID: <4AF48A8B.7090505@isr.ist.utl.pt> Call for Papers - ROB?TICA2010 10th Conference on Mobile Robots and Competitions Leiria, Portugal Dear Colleagues, It is our great pleasure to invite you to participate in the 10th Conference on Mobile Robots and Competitions - ROB?TICA2010, to be held in Leiria, Portugal, March 2010. The conference, which is promoted by the Portuguese Robotics Society (SPR), is organized by the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (IPL) through its Superior School of Technology and Management (ESTG). The conference is co-sponsored by IEEE through the IEEE Portuguese Chapter with the support of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), through its Portuguese Chapter. This international conference provides an excellent opportunity for researchers worldwide to present their most recent work in fields such as Education through robots, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. The conference is part of a larger event, the 10th Portuguese Robotics Open, which dedicates to fostering the research and public awareness on the field of mobile robotics through robotic competitions, demonstrations and workshops. Important conference dates: 7th January, 2010 - Submission of full-length papers 22nd February, 2010 - Notification of acceptance 1st March, 2010 - Camera Ready Papers 24th March, 2010 - ROB?TICA2010 begins For more information regarding the conference please check: http://robotica2010.ipleiria.pt/robotica2010/ We would appreciate if you could forward this CfP to your colleagues. From hirata at irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp Fri Nov 6 16:32:45 2009 From: hirata at irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp (Yasuhisa Hirata) Date: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:32:45 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Advanced Robotics : Vol. 23, No. 14 issue Message-ID: <4AF4C02D.9050700@irs.mech.tohoku.ac.jp> ************************************************************************ The Official International Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan Advanced Robotics Volume 23, Number 14, 2009 Robot and Human Interactive Communication ************************************************************************ You have free access to the abstracts of all papers below from the following link, and can access the pdf files if you or your institution is subscribing to Advanced Robotics: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/vsp/arb/2009/00000023/00000014 Table of Contents Preface pp. 1829-1830(2) Authors: Kuehnlenz, Kolja; Buss, Martin Gaze Guidance Using a Facial Expression Robot pp. 1831-1848(18) Authors: Hashimoto, Minoru; Kondo, Hiromi; Tamatsu, Yukimasa Implementation of an Auditory Feedback Control System on an Anthropomorphic Flutist Robot Inspired on the Performance of a Professional Flutist pp. 1849-1871(23) Authors: Solis, Jorge; Taniguchi, Koichi; Ninomiya, Takeshi; Petersen, Klaus; Yamamoto, Tetsuro; Takanishi, Atsuo Human Action Recognition Using Global Point Feature Histograms and Action Shapes pp. 1873-1908(36) Authors: Rusu, Radu Bogdan; Bandouch, Jan; Meier, Franziska; Essa, Irfan; Beetz, Michael Influence of Social Presence on Acceptance of an Assistive Social Robot and Screen Agent by Elderly Users pp. 1909-1923(15) Authors: Heerink, Marcel; Kroese, Ben; Evers, Vanessa; Wielinga, Bob Semi-Autonomous Robot Avatar as a Medium for Family Communication and Education pp. 1925-1949(25) Authors: Lee, Jun Ki; Stiehl, Walter Dan; Toscano, Robert Lopez; Breazeal, Cynthia Effects of Embodiment and Gestures on Social Interaction in Drumming Games with a Humanoid Robot pp. 1951-1996(46) Authors: Kose-Bagci, Hatice; Ferrari, Ester; Dautenhahn, Kerstin; Syrdal, Dag Sverre; Nehaniv, Chrystopher L. These are the relevant links to Advanced Robotics: http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/index_e.html [Advanced Robotics Home Page] http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/Subscribe_e.html [How to Subscribe] http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/Submit_e.html [Paper Submission] -- Shigeki Sugano (Waseda University, Japan) Editor-in-Chief, Advanced Robotics Tetsunari Inamura (National Institute of Informatics) Committee Chair of RSJ International Journal e-info at rsj.or.jp From manuel.lopes at plymouth.ac.uk Fri Nov 6 12:58:50 2009 From: manuel.lopes at plymouth.ac.uk (Manuel Lopes) Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 20:58:50 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] [CFP IEEE TAMD] Special issue on Active Learning and Intrinsically Motivated Exploration in Robots Message-ID: <3f89c77a0911061258o4735ca44w1967e306b63ccde3@mail.gmail.com> ======================================================= CALL FOR PAPER IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, Special Issue on Active Learning and Intrinsically Motivated Exploration in Robots ======================================================= http://www.ieee-cis.org/pubs/tamd/ http://flowers.inria.fr/tamd-activeLearningIntrinsicMotivation.htm This special issue is jointly supported by the IEEE CIS Technical committee on Autonomous Mental Development, http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/zhang/amdtc/ and the IEEE RAS Technical committee on Robot Learning, http://www.learning-robots.de/ === Topic Learning techniques are increasingly being used in todays? complex robotic system. Robots are expected to deal with a large variety of tasks, using their high-dimensional and complex bodies, to interact with objects and humans in an intuitive and friendly way. In this new setting, not all relevant information is available at design time, thus self-experimentation and learning by interacting with the physical and social world is very important to acquire knowledge. A major obstacle, in high and complex sensorimotor space, is that learning can become extremely slow or even impossible without adequate exploration strategies. To solve this problem, two main approaches are now converging. Active learning, from statistical learning theory, where the learner actively chooses experiments in order to collect highly informative examples, and where expected information gain can be evaluated with either theoretically optimal criteria or various computationally efficient heuristics. The second approach, intrinsically motivated exploration, from developmental psychology and recently operationalized in the developmental robotics community, aims at building robots capable of open-ended cumulative learning through task-independent efficient exploration of their sensorimotor space and to refine our understanding of how children learn and develop. Although similar in some aspects, these two approaches differ in some of the underlying assumptions. Active learning implicitly assumes that samples with high uncertainty are the most informative and focuses on single tasks. On the contrary, Intrinsic motivation has been identified by psychologists as an innate incentive that pushes organisms to spontaneously explore activities or situations for the sole reason that they have a certain degree of novelty, challenge or surprise, hence the term curiosity-driven learning sometimes used. Several open problems exist still and the goal of this special issue is to show state-of-the-art approaches to these problems and open new directions. Papers should address the following, non-exhaustive, topics applied to robotics or animal cognitive model: ? How can traditional active learning heuristics be applied to robotics problems such as motor learning, affordance learning or interaction learning? ? How to select an active strategy ? Are there general purpose methods or are they task dependent? ? How can active and intrinsic motivated exploration enable long-life, task-independent learning and development? ? Is there a unified formalism to both approaches? ? How precisely do they model human active learning and exploration and its role in development? ? Can these approaches be used for social tasks, e.g. joint-work and human-robot interaction ? === Editors: Manuel Lopes, University of Plymouth, http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/mlopes Pierre-Yves Oudeyer, INRIA, http://www.pyoudeyer.com === Two kinds of submissions are possible: ? Regular papers, up to 15 double column pages ; ? Correspondence papers either presenting a "perspective" that includes insights into issues of wider scope than a regular paper but without being highly computational in style or presenting concise description of recent technical results, up to 8 double column pages ; === Instructions for authors : http://ieee-cis.org/pubs/tamd/authors/ We are accepting submissions through Manuscript Central at : http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tamd-ieee (please select "Active Learning and Intrinsic Motivation" as the submission type) When submitting your manuscript, please also send an email to manuelcabidolopes at gmail.com and pierre-yves.oudeyer at inria.fr with the title and name of the authors of the manuscript. === Timeline : 31 Jan 2010 ? Deadline for paper submission 15 March ? Notification 15 April ? Final version 20 April ? Electronic publication 15 June ? Printed publication Dr. Manuel Lopes http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/mlopes School of Computing, Communications and Electronics University of Plymouth Portland Square A318 PL4 8AA Plymouth United Kingdom From R.GSnyder at ieee.org Fri Nov 6 16:08:30 2009 From: R.GSnyder at ieee.org (R.GSnyder at ieee.org) Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 19:08:30 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IEEE/IFR Invention and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation Award and IERA Forum Message-ID: The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE RAS) jointly sponsor the Invention and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation Award. The purpose of this award is to highlight and honour the achievements of the inventors with value creating ideas and entrepreneurs who propel those ideas into world-class products. At the same time the joint disposition of the award underlines the determination of both organizations to promote stronger collaboration between robotics science and robotics industry. Up to one award will be given annually to the individual(s) whose entrepreneurial efforts have taken an earlier conceptual innovation and evolved it into a commercialized product. The winner(s) are expected to present the underlying principles of the concept, how they transformed this into the product, and demonstrate the commercial product realized from the concept. The presentation will be at the IEEE/IFR Joint Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation on 8 June 2010 in Munich, which is being held in conjunction with the 41st International Symposium on Robotics and the 6th German Conference on Robotics. Just a prototype product or proof of concept is not acceptable. The award consists of a plaque and a $2,000 honorarium. In case there are multiple winners, each recipient will receive a plaque and the honorarium will be equally split between the recipients. Nominees will be solicited through an award sub-committee and in response to a general call for nominees. The Call for Applications containing detailed information can be downloaded as a pdf (38 kb). The deadline for submitting applications is 31 March 2010. See the RAS Industrial Activities Board Webpage, www.ieee-ras.org/industrial/ieeefr, for more information about the award. A list of previous IERA award recipients may be found on the RAS Awards Page, www.ieee-ras.orgRosalyn Graham Snyder Administrator IEEE Robotics and Automation Society 3603 Octavia Street Raleigh, North Carolina 27606 USA E-mail rgsnyder at ieee.org Phone +1 919 851- 3603 Fax + 1919 882-9734 From doetomo at unimelb.edu.au Fri Nov 6 18:37:04 2009 From: doetomo at unimelb.edu.au (Denny Oetomo) Date: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:37:04 +1100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Post-doc in Robotics, University of Melbourne References: Message-ID: Post-doctoral Research position is available at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROJECT TITLE: Robotic gait assistive strategy for people with paraplegia: Generating balanced and human-like gait on a bipedal system AREA OF RESEARCH: Robotics manipulation, dynamics and control, bipedal robotics gait ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are seeking outstanding post-doctoral researcher to carry out a project funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery grant. The project summary is given as follows: The aim of the project is to study the fundamental engineering issues associated with enabling people with paraplegia to stand and walk using a robotic exoskeleton device. This device is worn across the legs and the lower back of the user to support and provide the basic motor functions of the paralysed legs. This exciting fundamental research through new and innovative approaches will focus on the generation of Human-like Robotic Gait that is balanced and dynamically human-like in nature on a bipedal robotic mechanism. The major outcome will be the significant advancement in robotic fundamental capabilities, with immediate applications to a gait assistive device that enables people with paraplegia to perform important basic daily tasks. Successful applicant is expected to have demonstrated clear ability to perform independent research, especially in the area of robotics. An excellent command of written and spoken English is a must. Research expertise in the area of robotic gait will be advantageous but not essential. The position is open to national and international applicants. Position will commence in January 2010, based on annual contract, renewable to 3 years for this particular project. We will be interested to retain excellent candidates beyond the period, therefore priority will be given to those with the intention of staying for at least 3 years in the position / in the research unit. The position will be of Level A6, with starting salary of approximately AUD$65,386. Interested candidates are to contact Dr Denny Oetomo (doetomo at unimelb.edu.au). More information will be available soon, along with the university official advertisement for the position. ---------------------------------------------- Denny Oetomo PhD Lecturer Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Melbourne VIC 3010 Australia Phone: +61 3 8344 6795 Fax: +61 3 9347 8784 Email: doetomo(at) unimelb.edu.au From rss2010workshops at gmail.com Fri Nov 6 18:44:51 2009 From: rss2010workshops at gmail.com (Workshop Chair) Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 20:44:51 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] RSS 2010 Call for Workshops and Tutorials Message-ID: <84c5c42e0911061844m237bb6c8q7bb7aa7671b66b19@mail.gmail.com> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) 2010 http://www.roboticsconference.org/ The University of Zaragoza, Spain, June 27 - June 30, 2010 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CALL FOR WORKSHOP AND TUTORIAL PROPOSALS http://www.roboticsconference.org/workshopcall.html The Organizing Committee for the 2010 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference (RSS 2010) requests proposals for full and half-day workshops and tutorials to be held on Sunday, June 27, and Monday morning June 28, 2010, at the Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain. This day and a half of workshops and tutorials will precede the main conference, which takes place from the afternoon of Monday June 28 through Wednesday June 30. RSS brings together researchers working on algorithmic or mathematical foundations of robotics, robotics applications, and the analysis of robotic systems. The workshops and tutorials have consistently provided high-quality, topically-focused forums for researchers at the forefront of robotics. Submissions: Prospective workshop and tutorial organizers should email a brief, single-paragraph description of the proposed topic and a list of organizers by December 15, 2010. A template for the final proposal will then be sent to you. Full proposals are due February 1, 2010. Initial submissions should be made through the conference website at http://www.roboticsconference.org/workshopcall.html Important Dates: Submission deadline for the proposed topic: December 15, 2009, 23:59:59 PST Submission deadline for the full proposal: February 1, 2010, 23:59:59 PST Acceptance notifications: March 15, 2010 Workshops and tutorials take place: June 27 and 28, 2010 We look forward to seeing you in Zaragoza. Yoky Matsuoka, RSS 2010 General Chair Hugh Durrant-Whyte, RSS 2010 Program Chair Kevin Lynch, RSS 2010 Workshops Chair From sergiustan at hotmail.com Mon Nov 9 04:05:52 2009 From: sergiustan at hotmail.com (Dan Stan) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:05:52 +0200 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IFR International Conference on ROBOTICS 2010, Romania Message-ID: ROBOTICS'10 2010 IFR International Conference on Robotics 23-25 September 2010 Cluj-Napoca, Romania The 2010 IFR International Conference on Robotics (ROBOTICS'10) will take place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, from September 23 to September 25, 2010. An ancient city (the first documental attestation comes up from the times of Roman Empire), Cluj-Napoca is situated in the Northwestern part of Romania. The capital of Cluj county, Cluj-Napoca, with nine public universities, is an important pole of research and higher education in Romania. As the host city of ROBOTICS'10, Cluj-Napoca not only provides the attendees with a great venue for this event, but also a distinctive and unique experience in the Romanian history and culture. You are cordially invited to join us at ROBOTICS'10. The main goal of ROBOTICS'10 is to provide a forum for researchers, educators, engineers, and government officials involved in the general areas of robotics, automation, mechatronics, to disseminate their latest research results and exchange views on the future research directions of these fields. We are looking for original, high-quality contributions addressing (but not limited) the following scientific and technological topics: Robotics, Mechanical design of robot architectures, Sensors and actuators in robotics, Mobile robots navigation and obstacle avoidance, Mechatronics, Industrial automation, process control, manufacturing process and automation, Micro and nano robots, parallel robots, Artificial intelligence, intelligent control, neuro-control, fuzzy control and their applications, Control system modeling, simulation techniques and methodologies, Biomedical and rehabilitation engineering, prosthetics and artificial organs, Teleoperation, telerobotics, haptics, and teleoperated semi-autonomous systems, Robotics for automobile production, Virtual reality. Contributed Papers: All accepted papers will be published by the Journal of Solid State Phenomena (http://www.ttp.net/1012-0394.html), indexed by SCOPUS and monitored by all major abstract media). All submitted papers must be strictly prepared following the publication guidelines. The standard number of pages is 6. Robotics'10 is jointed with the 2010 NoAE Innovation-Competition for Romania (www.noae.com). For detailed up-to-date information, please visit the ROBOTICS'10 conference website at: http://www.robotics10.utcluj.ro Important Dates: February 1, 2010 Full papers May 15, 2010 Notification of paper May 31, 2010 Submission of final papers Honorary chairman Mircea IV?NESCU, Romania General Chairman Cornel BRI?AN, Romania Co-chairs Vistrian M?TIE? & Stelian BRAD, Romania Technical Programme Chair Sergiu-Dan STAN, Romania ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Senior Lecturer Dr. Eng. Dan Stan Technical University of Cluj-Napoca Department of Mechanisms, Precision Mechanics and Mechatronics B-dul Muncii, Nr. 103-105, Corp C, Et. III, C304 400641 Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA, EU Tel. +40-(0)264-401755 e-mail. sergiustan at ieee.org http://www.mecanica.utcluj.ro/mmfm/Colegi/stan.html http://www.sergiustan.ro/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mit Hotmail Dialekt-Videobotschaft verschicken! Mit Hotmail Dialekt-Videobotschaft verschicken! _________________________________________________________________ http://redirect.gimas.net/?n=M0911xMSWin72_WW Windows 7 - jetzt upgraden! From k.dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk Tue Nov 10 02:16:31 2009 From: k.dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk (Dautenhahn, Kerstin) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:16:31 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] FW: Call for Papers: Symposium New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction (at AISB 2010) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: ------------***apologies if you receive multiple copies***--------- Call for Papers: Second International Symposium on New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction A two-day symposium at AISB 2010, 30 March - 1 April 2010, De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb10/AISB2010.html (Convention) http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/HRI-AISB2010-Symposium.html (Symposium) Motivation: Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is a growing research field with many application areas that could have a big impact not only economically, but also on the way we live and the kind of relationships we may develop with machines. Due to its interdisciplinary nature different views and approaches towards HRI need to be nurtured. This symposium will provide a platform to discuss collaboratively recent findings and challenges in HRI. The first symposium on "New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction" was held as part of AISB 2009 in Edinburgh, Scotland, see programme: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/HRI-AISB2009-Symposium.html The symposium organized in 2009 was characterized by excellent presentations as well as extensive and constructive discussions of the research among the participants. Different categories of submissions are encouraged that reflect the different types of research studies that are being carried out. The symposium will encourage a diversity of views on HRI and different approaches taken. In the highly interdisciplinary research field of HRI, a peaceful dialogue among such approaches is expected to contribute to the synthesis of a body of knowledge that may help HRI sustain its creative inertia that has drawn to HRI during the past 10 years many researchers from HCI, robotics, psychology, the social sciences, and other fields. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: * Developments towards robot companions * User-centred robot design * Robots in personal care and health care * Robots in search and rescue * Sensors and interfaces for HRI * Human-aware robot perception * Dialogue and multi-modal human-robot interaction * Robot architectures for socially intelligent robots * HRI field studies in naturalistic environments * Robot assisted therapy * Robots in HRI collaborative scenarios * Robots in schools and in other educational environments * Robots as personal assistants and trainers * Robot and human personality * New methods and methodologies to carry out and analyze human-robot interaction * Robots as companions and helpers in the home * Robots as assistive technology * Long-term or repeated interaction with robots * Creating relationships with robots * Expressiveness in robots * Sustaining the engagement of users * Personalizing robots and HRI interfaces * Human-robot teaching * Robots that learn socially and adapt to people * User experience in HRI * User needs and requirements for HRI * Robots as autonomous companions * Robots as remote-controlled tools * Embodied interfaces for smart homes * Ethnography and field studies * Cross-cultural studies The symposium encourages submissions in any of the following categories. The submission should clearly state which category the article falls under: *N* Completed empirical studies reporting novel research findings In this category we encourage submissions where a substantial body of findings has been accumulated based on precise research questions or hypotheses. Such studies are expected to fit within a particular experimental framework (e.g. using qualitative or quantitative evaluation techniques) and the reviewing of such papers will apply relevant (statistical and other) criteria accordingly. Findings of such studies should provide novel insights into human-robot interaction studies. *E* Exploratory studies Exploratory studies are often necessary to pilot and fine-tune the methodological approach, procedures and measures. In a young research field such as HRI with novel applications and various robotic platforms, exploratory studies are also often required to derive a set of concrete research questions or hypothesis, in particular concerning issues where there is little related theoretical and experimental work. Although care must be taken in the interpretation of findings from such studies, they may highlight issues of great interest and relevance to peers. *S* Case studies Due to the nature of many HRI studies, a large-scale quantitative approach is often neither feasible nor desirable. However, case study evaluation can provide meaningful findings if presented appropriately. Thus, case studies with only one participant, or a small group of participants, are encouraged if they are carried out and analyzed in sufficient depth. *P* Position papers While categories N, E and S require reporting on HRI studies or experiments, position papers can be conceptual or theoretical, providing new interpretations of known results. Also, in this category we consider papers that present new ideas without having a complete study to report on. Papers in this category will be judged on the soundness of the argument presented, the significance of the ideas and the interest to the HRI community. *R* Replication of HRI studies To develop as a field, HRI findings obtained by one research group need to be replicated by other groups. Without any additional novel insights, such work is often not publishable. Within this category, authors will have the opportunity to report on studies that confirm or disconfirm findings from experiments that have already been reported in the literature. This category includes studies that report on negative findings. *D* Live HRI Demonstrations Contributors may have an opportunity to provide live demonstrations (live or via Skype), pending the outcome of negotiations with the local organization team. The demo should highlight interesting features and insights into HRI. Purely entertaining demonstrations without significant research content are discouraged. *Y* System Development Research in this category includes e.g. the design and development of new sensors, robot designs and algorithms for socially interactive robots. Extensive user studies are not necessarily required in this category. If authors feel that their particular paper does not fit any of the above mentioned categories, then they should indicate this when submitting their paper so that the reviewing process can take this into consideration. Symposium chair: Kerstin Dautenhahn (University of Hertfordshire, UK) Symposium contributions: We invite unpublished, original work as extended abstracts (up to 3 pages) or full papers of up to 8 pages (double column) according to the AISB 2010 formatting guidelines (templates will be available later on the AISB 2010 convention website). In category *D* we invite one page descriptions detailing the demo and its associated research questions. In addition to full paper presentations the symposium will also include panels, invited talks, and poster presentations. The symposium schedule will emphasize critical discussions of the presented research as well as wider issues that are important to HRI. Submission of contributions: Please send the PDF submissions to Kerstin Dautenhahn (K.Dautenhahn "@" herts "." ac "." uk) (files bigger than 2MB will not be accepted) including in the email text the following information: title of paper, author list, contact email, name of attached PDF file. All submissions will be peer reviewed. Proceedings: Authors of accepted contributions will be asked to prepare the final versions (up to 8 pages) for inclusion in the symposium proceedings. All accepted contributions will be published in the symposium proceedings. A special journal issue will be considered and/or a book publication with a selection of the best symposium contributions. Important Dates: 11th January 2010 - Papers submission deadline 8th February 2010 - Notifications of acceptance 22nd February 2010 - Camera ready copies due Programme Committee members: Adriana Tapus, USC, USA Alan Wing, University of Birmingham, UK Aris Alissandrakis, Tokio Institute of Technology, Japan Astrid Weiss, University of Salzburg, Austria Ben Krose, UVA, the Netherlands Ben Robins, University of Hertfordshire, UK Bipinchandra Bhakta, University of Leeds, UK Christoph Bartneck, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands Dirk Wollherr, TUM, Germany Dong-Soo Kwon, KAIST, South Korea Farshid Amirabdollahian, University of Hertfordshire, UK Haizhou Li, Institute for Infocomm Research, Singapore Hatice Kose-Bagci, University of Hertfordshire, UK Hisato Kobayashi, Hosei University, Japan Holly Yanco, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, USA Julie Adams, Vanderbilt University, USA Karl F. MacDorman, Indiana University, USA Kerstin Severinson Eklundh, KTH, Sweden Kheng Lee Koay, University of Hertfordshire, UK Kolja Kuehnlenz, TUM, Germany Matthias Scheutz, Indiana University Bloomington, USA Manfred Tscheligi, University of Salzburg, Austria Michael A. Goodrich, Brigham Young University, USA Michael Hillman, Bath Institute of Medical Engineering, UK Michael L. Walters, University of Hertfordshire, UK Monica Nicolescu, University of Nevada, Reno, USA Nuno Otero, University of Minho, Portugal Reid Simmons, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Sandra Hirche, TUM, Germany Sylvain Calinon, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy Takayuki Kanda, ATR, Japan Tatsuya Nomura, Ryukoku University, Japan Wolfram Erlhagen, University of Minho, Portugal Yiannis Demiris, Imperial College, UK Yorick Wilks, University of Sheffield, UK Yoshihiro Miyake, Tokio Institute of Technology, Japan Yorick Wilks, University of Sheffield, UK Yoshihiro Miyake, Tokio Institute of Technology, Japan ----------------------------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn Professor of Artificial Intelligence Adaptive Systems Research Group The University of Hertfordshire, School of Computer Science College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, United Kingdom URL: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd E-mail: K.Dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk Fax: +44-1707-284-303 Tel: +44-1707-284-333 From norberto at robotics.dem.uc.pt Mon Nov 9 10:00:33 2009 From: norberto at robotics.dem.uc.pt (J. Norberto Pires) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 18:00:33 -00 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Controlo'2010 - call for papers and special sessions, submission is OPEN Message-ID: <184670-22009111918033531@robotics.dem.uc.pt> Dear Colleagues, It?s my pleasure to invite you to participate in Controlo?2010 ? 9th Portuguese/International Conference on Automatic Control. Please follow the link to obtain the 2nd Call for Papers: http://www.controlo2010.org/uploads/files/2ndcall.pdf I also encourage you to propose special sessions to the conference. Please email me with a proposal, including organizers and session abstract (500 words). A list of the already accepted special sessions can be found in the conference website: http://www.controlo2010.org Controlo?2010 will be held in Coimbra, the Portuguese city of knowledge. Please watch the invitation video at the conference website: http://www.controlo2010.org/index.php?module=content&option=article&me nuid=22 I am also proud to announce that the invited speakers of the conference will be Prof. Bruno Siciliano (University of Naples Federico II, IEEE RAS President), Prof. Ant?nio Pascoal (Technical University of Lisbon, IST) and Prof. F?tima Leite (University of Coimbra): http://www.controlo2010.org/index.php?module=content&option=article&me nuid=26 Submission to Controlo?2010 is now OPEN. Please submit online at the conference website. Deadline for full draft paper is 31 March 2010. Hope to see you in Coimbra, next 8 to 10 of September 2010. All the best for now, J. Norberto Pires ------------------ Controlo'2010 - www.controlo2010.org www.controlo2010.org/uploads/files/2ndcall.pdf ------------------ J. Norberto Pires Professor Mechanical Engineering Department University of Coimbra 3030 Coimbra Portugal robotics.dem.uc.pt/norberto CEO of iParque: Coimbra Innovation Park www.coimbraiparque.pt Vice-president of the Portuguese Association of Automatic Control (an organization affiliated with IFAC) www.apca.pt From n.a.hawes at cs.bham.ac.uk Tue Nov 10 12:20:37 2009 From: n.a.hawes at cs.bham.ac.uk (Nick Hawes) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:20:37 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] 2-Day symposium on AI-Inspired Biology (AIIB) at AISB'2010 Message-ID: <585422D5-62ED-464B-9FB5-F8EA56213DEF@cs.bham.ac.uk> CALLING: Biologists, psychologists, linguists, philosophers, neuroscientists, roboticists, AI-researchers... [Please forward to likely participants] CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Paper and poster submissions are invited for a Two-day Symposium on AI-Inspired Biology (AIIB) (Not Biologically Inspired AI -- BIAI!) http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/aiib/ 31st March--1st April 2010 Sponsored by EUCogII (http://www.eucognition.org/) to be held at the AISB 2010 Convention along with 13 other symposia on 29th March - 1st April 2010 at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb10/AISB2010.html The AIIB symposium will mainly be concerned with: Past, ongoing and especially future influences FROM AI/robotics TO the study of natural cognition. This can include using relevance to natural cognition as a test for generality and power of theories of artificial cognition. CONFIRMED SPEAKERS Prof Kim Bard, Portsmouth University Prof Margaret Boden, Sussex University (will lead the closing discussion on "The way forward") Prof Nicky Clayton, Cambridge University Prof Nick Chater, University College London Prof Antje Meyer, University of Birmingham Prof Murray Shanahan, Imperial College London For more details see the AIIB web site (above) or write to THE ORGANISERS: Biosciences Jackie Chappell (Biology) j.m.chappell at bham.ac.uk [Symposium Chair] Susannah Thorpe (Biomechanicist) s.k.thorpe at bham.ac.uk School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham AI/Robotics/Philosophy Nick Hawes (AI/Robotics) N.A.Hawes at cs.bham.ac.uk Aaron Sloman (Philosophy/AI/Robotics) A.Sloman at cs.bham.ac.uk School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham More details regarding the symposium, including confirmed speakers, priorities for paper selection, submission categories, provisional style files and deadlines available here: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/aiib/ 2 page poster summaries and 6-8 page full papers are invited. See the web site for details. The web site will be retained after the symposium as a record of the meeting, with papers and presentations available online. The submission deadline will probably be mid December. Please look at the web site late November. At least one author of every accepted paper will be expected to attend the symposium. === Jackie Chappell , (Symposium Chair) Susannah Thorpe , Nick Hawes , Aaron Sloman From terry.huntsberger at jpl.nasa.gov Wed Nov 11 07:22:12 2009 From: terry.huntsberger at jpl.nasa.gov (Terry Huntsberger) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:22:12 -0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Third CFP and Submission Deadline Extension - Journal of Field Robotics Special Issue on State of the Art in Maritime Autonomous Surface and Underwater Vehicles Message-ID: This is the Third Call for Papers for the Journal of Field Robotics Special Issue on State of the Art in Maritime Autonomous Surface and Underwater Vehicles. PLEASE NOTE THE DEADLINE EXTENSION TO JANUARY 15, 2010 FOR SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS. 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: ? January 15, 2010 ? Submission of manuscripts ? April 5, 2010 ? Reviews sent to the authors ? June 30, 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 Honghai.Liu at port.ac.uk Tue Nov 10 10:58:11 2009 From: Honghai.Liu at port.ac.uk (Honghai Liu) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:58:11 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] A research position in cognitive robot hand manipulation Message-ID: <4AF9B7C3.4CC3.0087.0@port.ac.uk> The Intelligent Systems & Robotics at Portsmouth University wishes to appoint a Researcher Associate in Cognitive Robot Hand Manipulation to undertake a recently-funded EPSRC project, further application details can be found at http://www.port.ac.uk/vacancies/research/vacancytitle,104518,en.html. A brief introduction of the project is provided as below. It is evident that service robotics has the potential to improve people's quality of life and it holds the key to a number of unmet applications related to health care and rehabilitation. According to the prediction of International Federation of Robotics, the global market for intelligent service robots is forecast to reach 24.3 billion USD worldwide by 2010. A multi-fingered robotic hand is the most complex and dexterous robotic system, whose development represents frontiers in service robotics research. Recent innovations in motor technology and robotics have achieved impressive results in the hardware of robotic hands such as Robonaut hand. However, the manipulation systems of robotic hands are hardcoded to handle specific objects in specific ways, which significantly limits their transfer to a range of different situations and applications. The control and optimisation problems involved in robot hand manipulation are very difficult to solve in mathematical terms, however humans solve their hand manipulation related tasks easily using skill and experience. Object manipulation algorithms are required to meet the market requirement that robot hand systems should have human-like manipulation capabilities and be independent of robot hand hardware. Hence, the main challenge that researchers now face is how to enable robot hands to use what can be learned from human hands, to manipulate objects, with the same degree of skill and delicacy as human hands. The proposed work aims to investigate artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies and practical solutions which will allow robotic hands to automatically adapt to human environments and thus to enable them to autonomously perform useful manipulation tasks involved in daily living, potentially for health care and rehabilitation applications. The investigation will focus on the following areas. 1) To generate a series of responsive human-like finger gaits for a robotic hand given an object to manipulate. This will have the capability to iteratively build a knowledge base representing the features of human hand manipulation behaviour and to efficiently provide corresponding robot hand gaits and manipulation strategies for a given manipulation task in a human environment. 2) To develop feasible friction models for the interaction of objects and a robot/human hand. This will enable the application of existing mathematical research findings in multifingered robot manipulation to realworld applications in human environments and will integrate related methods in engineering and AI domains. 3) To develop an AI-based control architecture to ensure robust object manipulation of multifingered robots in terms of manipulation feasibility and efficiency. This will allow robot hands to perform stable human-like object grasping and manipulation and will also provide an open architecture which has the potential to introduce human brain (EEG/MRI signals) and human muscles (EMG signals) information into robotic hand systems. 4) To validate the proposed algorithms by implementing these into a set of defined scenarios with a set of simulated multifingered robot hands and three different types of physical robot hands. -- Dr Honghai Liu http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~liuh/ From jruizd at ing.uchile.cl Wed Nov 11 06:00:28 2009 From: jruizd at ing.uchile.cl (Javier Ruiz-del-Solar) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:00:28 -0300 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for Papers RoboCup 2010 Symposium Message-ID: <950D1368-49B3-44E5-B75F-1EF7C974C0D6@ing.uchile.cl> ******************************************************************** Call for Papers RoboCup International Symposium 2010 Singapore June 25, 2010 http://www.robocup2010.org/symposium.php ******************************************************************** OVERVIEW The 14th annual RoboCup International Symposium will be held in conjunction with RoboCup 2010. The Symposium represents the core meeting for presentation and discussion of scientific contributions to a variety of research areas related to all RoboCup divisions (RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupRescue, RoboCup at Home, and RoboCupJunior). Its scope encompasses, but is not restricted to, research and educational activities within the fields of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the symposium offers a unique venue for exploring various and intimate connections of theory and practice across a wide spectrum of research fields. The experimental, interactive, and benchmark character of the RoboCup initiative presents the opportunity to disseminate novel ideas and promising technologies, which are rapidly adopted and field-tested by a large (and still growing) community. SUBMISSION We solicit submissions of papers reporting on high-quality, original research with relevance to the areas mentioned below. All researchers working in these areas, even if not actively participating in RoboCup teams, are urged to submit their work. Both papers describing real- world research and papers reporting theoretical results, as well as combinations thereof, are welcome. We also encourage the submission of high-quality overview articles for any field related to the general scope of RoboCup. The proceedings of the RoboCup International Symposium are published and archived within the Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) series. Submitted papers are limited to 12 pages formatted according to the LNAI requirements and must be electronically submitted through the symposium web site. All contributions are peer-reviewed by at least three reviewers using a blind review process. IMPORTANT DATES Submission of abstracts: Feb 1st, 2010 Submission of full papers: Feb 8th, 2010 Notification to authors: Mar 15th, 2010 Submission of camera-ready copies: Apr 19th, 2010 RoboCup 2010 Symposium: June 25, 2010 SYMPOSIUM CO-CHAIRS Eric Chown, Bowdoin College, USA Akihiro Matsumoto, Toyo University, Japan Paul Ploeger, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University, Germany Javier Ruiz del Solar, Universidad de Chile, Chile AREAS OF INTEREST * Robot Hardware and Software -- mobile and humanoid robots -- sensors and actuators -- embedded and mobile devices -- robot construction and new materials -- robotic system integration -- robot software architectures -- robot programming environments and languages -- real-time and concurrent programming -- robot simulators * Perception and Action -- distributed sensor integration -- sensor noise filtering -- real-time image processing and pattern recognition -- motion and sensor models -- sensory-motor control -- robot kinematics and dynamics -- high-dimensional motion control * Robotic Cognition and Learning -- world modeling -- localization, navigation, and mapping -- planning and reasoning -- decision making under uncertainty -- reinforcement learning -- complex motor skill acquisition -- motion and sensor model learning * Multi-Robot Systems -- team coordination methods -- communication protocols -- learning and adaptive systems -- teamwork and heterogeneous agents -- dynamic resource allocation -- adjustable autonomy * Human-Robot Interaction -- human-robot interfaces -- speech synthesis and natural language generation -- visualization * Education and Edutainment -- Robotics and Artificial Intelligence education -- educational robotics -- robot kits and programming tools -- robotic entertainment * Applications -- disaster rescue information systems -- search and rescue robots -- robotic surveillance -- service and social robots -- robots at home ******************************************************************** From Christian.Ott at dlr.de Thu Nov 12 00:40:57 2009 From: Christian.Ott at dlr.de (Christian.Ott at dlr.de) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:40:57 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] [CFP Advanced Robotics]: Special Issue on Physical Human-Robot Interaction Through Force Interfaces Message-ID: <8A5864ED13DE8A46881680C4EC4C6C043AB03F@exbe5.intra.dlr.de> ****** apologies if you receive multiple copies ****** ****************************************************** C A L L F O R P A P E R S ADVANCED ROBOTICS Special Issue on Physical Human-Robot Interaction Through Force Interfaces ****************************************************** Editors: Dr. Christian Ott (DLR, Germany) Prof. Dragomir Nenchev (Tokyo City University, Japan) Important Dates: Submission deadline: 30th April 2010 Publication date: March 2011, (Vol. 25, No. 4) Abstract: Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a relatively newly established area of research within the field of robotics, rapidly growing together with research efforts toward the design of new robots for everyday life environments. HRI is actually a wide interdisciplinary area, strongly related also to other fields like psychology, cognitive science, human factors, artificial intelligence, organizational behavior, anthropology etc. The importance of HRI has also been recognized through the establishment of two annual conferences: "Robot and Human Communication (ROMAN)" (since 1992) and "Human and Robot Interaction" (established more recently, in 2006). Advanced Robotics has occasionally published papers, mainly related to the specific HRI aspect of interactive communication, e.g. in special issues like "Communication and Robotics" (Vol. 11, No. 8), and "Robot and Human Interactive Communication" (Vol. 23, No. 14). This special issue is dedicated to another aspect of HRI --- that of physical human-robot interaction. This topic has already been addressed in past research, but there is no doubt that most of the work lies ahead. Indeed, only recently we started witnessing more systematic efforts toward such an important issue as safety of robot operation within dwelling environments, where, intentional or not, physical contacts between human and robot are inevitable. Other aspects of physical interaction include the mental and physical healing effects obtained via physical interaction with cute pet robots, and with skin-care robots, respectively. We invite papers on all aspects of physical interaction through a force interface, which may include, but are not limited to those listed below: - Robot guidance via a force interface - Robot response to external disturbances - Touching a robot - Touched by a robot - Safety issues - Control aspects for HRI via force and touch Submission: Pdf format file of the complete manuscript should be sent by April 30, 2010 to the office of Advanced Robotics, the Robotics Society of Japan through our homepage (www.advanced-robotics.org). Sample form of the manuscript is available at the homepage, too. Additionally, please send the same file to Dr. Christian Ott (Christian.Ott at dlr.de) and to Prof. Dragomir Nenchev (nenchev at tcu.ac.jp) for confirmation. From auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch Thu Nov 12 04:46:41 2009 From: auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch (Auke Ijspeert) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:46:41 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Funded PhD position at EPFL on Learning and control for legged compliant robots Message-ID: <4AFC03B1.7040803@epfl.ch> Funded PhD Position: Learning and control for legged compliant robots The Biologically Inspired Robotics Group (BIRG, http://birg.epfl.ch/) at EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) has one *open PhD studentship in learning and control for legged compliant robots*. The position is part of AMARSI, a European project that will start on March 2010 with various partners in Europe. The position is fully funded. Background The goal of the PhD thesis will be to participate to the design of movement controllers for rich motor skills based on systems of coupled nonlinear dynamical systems (e.g. oscillators), and to apply them to compliant quadruped and humanoid robots. Requirements: Candidates need to have a Master degree in a field related to robotics and dynamical systems, e.g. in Computer Science, Physics, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering. The ideal candidate for this position should have a strong mathematical background, good programming skills, and be interested in legged robotics. Previous research experience in robotics (in particular the control of quadruped and biped locomotion) and in dynamical systems is desirable. How to apply: Step 1: The position is only open to applicants who have been accepted by the EPFL doctoral school (see http://phd.epfl.ch/). The first step is therefore to fill the applications for one of the doctoral programs, the most relevant being "Manufacturing Systems and Robotics", "Computer, communication and information sciences" and "Electrical Engineering". Step 2: Once accepted by one of the doctoral programs (please specify which doctoral program and the date of acceptance), the application to the position should be sent by email to Prof. Auke Ijspeert and consist of a motivation letter (explaining why you are interested in the project, and why you feel qualified for it) and a copy of the doctoral program application. Informal inquiries about the relevance of an application can be sent to auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch (e.g. before or while submitting an application to the doctoral school), but responses can be slow because of a heavy schedule and a filled mail box. Deadline and starting date: Applications will be considered continuously until the position is filled. The ideal starting date is the *1st of March 2010* (or as soon as possible after that date). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contact: Information concerning the type of research carried out by the group can be found at http://birg.epfl.ch/. You should send your application and any inquiry by email to: Prof. Auke Jan Ijspeert , auke.ijspeert at epfl.ch EPFL, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology EPFL-IC-ISIM-GRIJ INN 237 Station 14 CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland WWW: http://birg.epfl.ch/ From aweitzenfeld at poly.usf.edu Thu Nov 12 08:31:20 2009 From: aweitzenfeld at poly.usf.edu (Weitzenfeld, Alfredo (USF Polytechnic)) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:31:20 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Robotics Position at USF Polytechnic Message-ID: <0646BBE0AE9DAE499C2F54A7B61C96E711ED00C493@USFMAIL2.forest.usf.edu> Dear Roboticists, The Department of Information Technology at University of South Florida Polytechnic invites applications for open rank faculty positions in robotics and other areas of information technology and engineering. For more information please see below. Best regards, Alfredo Weitzenfeld, PhD Professor Director Robotics Laboratory Department of Information Technology University of South Florida Polytechnic 3433 Winter Lake Rd Lakeland, FL 33803 Tel: (863) 667-7769 Email: aweitzenfeld at poly.usf.edu ***************** Information Technology (Open Rank) Institution:University of South Florida Polytechnic Location:Lakeland, FL Type:Full Time Duties: Responsibilities include teaching undergraduate and/or master's level courses; engaging in applied research and efforts to secure external funding; participating in programmatic, college and university committees/councils as appropriate; engaging in professional and community service. Minimum Qualifications: Earned doctorate from a regionally and ABET-accredited university in Information Technology, Computer Science, Computer Engineering or in a closely related discipline with at least 18 graduate credit hours in primary teaching area; qualified for appointment at instructor, lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor or professor level according to USF Polytechnic standards; academic coursework and experience necessary for credentialing in primary teaching area; at least two years teaching experience in higher education; established record of published research and scholarly activities for consideration at the advanced Associate or Professor levels, or emerging published research or participation in research and scholarly activities with potential for publication for consideration at the Assistant level. Preferred Qualifications: Academic degree from, or experience working at, a polytechnic university; knowledge and experience in an additional area of specialization (mobile applications development, medical records management, robotics, IT security, graphics and design, gaming and simulation, RFID computing support, computing pedagogy); knowledge and experience in the use of innovative teaching techniques and significant incorporation of instructional technology into classroom and online teaching; knowledge and experience in working with diverse populations of learners; knowledge and experience with applied and problem-based learning; evidence of interdisciplinary pedagogy; knowledge and experience in authentic, competency- and/or E-portfolio-based assessment; knowledge and experience in capstone and internship experiences development and supervision. Special Instructions: This is a 9 month, full time, benefit eligible position. Appointment may be tenure- earning or non-tenure earning dependent on qualifications. ABD may apply; all degree requirements must be completed by August 7, 2010. Apply on-line: https://employment.usf.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/Welcome_css.jsp More Information on University of South Florida Polytechnic: http://www.poly.usf.edu/Offices/HR/ProspectiveEmployees.html From Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr Wed Nov 11 09:01:11 2009 From: Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr (Pissaloux) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:01:11 +0100 (CET) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Phd and post-doc Message-ID: <72e185e94cc9fb121afb2c67f7b52d42.squirrel@webmail.isir.upmc.fr> Dear Colleague, I am pleased to annouce you the opening of two positions at the UPMC (Paris 6), ISIR. Warmly Edwige Pissaloux =========================== OPEN POST-DOC POSITION AT UPMC/ISIR, France, in COMPUTATIONAL PERCEPTION. ISIR (www.isir.upmc.fr), Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, a UPMC (Paris 6 University) laboratory, is a friendly mixture of modelers and experimentors from vision, computer science, robotics, mechatronics, neuro-cognitive sciences. It is ideally located in central Paris, in the Quartier Latin, in close proximity with main scientific institutions and laboratories. The position will be funded within the framework of a FP7 ICT project. The proposed position is in the area of visual perception (computational models) and design of vision system as assistive devices for man-environment interaction. The post-doc research will mix theoretical and applied developments (the implementation of algorithms working on real-world data). (S)he will participate in the design and prototyping of a new nomad eye-tracker (hardware and software). New spatio-temporally optimized algorithms for feature detection and their tracking via statistical methods (particle filter, EKF, MCMC, etc), and/or original algorithms for vision & inertial data combination (possible neuro-cognitive computational models) will be designed and evaluated on images of real 3D scenes. Applicants must have a PhD degree with a strong background in vision (hardware & software, algorithms), mathematics, human factors, mechatronic system design; be self-sufficient in programming (C++, assembly, Java) and have an experience of large software design. They must be familiar with several of the following topics and interested in all of them: image and signal processing, optimization, neuro-cognitive sciences. The candidate will participate in PhD supervision, research management, presentation of results at meetings & conferences and manuscript preparation. Highly valued personal qualities include creativity, open-mindedness, the ability to work in a team setting and to interface successfully with external partners and a willingness to address novel challenges in unknown scientific environment. The position is founded of up to two years, with the possibility for an extension. Salary is commensurate with experience. Expected start date: January 2010. Review of applications will continue until the position is filled. Deadline for application : November 27, 2009 If interested e-mail (pdf format only) : 1- a cover letter briefly describing your background and career plans 2- C.V. 3- Motivation letter (a statement of research interest) 3- List of publications with 1-2 most significant publications (in relation in the topics of this position, if possible) 4- Contact addresses of at least three reference persons 5- a sumamry of the thesis and PhD thesis e-copy. to: Prof. Edwige Pissaloux Contact : Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr ISIR/UPMC, Pyramide tour 55, bo?te courriers 173 4 place Jussieu, 75 252 Paris, France Fax : 33 1 44 27 51 45 ======================= PhD studentship at UPMC-Paris 6 University PhD studentship is available at Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR) (http://www.isir.upmc.fr/) University of Paris Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC)?Paris 6 (http://www.upmc.fr/) under prof. Edwige Pissaloux supervision (Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr) The position will be founded within the frame of a FP7 ICT european project. Thesis title is ?Detection and tracking of 3D scene features?. Thesis summary. The ISIR (Institute of Intelligent Systems & Robotics) (former Laboratoire de Robotique de Paris) of the UPMC (University Pierre and Marie Curie, former Paris 6 University), through various national, european and international research projects, studies neuro-cognitive human-space interaction in order to design and realize prototypes of intelligent systems, robotics and mechatronics systems, highly autonomous and/or able to assist healthy and handicapped in performing everyday life tasks. The ability to interact with the environment, and especially to move in it, is a key element for human and robot autonomy. The autonomous navigation seems to be mainly supported by vision and balance which, conveniently combined, allow the elaboratation of adequate motor stimulis for the interaction progressing. The precise process of human vision and balance data combination when navigating is unknown; however it is hypothesized that the vision detectes & helps to memorizes 3D scene (not only geometric) features, while balance selects pertinent features and tracks them in image sequence. This thesis aims to design and prototype a system - a new nomad eye-tracker- which detects and tracks image geometric and cognitive features of a 3D scene when navigating, ie. which determines the gaze direction of subject carrying the system at any time. New hardware system will be designed and prototyped with commercially available components. The dedicated software will encompass new and spatio-temporal optimized algorithms for feature detection and tracking and for vision & inertial data combination; both classes of the algorithms could be bases upon present knowledge of neuro-cognitive sciences for which a new computational models will be designed. A new nomad eye-tracker will be validated through real applications which aim to assist the interactions of arm and hand motor handicapped people in execution of everyday tasks. Finally the designed system (simulating partly the human head) will be integrated in the AsTeRICS system. Key words: feature and gaze detection and tracking in images and 3D scenes, visual perception, inertial data, vision and inertial data combination, particle filter, assistance of the control of the environment for arm/hand motor impaired Candidate profile: - strong background in mathematics, a strong interest in the scientific study of human visual perception and in vision system for humanoid and autonomous robotics application (shown by specific master subjects); - good knowledge of computer architecture and algorithm design and optimisation; - excellent programming skills (assembly, DSP, C/C++, Java) ; - good have experience with practical system development - good level of written/spoken English (French not required) - maximum 30 years old Highly appreciate candidate should show creativity, open-mindedness, team spirit, and a willingness to address novel challenges in unknown research area. PhD Starting date: January 2010 Duration: 3 years Financial support The successful candidate will be hired as PhD student and receive an equivalent of Ministry of Education scholarship with social benefits (amount : around 1600?/month before taxes). Deadline for application : November 27, 2009 If interested, please post, e-mail (pdf format only), or fax: 1- C.V. 2- Motivation letter (career plan, motivation for PhD, statement of research interest) 3- Copy of original study certificates with list of subjects, grades, and scale (indicate min, max, and pass threshold for your class) for Master degree obtained in a European Union University in Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Mechatronics, Mathematics, Physics or similar 4- Contact addresses of two reference persons 5- Copy of international publications, if any (max 3) to: Prof. Edwige Pissaloux Contact : Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr Given the high number of applications and enquiries, further information can be provided only to applicants who have submitted all items listed above. ================================================= Edwige Pissaloux ph. 33(0)144272874 Professeur fax : 33(0)144275145 Vision VLSI/System Design email:Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr ISIR/UPMC & CNRS UMR 7220 Pyramide tour 55 4 place Jussieu 75 252 Paris Cedex 05, France IEEE France Section EMBS Chapter Founder and Past Chair Pr?sidente de la Section Signal & Image du Club EEA =============================================== From icacc2010 at gmail.com Tue Nov 10 19:33:48 2009 From: icacc2010 at gmail.com (ICACC 2010) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:33:48 +0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IEEE Conference Calls for paper Message-ID: Dear Colleagues: We would like to invite you to submit a paper to ICACC 2010(The 2nd IEEE International Conference on Advanced Computer Control -- www.icacc.org)which has currently an open call for papers. Next year, this conference will be held in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China, 27-29 March. It will be sponsor by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT), organized by Northeastern University China (NEU), Shenyang Science and Technology Bureau. The deadline for regular paper submission is November 20, 2009. We look forward to receiving your paper submission with innovative contributions in any of the following main topic areas: T1: Modern and Advanced Control Strategies T2: Human-Machine Systems T3: Multimedia and Communication Systems T4: Database System T5: Robotics and Automation T6: Decision Making and Information Retrieval T7: Data Analysis, Prediction and Model Identification T8: Control System Application T9: Hybrid Systems T10:Other topics Submitted papers will be subject to a double-blind review process. All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, under an ISBN reference, on paper and CD-ROM support. The proceedings will be indexed by major international indexers, including INSPEC, EI (Compendex),IEEE Computer Society Digital library (CSDL), IEEE Xplore. A short list of presented papers will be selected so that revised and extended versions of these papers will be published by Journal index by SCI. The previous conference ICACC 2009 has been held successful in Singapore in 22-24 Jan. 2009. The ICACC 2009 proceedings have been compiled, cataloged and published by IEEE Computer Society, and it has been included into IEEE Computer Society Digital library (CSDL), IEEE Xplore, Ei Compendex, INSPEC and Thomson ISI Proceeding up to now . You may obtain further information at the conference web site www.icacc.org. Papers can be submitted on http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icacc2010 or by email icacc2010 at hotmail.com. Don't hesitate to contact me should you have any questions. Best regards, Ruidan Su Organizing Chair ICACC 2010 No.11, Lane 3, WenHua Road HePing District, Shenyang, Liaoning, China Tel.: +86-24-8368-8873 Email: icacc2010 at hotmail.com Web: www.icacc.org The 2nd IEEE International Conference on Advanced Computer Control(ICACC 2010) Shenyang,Liaoning Province, China 27th-29th March 2010 Sponsors: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT) Northeastern University China (NEU) Shenyang Science and Technology Bureau ? Submission Deadline 20 November 2009 ? Author Notification 20 December 2009 ? Registration deadline 10 January 2010 ? Camera Ready 10 January 2010 ? Conference 27th-29th March 2010 From kenji at ieee.org Wed Nov 11 05:30:12 2009 From: kenji at ieee.org (Kenji Suzuki) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:30:12 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Research Assistant Positions (PhD Studentships) Message-ID: <4AFABC64.90508@ieee.org> * We apologize if you receive multiple copies of this announcement. [Job announcement] Research Assistant Positions (PhD Studentships) Cybernics Program, University of Tsukuba Tsukuba, Japan Ref: CYB09/R0911 http://www.cybernics.tsukuba.ac.jp/jobs/CYB09R0911.html Applications are invited for a few research assistant positions (fully-funded PhD studentships), which cover tuition fees and living costs, who have (or expect to obtain) a Master's degree or equivalent in a relevant subject. We offer a supportive environment for individuals to work towards PhD, DEng or DMedSci qualifications. The successful candidates should be keen on their assignments, attend to their academic duties. These studentships provide students with the opportunity to work on a Cybernics research project as a research assistant. These positions are available for duration of three years. The successful candidates can be formally admitted to the PhD program, if s/he meets the University admission requirements to study for a PhD. Note that the PhD supervisor must be a faculty member related to Cybernics Program, which is listed at the website. (http://www.cybernics.tsukuba.ac.jp/members.html) Students should have research interests in the field of Cybernics, which is a new domain of interdisciplinary academic field of human- assistive technology to enhance, strengthen, and support human's cognitive and physical functions, which challenges to integrate and harmonize humans and robots (RT: robotics technology) with the basis of information technology (IT). This challenging program will help you to develop practical and experimental skills in your chosen field. The three primary research areas are: (i) Cybernoid: robot suits, cybernic limb and hand, implanted cybernic system, subjective cognition computing, virtual human-body kernel. (ii) Next-generation interface: brain-computer interface, somato-sensory media, humanoid, medical interface, ubiquitous sensing interface, intelligent robots. (iii) Management technology for next-generation advanced systems: network security, new-generation risk management, cognitive engineering, ethical, sociological, and conceptual readiness. In particular, the topics including - but not limited to - Robot suits (exoskeleton) - Assistive and Rehabilitation robotics - Humanoid robotics - Physical and cognitive human-robot interaction - Vital data sensing, Medical interface and Medical robotics - Brain-machine interface - Other fields in Cybernics (see the faculty members) Please note that these studentships are available to all potential applicants and not restricted to nationals. The successful candidate must be able to start the PhD on the 1st April 2010. Interested Applicants are encouraged to apply. Please complete an application form which can be downloaded below. Please return your application by email, preferably in PDF format, to jobs.ra at cybernics.tsukuba.ac.jp You should include the ref. number you are applying for in the header of your e-mail. For informal inquiries please contact the email address: jobs.ra at cybernics.tsukuba.ac.jp. Otherwise, if you have already decided on a research lab, try making direct contact with the faculty member (by e-mail). Tsukuba is a university and science city, located about 60 kilometers, about 45 minutes by train, or 1 hour by car, northeast of central Tokyo. Over 50 national and independently administered research organizations are concentrated in the Tsukuba Science City district, which is centered on the university. *Important Dates Application deadline: December 1st, 2009. Yoshiyuki Sankai Professor, Leader of Cybernics Program University of Tsukuba --- Kenji Suzuki kenji at ieee.org LPPA, College de France, France University of Tsukuba, Japan http://www.iit.tsukuba.ac.jp/~kenji/ From Jason.Gu at Dal.Ca Fri Nov 13 17:59:48 2009 From: Jason.Gu at Dal.Ca (Jason Gu) Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:59:48 -0400 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] WCICA 2010 in Jinan, China Message-ID: <20091113215948.urzekop3wg0skkso@my8.dal.ca> Dear Friends and Colleagues, The 8th World Congress on Intelligent Control and Automation (WCICA 2010): http://2010.wcica.info will take place from July 6 to 9, 2010 in Jinan, China. You are cordially invited to participate in this great event by submitting original research papers, organizing focused theme sessions, and/or passing this email announcement to your friends, colleagues, associates, students, and others who, you believe, are interested in WCICA 2010 conference. The paper submission deadline is November 30, 2009 and detailed information of the WCICA 2010 conference can be obtained from the conference website given above. For your information, WCICA 2010 conference has invited and confirmed the plenary lectures from the following 6 distinguished researchers: - Prof. B.D.O. Anderson of Australia National University, Australia - Prof. Rajni V. Patel of the University of Western Ontario, Canada - Prof. Kazuhiro Kosuge of Tohoku University, Japan - Prof. Hassan Khalil of Michigan State University, USA - Prof. Frank L. Lewis of University of Texas at Arlington, USA - Prof. Daizhan Cheng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China We promise that WCICA 2010 will be a great and memorable event both technically and socially. Your participation is greatly expected and appreciated. We look forward to your contributions and to seeing you at WCICA 2010 in Jinan, China in July 2010! Sincerely, WCICA 2010 Organizing Committee From pasa at liralab.it Sun Nov 15 16:07:10 2009 From: pasa at liralab.it (Giorgio Metta) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:07:10 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Call for papers "Representations and Architectures for Cognitive Systems" on IEEE Transactions on AMD Message-ID: <04e101ca6650$c0e9b900$42bd2b00$@it> Representations and Architectures for Cognitive Systems Call for papers for a Special Issue on IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development http://www.liralab.it/specialissue/tamd.htm ============================================================================ =================== Guest editors: . Giorgio Metta, Italian Institute of Technology & University of Genoa, ITALY . Gordon Cheng, Technical University Munich, GERMANY . Tamim Asfour, University of Karlsruhe, GERMANY . Barbara Caputo, Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, SWITZERLAND . John K. Tsotsos, York University, CANADA ============================================================================ =================== Forewords The expected progress in machine learning and robotics shall enable tasks where robots have to have sophisticated cognitive skills. Unlike well-accepted computational models, advances in neuroscience suggest that the underlying "architecture" that yields such cognitive skills may not necessarily be the result of a single monolithic algorithm. Tantalizing results of neuroscience are elucidating the roles of different brain areas and their specific learning, sensorial and/or motor modality. We can envisage architectures where multiple modes, actions, and learning components interact to achieve a given task. Examples exist in the domain of humanoid robotics, where one might like to learn about attention, reaching, grasping but also to select appropriate actions depending on the environmental and object affordances. Moreover, the discovery of suitable representations is fundamental to the success of these architectures. In this enlarged view of cognitive systems, the almost forgotten concepts of active vision are revisited together with simultaneous sensory and motor, as well as multimodal learning. For example, in object categorization new methods are being developed that enable abstractions and effective representations, keeping into account the structure of object categories, their associated affordances and how embodiment, context and task affects modeling and learning for an autonomous agent. This special issue of the Transactions of Autonomous Mental Development calls for papers in order to provide a snapshot of the state of the art in the development of artificial cognitive systems. One or more of the following topics (but not necessarily limited to) are welcome: . Architectures integrating communication, control and cognitive abilities . Combination of different learning modes (e.g. reinforcement learning, unsupervised learning) . Representations suitable for scalable cognitive architectures . Developmental components in system-level architectures . Attention and action selection . Cortical-like representations and computation . Tool use in task solving, understanding of affordances . Essential Computational building blocks supporting cognitive architectures ============================================================================ =================== Important dates . Deadline for submissions: Feb 1st, 2010 . Decision of the first round of review: March 15th, 2010 . Final decision: April 15th, 2010 . Camera ready: May 1st, 2010 . Electronic publication: May 10th, 2010 . Printed version: July 10th, 2010 ============================================================================ =================== Submission procedure Two kinds of submissions are possible: Regular papers, up to 15 double column pages; Correspondence papers either presenting a "perspective" that includes insights into issues of wider scope than a regular paper but without being highly computational in style or presenting concise description of recent technical results, up to 8 double column pages. Instructions for authors: http://ieee-cis.org/pubs/tamd/authors/ We are accepting submissions through Manuscript Central at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tamd-ieee (please select "Cognitive Systems" as the submission type) When submitting your manuscript, please also cc to: giorgio.metta at iit.it More information For more information, please contact Giorgio Metta at: giorgio.metta 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 Rene.Mayorga at uregina.ca Sun Nov 15 19:24:03 2009 From: Rene.Mayorga at uregina.ca (Rene Mayorga) Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:24:03 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Personal Care Robotics - Special Issue Message-ID: <4B007172.238F.0089.0@uregina.ca> Dear Colleagues I would greatly appreciate that you distribute this Call for Papers Special Issue on "Personal Care Robotics" for the journal: Applied Bionics and Biomechanics http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/11762322.asp The deadline for Paper submissions is February 15, 2010. Other important dates: May 31, 2010, Notification of acceptance August 31, 2010, Revised / Final manuscript It is expected that robotics would be a hot field in this century. Many governments have a vision of putting robots in homes in coming years, and relevant industries are backing these actions by building system than can easily fit the market. Among various Robotics industries, Personal Care Robotics markets are expected to have a dramatic growth reaching every home. These robots are expected to provide personal assistance in the home doing cleaning or cooking, assisting in the care of the elderly or young children. Several research institutes have started exploring the technologies to build such robot. On top of the traditional robotic problems, one key issue in personal robots is the acceptance of these robots into human society which depends on the way such robots interact with people. To achieve a natural human way of interaction involving voice, gestures, gaze direction, facial expression, body posture, and vocal babbles is getting closer with the rapid advancement in related technologies. This special issue on personal care robotics will serve as a platform for researchers to share their technical findings and solutions to domain specific problems. In addition, it would present to the community the current standing and potential future directions for the field of personal care robotics. And finally, it would provide an introduction, significance and advancement of the emerging class of personal care robots to a beginner in this field. The focus of this special issue lies on the following domains but is not limited to: ? Human-Robot-Interaction and Cooperation ? Navigation and Mapping in dynamic environments ? Computer Vision and Object Recognition under natural light conditions ? Object Manipulation ? Adaptive Behaviors ? Behavior Integration ? Ambient Intelligence ? Standardization and System Integration ? Learning by Imitation Guest Editors: Mohan Rajesh Elara, Singapore Polytechnic Wijerupage Sardha Wijesoma, Nanyang Technological University Carlos Acosta Antonio Calderon,Singapore Polytechnic Zhou Changjiu, Singapore Polytechnic For more information on this Special Issue, please contact Dr. Mohan Rajesh Elara at the email address shown below. Please inform Dr. Mohan Rajesh Elara at your earliest convenience if you can submit a contribution to this Special Issue. Hoping to hear from you soon. Best regards. Mohan Rajesh Elara Email: MohanRajesh at sp.edu.sg From Rene.Mayorga at uregina.ca Sun Nov 15 19:38:25 2009 From: Rene.Mayorga at uregina.ca (Rene Mayorga) Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:38:25 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Human-Robot Interaction / Interface - jABB Special Issue Message-ID: <4B0074D0.238F.0089.0@uregina.ca> Dear Colleague I would greatly appreciate that you distribute this Call for Papers Special Issue on "Human-Robot Interface / Interaction" for the journal: Applied Bionics and Biomechanics http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/11762322.asp Guest Editors: Jos? L. Pons Luis J. Barrios Jos? M. Azor?n The deadline for Paper submissions is January 31, 2010. For more information on this Special Issue, please contact Jose L. Pons at the email address shown below. Please inform Jose L. Pons at your earliest convenience if you plan to submit a contribution to this Special Issue. Hoping to hear from you soon. Best regards. Professor Jose L. Pons Email: jlpons at iai.csic.es From paolo.fiorini at univr.it Mon Nov 16 02:02:38 2009 From: paolo.fiorini at univr.it (Paolo Fiorini) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:02:38 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] special issue on Surgical Robotics Message-ID: <4B01233E.7090005@univr.it> ============================================== CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue on Surgical Robotics Journal of Applied Bionics and Biomechanics Taylor & Francis (ISSN: 1176- 2322) http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/11762322.asp ============================================== Dear colleague, You are kindly invited to submit your work to this special issue of the journal Applied Bionics and Biomechanics. The purpose of this special issue is to document the state of the art of robotic systems applied to the field of surgery. The advances in surgical robot capabilities and the development of new commercial products have shown the potential of significant innovations to the diagnostic and intervention processes. Thus, robotics is bound to significantly influence the way surgery is practiced. So far however, the impact of robotics to the surgical practice has been limited by a number of factors, including lack of appropriate training, cost of the equipment, and limited functionality of the robots. On the other hand, robotics can provide new ways to carry out surgical interventions due to its intrinsic high accuracy, to the possibility of integration with Computer Aided resources, to the capabilitiy of providing more detailed perception to the surgeons, and eventually to add automation to the surgical practice. Similarly, a number of well established industries as well as imaginative start-up?s, see in robotic surgery a new market with a high growth potential and social impact, able to attract public visibility and investor attention. Finally, higher education institutions see surgical robotics as an arena where the various branches of computer science and engineering can cooperate to reach a very worthy target, motivating students and providing the comprehensive education approach so much in demand by the industry. Because of the above reasons, surgical robotics is seeing a significant increase in interest and activity in all its three main areas: research, product development, and surgical practice. This special issue aims at documenting all the three areas, and in particular at publishing high quality papers documenting the research progress and the impact on the medical practice. Industrial papers are welcome as well, provided that they address issue of general interest to the public. Original high-quality and previously unpublished research papers on all the above aspects are invited, including - but not limited to ? the following topics: - Minimally Invasive Surgery - Robot-aided laparoscopy - Organ modeling, calibration and simulation - Preoperative planning - Surgical navigation - Clinical practice with robotic devices - Intra-operative sensing and situation awareness - Training for robotic surgery - Perception issues in robotic surgery - Haptic devices in surgery - Computational algorithms for robotic surgery Prospective authors are invited to follow the journal submission guidelines: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/tbobauth.asp All articles will undergo rigorous peer review. ================== IMPORTANT DATES: ================== * Intention of submission: December 15, 2009 (Please send an email to guest editors with the tentative title of your paper, the authors and their affiliation. This is only for planning and internal use.) * Full paper submissions due: February 1, 2010 * Notification of acceptance: May 1, 2010 * Revised version: June 15, 2010 * Tentative Publication: September 2010 Guest editors Paolo Fiorini (University of Verona, Italy) Email: paolo.fiorini at univr.it Debora Botturi (University of Verona, Italy) Email: debora.botturi at univr.it -- Prof. Paolo Fiorini, PhD IEEE Fellow Department of Computer Science, University of Verona Ca' Vignal 2 - Strada Le Grazie 15, 37134 VERONA - Italy Ph: +39 045 802 7963 -- Fax: +39 045 802 7068 http://www.sci.univr.it/~fiorini From mbuehler at irobot.com Mon Nov 16 06:13:24 2009 From: mbuehler at irobot.com (Buehler, Martin) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:13:24 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] New book: "The DARPA Urban Challenge - Autonomous Vehicles in City Traffic" Message-ID: Announcement of book publication: "The DARPA Urban Challenge - Autonomous Vehicles in City Traffic" Series: Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Vol. 56, Buehler, Martin; Iagnemma, Karl; Singh, Sanjiv (Eds.), 2010, 626 p., Hardcover Now available at Springer: http://www.springer.com/engineering/robotics/book/978-3-642-03990-4, and on Amazon (pre-sale): http://www.amazon.com/DARPA-Urban-Challenge-Autonomous-Vehicles/dp/36420 39901/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258368839&sr=1-1 This volume, edited by Martin Buehler, Karl Iagnemma and Sanjiv Singh, presents a unique and comprehensive collection of 13 papers describing all the vehicles that competed as finalists in the DARPA Urban Challenge in November 2007, in the mock city environment of the George Air Force base in Victorville, California. This book is the companion of a previous volume by the same editors which was devoted to the Grand Challenge, which took place in the Nevada desert during October 2005, and was the second in the series of autonomous vehicle races sponsored by DARPA. The Urban Challenge demonstrated how cutting-edge perception, control, and motion planning techniques can allow intelligent autonomous vehicles not only to travel significant distances in off-road terrain, but also to operate in urban scenarios. Beyond the value for future military applications--which motivated DARPA to sponsor the race--the expected impact in the commercial sector for automotive manufacturers is equally, if not more, important: autonomous sensing and control constitute key technologies for vehicles of the future, and might help save thousands of lives that are now lost in traffic accidents. As with the previous STAR volume, the original papers collected in this book were initially published in special issues of the Journal of Field Robotics. This new book collects them in an archival publication as a special STAR volume. Also included in this volume is - a new picture gallery of the finalist vehicles, with a description of their individual race results, - a foreword by Norm Whitaker, the DARPA program manager who oversaw the Urban Challenge contest - a foreword by Anthony J. "Tony" Tether, who served as DARPA's director from 2001-2009. Written for: Researchers, graduate students and professionals in robotics Keywords: * Autonomous Robotics * DARPA Urban Challenge * Field Robotics * Mobile Robots * Real World Robot Application * Robotic system for outdoor /indoor works * Service Robotics From yoshida at astro.mech.tohoku.ac.jp Tue Nov 17 04:41:06 2009 From: yoshida at astro.mech.tohoku.ac.jp (Kazuya Yoshida) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:41:06 +0900 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Special Issue on Space Robotics Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20091117212434.0a705270@pop2.mech.tohoku.ac.jp> ============================================== CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue on Space Robotics Intelligent Service Robotics Editor-in-Chief: Junku Yuh ISSN: 1861-2776 (print version) ISSN: 1861-2784 (electronic version) Journal no. 11370, Springer http://www.springer.com/engineering/robotics/journal/11370 ============================================== Dear colleague, You are kindly invited to submit your work to this special issue of the journal of Intelligent Service Robotics. Outer space is the ultimate field for the application of robotics technology. As outer space is a harsh environment with extreme temperatures, vacuum, radiation, gravity, and great distances, human access is very difficult and limited. In order to assist human activities in such environment, robotic systems play significant roles on and around spaceships and space modules. Moreover, expanding the horizons of exploration beyond the areas of human access, robots that land and travel on planetary surfaces greatly contribute to our knowledge of the solar system. New challenges are expected in the future. Space robotics poses a number of research issues in different aspects of applications or mission scenarios, but can be grouped into the following categories: orbital robotics, planetary robotics, and intelligent human-robot interfaces. This special issue welcomes high quality papers addressing the issues of mathematical models for unique physics in space robots, hardware and software system design, control algorithms and specific implementation to cope with unique spaceborne problems, development of ground-based test bed and its experimental results, and the analysis of space flight data obtained from a robotic mission. Specific highlights in intelligent servicing missions and systems are most welcome. Possible Topics: * Orbital robotics - Kinematics and dynamics of free-floating robots - Impact/contact dynamics - Advanced manipulator control - Intelligence for task analysis and planning - Multiple robot coordination * Planetary robotics - Comparative design study on surface locomotion - Soil mechanics and motion control - Sensing, mapping and localization - Planning and navigation - Novel method for drilling, digging and/or excavation * Intelligent human-robot interfaces - Robotics for human interface assistance and services - Tele-operation under transmission time-delay and limited bandwidth - Shared-autonomy, Supervisory control - AI-based task scheduling and execution - Human interface for increased dexterity and safety - Space suites for intelligent human assistance or performance augmentation ================== IMPORTANT DATES: ================== Deadline for paper submission: March 31, 2010 Paper reviews returned to authors: July. 31, 2010 Final paper ready for publisher: Nov. 12, 2010 Expected journal publication date: Jan 2011 Authors should submit an electronic copy of their paper using editorial manager system. Please indicate the paper is for the special issue on space robots in submission. On-line Submission: http://www.editorialmanager.com/isr/ Guest editor: Kazuya Yoshida (Tohoku University, Japan) Email: yoshida at astro.mech.tohoku.ac.jp See also: http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/CFP_SpaceRobotics.pdf ************************************* Kazuya Yoshida, Professor, Dr. Eng. Dept. of Aerospace Engineering Tohoku University Aoba6-6-01, Sendai 980-8579, Japan Tel/Fax +81-22-795-6992 E-mail : yoshida at astro.mech.tohoku.ac.jp ************************************* From ryad.benosman at upmc.fr Tue Nov 17 13:02:27 2009 From: ryad.benosman at upmc.fr (R.B Benosman) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:02:27 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 11, The 11th International Conference on the SIMULATION OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR (SAB'10) Message-ID: <2E2A12D2-3DF2-4276-B0D0-6433DC367071@upmc.fr> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 11 The 11th International Conference on the SIMULATION OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR (SAB'10) 24-28 August 2010, Paris, France http://www.isab.org/sab10/ ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Conference Chairs: Jean-Arcady Meyer, Agn?s Guillot, John Hallam Local Organizers : St?phane Doncieux, Beno?t Girard, Jean-Baptiste Mouret IMPORTANT DATES Call for workshop deadline, April 1st, 2010 Paper submission deadline, February 22th, 2010 Conference dates, August 25-28, 2010 Workshops date, August 24, 2010 The objective of this interdisciplinary conference is to bring together researchers in computer science, artificial intelligence, alife, control, robotics, neurosciences, ethology, evolutionary biology, and related fields so as to further our understanding of the behaviors and underlying mechanisms that allow natural and artificial animals to adapt and survive in uncertain environments. The conference will focus on experiments with well-defined models --- robot models, computer simulation models, mathematical models --- designed to help characterize and compare various organizational principles or architectures underlying adaptive behavior in real animals and in synthetic agents, the animats. Contributions treating any of the following topics from the perspective of adaptive behavior will receive special emphasis: The Animat approach Motor control Body and brain co-evolution Self-assembling and self-replication Sensory-motor coordination Action selection & behavioral sequencing Navigation and mapping Internal models and representation Evolution, development and learning Motivation and emotion Collective and social behavior Communication and language Emergent structures and behaviors Neural correlates of behavior Evolutionary and co-evolutionary approaches Autonomous, bio-inspired, and hybrid robotics Autonomous robotics Humanoid robotics Cgonitive developmental robotics Software agents and virtual creatures Applied adaptive behavior Animats in education Philosophical and psychological issues Authors should make every effort to suggest implications of their work for both natural and artificial animals, and to distinguish the portions of their work which use simulation from those using a physical agent. Papers that do not deal explicitly with adaptive behavior will be rejected. CONFERENCE FORMAT: Following the tradition of SAB conferences, the conference will be single track, with additional poster sessions. Each poster session will start with poster spotlights giving presenters the opportunity to orally present their main results. PUBLISHER: Springer Lecture Notes on Artificial Intelligence (To Be Confirmed) Both oral and poster presentations will be published in conference proceedings. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Submitted papers must not exceed 10 pages (double columns). Detailed submission instructions will be available from the conference Web site. CONTACT US: Please contact us at sab2010 at isab.org Jean-Arcady Meyer, Agn?s Guillot, John Hallam --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From Angelika.Peer at tum.de Wed Nov 18 02:26:55 2009 From: Angelika.Peer at tum.de (Angelika Peer) Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:26:55 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Open PhD positions at Technische Universitaet Muenchen - Germany Message-ID: <4B03CBEF.6010708@tum.de> The Institute of Automatic Control Engineering, Technische Universt?t M?nchen, is seeking Research Assistants/wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter with opportunity for dissertation for the EU IP project BEAMING. The goal of this project is to instantaneously transport people (visitors) from one physical place in the world to another so that they can interact with local people there. At TUM this is achieved by embodying the visitor at the destination site by using a physical robot that can be controlled remotely and by providing visual, auditory, and haptic cues at the local site. The BEAMING project is an international collaboration with 12 partners from 8 different countries funded by the EU commission. For this project, we are employing ambitious young researcher with interest in the following areas: 1. Intention recognition 2. Design and control of haptic interfaces 3. Multi-robot systems 4. Teleoperation 5. Haptic human-robot interaction This challenging project requires a team of excellent researchers with strong disciplinary background (control, mechanical or electrical engineering, computer science) and a strong interest to work in an interdisciplinary environment. A strong capacity for teamwork is indispensable. Advanced programming skills and experience (C/C++, etc.) are an asset. The positions are fully paid according to German rules (13 TV-L). Requirements are a successful degree (master/diploma) with excellent records. Please send your application including your complete CV, relevant certificates, and some of your publications by Email to office at lsr.ei.tum.de with the Keyword "PosBEAMING". TUM is especially encouraging minorities and women to apply, because of its strong commitment to diversity in engineering education, research, and practice. Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing./Univ. Tokio Martin Buss Lehrstuhl f?r Steuerungs- und Regelungstechnik Technische Universit?t M?nchen 80290 M?nchen From pronobis at csc.kth.se Wed Nov 18 16:04:38 2009 From: pronobis at csc.kth.se (Andrzej Pronobis) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:04:38 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ICPR'10 Robot Vision Contest - Call for Participation Message-ID: <1011283c0911181604p58ccc101g8b3ee89b8e792481@mail.gmail.com> ============================================== CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ImageCLEF at ICPR'10 Contest - RobotVision Task http://www.imageclef.org/2010/ICPR/RobotVision In conjunction with the 20th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR'10) http://www.icpr2010.org/ ============================================== The RobotVision task is a part of the ImageCLEF contest organized in conjunction with the 20th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR). ICPR is a major event in the pattern recognition field and the contest provides great opportunity to evaluate and compare approaches on a challenging visual place classification dataset. Each participant receives data for training, validation and testing together with an experimental procedure. The schedule is designed to allow the participants to submit their approaches to the main conference together with the results obtained in the contest. Registration to the contest is free of charge. Information about the objectives, the task, the organization, and the subscription procedure follows; for more information and updates, please visit: http://www.imageclef.org/2010/ICPR/RobotVision The RobotVision task is a continuation of the successful RobotVision at ImageCLEF'09 contest: http://www.imageclef.org/2009/robot The previous contest attracted considerable attention with 7 groups participating and a total of 27 submitted runs. The second edition of the RobotVision task addresses the problem of visual place classification. Specifically, participants are asked to classify rooms and areas on the basis of image sequences, captured by a stereo camera mounted on a mobile robot within an office environment, under varying illumination conditions. Participants are given training data consisting of sequences of stereo images (use of stereo information is optional) recorded using a mobile robot that was manually driven through several rooms of a typical indoor office environment. The challenge is to build a system able to answer the question 'where are you?' (I'm in the kitchen, in the corridor, etc.) when presented with test sequences containing images acquired in the previously observed part of the environment (from different viewpoints and under different illumination conditions) or in additional rooms that were not imaged in the training sequences. The system should assign each test image to one of the rooms that were present in the training sequences or indicate that the image comes from a room that was not included during training. Moreover, the system can refrain from making a decision (e.g. in the case of lack of confidence). The competition starts with the release of annotated training and validation data. The test image sequences will be released later (see the schedule below). Schedule -------- 13.11.2009 - Training and validation data and task release 15.12.2009 - Test data release 05.01.2010 - Submission of runs 08.01.2010 - Release of results and ground truth (private communication with each of the participants) 15.01.2010 - Deadline for the main ICPR 2010 conference paper submission 30.03.2010 - Notification of acceptance of the ICPR 2010 papers 30.03.2010 - Official release of results and ground truth 30.04.2010 - Deadline for overview papers for contests 23.08. - 26.08.2010 - ICPR 2010 Conference The schedule should allow the contest participants to submit papers describing their approaches (optionally including the result obtained in the contest) to the main ICPR 2010 conference. Organizers ---------- - Andrzej Pronobis Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden pronobis at csc.kth.se - Barbara Caputo IDIAP Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland bcaputo at idiap.ch - Henrik I. Christensen Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA hic at cc.gatech.edu -- Andrzej Pronobis, PhD Student CAS/CVAP/CSC Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden E-mail: pronobis at csc.kth.se | URL: www.csc.kth.se/~pronobis Phone: +46 8 790 6725 | GSM: +46 768 874 374 From Alex.Mihailidis at utoronto.ca Wed Nov 18 19:08:49 2009 From: Alex.Mihailidis at utoronto.ca (Alex Mihailidis) Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:08:49 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Developer position in intelligent systems and robotics for children with autism Message-ID: <7B8F54085C4CE745ADB6D035E5BA94A78BA037E440@MEDMAIL.medicine.utorad.Utoronto.ca> Title: Research Engineer/Developer ? Intelligent Technology and Robotics for Autistic Children Location: Downtown Toronto, Canada Date: November, 2009 Closing Date: December 15, 2009 Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab Description: The Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab (IATSL) at the University of Toronto invites applications to the position of Research Engineer/Developer in Intelligent Assistive Technology for Autistic Children. Candidates must hold a degree in an appropriate discipline in addition to relevant experience in a research environment. The start date is February 1, 2010, although an earlier start is preferred. The successful candidate will join a unique multi-disciplinary, multi-centre research team led by Dr. Alex Mihailidis (University of Toronto/TRI) that includes several bioengineers, computer scientists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, neuroscientists, clinicians, and mechanical/electronic technicians. IATSL is affiliated with many prestigious institutions including the University of Toronto, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Funding comes from a variety of corporate and institutional partners, such as American Alzheimer Association, Alzheimer Society of Canada, and Intel Corporation. Our research program primarily aims at developing autonomous, intelligent computerised devices that can help people with disabilities live more independently. A major strength of the research program is the combination of basic science, computing principles, clinical research, and product design, and development. Our research employs cutting edge technologies and computer techniques, such as stereo vision, partially observable Markov decision processes, and various artificial intelligence techniques. Within this research, you will be expected to provide support for projects focusing on a wide variety of computer-driven assistive technologies and intelligent systems, with a primary focus on the development of an intelligent system that can monitor the actions of a child with autism during a common self-care activity (e.g. handwashing), and provide prompts and reminders as necessary. This new system will use artificial intelligence, computer vision, and other sensing technologies to help teach autistic children self-care activities, and help them to complete these tasks more independently. A significant aspect of this project will be the clinical testing of the system with several children and their families, which the candidate is expected to help prepare and complete. The initial position will be a one-year position, renewable based on performance and funding. Salary will be based on the applicant?s previous experience and education. For more information about our research, visit our web site: www.iatsl.org Requirements: The successful candidate must hold degree in computer science, bioengineering, or a related field. The candidate must demonstrate extensive knowledge of machine vision techniques and computational intelligence, an excellence in implementing real-time algorithms, as well as experience with distributed systems. Applicants must be able to demonstrate strong leadership capabilities and an ability to lead projects in a research environment. The applicant will need to also demonstrate an aptitude for transdisciplinary research that addresses the intersections of health care, technology, and place. The University of Toronto hires on the basis of merit and is committed to employment equity. All qualified persons are encouraged to apply, however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority. Application: The closing date is December 15, 2009. To apply, please send a covering letter, curriculum vitae, a statement of your research interests (1-2 pages), and the names of three referees to: Dr. Alex Mihailidis Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab (IATSL) University of Toronto 160 ? 500 University Ave. Toronto, Ontario, CANADA, M5G 1V7 E-mail: alex.mihailidis at utoronto.ca FAX: (416) 946-8570 Submissions by e-mail or FAX are preferred. After an initial screening, selected applicants will be asked to forward three academic and/or professional letters of reference. -- Alex Mihailidis, Ph.D. P.Eng. Associate Professor Dept. of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy University of Toronto (416) 946-8565 www.iatsl.org From Rene.Mayorga at uregina.ca Wed Nov 18 22:02:12 2009 From: Rene.Mayorga at uregina.ca (Rene Mayorga) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:02:12 -0600 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics - Special Issue References: <4B006C83.238F.0089.0@uregina.ca> <4B006F4C.238F.0089.0@uregina.ca> <4B01A625.238F.0089.0@uregina.ca> Message-ID: <4B048B04.238F.0089.0@uregina.ca> Dear Colleague I would greatly appreciate that you distribute this Call for Papers Special Issue on "Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics" for the journal: Applied Bionics and Biomechanics http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/11762322.asp ============================================= CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue on Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics Journal of Applied Bionics and Biomechanics Taylor & Francis (ISSN: 1176- 2322) http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/11762322.asp ============================================== Dear colleague, You are kindly invited to submit your work to this special issue of Applied Bionics and Biomechanics. The purpose of this special issue is to address assistive and rehabilitation robotics, systems and technologies for the special care-needed people including the elderly and people with disabilities. Original high-quality and previously unpublished research papers on all these aspects are invited, including - but not limited to - the following topics: - Assistive/rehabilitation devices for the motor-disabled - Assistive/rehabilitation devices for the blind/visually impaired - Assistive/rehabilitation devices for the deaf - Assistive/rehabilitation devices for the intellectual/language disabled - Clinical practice of assistive/rehabilitation robotics - Haptics in assistive/rehabilitation engineering Prospective authors are invited to follow the journal submission guidelines: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/tbobauth.asp All articles will undergo rigorous peer review. ================== IMPORTANT DATES: ================== * Full paper submissions due: January 15, 2010 * Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2010 * Revised version: April 15, 2010 * Tentative Publication: June 2010 If you think that you can submit a Paper for this Special Issue; please send as soon as possible an email to Guest Editors with the tentative title of your paper, the authors and their affiliation. Guest editors Ramiro Velazquez (MCS, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico). Email: rvelazquez at ags.up.mx Edwige Pissaloux (ISIR, Universit? Paris 6, France). Email : Edwige.Pissaloux at upmc.fr From marc.carreras at udg.edu Thu Nov 19 05:04:22 2009 From: marc.carreras at udg.edu (Marc Carreras) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:04:22 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] 3 open PhD Positions - Underwater Robotics - University of Girona, Spain Message-ID: <6F413B6B-9FF3-4150-8DAF-A728A3742FAC@udg.edu> OPEN POSITIONS FOR PHD STUDENTS IN THE FIELD OF UNDERWATER ROBOTICS ===================================================================== The underwater robotics lab (CIRS) of the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Group (VICOROB) at the university of Girona (Spain) is looking for PhD student candidates with excellent academic grades interested in pursuing its PhD. degree in the context of an European project about marine robotics. The project consortium is integrated by 8 partners from 4 European states (Spain, UK, Portugal and Italy). Three vacancies are offered in the areas of SLAM, cooperative navigation and intelligent control architectures. The details follow. How to apply ========== Deadline for application : November 30, 2009 e-mail: pere at eia.udg.es; +34 972 419871 (vacancies 1 & 2) marc.carreras at udg.edu ; +34 972 418879 (Vacancy 3) If interested, please SEND AN EMAIL ASAP, and send the following documentation by November 30: 1- C.V. 2- Motivation letter (career plan, motivation for PhD, statement of research interest) 3- Copy of original study certificates with list of subjects, grades, and scale (indicate min, max, and pass threshold for your class) for Master degree, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, Mathematics, Physics or similar. 4- Copy of international publications, if available (max 3). Project details =========== Project Number: FP7 STREP Project number 248497 Project Title: TRIDENT: Marine Robots and Dexterous Manipulation for Enabling Autonomous Underwater Multipurpose Intervention Missions. Abstract ======= TRIDENT proposes a new methodology for multipurpose underwater intervention tasks with diverse potential applications like underwater archaeology, oceanography and offshore industries, going beyond present-day methods typically based on manned and / or purpose ? built systems. A team of two cooperative heterogeneous robots with complementary skills, an Autonomous Surface Craft (ASC) and an Intervention Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (I-AUV) endowed with a dexterous manipulator, will be used to perform underwater manipulation tasks. The proposed methodology is based on two steps. During the first step, the I-AUV is deployed from the ASC to perform a cooperative path following survey, where it gathers optical/acoustic data from the seafloor whilst the ASC provides geo-referenced navigation data as well as communication with the end user. During this phase of the mission the I-AUV will be doing accurate path following and terrain tracking, to maximize bottom coverage and data quality. The motion of the ASC will be coordinated with that of the I- AUV to achieve precise USBL (Ultra Short Base Line) positioning and reliable acoustic communications. After the survey, the I-AUV docks with the ASC and sends the data back to a ground station where a map is set up and a target object is identified by the end user. At the second step, the ASC navigates towards a waypoint near the intervention area where the I-AUV is launched to search for the object. When the object (i.e. the target of the intervention) has been found, the I-AUV switches to free floating navigation mode. The manipulation of the object takes place through a dexterous hand attached to a redundant robot arm and assisted with proper perception. Particular emphasis will be put on the research of the vehicles intelligent control architecture to provide the embedded knowledge representation framework and the high-level reasoning agents required to enable a high degree of autonomy and on-board decision making of the platform. The new methodology will allow the user to specify an intervention task, among a set of predefined ones, to be undertaken with regards to a particular target object selected by the end user by means of the map previously built. Hence the intervention task is seen as a semi-automatic process where the target is manually selected but then it is automatically recognized and manipulated by the robot in a complete autonomous way. The TRIDENT project brings together research skills specific to marine environments in navigation and mapping for underwater robotics, multi- sensory perception and a range of control techniques relating to intelligent control architectures, vehicle-manipulator systems and dexterous manipulation. vacancy 1: Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) for AUV navigation. ============================================================= The main objective of this work is to investigate how to merge conventional DVL-FOG navigation techniques with the recent Results in Sonar Based Scan Matching in the context of the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping techniques in order to setup a consistent and accurate elevation map of the seafloor. Because sonar can see far away, it will be of interest to study how to deal with range scans gathered a different altitudes having then a different scale factor. Hierarchical map structures able to accommodate these measurements will be studied. vacancy 2: Autonomous Surface Craft (ASC) ? Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Cooperative Navigation. ============================================================= The main objective of this work is to investigate how to use cooperative navigation techniques to accurately localize one or more AUVs with the help of a DGPS-equipped Autonomous Surface Craft (or drifting buoy) being all the vehicles connected by means of low cost, low bandwidth acoustic modems. First the scenario of using an USBL in a direct configuration (transceiver mounted on the ship) will be explored and a solution explicitly taking into account the time delays due to the signal transmission will be proposed. Then the sensorial requirements will be relaxed exploring the possibility of localizing the AUV with the only help of range measurements (received for free with the acoustic data packets) arriving asynchronously from known positions (the surface craft pose). A DVL-MRU equipped AUV will be first considered, removing then the requirement of using a DVL. vacancy 3: Intelligent control architecture. ================================= This vacancy is related with work package 3, which is responsible for providing the embedded knowledge representation framework and the high- level reasoning agents required to enable autonomy and on-board decision making of the platform. Autonomous capabilities for intervention missions require heterogeneous embedded agents working in a dynamic operational field with hard and unpredictable environmental conditions. Embedded agents specialise in different disciplines providing different capabilities or services to the overall system, i.e. navigation, mapping, vision, etc. This position will be related with the design and implementation of a path-planning agent. The main goal is to develop new algorithms for adaptive waypoint-based trajectory planning including path following, terrain following and obstacle avoidance. As a secondary goal, the work will also contribute in the design of an adaptive goal-based mission planning agent. Requirements: =========== Academic: Excellent academic grades. Knowledge in robotics, video/ sonar image processing. Previous experience in navigation, mapping, SLAM techniques and/or control architectures will be appreciated. A Master degree in the related areas will be valuable but not imperative. Nationality requirements: European Citizen, or European residence permission. Contract Type: Phd. Student Grant. Position: Phd. Student Number of Positions: 3 Start Date: February 2010/June 2010 (approx) Duration in months: 36/48 Salary: As determined by regulations of the Spanish PhD Student Grants (around 1100?/month) Town: Girona Country: Spain Place of Work: University of Girona (Girona-Spain) Related links: =========== TRIDENT project: http://eia.udg.es/~pere/Pere_Ridao_Home_Page/Projects/Entries/2009/9/22_Marine_Robots_and_Dexterous_Manipulation_for_Enabling_Autonomous_Underwater_Multipurpose_Intervention_Missions.html CIRS: http://eia.udg.es/~pere/Pere_Ridao_Home_Page/CIRS.html From raj.madhavan at nist.gov Tue Nov 17 06:52:46 2009 From: raj.madhavan at nist.gov (Raj Madhavan) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:52:46 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] CfP: IEEE ICRA 2010 Robot Challenge Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition (VMAC) Message-ID: <4B02B8BE.1030001@nist.gov> ------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IEEE ICRA 2010 Robot Challenge Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition (VMAC) http://www.vma-competition.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- Entries are sought for the 2010 Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition (VMAC) to be held in conjunction with the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Anchorage, Alaska. Participation in the competition will consist of a software demonstration of a team of robots solving one or more of the pre-defined challenge tasks in the USARSim simulation environment. This demonstration may be performed remotely or on-site in the simulated environment set up for the competition. The goal of the challenge is to provide an industrially relevant scenario and performance benchmarks to assess technologies in the areas of robot navigation in dynamic unstructured environments, mixed palletizing operations, and mobile manipulation. The competition?s open source policy is designed to encourage collaboration and the dissemination of ideas and algorithms. COMPETITION FORMAT The competition will include several ?elemental? tests as well as a full scenario. Teams are encouraged to participate in as many events as possible, with winners in each of the individual events as well as an overall winner being announced. Since this is a simulated event, perfect ground truth is available on such items as vehicle locations, package locations, package types, etc. It is desired that teams utilize as little of this information as possible, however, the organizers realize that most teams will require some help from ground truth. Teams must disclose their ground truth needs in their Team Description Paper (described below). EVENTS A Mixed Palletizing task will test a team?s ability to autonomously fill orders that a distribution center receives. The teams will have up to 3 robotic arms available, and each arm will work simultaneously on up to 3 pallets of materials. This test will consist of a circular conveyor of items (speed controlled by the team) from which team?s must assemble a stable configuration of contents on the pallets as rapidly as possible. A Mobility task will have team?s autonomously deliver completed pallets throughout an unstructured factory environment. Teams will have up to 3 robotic platforms available for delivering the pallets. When a pallet becomes available, the team must dock a robot with a loading conveyor to pick-up the pallet, and then deliver it to one of several locations. A Scenario will combine the two elemental tests into a single event. Teams will prepare pallets for transport and then move them throughout the factory environment to their destination. WHAT'S NEXT? Potential participants should submit a team description paper (TDP) of their intended entry to roboSim at nist.gov. The TDP should contain which challenge events your team will participate in, a high-level description of the algorithms that you will employ, requirements that you will place on the simulation system (i.e. what robots, sensors, and infrastructure you expect to need), and references to the team?s relevant work in the area. ------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Team Description Papers due December 7, 2009 *** ------------------------------------------------------------------- More details can be found on the VMA Competition web page at http://www.vma-competition.com/ Contact Details: Dr. Stephen Balakirsky & Dr. Raj Madhavan Intelligent Systems Division National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230. Email: robosim at nist.gov From aweitzenfeld at poly.usf.edu Fri Nov 20 07:07:47 2009 From: aweitzenfeld at poly.usf.edu (Weitzenfeld, Alfredo (USF Polytechnic)) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:07:47 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Open Rank Faculty Position in Robotics at USF Polytechnic Message-ID: <0646BBE0AE9DAE499C2F54A7B61C96E711ED04EEF0@USFMAIL2.forest.usf.edu> Dear Roboticists, The Department of Information Technology at University of South Florida Polytechnic invites applications for open rank faculty positions in robotics and other areas of information technology and engineering. Position stars Aug 2010. The University of South Florida Polytechnic is the newest of four campuses in the University of South Florida system. Located in Lakeland, Florida, USF Polytechnic is the state's only polytechnic and provides upper level undergraduate and graduate students with an extraordinary opportunity to experience applied learning and research in a personalized setting: small class sizes, convenient locations, innovative programs and flexible formats. USFP's current campus is located within 20 minutes of the downtown districts of Lakeland, Winter Haven and Bartow and within an hour of international airports in Tampa and Orlando. For more information about the open faculty position please see below. Best regards, Alfredo Weitzenfeld, PhD Search Committee Chair Professor Director Robotics Laboratory Department of Information Technology University of South Florida Polytechnic 3433 Winter Lake Rd Lakeland, FL 33803 Tel: (863) 667-7769 Email: aweitzenfeld at poly.usf.edu ***************** Information Technology (Open Rank) Institution:University of South Florida Polytechnic Location:Lakeland, FL Type:Full Time Duties: Responsibilities include teaching undergraduate and/or master's level courses; engaging in applied research and efforts to secure external funding; participating in programmatic, college and university committees/councils as appropriate; engaging in professional and community service. Minimum Qualifications: Earned doctorate from a regionally and ABET-accredited university in Information Technology, Computer Science, Computer Engineering or in a closely related discipline with at least 18 graduate credit hours in primary teaching area; qualified for appointment at instructor, lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor or professor level according to USF Polytechnic standards; academic coursework and experience necessary for credentialing in primary teaching area; at least two years teaching experience in higher education; established record of published research and scholarly activities for consideration at the advanced Associate or Professor levels, or emerging published research or participation in research and scholarly activities with potential for publication for consideration at the Assistant level. Preferred Qualifications: Academic degree from, or experience working at, a polytechnic university; knowledge and experience in an additional area of specialization (mobile applications development, medical records management, robotics, IT security, graphics and design, gaming and simulation, RFID computing support, computing pedagogy); knowledge and experience in the use of innovative teaching techniques and significant incorporation of instructional technology into classroom and online teaching; knowledge and experience in working with diverse populations of learners; knowledge and experience with applied and problem-based learning; evidence of interdisciplinary pedagogy; knowledge and experience in authentic, competency- and/or E-portfolio-based assessment; knowledge and experience in capstone and internship experiences development and supervision. Special Instructions: This is a 9 month, full time, benefit eligible position. Appointment may be tenure- earning or non-tenure earning dependent on qualifications. ABD may apply; all degree requirements must be completed by August 7, 2010. Apply on-line: https://employment.usf.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/Welcome_css.jsp More Information on University of South Florida Polytechnic: http://www.poly.usf.edu/Offices/HR/ProspectiveEmployees.html From icacc2010 at gmail.com Thu Nov 19 17:28:53 2009 From: icacc2010 at gmail.com (ICACC 2010) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:28:53 +0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IEEE Conference CFP deadline extended Message-ID: Dear Colleagues: We would like to invite you to submit a paper to ICACC 2010(The 2nd IEEE International Conference on Advanced Computer Control -- www.icacc.org)which has currently an open call for papers. Next year, this conference will be held in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China, 27-29 March. It will be sponsor by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT), organized by Northeastern University China (NEU), Shenyang Science and Technology Bureau. The deadline for regular paper submission is November 20, 2009(extended to 5th December). We look forward to receiving your paper submission with innovative contributions in any of the following main topic areas: T1: Modern and Advanced Control Strategies T2: Human-Machine Systems T3: Multimedia and Communication Systems T4: Database System T5: Robotics and Automation T6: Decision Making and Information Retrieval T7: Data Analysis, Prediction and Model Identification T8: Control System Application T9: Hybrid Systems T10:Other topics Submitted papers will be subject to a double-blind review process. All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, under an ISBN reference, on paper and CD-ROM support. The proceedings will be indexed by major international indexers, including INSPEC, EI (Compendex),IEEE Computer Society Digital library (CSDL), IEEE Xplore. A short list of presented papers will be selected so that revised and extended versions of these papers will be published by Journal index by SCI. The previous conference ICACC 2009 has been held successful in Singapore in 22-24 Jan. 2009. The ICACC 2009 proceedings have been compiled, cataloged and published by IEEE Computer Society, and it has been included into IEEE Computer Society Digital library (CSDL), IEEE Xplore, Ei Compendex, INSPEC and Thomson ISI Proceeding up to now . You may obtain further information at the conference web site www.icacc.org. Papers can be submitted on http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icacc2010 or by email icacc2010 at hotmail.com. Don't hesitate to contact me should you have any questions. Best regards, Ruidan Su Organizing Chair ICACC 2010 No.11, Lane 3, WenHua Road HePing District, Shenyang, Liaoning, China Tel.: +86-24-8368-8873 Email: icacc2010 at hotmail.com The 2nd IEEE International Conference on Advanced Computer Control(ICACC 2010) Shenyang,Liaoning Province, China 27th-29th March 2010 Sponsors: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT) Northeastern University China (NEU) Shenyang Science and Technology Bureau Submission Deadline20 November 2009 (extended to 5th December) Author Notification20 December 2009 Registration deadline10 January 2010 Camera Ready10 January 2010 Conference 27th-29th March 2010 From MBartosik at computer.org Fri Nov 20 10:46:54 2009 From: MBartosik at computer.org (MBartosik at computer.org) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:46:54 -0800 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] The latest issue of IEEE Transactions on Haptics (Vol. 2, No. 4) is online Message-ID: Greetings, This is to notify you that the October-December 2009 (Vol. 2, No. 4) issue of IEEE Transactions on Haptics is now online. You can access any of the following articles and columns individually from the table of contents, or you can download the entire issue as a zip file (11.327 MB). To login, please click the text link "Register/Login," located in the blue bar at the top of the page. To access the articles in this issue, use your IEEE user name and password at http://opac.ieeecomputersociety.org/opac?year=2009&volume=2&issue=4&acronym=toh For information on using your account, visit the IEEE at http://www.ieee.org/web/accounts/. If you need information on your subscription or have membership questions, please email help at computer.org. Regards, Mark Bartosik Digital Production Specialist IEEE Computer Society www.computer.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exploring the Worlds of Touch: A Forum for Science, Technology, and Application. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGULAR PAPERS A Tactile Seat for Direction Coding in Car Driving: Field Evaluation Jeroen H. Hogema, Sjoerd C. De Vries, Jan B.F. Van Erp, Raymond J. Kiefer http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TOH.2009.35 Abstract: This in-traffic, field study examined the merit of using a car seat instrumented with tactile stimulation elements (tactors) to communicate directional information to a driver. A car seat fitted with an 8 \times 8 matrix of tactors embedded in the seat pan was used to code eight different directions (the four cardinal and four oblique directions). With this seat mounted in a car, a field study was conducted under both smooth road and brick road vibratory conditions. The primary performance measures were directional accuracy and reaction time, measured under both alerted and simulated surprise conditions. Overall, the results show that the tactile chair seat provides a promising and robust method of providing directional information. The percentage of correct directional responses was very high (92 percent of all trials), and incorrect responses were typically just one location segment (45 degrees) off. Cues for Haptic Perception of Compliance Wouter M. Bergmann Tiest, Astrid M.L. Kappers http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TOH.2009.16 Abstract: For the perception of the hardness of compliant materials, several cues are available. In this paper, the relative roles of force/displacement and surface deformation cues are investigated. We have measured discrimination thresholds with silicone rubber stimuli of differing thickness and compliance. Also, the influence of the finger span is assessed. When compliance is expressed as the Young's modulus, the thresholds in the different conditions follow Weber's law with a Weber fraction of 15 percent. When the surface deformation cue was removed, thresholds more than trebled. Under the assumption of optimal cue combination, this suggests that a large fraction of the information comes from the surface deformation cue. Using a matching experiment, we found that differences in object thickness are correctly taken into account. When cues appear to contradict each other, the conflict is resolved by means of a compromise. Designing for Feel: Contrasts between Human and Automated Parametric Capture of Knob Physics Colin Swindells, Karon E. MacLean, Kellogg S. Booth http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TOH.2009.23 Abstract: We examine a crucial aspect of a tool intended to support designing for feel: the ability of an objective physical-model identification method to capture perceptually relevant parameters, relative to human identification performance. The feel of manual controls, such as knobs, sliders, and buttons, becomes critical when these controls are used in certain settings. Appropriate feel enables designers to create consistent control behaviors that lead to improved usability and safety. For example, a heavy knob with stiff detents for a power plant boiler setting may afford better feedback and safer operations, whereas subtle detents in an automobile radio volume knob may afford improved ergonomics and driver attention to the road. To assess the quality of our identification method, we compared previously reported automated model captures for five real mechanical reference knobs with captures by novice and expert human participants who were asked to adjust four parameters of a rendered knob model to match the feel of each reference knob. Participants indicated their satisfaction with the matches their renderings produced. We observed similar relative inertia, friction, detent strength, and detent spacing parameterizations by human experts and our automatic estimation methods. Qualitative results provided insight on users' strategies and confidence. While experts (but not novices) were better able to ascertain an underlying model in the presence of unmodeled dynamics, the objective algorithm outperformed all humans when an appropriate physical model was used. Our studies demonstrate that automated model identification can capture knob dynamics as perceived by a human, and they also establish limits to that ability; they comprise a step towards pragmatic design guidelines for embedded physical interfaces in which methodological expedience is informed by human perceptual requirements. Fingerpad Skin Stretch Increases the Perception of Virtual Friction William R. Provancher, Nicholas D. Sylvester http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TOH.2009.34 Abstract: This research focuses on the relative importance of fingerpad skin stretch on the perception of friction. It is hypothesized that the perceived magnitude of friction rendered by traditional force feedback can be increased through the addition of fingertip skin stretch. Perceptual data are presented from two separate tests performed on nine male subjects. The first experiment determines the perceptual thresholds for friction based on a modified Karnopp friction model where friction is rendered as purely a kinesthetic resistance via a PHANToM force feedback device. JNDs of 0.056-0.150 corresponding to static coefficients for friction of \mu_s = 0.2\hbox{-}0.8 were established. The second experiment evaluates possible changes in the perceived friction magnitude due to imposing small amounts of tangential skin stretch (0.25-0.75 mm) to the fingerpad in combination with force feedback (kinesthetic resistance). Our results show that even these small amounts of skin stretch lead to a statistically significant increase in perceived friction ({\rm p} < 0.01). This significant finding will enable the hapticians to more realistically and accurately render friction via a combination of kinesthetic resistance and tactile feedback. Using Kinesthetic and Tactile Cues to Maintain Exercise Intensity Aaron R. Ferber, Michael Peshkin, J. Edward Colgate http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TOH.2009.22 Abstract: Haptic cues may be able to assist an individual who is engaged in a manual control task, freeing visual and auditory attention for other mental tasks. We describe an experiment in which subjects attempted to step at a consistent pace on a stair climber exercise machine which was modified for haptic cuing through the legs. Subjects' visual attention was engaged by a video game. Five different haptic cues for consistent pacing were investigated, two of them more kinesthetic in nature and three that were more tactile. Results showed that haptic cues could indeed improve the manual control task performance without diminishing the visual attention task performance. The tactile cues generally outperformed the kinesthetic ones. SHORT CONTRIBUTIONS Cross-Modal Transfer in Visual and Haptic Face Recognition Lisa Dopjans, Christian Wallraven, Heinrich H. Bulthoff http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TOH.2009.18 Abstract: We report four psychophysical experiments investigating cross-modal transfer in visual and haptic face recognition. We found surprisingly good haptic performance and cross-modal transfer for both modalities. Interestingly, transfer was asymmetric depending on which modality was learned first. These findings are discussed in relation to haptic object processing and face processing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You have received this message because you subscribed to the online version of this publication. To be removed from this mailing list, send a message to listserv at computer.org with the following text in the body of the message: unsubscribe toh_subscribers From urbano at deec.uc.pt Fri Nov 20 12:06:02 2009 From: urbano at deec.uc.pt (Urbano Nunes) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:06:02 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] IEEE IROS09 3rd PPNIV Workshop (web papers and ppt now available) Message-ID: <4B06F6AA.4040104@deec.uc.pt> Dear colleagues, On-line proceedings, as well as ppt presentations and videos, of the IEEE IROS09 Workshop on "Planning, Perception and Navigation for IV" are now accessible at (http://www.isr.uc.pt/~urbano/WorkIROS09). Individual pdf papers are also accessible following "Program" link from the Workshop Homepage. A 4th version of this workshop is planned for IEEE ITSC2010 (webpage: http://itsc2010.isr.uc.pt) to be held at Madeira Island, Portugal, 19-22 Sept 2010. Best Regards --Urbano Nunes University of Coimbra Portugal From Torbjorn.Dahl at newport.ac.uk Fri Nov 20 06:34:07 2009 From: Torbjorn.Dahl at newport.ac.uk (Torbjorn Dahl) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:34:07 -0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Industry-based PhD Scholarship at Sony and teh University of Wales, Newport Message-ID: Industry-based PhD Scholarship - Computer Vision and Machine Learning for Fault Detection Sony, Broadcast and Professional and the Robotic Intelligence Lab, University of Wales, Newport Full Time (Fixed Term) ?20,000 stipend pa The successful candidate will undertake a research project developed by Sony, Broadcast and Professional, Pencoed, South Wales and will be supervised by academics from the Robotic Intelligence Lab, University of Wales, Newport. This is therefore an opportunity for an outstanding graduate with an excellent academic background to gain experience of developing R&D within a high growth technology-based firm, whilst improving their entrepreneurship and innovation skills. Applications will be considered from candidates with at least an honours degree in Computer Science, Computer/Electronics Engineering or related discipline who can demonstrate strong industrial software design knowledge, experience in C/C++ and an interest in robotics/computer vision/machine learning. Knowledge and/or experience of electronic circuit manufacture is desirable. The Prince of Wales Innovation Scholarship programme is open to all students, whether from the UK, EU or worldwide. Scholarships cover all tuition fees and an annual stipend of ?20,000 plus a one off research grant of ?5,000. Innovation scholars will also follow a programme of personal, cultural, and professional development including residential courses and summer schools. To be considered for a scholarship, you must have a strong academic background and evidence of outstanding achievement at first degree, with a masters degree and relevant industry experience preferable. Ability to communicate effectively in English is essential. Please send your CV and application by email to richard.lewis at newport.ac.uk. Deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 4th December 2009 at 12:00 GMT. Further information: http://www3.newport.ac.uk/jobs/displayJob.aspx?job_id=554 ________________________________________________________________________ Torbj?rn S. DAHL, PhD Reader in Cognitive Robotics - Coordinator of the Robotic Intelligence Lab Newport Business School - University of Wales, Newport Allt-yr-yn Campus, Allt-yr-yn Avenue, Newport NP20 5DA, UK e-mail: torbjorn.dahl at newport.ac.uk web-site: http://staff.newport.ac.uk/tdahl01 phone: +44 (0)1633 432344 fax: +44 (0)1633 432307 skype: torbjorn.s.dahl ________________________________________________________________________ From jameseugene15 at gmail.com Sat Nov 21 11:55:22 2009 From: jameseugene15 at gmail.com (James Eugene) Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:55:22 -0500 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] MULTICONF-10 Call for papers Message-ID: MULTICONF-10 Call for papers The 2010 multi-conference (MULTICONF-10) (website: http://www.promoteresearch.org) will be held during July 12-14, 2010 in Orlando, Florida, USA. The primary goal of MULTICONF is to promote research and developmental activities in computer science, information technology, control engineering, and related fields. Another goal is to promote the dissemination of research to a multidisciplinary audience and to facilitate communication among researchers, developers, practitioners in different fields. The following conferences are planned to be organized as part of MULTICONF-10. ? International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (AIPR-10) ? International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Control Systems (ARCS-10) ? International Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genomics and Chemoinformatics (BCBGC-10) ? International Conference on Computer Networks (CN-10) ? International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems and Web Technologies (EISWT-10) ? International Conference on High Performance Computing Systems (HPCS-10) ? International Conference on Information Security and Privacy (ISP-10) ? International Conference on Image and Video Processing and Computer Vision (IVPCV-10) ? International Conference on Software Engineering Theory and Practice (SETP-10) ? International Conference on Theoretical and Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (TMFCS-10) We invite draft paper submissions. Please see the website http://www.promoteresearch.org for more details. Sincerely James Eugene Publicity committee From asaffio at aass.oru.se Mon Nov 23 07:36:09 2009 From: asaffio at aass.oru.se (Alessandro Saffiotti) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:36:09 +0100 (CET) Subject: [robotics-worldwide] PhD student position at University of Orebro, Sweden Message-ID: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Please distribute this to relevant lists. Apologies for cross posting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** PhD Student Position Available ***** Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS) Orebro University, Sweden ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A PhD position in the area of autonomous robotics is available at the AASS Mobile Robotics Lab, Orebro University, Sweden. This is a 3-year PhD position fully funded within the EU project GeRT - "Generalizing Robot Manipulation Tasks". ABOUT THE PROJECT: In order to work naturally in human environments such as offices and homes, robots in the future will need to be much more flexible and robust in the face of novelty than they are today. In the GeRT project we will address this problem by developing new methods to cope with such novelty in manipulation tasks. The overall aim of the GeRT project is to enable a robot to autonomously generalise its manipulation skills from a set of known objects to previously unmanipulated objects in order to achieve an everyday manipulation task. The platform that will be used within GeRT is the DLR robot Justin, an advanced robot with two arms with four-fingered hands. The GeRT consortium consists of four European partners: the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Max Planck Institute from Germany, the University of Birmingham from Great Britain, and Orebro University from Sweden. The student will do research about hybrid planning for the robot in the context of the GeRT project. This means that, when planning for a task, the robot needs to reason both about the purposes of actions on a symbolic level, and about the kinematics and geometry of the robot and the objects it manipulate. Apart from working towards the PhD thesis, the enrolled PhD student will be involved in the project work, which is expected to include research visits to our European partners. ABOUT OREBRO UNIVERSITY: Orebro University (www.oru.se) is a young university currently enrolling more than 15,000 students. It is located in Orebro, a city of 130,000 inhabitants situated in central Sweden. The AASS Mobile Robotics Lab is one of the three research groups within the Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS). AASS carries out multi-disciplinary research at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer vision, computer science, and measurement technology. The research and human environment at AASS is young and enthusiastic. Researchers come from a dozen different countries, in Europe and worldwide, and have different scientific and cultural backgrounds. AASS also frequently hosts international researchers and is involved in several international projects. This means, particularly in the GeRT project, that the enrolled PhD student will have the opportunity to travel and to cooperate with people in other countries. The AASS Mobile Robotics Lab is internationally renowned for its research in cognitive robots, robot ecologies and artificial olfaction. Further information can be found at www.aass.oru.se/Research/Robots/. The student will work under the joint supervision of Alessandro Saffiotti and Lars Karlsson. The student will receive a monthly salary adequate to the cost of living in Sweden, and will be included in the Swedish social security system. PREREQUISITES AND APPLICATION PROCESS: In addition to a clear interest in the research topic, to a strong theoretical background in computer science, and to solid programming skills, the applicant should have a Masters or equivalent degree in an appropriate field (including computer science, computer engineering, or robotics). Knowledge of the Swedish language is not required, but proficiency in written/spoken English is mandatory. Candidates with previous experience in artificial intelligence or in robotics will be preferred. To apply for the position, please send a motivation letter along with an updated CV (including at least two academic references) by email to Prof. Alessandro Saffiotti . Applications can be sent immediately and until January 31, 2010. We are looking forward to receiving your application! FURTHER INFORMATION: http://aass.oru.se/Research/Robots/positions.html _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Prof Alessandro Saffiotti www.aass.oru.se/~asaffio AASS Mobile Robotics Lab asaffio at aass.oru.se Dpt of Technology, Orebro University Tel: +46 19 30 3794 S-70182 Orebro, Sweden Fax: +46 19 30 3463 _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ From doetomo at unimelb.edu.au Mon Nov 23 02:14:15 2009 From: doetomo at unimelb.edu.au (Denny Oetomo) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:14:15 +1100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] post doctoral position: (robotics, bipedal gait) the University of Melbourne References: Message-ID: Post-doctoral Research position is available at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Australia. Topics: Robotics, bipedal robotic gait Deadline of application: 20 December 2009 Official position website: http://jobs.unimelb.edu.au/jobDetails.asp?sJobIDs=597859&lWorkTypeID=&lLocationID=&sJobNo=research+fellow&sKeywords=research+fellow&lCategoryID=&lPayScaleID=&stp=AW&sLanguage=en We are seeking outstanding post-doctoral researcher to carry out a project titled: Robotic gait assistive strategy for people with paraplegia: Generating balanced and human-like gait on a bipedal system funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery grant. The project summary is given as follows: The aim of the project is to study the fundamental engineering issues associated with enabling people with paraplegia to stand and walk using a robotic exoskeleton device. This device is worn across the legs and the lower back of the user to support and provide the basic motor functions of the paralysed legs. This exciting fundamental research through new and innovative approaches will focus on the generation of Human-like Robotic Gait that is balanced and dynamically human-like in nature on a bipedal robotic mechanism. The major outcome will be the significant advancement in robotic fundamental capabilities, with immediate applications to a gait assistive device that enables people with paraplegia to perform important basic daily tasks. Successful applicant is expected to have demonstrated clear ability to perform independent research, especially in the area of robotics. An excellent command of written and spoken English is a must. Research expertise in the area of robotic gait will be advantageous but not essential. The position is open to both national and international applicants. Position can commence as early as January 2010, based on annual contract, renewable to 3 years for this particular project. We will be interested to retain excellent candidates beyond the period, therefore priority will be given to those with the intention of staying for at least 3 years in the position / in the research unit. The position will be of Level A6, with starting salary of approximately AUD$65,386. More detailed description of the position and the expectations is included in the official position website. Interested candidates are to contact Dr Denny Oetomo (doetomo at unimelb.edu.au). To apply for the position, please lodge your application online at the position website. ---------------------------------------------- Denny Oetomo PhD Lecturer Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Melbourne VIC 3010 Australia Phone: +61 3 8344 6795 Fax: +61 3 9347 8784 Email: doetomo(at) unimelb.edu.au From jessehoey at computing.dundee.ac.uk Mon Nov 23 02:24:47 2009 From: jessehoey at computing.dundee.ac.uk (jesse hoey) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:24:47 +0000 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] ******** Postdoctoral Position in Machine Learning ********* Message-ID: ******** Postdoctoral Position in Machine Learning ********* School of Computing, University of Dundee, Scotland The School of Computing at the University of Dundee seeks applicants for a research position on machine learning for assistive robotics. The goal of the project is to build a device for stroke rehabilitation that adapts to a user over time. The successful candidate will work on algorithms in reinforcement learning, including, but not limited to, decision theoretic models (MDPs and POMDPs). Experience in machine learning or reinforcement learning are necessary for the position. Experience in robotics, computer vision and human-computer interaction will be considered assets. The work will take place in the context of the DyNaMo consortium project, funded by EU and Mexican government agencies, that involves eight universities and two corporations in Mexico, Spain, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and the UK. The project's main goals are the investigation of probabilistic graphical models and their applications, and involves work in theoretical and practical directions. The successful candidate will be based at the School of Computing at the University of Dundee in Scotland, and will join the Computational Systems group there, a large and dynamic group of researchers in machine learning, multi-agent systems, and computer vision. The candidate will collaborate with the project partners at the Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica, Mexico, and the University of Toronto, Canada. This fixed-term post is available immediately for a period of 12 months, with a potential for a further 6 months conditional on funding. Informal inquiries should be made to Dr. Jesse Hoey (jessehoey at computing.dundee.ac.uk). Full details on how to apply can be found at www.jobs.dundee.ac.uk, reference AAE/3054. The University of Dundee is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. -- Jesse Hoey School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, DD14HN +44 (0) 1382 384154 ----- The University of Dundee is a registered Scottish charity, No: SC015096 From peter.kampmann at dfki.de Mon Nov 23 04:37:12 2009 From: peter.kampmann at dfki.de (Peter Kampmann) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:37:12 +0100 Subject: [robotics-worldwide] Open positions for Senior Researchers / Researchers in Underwater Robotics at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence Message-ID: <4B0A81F8.3070905@dfki.de> In the field of innovative software technologies, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is the leading research institution in Germany, and in the international science community the DFKI ranks among the most important ?Centers of Excellence? worldwide. Within research projects at DFKI Bremen there are open positions for Senior Researchers / Researchers in Underwater Robotics Candidates applying for this position will have the opportunity to work on an upcoming project developing the next generation of underwater manipulation systems. Besides strong C/C++ programming skills and the skill to work in small and medium size teams, preferably experience in more than one of the following topics are expected: ? Development of embedded systems using FPGAs / micro controller ? Modelling and design of system on chip systems ? Development of low level communication layers ? Implementation of data compression algorithms Tasks within the research projects will be among others: ? Design of low level control strategies for several actuator systems, especially hydraulics using FPGA or micro controller ? Design of system on chip systems on an FPGA, integrating different communication techniques like e.g. ethernet ? Migration and adaptation of an existing microkernel for locomotion and behaviour control, to be used on an FPGA ? Implementation of data compression algorithms on FPGAs / micro controller There is the possibility for MSc to prepare a PhD thesis in that time frame, when applying for the Researcher position. Applications for the Senior Researcher position are open to post-doc candidates. The DFKI Robotics Laboratory offers a competitive salary and the opportunity to work with a dynamic, continuously growing team in an interesting research environment. The DFKI is an equal opportunity employer. Women are especially encouraged to apply. Handicapped applicants with equal qualification will be given preferential treatment. Applicants should send a letter of interest, a CV, and two references in electronic form to: DFKI Robotics Innovation Center Bremen c/o Ms. A. Hasse, Secretary of Prof. Kirchner Robert-Hooke-Str. 5 D-28359 Bremen ric-application at dfki.de -- Peter Kampmann Unterwasserrobotik DFKI Bremen Robotics Innovation Center Robert-Hooke-Stra?e 5 28359 Bremen, Germany Phone: +49 (0)421 218-64148 Fax: +49 (0)421 218-64150 E-Mail: peter.kampmann at dfki.de Weitere Informationen: http://www.dfki.de/robotik ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Deutsches Forschungszentrum fuer Kuenstliche Intelligenz GmbH Firmensitz: Trippstadter Stra?e 122, D-67663 Kaiserslautern Geschaeftsfuehrung: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Wahlster (Vorsitzender) Dr. Walter Olthoff Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Prof. Dr. h.c. Hans A. Aukes Amtsgericht Kaiserslautern, HRB 2313 Sitz der Gesellschaft: Kaiserslautern (HRB 2313) USt-Id.Nr.: DE 148646973 Steuernummer: 19/673/0060/3 -----------------------------------------------------------------------