Subj : comp.robotics Frequently ÿ@SUBJECT:comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 1/2 Message-ID: Newsgroup: comp.robotics,news.answers,comp.answers Organization: Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon Archive-name: robotics-faq/part1 Last-modified: Thu Feb 24 23:56:56 1994 This is part 1 of 2 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list. This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to robotics. ____________________________________________________________________________ This FAQ was compiled and written by Kevin Dowling with numerous contributions by readers of comp.robotics. Acknowledgements are listed at the end of the FAQ. This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1993 Kevin Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is forbidden. This FAQ may be referenced as: Dowling, Kevin (1993) "Robotics: comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions" Usenet news.answers. Available via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu in pub/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part1 and part2. 70+ pages. Please send changes, additions, suggestions and questions to: Kevin Dowling tel: 412.268.8830 Robotics Institute fax: 412.682.1793 Carnegie Mellon University net: nivek@cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ___________________________________________________________________________ This FAQ's purpose is to provide a resource of information, pointers, and a guide to robotics related questions. If the expires date above is more than two months old you should obtain a new copy. See the section on Where to Find This FAQ. Table of Contents: [use +++ to search quickly] Part 1 +++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives +++Related FAQ's +++What is Robotics? +++Robotics Related Organizations +++Robotics Associations of Many Countries +++Robot Societies +++Conferences and Competitions +++Robotics Publications +++Mobile robot companies +++Manipulator companies +++Small Inexpensive Robots +++Architectures for Robots +++Organizations doing robotics +++Graduate programs in robotics Part 2 +++Sensors +++Imaging for Robotics +++Wireless communication +++Suppliers and sources for parts +++Hero Robots +++Puma Manipulators +++Simulators +++Real-Time Operating Systems +++Survey of Robot Development Environments +++What is the miniboard? +++Books +++Acknowledgements _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives: If you haven't done so, new users on the net should read news.announce.newusers. In particular, the following posts are a good idea: -A Primer on How to Work With The Usenet Community -Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Usenet -Hints on Writing Style for Usenet This FAQ is currently posted to comp.answers, news.answers and comp.robotics. All posts to news.answers are archived and are available via anonymous FTP, uucp and e-mail from the following locations: FTP: FTP is a way of copying file between networked computers. If you need help in using or getting started with FTP, send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq as the body of the message. location: rtfm.mit.edu [18.70.0.209] directory: /pub/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq filenames: part1, part2 location: ftp.uu.net [137.39.1.9] directory: /archive/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq filenames: part1.Z, part2.Z [use uncompress] location: nic.switch.ch [130.59.1.40] directory: info_service/Usenet/periodic-postings filenames: [Check info_service/Usenet/00index] location: ftp.cs.cmu.edu [128.2.206.173] directory: /user/nivek/ftp/robotics-faq filenames: part1, part2 UUCP: [Does anyone use this? - if no answer I will delete from FAQ] location: uunet!/archive/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/ filenames: part1.Z, part2.Z E-mail: Send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu containing these lines: send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part1 send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part2 Mosaic: I would like to convert the FAQ to html format and add many html links for robotics work such as Umass' hhtp server (See Graduate programs section). In this way, GIF's, MPEGS, technical reports could be made easily accessible. Is there someone who might assist in this task? Otherwise I'll wait for a wysiwyg html editor... comp.robotics archives: You can find a dozen or more sites in the US, Europe and Japan that store the FAQ and archives for comp.robotics by using the Internet search programs, Archie or Wais. One location is: location: wilma.cs.brown.edu: filenames: pub/comp.robotics/ In addition to the FTP archive maintained at wilma.cs.brown.edu, there are a couple of other mechanisms available: - the comp.robotics archive at wilma is also available as a WAIS source (called "comp.robotics.src"), and hence it is also available to WWW browsers, via the appropriate WAIS gateway. - Moises Lejter maintains a mailing list of individuals who would rather receive comp.robotics via Email as a daily digest of all messages posted to comp.robotics in each 24-hour period. Anyone interested should send email directly to ____________________________________________________________________________ +++Related FAQ's There are a number of newsgroups with topics related to robotics. These include comp.realtime, comp.ai, sci.electronics, sci.virtual worlds Most regularly posted FAQ's can be found at rtfm.mit.edu (rtfm is an acronym for Read The ... Manual, or at least something close to that...) location: rtfm.mit.edu [18.70.0.209] directory: /pub/usenet/news.answers/ where is the name of a given newsgroup. For sci.virtual-worlds: locations: milton.u.washington.edu directory: public/virtual-worlds filenames: cheap-vr ____________________________________________________________________________ +++What is Robotics? A reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks" Robot Institute of America, 1979 Obviously this was a committee-written definition. It's rather dry and uninspiring. Better ones might include: Force through intelligence. Where AI meet the real world. Webster says: An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human. Where did the word robot come from? The word 'robot' was coined by the Czechloslovakian playwright Karel Capek (pronounced "chop'ek") from the Czech word for worker or serf. Capek was reportedly several times a candidate for the Nobel prize for his works and very influential and prolific as a writer and playwright. Mercifully, he died before the Gestapo got to him for his anti-Nazi sympathies in 1938. The use of the word Robot was introduced into his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in Prague in January 1921. The play was an enormous success and productions soon opened throughout Europe and the US. R.U.R's theme, in part, was the dehumanization of man in a technological civilization. The robots were created through chemical means and weren't described as mechanical in nature. There is some evidence that the word robot was actually coined by Karl's brother Josef, a writer in his own right. But I cannot find the article I once read on this subject. [I believe it was in SigART in the late 1970's - if anyone has this reference please send a pointer] The word 'robotics' was coined by Isaac Asimov, the prolific science and science fiction writer, in a number of his robot stories. First use was probably back in the late 30's or early 40's. The first real modern robots were the Unimates developed by George Devol and Joe Engleberger in the late 50's and early 60's. The first patents were by Devol for parts transfer machines. Engleberger created the company and was the first to market robots. As a result, Engleberger has been called the 'father of robotics.' ____________________________________________________________________________ +++Robotics Related Organizations: There are a number of organizations and societies related to robotics. Some are related specifically to industry, several to academia and a number of hobbyist groups. In addition, a number of the groups, such as the ASME or IEEE, are very large organizations and robotics is one of many sub-disciplines in their respective fields. Advanced Robot Technology Research Association (Japan) Kikai-shinko Bldg 3-5-8 Shiba-Kohen, Minato-ku, Tokyo tel: (03) 434-0532 fax: (03) 434-0217 Has joint research programs with member companies. Members are 20 or so Japanese companies including: Ishikawajima-Harima, Oki Electric, Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Kobe Steel, Komatsu, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Toshiba, JGC, NEC, Hitachi, Fanuc, Fujitsu, Fuji, Matshushita Research Institute, Mitsui, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Yaskawa American Society of Mechanical Engineers, (ASME) 345 E. 47th Street New York, NY 10017 Mechanical Engineering magazine, like the IEEE's Spectrum, is an excellent general publication on aspects of mechanical engineering. There are often publications on robotics and the ASME sponsors a number of other publications and conferences that are relevant to robotics. The ASME also has a BBS service, MechEng, with an email server. send email to with 'send info' in the body. Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVS) 1735 North Lynn Street Suite 950 Arlinton, VA 22209-2022 tel: 703.524.6646 fax: 703.524.2303 Promoting worldwide advancement of unmanned vehicle systems. Membership includes subscription to Unmanned Systems magazine, AUVS News Bulletin, regional seminars, annual symposium and trade show, and other opportunities. AUVS also sponsors an annual aerial Robotics Competition. See Conference announcements for more details. Student membership: $15/year Educational Institutions/Libraries $100/year Individual: $40/year Corporate memberships also available. Center for Autonomous and Man-controlled Robotic and Sensing Systems Charles Jacobus, CAMRSS director ERIM PO Box 8618 Ann Arbor, MI 48107 tel: 313.994.1200 X2457 Member companies include: Ball Aerospace, Coulter Electronics, ERIM, Fairchild, Ford Aerospace, Geospectra, Grumman, Industrial Technology Institute, KMS Fusion, Michigan State, UofM. American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW Washington, DC 20024 tel: 202.646.7400 tel: 212.247.6500 (Technical Information Service) Conferences and publications, several cover automation technologies for servicing on the ground and in space as well as exploration. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Service Center 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08854-4150 tel: 201.981.0060 tel: 800.678.IEEE A large organization with hundreds of publications including journals, transactions, Spectrum, sponsoring conferences, workshops and meetings. IEEE membership is $95 regular ($23 students) For membership in the IEEE Computer Society, add $22. $20 for IEEE Expert (Intelligent Systems and their Applications) $12 for Transactions on Neural Networks $12 for Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics $15 for Transactions on Robotics and Automation $19 for Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering $24 for Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine IntelligenceIEEE The International Society for Optical Engineering, (SPIE) P.O.Box 10 Bellingham, Washington 98227-0010. SPIE has publications, meetings and conferences in the field of intelligent robots, mobile robots, teleoperation, machine vision, etc. The Material Handling Institute 8720 Red Oak Blvd, Suite 201 Charlotte, NC 28217 Primary robotics focus is on AGV's. National Service Robots Association (NSRA) 900 Victors Way PO Box 3724 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 tel: 313.994.6088 An organization devoted to robots other than on the factory floor. Robotics Industry Association (RIA) (same address as NSRA) Society of Manufacturing Engineers, (SME) One SME Drive PO Box 930 Dearborn, MI 48121 tel: 313.271.1500 Utility/Manufacturer Robot Users group (UMRUG) Contact: Harry T. Roman MC: 16-H Public Service Electric and Gas Company 80 Park Plaza PO Box 570 Newark, NJ 07101 tel: 201.430.6646 +++Robotics Associations of Many Countries ______________________________________________________________________________ Compilied from a list provided by the British Robot Association. Alphabatized by English spelling of country. Australian Robot Association Inc G.P.O. Box 1527 SYDNEY 2001 New South Wales Australia Contact: Mr Michael Kassler tel: +61-2-959-32-39 fax: +61-2-959-46-32 Osterreichisches Forschungszentrum Seibersdorf GmbH Hauptabteilung Fertigungstechnik und Automation A-2444 SEIBERSDORF Austria Contact: Mr Erwin Fugger tel: +43-2254-80-22-13 fax: +43-2254-80-21-18 SOBRACON - Sociedade Brasileira de Comando Numerico, Automazacao e Computacao Grafica Rua General Jardim, 645-7 andar, cjto.72 01223 011 - Sao Paulo, SP Brazil Contact: Mr. Arnaldo Pereira Ribeiro tel: +55-11-256-1192 / 258 3320 fax: +55-11-256-94-96 British Robot Association (BRA) BRA Aston Science Park Love Lane Birmingham B7 4BJ England tel: +44 (0)21-628 1745 fax: +44 (0)21-628 1746 Meetings, newsletters, information, contacts, sponsor of several events in the UK. Individual and Student rate is 60 pounds UK. "Robot" Interindustry Research and Production Association (MNTK "Robot") Izmailovskaya sq.,7 MOSCOW - Russia CIS Contact: Mr. Vladimir P Stepanov tel: +7-095-367-85-36 fax: +7-095-367-88-81 China Society of Industrial Automation & Automated Industries 8, 7F, Tun Hwa N. Rd. TAIPEI - China Contact: Mr. Chen, Chen-Chang tel: +886-2-751-34-68 fax: +886-2-781-77-90 Danish Industrial Robot Association (DIRA) Teknologiparken DK-8000 AARHUS C Denmark Contact: Mr. John Nielsen tel: +45-86-14-24-00 fax: +45-86-14-43-55 Robotics Society in Finland c/o Suomen Automaation Tuki Oy Asemapaallikonk. 12 C FIN-00520 HELSINKI Finland tel: +358-0-146-1644 fax: +358-0-146-1650 Contact: Mr. Hannu Lehtinen e-mail: Hannu.Lehtinen@vtt.fi Fachgemeinschaft MHI im VDMA P.O. Box 71 08 64 D-6000 FRANKFURT (MAIN) 71 Germany Contact: Mr. Berndt Knoerr tel: +49-69-66-03-466 fax: +49-69-66-03-459 IPA Nobelstrasse 12 D-7000 STUTTGART 80 Germany Contact: Mr Rolf D Schraft tel:+49-711-970-12-00 fax: +49-711-970-13-99 Association Francaise de Robotique Industrielle (AFRI) Tour 66 4, Place Jussieu F-75252 PARIS CEDEX 05 France Contact: Mr. Arnauld Laffaille tel: +33-1-44-27-62-12 fax: +33-1-44-27-62-14 Hungarian Robotics Association c/o Tungsram T.H. Co.Ltd. Centre of Robotics and Automation H-1340 Budapest IV., Vaci ut 77 Hungary Contact: Dr. Jozsef K. Tar tel: +36-1-169-6144 fax: +36-1-169-6144 Government of India Ministry of Science & Technology Dept. of Science & Technology Technology Bhavan New Mehrauli Road New Delhi-110 016 India Contact: Mr. A.N.N. Murthy, Director tel: +91-11-662-260, 654-793 fax: +91-11-616-2418 SIRI - Associazione Italiana di Robotica c/o ETAS Periodici Via Mecenate 91 I-20138 MILANO Italy Contact: Mr Daniele Fabrizi tel: +39-2-580-842-24 fax: +39-2-554-003-88 Japan Industrial Robot Association c/o Kikaishinko Bldg 3-5-8, Shibakoen, Minato-Ku TOKYO Japan Contact: Mr Kanji Yonemoto tel: +81-3-3434-2919 fax: +81-3-3578-1404 KIST - Korea Institute of Science and Technology P.O. Box 131, Cheongryang Seoul Korea Contact: Mr. Chun Sik-lee tel: +82-2-967-3505, 963-4497 fax: +82-2-969-1763 Meininger Automation bv P.O. Box 743 NL-2280 AS RIJSWIJK Netherlands Contact: Mr Jack B Eijlers tel: +31-70-340-17-80 fax: +31-70-340-1602 Federation of Norwegian Engineering Industries (TBL) Box 7072 - H N-0306 OSLO 3 Norway Contact: Mr Johan Ulleland tel: +47-2-46-58-20 fax: +47-2-46-18-38 Polish Federation of Engineering Associations (NOT) Czackiego Str 3/5 PL-00950 WARSZAWA Poland Contact: Mr. Kazimierz Wawrzyniak tel: +48-22-26-87-31 fax: +48-22-27-29-49 Singapore Industrial Automation Association (SIAA) 151 Chin Swee Road #03-13 Manhattan House SINGAPORE 0316 Singapore Contact: Mr Stephen Teng tel: +65-734-69-11 fax: +65-235-57-21 MVVZ Robot Nam. Legionarov 3 CZ-080 01 PRESOV Slovakia Contact: Mr Vladimir Cop tel: +42-91-235-77 fax: +42-91-231-95 "J. Stefan" Institute Jamova 39 61000 Ljubljana Slovenia Contact: Mr Jadran Lenarcic tel: +38-61-159-199 fax: +38-61-161-029, 273-677 Asociacion Espanola de Robotica Rambla de Catalunya 70, 3r 2a E-08007 BARCELONA Spain Contact: Mr Luis Basanez tel: +34-3-215-57-60 fax: +34-3-215-23-07 Swedish Industrial Robot Association (SWIRA) Box 5506 S-114 85 STOCKHOLM Sweden Contact: Mr Thomas Hardenby tel: +46-8-783-80-00 fax: +46-8-660-33-78 Schweizerische Gesellschaft fur Automatik, Arbeitsgruppe Robotik Postgasse 17 CH-3011 BERN Switzerland Contact: Mr Charles Giroud tel: +41-31-21-22-51 fax: +41-31-21-12-50 British Robot Association (BRA) Aston Science Park, Love Lane Aston Triangle BIRMINGHAM B7 4BJ United Kingdom Contact: Mr. Donald Pitt tel: +44-21-628-17-45 fax: +44-21-628-17-46 Robotic Industries Assoc (RIA) P.O. Box 3724 ANN ARBOR, MI 48106 USA Contact: Mr. Donald A. Vincent tel: 1-313-994-6088 fax: 1-313-994-3338 Secretariat of IFR c/o Sveriges Verkstadsindustrier Box 5506 S-114 85 STOCKHOLM Swden Contact: Mr Lennart Djupmark Mrs Kerstin Teglof Delgado tel: +46-8-783-80-00 or +46-8-783-82-08 fax: +46-8-660-33-78 __________________________________________________________________________ +++Robot Societies The original computer club in Silicon Valley was the Homebrew computer club, out of which evolved a major portion of the personal computer industry. In that spirit, if not the hope for history repeating itself, a number of robotics societies and clubs have sprung up. [This list as posted had several typos - if you find an error please let me know - nivek] Atlanta Hobby Robotics Association P.O. Box 2050 Stone Mountain, GA 30086 There is also a robotics bbs in Atlanta, although I'm not sure it is directly connected with the AHRA. bbs: Robots R4U 404.978.7300 Austin Robotics Group 608 Garden Path Cove Round Rock, TX 78736 tel: 512.244.6707 Connecticut Robotics Society P.O. Box 127 Canaan CT 06018 tel: 203.824.0542 The Dallas Personal Robotics Group P.O. Box 1626 Hurst, TX 76053 LA Area Robotics and Automation Group Los Angeles, CA If you wish to subscribe to the mailing list, please send a message to: listproc@cad.ucla.edu with a blank Subject: line and the body of the message reading: subscribe la-ragroup [David Lee e-mail: dlee@cs.ucla.edu] Robot Society of Southern CA 10471 S. Brookhurst Anaheim, CA 92804 tel: 714.535.8161 Robotics Club of Maryland Computer Science Dept. A.V. Williams Bldg. (115) University of Maryland College Park, Md. 20742-3255 contact: Stephen Klueter, President net: The Robotics Society of America PO Box 1205 Danville, CA 94526-1205 tel:415.550.0588 fax: 415.550.0411 bbs: 415.648.6427 8N1 net: Subscription to SFRSA "Magazine" The normal subscription rate will be $25 for 12 monthly issues. Seattle Robotics Society P.O. Box 30668 Seattle, WA 98103-0668 tel: 206.782.5989 SRS also operates a bbs: 206.633.2905 Triangle Amateur Robotics Club P.O. Box 17523 Raleigh, NC 27619 tel: 919.782.8703 net: sasrer@unx.sas.com (Rodney Radford) tel: 919.677.8001 x7703 hme: 919.469.9359 Meets first Monday of every month at 7:30pm on NCSU campus (110 Clark Lab) A related group: MicroMechanics Information Clearinghouse Requests to join list are sent to: FTP site: location: mems.isi.edu directory: /pub/prm, /pub/prospero, /pub/mems, /pub/papers WWW-URL: http://mems.isi.edu/mems Robot related performance art: ----------------------------- Survival Research Laboratories 1458-C San Bruno Ave. San Francisco, CA 94110 tel/fax: 415.641.8065 contact: SRL director Mark Pauline net: Survival Research Laboratories is a not-for-profit machine- performance art group conceived of and founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare. Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations in the United States and Europe. Each performance consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators. Survival Research Laboratories is now available for email and time-restricted Gopher and anonymous FTP access from 0000-0600 PST daily. [NOTE TIME RESTRICTION!]: location: srl.org directory: /pub/SRLImageBank, /pub/SRLInfo The directory holds scanned-in photographs and video images of SRL shows in GIF format; /pub/SRLInfo has news. Image file sizes range from 70 to 250 Kbytes, but our link speed is only 9600 baud; please be patient. Always select BINARY mode before FTP file transfers. Filenames can be specified in upper or lower case. Comments or questions to support@srl.org. __________________________________________________________________________ +++Conferences and Competitions There are a wide variety and number of conferences related to robotics and automation. Some are focused on industrial applications, many are researchy in nature and most are a mixture of both. Proceedings should be available in most good libraries or by interlibrary loan. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1994 IEEE National Telesystems Conference (NTC '94) San Diego, CA May 26-27, 1994 Areas of interest include: Dual-use technology applications Advanced technology for Telesystems Aircraft Navigation/Landing Systems Communications Systems and Networks Satellite Communication Systems Space Navigation Systems Telemetry and Remote Sensing Telerobotics/Unmanned Vehicles Tethered Systems and RPV's Bob Bolger Publicity Chair ARINC Research Corporation tel: 619.222.7447 fax: 619.225.1750 net: rbolger@arinc.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- MVA'94: IAPR Workshop on Machine Vision Applications December 13-15, 1994 Kawasaki, Japan The International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) announces the 4th IAPR International Workshop on Machine Vision Applications to be held in Kawasaki on December 13-15, 1994. The workshop is sponsored by the IAPR Technical Committees 6, 8, and 10. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry, and to exchange their knowledge and stimulate each other through intensive discussions on the following research topics: Main Topic: Machine Vision and its Applications Machine Vision Algorithms Feature extraction, Range data / 3D shapes, Motion / Image sequence analysis, Neural network applications, Color image analysis, AI-based vision, Human interface, and related technologies. Special Purpose Architectures Intelligent sensors, VLSI image processor chips, Massively parallel processing, Architectures for 3D and/or motion processing, Image processing systems, Software environment for image processor, and related technologies. Industrial Applications Factory automation, Disaster prevention and rescue, Security control, Navigation, Mobile robots, Civil and construction engineering, Agriculture/Forestry/Fishery, Other applications, and related technologies. Document, Map and Line Drawing Processing Document image processing, Drawing recognition, Multimedia database, Map and engineering drawing database, Map processing and map-based systems, 3D reconstruction from maps or drawings, and related technologies. The workshop will include several invited talks and about 100 papers for oral and poster presentations on the above topics. All presentations will be in English. Those who wish to present a paper are requested to submit four copies of a 500-1000 word extended abstract with at least one main figure by June 15, 1994 to: Prof. Mikio Takagi Institute of Industrial Science University of Tokyo 7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, Japan FAX: +81-3-3402-6226 The abstract should contain the following in its first page. 1) Title of the paper 2) Author name(s) and his/her(their) affiliation(s) 3) A person's name and address to be contacted, also, phone and fax numbers, Email address if available 4) Answers to the following questions: a) What is the original contribution of this work? b) Why should this contribution be considered important? Authors of papers that are accepted will be notified by August 1, 1994. Final camera-ready papers are due by October 1, 1994. Notice: International Technical Exhibition on Image Technology and Equipment will be held in Tokyo, near the workshop site, on December 7-9, 1994. All participants for the workshop are encouraged to visit the exhibition. For further information, please contact: Prof. Mikio Takagi Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo 7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, JAPAN PHONE: +81-3-3479-0289 FAX: +81-3-3402-6226 EMAIL: takagi@tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Abstracts & Call for Exhibitors ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems February 5-10, 1995 Monterey, California USA Sponsored by: AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY Robotics and Remote Systems Division and the Northern California Section Cosponsored by o Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory o Electric Power Research Institute o The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers o British Nuclear Energy Society You are invited to submit extended abstracts for review and consideration for the ANS Sixth Topical Meeting on Robots and Remote Systems. The theme of this Topical is "Robots in the Environment," and emphasis will be placed on robot technology and applications in a variety of remote environments, including nuclear, environmental remediation, underwater and space. Sessions are arranged in four primary interest areas or "tracks" so that no two papers in a track are presented concurrently. The tracks and topics of interest for this abstract solicitation are listed below. APPLICATIONS Nuclear power and fuel cycle Environmental Restoration Waste Management Remote Manufacturing and Processing Laboratory Automation Manipulator Applications Medical Application HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS Hardening and Survivability Technologies Undersea Space Law Enforcement Emergency Response and HazMat Handling Military CONTROL SYSTEMS Control Systems and Architectures Virtual Reality Application to Remote Systems Sensors and Machine Vision Human Factors and the Human/Machine Interface Artificial Intelligence and Smart Systems Remote Viewing and Telepresence RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Autonomous Systems and Mobility Mechanical Design and Special Tooling Manipulator R&D Remote Engineering The ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems Symposium, sponsored by the American Nuclear Society, will be held at the Hyatt Regency Monterey in Monterey, California, just minutes from the beautiful California central coast. Updates in the various technology areas will be featured as well as several new special interest sessions which have proven popular in recent years. Both oral and poster papers will be presented, and submissions of your original work are requested. We encourage papers/presentations from European and Pacific Rim countries. Technical Sessions Both oral presentations and poster sessions will be featured for the four-day conference Send Abstracts on new and innovative work to: Program Chairman Scott A. Couture ANS 6th Topical on Robotics and Remote Systems P.O. Box 10333 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Phone: (510) 423-7970/FAX (510) 423-4606 INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACT PREPARATION AND MAILING ____________________ Abstracts of new and innovative work are solicited. Submission format is an extended typed abstract of at least 500-900 words. Please send the original and three copies to the program chairman. ABSTRACT DEADLINE - APRIL 1, 1993 - SEND TO: 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems Attn: Scott Couture, Technical Program Chair P.O. Box 10333 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Acceptance Categories: Papers may be accepted for: 1. Oral presentations for a specified time (20-35 minutes, nominal) 2. Poster presentation with the author expected to be in attendance to explain his or her paper and to answer questions. All papers accepted for the ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems are eligible for publication in the ANS Transactions issue for the Symposium subject to formal review and acceptance procedures. Return this information sheet Sixth Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems February 5-10, 1995, Monterey, California ___ I am interest edin attending this Topical Meeting. Please send additional information as it becomes available. ___ I am interested in presenting a paper at this Topical Meeting. Tentative title of paper: ___ I am interested in presenting a poster session ___ I am interested in Exhibit Space for this Topical Meeting. Name: Affiliation: Address: City/State/Zip --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** SAIT IEEE *** *** WESTERN CANADIAN ROBOT GAMES *** *** Third Annual Competition *** *** April 9, 1994 *** In the interest of promoting science and technology to the public and foster enthusiasm and creativity amongst students, the Western Canadian Robot Games committee holds an annual robotic contest in a centralized western location. This email message is sent to you in the hopes you may pass it on to suitable instructors, professors, staff and students to invite them to our next contest! If you would like to be included on our mailing list or receive our brochure, please provide me with an email or postal address. To all robotic enthusiasts and tinkerers! ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE! JOIN THE FUN! Bring your robot to our third annual contest The IEEE student branch at SAIT challenge all SUMO alumni, students, instructors, and inventive individuals to design and enter your robots in one or both of our contests: ROBOTIC SUMO WRESTLING and ATOMIC HOCKEY Form a team! Fill out the attached application! Prove your 'metal' in the furnace of competition! There is NO ENTRY FEE! ROBOTIC SUMO WRESTLING: The Tradition Continues This contest matches your own creation with another robot in the field of combat where brute strength and cat-like reflexes combine to create the ultimate battle! The challenge is to create a robot whose sole purpose is to push, throw, flip, drag, or otherwise move your opponent out of a five foot diameter circular ring within 3 minutes. In the tradition of an ancient Japanese contest of similar name, SUMO wrestling robots can use any trick the creator conceives to get the job done, within the following limits: * No robot may be used which is a physical threat to other contestants or the audience. (i.e., Explosions, fire, bullets, mace etc...) * Robots must fit within a 9" x 9" square when the competition begins, but may expand to a larger size after battle starts. Height is unrestricted at all times. * Robots must be 11 pounds or less in weight. * After the battle is over, contestants are responsible for cleaning up any debris in the ring to the satisfaction of the judges. There are two separate classes to SUMO robotic wrestling: Autonomous and Remote-Control. Remote Control robots may be a radio or wired-remote control and may be operated by a biological (human, usually). Autonomous Robots must carry on-board all power and intelligence required to seek and conquer the enemy. Each robot class will be awarded its own prize! (Prizes will also be awarded for the most humorous entry) ATOMIC HOCKEY You have never seen the NHL like this before! A head-to-head game of robot mayhem played out on an atomic scale as each competitor fights for the opportunity to gather more protons than his opponent while avoiding the ever present electrons! Played out in a 5 foot diameter circular ring lined with a 2 inch high wall, the robots must locate and gather Ping-Pong balls (protons) and deposit them in their own goal (the nucleus) within a three minute period while their opponents do the same. Each proton carries a score of +1 point. Unfortunately, the ring also contains an equal number of small metal balls (electrons) worth -1 point each. Each electron in your nucleus reduces your score by one point, so be careful to avoid them (or at least put them in your opponent's nucleus)! * Robots are to be a maximum of 9" x 9" square with unlimited height and have no weight restriction. * Robots must not pose any physical threat to biologicals (see SUMO rules). * Autonomous robots may put any signaling device they wish in their nucleus to help the robot locate the goal. * Aggressive and devious play between robots is encouraged, so long as no damage occurs to the ring or room. As with Robotic SUMO Wrestling, there are two categories: Autonomous and Remote Controlled ( Radio or Tethered ) For a complete rule set for both competitions and application information, please email, phone, fax, or (gasp) write to me at: Craig Maynard Instructor, Electrical/Electronics Department, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology 1301-16th Ave NW Calgary, Alberta T2M-0L4 Phone (403) 284-8401 Fax (403) 284-8184 Email: maynard@trantor.el.sait.ab.ca ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artificial Life IV An Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems organized by: Rodney Brooks MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab July 6-8, 1994 MIT, Cambridge, MA CALL FOR PAPERS Proceedings Editors: Rodney Brooks, MIT AI Lab Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab We are happy to invite contributions for the Fourth Artificial Life Workshop, to be held at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 6-8, 1994. Artificial Life complements the traditional Biological sciences, concerned with the analysis of living organisms, by attempting to synthesize phenomena normally associated with natural living systems within computers and other "artificial" media. By extending the empirical foundation upon which the science of Biology rests beyond the carbon-chain based life that has evolved on Earth, Artificial Life can contribute to Theoretical Biology by locating "life-as-we-know-it" within the larger context of "life-as-it-could-be." The three previous workshops in this series were held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Next year's workshop is intended to continue in the spirit of the earlier events, encouraging people with a broad range of backgrounds to share and exchange opinions, ideas, and techniques. Contributions may made in the following categories: PAPER (30 minutes for presentation and questions); DEMONSTRATION, which includes robots, computer demos and/or videos (please give time estimate). Some PAPER contributions may be accepted as POSTERs. Presentations of posters may include a computer display (BYOC). Authors of PAPERs should send 4 copies of a full paper, not to exceed 14 pages of 12pt single spaced text to the address below by March 15, 1994 (you get to work all weekend then send it express on Monday the 14th...). No papers will be accepted for review after March 15th. Authors will be notified of the status of their contributions by April 15, 1994. Contributions should include an email address, telephone and fax numbers on the cover page. Proprietors of DEMONSTRATIONs should send a maximum four page abstract describing their contribution to the same address by March 15th. DEMONSTRATIONs will be held on Thursday afternoon, July 7th, and will incorporate an ``Artificial 4-H show''. All accepted PAPERs will be included in the proceedings which will be available to all registered participants at the workshop. Some POSTERs may be included in the proceedings, and some DEMONSTRATIONs will be included in a companion videotape. There will be a very tight production schedule on the proceedings and camera ready copy will be absolutely due by Friday May 13th. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Self-organization and emergent functionality * Definitions of life * Origin of life * Self-reproduction * Computer viruses * Synthesis of "the living state" * Evolution and population genetics * Coevolution and ecological dynamics * Growth, development and differentiation * Organization and behavior of social and colonial organisms * Animal behavior * Global and local ecosystems and their interactions * Autonomous agents (mobile robots and software agents) * Collective intelligence ("swarm" intelligence) * Theoretical biology * Philosophical issues in Alife (from Ontology to Ethics) * Formalisms and tools for Alife research * Guidelines and safeguards for the practice of Alife Papers should be sent to: Rodney Brooks/Alife IV MIT Artificial Ingelligence Lab 545 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139, USA alife@ai.mit.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conference Announcement and FINAL Call For Papers FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS Third International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB94) Brighton, UK, August 8-12, 1994 The object of the conference is to bring together researchers in ethology, psychology, ecology, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and related fields so as to further our understanding of the behaviors and underlying mechanisms that allow animals and, potentially, robots to adapt and survive in uncertain environments. The conference will focus particularly on well-defined models, computer simulations, and built robots in order to help characterize and compare various organizational principles or architectures capable of inducing adaptive behavior in real or artificial animals. Contributions treating any of the following topics from the perspective of adaptive behavior will receive special emphasis. Individual and collective behavior Autonomous robots Neural correlates of behavior Hierarchical and parallel organizations Perception and motor control Emergent structures and behaviors Motivation and emotion Problem solving and planning Action selection and behavioral Goal directed behavior sequences Neural networks and evolutionary Ontogeny, learning and evolution computation Internal world models Characterization of environments and cognitive processes Applied adaptive behavior Authors should make every effort to suggest implications of their work for both natural and artificial animals. Papers which do not deal explicitly with adaptive behavior will be rejected. Submission Instructions Authors are requested to send five copies (hard copy only) of a full paper to the Program Chair (Dave Cliff). Papers should not exceed 10 pages (excluding the title page), with 1 inch margins all around, and no smaller than 10 pt (12 pitch) type (Times Roman preferred). LaTex template available by email, see below. This is same format as SAB90 and SAB92. Each paper must include a title page containing the following: (1) Full names, postal addresses, phone numbers, email addresses (if available), and fax numbers for each author, (2) A 100-200 word abstract, (3) The topic area(s) in which the paper could be reviewed (see list above). Camera ready versions of the papers, in two-column format, will be required after acceptance. Computer, video, and robotic demonstrations are also invited. Please contact Phil Husbands to make arrangements for demonstrations. Other program proposals will also be considered. Conference committee Conference Chair: Philip HUSBANDS Jean-Arcady MEYER Stewart WILSON School of Cognitive Groupe de Bioinformatique The Rowland Institute and Comp. Sciences Ecole Normale Superieure for Science University of Sussex 46 rue d'Ulm 100 Cambridge Parkway Brighton BN1 9QH, UK 75230 Paris Cedex 05 Cambridge, MA 02142, USA philh@cogs.susx.ac.uk meyer@wotan.ens.fr wilson@smith.rowland.org Program Chair: David CLIFF School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH, UK e-mail: davec@cogs.susx.ac.uk Financial Chair: P. Husbands, H. Roitblat Local Arrangements: I. Harvey, P. Husbands Program Committee M. Arbib, USA R. Arkin, USA R. Beer, USA A. Berthoz, France L. Booker, USA R. Brooks, USA P. Colgan, Canada T. Collett, UK H. Cruse, Germany J. Delius, Germany J. Ferber, France N. Franceschini, France S. Goss, Belgium J. Halperin, Canada I. Harvey, UK I. Horswill, USA A. Houston, UK L. Kaelbling, USA H. Klopf, USA L-J. Lin, USA P. Maes, USA M. Mataric, USA D. McFarland, UK G. Miller, UK R. Pfeifer, Switzerland H. Roitblat, USA J. Slotine, USA O. Sporns, USA J. Staddon, USA F. Toates, UK P. Todd, USA S. Tsuji, Japan W. Uttal, USA D. Waltz, USA. Official Language: English Publisher: MIT Press/Bradford Books Conference Information The conference will be held in the centre of Brighton, on the South Coast. This is a resort town, less than one hour from London, only 30 mins from London Gatwick airport. A number of invited speakers will be giving tutorial talks in subject areas covered by the conference. Through sponsorship, conference fees will be kept to a minimum and there should also be some travel grants available. We have made arrangements for the Proceedings to be available at the conference, which requires efficient processing of submitted papers; hence if possible first submissions should be made using LaTex template available by email. Email Information Email sab94@cogs.susx.ac.uk with subject line "Subscribe mail-list" to be put on our mailing list and be sent further information about conference arrangements when available. Email sab94@cogs.susx.ac.uk with subject line "LaTex template" to be sent LaTex template for camera-ready and for initial submissions. Important Dates =============== JAN 5, 1994: Submission deadline MAR 10: Notification of acceptance or rejection APR 10: Camera ready revised versions due MAY 1: Early registration deadline JUL 8: Regular registration deadline AUG 8-12: Conference dates General queries to: sab94@cogs.susx.ac.uk ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPIE Mobile Robots IX 3-4 October 1994 Hynes Convention Center Boston, MA First day - major theoretical aspects of mobile, autonomous, and remotely controlled systes. Second day - working systems and their design, integration, and appliation. This includes autonomous systems for factory floors, guided path, roads, fence following, and other uses. For information contact: Wendell Chun Martin Marietta Astronautics 303.971.7945 net: chunw@ssv.den.mmc.com ------------------------------------------------ 2nd Annual International Unmanned Ground Vehicle Robotics Competition May 20-22, 1994 at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan $10,000.00 Prize Prize money to the university teams for the best Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles All Terrain (ATV) Class Outdoor Natural Terrain Course Sponsor: Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Host: AUVS Great Lakes Chapter [The National AUVS Convention is held nearby at Cobo Hall in Detroit on May 23-25, 194] For Information please contact: Paul Lescoe Robotics Office Army-Tank Automotive Command tel: 313.574.8678 fax: 313.574.5008 net: lescoep%ccmail@tacom-enmhl.army.mil Dr. Ka C. Cheok or Barbara Dhalman Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering Oakland University 248 Dodge Hall Rochester, MI 48309-4401 tel: 313.370.2232 or 313.370.2177 fax: 313.370.4261 Candy McLellan School of Engineering and Computer Science Oakland University tel: 313.370.2233 End of 2nd International UGV Competition Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS SYMPOSIUM ON AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY July 19-20 1994 The IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society is sponsoring a symposium on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Technology to be held in the Boston, MA. area at the Cambridge Center Marriott Hotel on July 19-20 1994. The objective of the Symposium is to disseminate knowledge of recent technological advances in the field, to be a focus for the current state of the art including identification of technology shortfalls and to provide a forum for discussion of new relevant ideas. TOPICS The Symposium will focus on topics that are related to the AUTONOMOUS OPERATION OF UNDERWATER VEHICLES. These include but are not limited to : Sensors and Multi-Sensor Fusion Communications and Telemetry Navigation Imaging Techniques and Systems Modeling and Simulation Methods Mission Control and Software Architectures Energy Systems Autonomous Manipulation Vehicle Design and Control Launch and Recovery Techniques and Issues Multiple Cooperating Vehicles The Symposium will include a VIDEO PROCEEDINGS Session and visits to area technical attractions including the C. S. Draper Laboratories. ABSTRACTS Prospective authors should submit a proposed title and an abstract (300-500 words) with a cover sheet containing title author(s) names, addresses with one author named as the point of contact including phone and fax numbers. Since acceptance is by review of abstracts, it would be helpful if authors would describe the problem addressed solutions obtained and its importance to the subject of the conference. Abstracts should be submitted to : Professor A. J. Healey, Technical Program Chairman Department of Mechanical Engineering Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA 93943 Ph. 408-656-3462 Fax: (408)-656-2238 healey@lex.me.nps.navy.mil DEADLINES The following deadlines have been established and it is important that authors adhere closely to these dates. Abstracts Due: November 8 1993 Notice of Acceptance January 15 1994 and Authors Kits Distributed Full Paper Manuscript (Camera Ready) April 15 1994 INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERS OCEANIC ENGINEERING SOCIETY ---End of SYMPOSIUM ON AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xxxxxx PerAc'94 Lausanne xxxxxxx From perception to action A state of the art conference on perceptive processing, artificial life, autonomous agents, emergent behaviours and micro-robotic systems Lausanne, Switzerland, 7-9 september 1994 Swarm intelligence Micro-robotics Evolution, genetic processes Competition and cooperation Learning machines Self organization Active perception Sensory/motor loops Emergent behavior Cognition ---------------------------------------------- | Call for Papers, Call for Posters | | Call for Demonstrations, Call for Videos | | Contest | ---------------------------------------------- Contributions can be made in the following categories: -- Papers -- (30 to 45 minutes). 2-page abstracts should be submitted by February 1, 1994. The conference will have no parallel sessions, and a didactically structured program. Most of the papers will be solicited. The submitted abstracts should attempt a synthetic approach from sensing to action. Selected authors will have to adapt their presentation to the general conference program and prepare a complete well-structured text before June 94. -- Posters -- 4-page short papers that will be published in the proceedings and presented as posters are due for June 1, 1994. Posters will be displayed during the whole Conference and enough time will be provided to promote interaction with the authors. A jury will thoroughly examine them and the two best posters will be presented as a paper in the closing session (20' presentation). -- Demonstrations -- Robotic demonstrations are considered as posters. In addition to the 4-page abstract describing the scientific interest of the demonstration, the submission should include a 1-page requirement for demonstration space and support. -- Videos -- 5 minute video clips are accepted in Super-VHS or VHS (preferably PAL, NTSC leads to a poorer quality). Tapes together with a 2-page description should be submitted before June 1, 1994. Clips will be edited and distributed at the conference. -- Contest -- A robotic contest will be organized the day before the conference. Teams participating to the contest will be able to follow the conference freely. The contest will consist in searching for and collecting or stacking 36mm film cans. One or several mobile robots or robotic arms can be used for this task. The rules and preliminary registration forms will be sent upon request by air-mail only as soon as definitive (end of October 93). For further information: Prof J.D. Nicoud, LAMI-EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne fax ++41 21 693-5263, Email nicoud@di.epfl.ch Program Committee and referees (September 93) L. Bengtsson, Uni Halmstad, S. -- R. Brooks, MIT, Cambridge, USA. P. Dario, Santa Anna, Pisa, I. -- J.L. Deneubourg, ULB, Bruxelles, B R. Eckmiller, Uni, D|sseldorf, D. -- N. Franceschini, Marseilles, F T. Fukuda, Uni, Nagoya, JP. -- S. Grossberg, Uni, Boston, USA J.A. Meyer, Uni, Paris, F. -- R. Pfeifer, Uni, Z|rich, CH L. Steels, VUB, Brussels, B. -- A. Treisman, Uni, Princeton, USA F. Varela, Polytechnique, Paris, F. -- E. Vittoz, CSEM, Neuchbtel, CH J. Albus, NIST, Gaithersburg, USA. -- D.J. Amit, Uni, Jerusalem, Israel X. Arreguit, CSEM, Neuchbtel, CH. -- H. Asama, Riken, Wako, JP R. Beer, Case Western, Cleveland, USA. -- G. Beni, Uni, Riverside, USA P. Bourgine, Cemagref, Antony, F. -- Y. Burnod, Uni VI, Paris, F J.P. Changeux, Inst. Pasteur, Paris, F. -- D. Cliff, Uni Sussex, Brighton, UK Ph. Gaussier, LAMI, Lausanne, CH. -- P. Husbands, Uni Sussex, Brighton, UK O. Kubler, ETH, Z|rich, CH. -- C.G. Langton, Santa Fe Inst, USA I. Masaki, MIT, Cambridge, USA. -- E. Mazer, LIFIA, Grenoble, F M. Mataric, MIT, Cambridge, USA . -- H. Miura, Uni, Tokyo, JP S. Rasmussen, Los Alamos, USA. -- G. Sandini, Uni, Genova, I T. Smithers, Uni, San Sebastian, E. -- J. Stewart, Inst. Pasteur, Paris, F L. Tarassenko, Uni, Oxford, UK. -- C. Touzet, EERIE, Nnmes, F P. Vershure, NSI, La Jolla, USA. End of PerAc'94 Lausanne ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AIAA/NASA CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS IN FIELD, FACTORY, SERVICE, AND SPACE (CIRFFSS '94) March 21-24, 1994 Houston, TX "SHARING TECHNOLOGY IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST" The AIAA/NASA Conference on Intelligent Robots for Factory, Field, Service, and Space is a major national event in intelligent robotics. It provides a unique forum for engineers and scientists from industry, government, and academia, and >from a wide range of development and user environments, to exchange knowledge of the state of the art, unfulfilled requirements, and current research directions. The conference goals are a) to develop a shared technology base among the researchers, developers and users of intelligent robots, b) to understand the commonality and the differences among the requirements for applications in the different environments of space, service, field, and factory, and c) to increase the efficiency and synergy of ongoing efforts. Papers are invited that cover all aspects of the development, and use of intelligent robots. CIRFFSS '94 is organized in cooperation with the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, National Service Robot Association, Robotic Industries Association, SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering, AIAA Space Automation and Robotics Technical Committee, Clear Lake Council of Technical Societies, AIAA Houston Section, and the IEEE Galveston Bay Section. TECHNOLOGY TRACKS: Papers are solicited that describe the technology of building intelligent robotic systems, especially surveys of the state of the art, subsystem concepts, experimental results in different environments, system and subsystem metrics, and comparison of different approaches. Robotic Sensing, Vision, and Perception: Visible, radar, sonar,IR and laser sensors, innovative systems; and perception algorithms, architecture, and integration methods. Planning, Reasoning, and Control: Behavioral and subsumption methods, deliberative planners, reasoning architectures, combination and mediation of planning, and reasoning and control elements Systems Technology and Architectures: Methods for allocating functions, system and software architectures, and approaches to modularity and reuse. APPLICATION TRACKS: Papers are solicited that describe designs and uses of intelligent robots, especially those related to concepts, design experiments, operational experience, and requirements. Factory: Assembly, transport, inspection, warehousing, and manufacturing. Field: Underwater, explosive handling, hazardous environments, military applications, autonomous land vehicles, construction, very cold environments, mining, and drilling. Space: On-orbit servicing and assembly, planetary exploration and operations, spacecraft inspection, and ground-based operations. Service: Health care, security systems, cleaning systems, residential/office, facility maintenance, and others. VIDEO TAPES: Are encouraged in all areas. Papers should be submitted to the: Program Chairman: Dr. Lawrence P. Seidman The MITRE Corporation 1120 NASA Road 1 Houston, TX 77058-3320 tel: 713-335-8532 fax: 713-333-5147 Email: lseidman@mitre.org Address other conference inquires: Conference Chairman: Dr. Jon D. Erickson NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Mail Code ER Houston, TX 77058 tel: 713-483-1508 fax: 713 483-7580 Email: erickson@aio.jsc.nasa.gov ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IROS '94 FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP on INTELLIGENT ROBOTIC SYSTEMS '94 Grenoble, France, 11-15 July 1994 CALL FOR PAPERS This workshop is organized by : LIFIA Laboratory of Fundamental Informatics and Artificial Intelligence, Institute of Informatics and Applied Mathematics of Grenoble, Grenoble, France IPPT-PAN Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland THEME AND TOPICS The theme for this year workshop will be combining perception and action. The workshop will combine invited lectures by established researchers with original presentations by junior scientists about research in progress. Topics included : o Learning and Control; o Neural Network and Fuzzy Techniques for Control; o Active and Real Time Computer Vision; o Integration and Control of Perception and Action; o Planning and Plan Execution for Perception and Action; ORGANISERS General Chairman James L.Crowley, LIFIA IMAG, France, 46 av. Felix Viallet, 38031 Grenoble Cedex, Tel.:(33) 76574655 fax:(33) 76574602, E-mail: Jim.Crowley@imag.fr Chairman Adam Borkowski, IPPT PAN, Poland, of the Programme 21 Swietokrzyska Str., 00-049 Warsaw, Committee Tel. : (48-22) 261281 ext 250 fax : (48-22) 269815, E-mail: abork@ippt.gov.pl Co-Chairman Artur Dubrawski, IPPT PAN, Poland, of the Programme 21 Swietokrzyska Str., 00-049 Warsaw, Committee Tel. : (48-22) 261281 ext 250 fax : (48-22) 269815, E-mail: adubr@ippt.gov.pl Secretary Patrick Reignier, LIFIA - IMAG, France, 46 av. F'elix Viallet, 38031 Grenoble Cedex, Tel.:(33) 76574609 fax:(33) 76574602, E-mail: Patrick.Reignier@imag.fr Olivier Causse, Lab. of Image Analysis, DK, Fr. Bajers Vej 7 D, DK-9220 Aalborg Tel.:(45) 98158522-4940 fax:(45) 98154008, E-mail: causse@vision.auc.dk The event is organised in cooperation with the CEC Human Capital and Mobility Network SMART and the Committee for Automatics and Robotics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. LOCATION The event will take place at Grenoble, in the heart of the French Alps. Grenoble has many convenient railway and bus connections from all over France. International flights to Paris or Lyon would be suitable. LANGUAGE The conference language will be English SUBMISSION Persons wishing to submit a paper should send an extended abstract of approximately four pages to the programme chairman (Professor A. Borkowski, address before) TIMETABLE - Extended abstracts must be received by the programme chairman by January 15 1994. - Notification of acceptance will be sent before February 28 1994. - Full papers (8 pages) must be received before April 30 1994 All accepted papers will be published in the Proceedings of the Workshop. Detailed information regarding programme, conference fee, accomodation will be given in the second annoucement issued in January 1994. End of IROS '94 description ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Many annual conferences are held and here are a few of them: Annual International Conference of IEEE on Robotics and Automation (ICARA) Annual Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems Annual Symposium on Industrial Robots International Symposium of Robotics Research Autonomous Intelligent Systems International Conference on Computer Vision British Machine Vision Conference IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Conference IMAC/SICE International Symposium on Robotics, Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems. American Association for Artificial Intellignece (AAAI) Probably the largest and most prestigious conference on AI. Now sponsoring a robot competition at the annual AAAI conference. Competitions: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are a number of robot gatherings where robot builders can bring their creations to show and compete with others. Hong-Kong ping pong competitions: Contact: Robin Bradbeer BEAM robot olympics: Contact: Mark Tilden Articles on the BEAM Olympics: Dewdney, A.K. Photovores: intelligent robots are constructed from castoffs. Scientific American Sept 1992, v267, n3, p42(1) Maylon, John. At the Robot Olympics. Whole Earth Review. Spring 1992, pp 80-84. Smit, Michael C., and Mark Tilden, Beam Robotics. Algorithm, Vol. 2, No. 2, March 1991, Pg 15-19 International Robot Games September 23 - 25 1993 (DELAYED!!!) Glasgow, Scotland Organised by The Turing Institute Following the success of the First Olympic event which took place in September 1990, the Turing Institute is now in the process of organizing the second event in the series. This will take place in Glasgow, Scotland from 23rd-25th September 1993. Robot Contest sponsored by the Science Center of Connecticut. April 17th, 1994. Open to everyone. $1000 prize. For more information and rules contact: Jake Mendelssohn, SCoC 950 Trout Brook Drive West Hartford, CT 06119 tel: 203.231.2824 fax: 203.232.0705 Prodigy: KJRP71A ___________________________________________________________________________ +++Robotics Publications: There are a number of academic journals and trade magazines devoted to robotics. There are no magazines currently devoted to the hobbyist or designer of robotic mechanisms. In the 1980's Robotics Engineering (nee Robotics Age) lasted for 7-8 years but folded. The one difficulty I noted as a subscriber was that the magazine attempted to address the hobbyist, the curious and those whose work was devoted to robotics without successfully catering to all groups. This list of periodical covers the academic journals, the trade magazines devoted to both robotics and relevant sub-areas, and the lone newsletter for hobbyists. Automation in Construction Publisher: Elsevier Science Publisher B. V., Amsterdam. Desk Editor: Erik de Vries The Editor of the journal is Dr. T. Michael Knasel 10324 Lake Avenue Cleveland, OH 441102-1239. fax: 216.651.5136. Autonomous Robots ISSN 0929-5593 Kluwer Academic Publishers Journal Dept PO Box 358, Accord Station Hingham, MA 02018-0358 tel: 617.871.6600 fax: 617.871.6528 subscription: $50/individual Vol 1, 1994 (2 issues) Editor-in-chief George Bekey Industrial Robot ISSN 0143-991X Quarterly, $145/year MCB University Press Ltd. 62 Toller Lane Bradford, West Yorkshire England, BD8 9BY tel: (44) 274 499821, fax: (44) 274 547143 --in the US MCB University Press Ltd. PO Box 10812 Birmingham, AL 35201-0812 tel: 1-800-633-4931 (1-205-995-1567), fax: 1-205-995-1588 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) The IEEE has a formidable array of journals, transactions and magazines. Here are a few that are relevant to robotics work: IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics IEEE Control Systems Magazine IEEE Computer Magazine IEEN Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Cost: Have to join IEEE and then subscribe. Student rates are much less expensive than non-student rates. International Journal of Robotics and Automation Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0826-8185 ACTA Press, PO Box 354, CH-8053, Zurich, Switzerland or ACTA Press, PO Box 2481, Anaheim, CA 92814. Subscriptions: $165 US or 313.50 SFr. ($12 US or 22.80 SFr postage and handling). A special rate is available to members of IASTED. International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR) MIT Press 28 Carleton Street Cambridge, MA 02142 Cost: $50/year to individuals Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems Three issues per volume, $58.50 per volume (individual) Kluwer Academic Publishers Group PO Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands --in the US: PO Box 358 Accord Station, Hingham, MA 02018-0358 Journal of Robotic Systems G. Beni and S. Hackwood, editors College of Engineering University of California, Riverside Riverside, CA 92521-0425 Publisher: Interscience Division Professional, Reference, and Trade Group John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 605 Third Ave. New York, NY 10158 Mechatronics (Mechanics, Electronics, Control) Editors-in-Chief: Dr. R. W. Daniel Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1-3PJ United Kingdom: tel: +44-865-273153 fax: +44-865-273153 Professor J. R. Hewit Engineering Design Institute Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Technology, Loughborough Leicestershire, LE11 3TU UNITED KINGDOM tel: +44-509-222936 fax: +44-509-268103) Published by Pergamon Press Ltd, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 0BW UK. 1993 subscription rates: 193 pounds Sterling (US $312) Personal subscription rates for those whose library subscribes at a regular rate are available on request. Subscription rates for Japan are available on request. Robot (Japanese) Industrial Robots and Application Systems published bimonthly Japan Industrial Robot Association (JIRA) Kikai-Shinko Building 3-5-8, Shiba-Kohen, Mina To-ku Tokyo, Japan tel: (03) 3434-2919 fax: (03) 3578-1404 Robot Explorer 'The newsletter of motile systems' ISSN: 1060-4375 Appropriate Solutions 145 Grove Street PO Box 458 Peterborough, NH 03458-0458 tel: 603.924.6079 fax: 603.924.9441 net: apsol@world.std.com $14.95/year in the US, $29.95 to the rest of the world. Robotica International Journal of Information, Education and Research in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Quarterly publication, US $179 per year! Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU (UK) in the US: Cambridge University Press Journals Department 40 West 20th Street New York, NY 10011-4211 Robotics and Autonomous Systems -- In Europe -- Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. Journals Department PO Box 211, 100 AE Amsterdam The Netherlands Editors in Chief: Prof. F.C.A. Groen University of Amsterdam Faculty of Mathematics and CS Dept. of Computer Systems Kruislaan 403 1098 SJ Amsterdam The Netherlands net: -- In the US and Canada -- Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc. Journal Information Center 655 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10010 Editor in Chief Prof. T.C. Henderson University of Utah Dept. of Computer Science 3160 Merrill Engineering Bldg. Salt Lake City, UT 84112 USA net: Robotics Today Published by: Society of Manufacturing Engineers One SME Drive PO Box 930 Dearborn, MI 48121 tel: 313.271.1500 Robotics World "The end-user's magazine of flexible automation" Published quarterly Communication Channels 6255 Barfield Road Atlanta, GA 30328 tel: 404.256.9800 They also publish the Robotics World Directory $49.95 Don't have addresses for: Advanced Robotics (in english) published by International Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing Useful and relevant trade magazines: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Usually free, mostly ads or industry news. Many articles written by advertisers. Great sources of product information. Our lab at CMU receives 50-60 trade magazines and journals per month and while no one reads all of the articles, pointers are passed on to people around the lab. This keeps the group abreast of new products and developments. Advanced Imaging 445 Broad Hollow Rd. Melville, NY 11747 tel: 516.845.2700 fax: 516.845.2797 Subscription free to qualified professionals, $50/yr otherwise. ComputerCraft CQ Communications 76 N. Broadway Hicksville, NY 11801 tel: 516.681.2922 fax: 516.681.2926 cost: $18.97/yr ISSN: 1055-5072 Computer Applications Journal Circuit Cellar Inc. 4 Park St. Suite 20 Vernon, CT 06066 Subscriptions: P.O. Box 7694 Riverton, NJ 08077 tel: 203.875.2751 cost: $21.95/yr ISSN: 0896-8985 Excellent for those building hardware, programming microcontrollers, etc. Also a very good source for companies who have products in these areas. Design News Cahners Publishing Co. 275 Washington Street Newton, MA. 02158 News and Applications for design engineers. Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise - ? EE Times CMP Publications, Inc. 600 Community Drive Manhasset, NY 11030 Cost: Free to qualified recipients (in the U.S.); otherwise - $159/yr (U.S. & Foreign) Electronic Design Penton Publishing Inc 1100 Superior Ave Cleveland, OH 44114-2543 611 Route #46 West Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604 tel: 201.393.6060 fax: 201.393.0204 cost: $95.00/yr (free if qualified) ISSN: 0013-4872 Electronics Now (formerly Radio Electronics) Gernsback Publications Inc Subscription Dept Box 55115 Boulder, CO 80321-5115 500-B Bi-County Boulevard Farmingdale, NY 11735 tel: 516.293.3000 cost: $19.97/yr ISSN: 0033-7862 Embedded Systems Programming Miller Freeman 600 Harrison St. San Francisco, CA 94107 tel: 800.829.5537 (customer service) tel: 415.905.2200 bbs: 415.905.2689. $49.95 for 12 issues Machine Design Penton Publishing Inc. 1100 Superior Ave. Cleveland, OH 44114-2543 tel: 216.696.7000 fax: 216.621.8469 Cost: Free to qualified recipients in the U.S.; otherwise - $100.00/yr in U.S.; $140/yr in Canada; $160/yr - all other Foreign Midnight Engineering 'Journal of Personal Product Development' Published by William E Gates, [No, not him...] 111 E. Drake Road Suite 7041 Fort Collins, CO 80525 tel: 303.225.1410 fax: 303.225.1075 One-year (6 issues) $24, canada and mexico $29, other foreign $49 (airmail) Perhaps marginal for this list but focus is on "resources and insight for the entrepreneurial engineer" Issues and articles on developing hardware, software, micro-controllers, product development, marketing, patenting issues, startups, etc etc. Excellent if you need this info. Modern Materials Handling 44 Cook Street Denver, CO 80206-5800 tel: 303.388.4511 Trade magazine covering productivity solutions for manufacturing, warehousing and distribution. Typically includes articles on factory automation, etc. Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise - $75 for US subscribers. Motion Control Tower Media Corp. 800 Roosevelt Rd. Bldg. C, Suite 206 Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 Trade magazine for Motion Control applications and Technology. Cost: Free to qualified recipients in the U.S.; otherwise - $50/yr in U.S. $90/yr foreign subscriptions. NASA Tech Briefs Associated Business Publications Co., Ltd. 41 E. 42nd St. New York, NY 10017-5391 Contains useful technology transfer information which very often includes robotics research performed at various NASA centers. Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise - $75.00/yr in the U.S., $150.00/yr for Foreign subscriptions Nuts and Volts 430 Princeland Court Corona, CA 91719 tel: 800.783.4624 Electronics classifieds and ads. Lots of devices and products relevant for robot builders. Often features articles on robot building as well by Karl Lunt. Sensors Helmers Publishing 174 Concord Street PO Box 874 Peterborough, NH 03458-0874 tel: 603.924.9631 Trade magazine devoted to sensing devices. Publishes directory. Cost: Free to qualified subscribers, $55/yr otherwise [To add] GPS World (Global Positioning System related) RF Design Sea Technology Laser Focus POB (surveying profession) Broadcast Engineering (TV and radio engineering) Other sources: -------------- Thomas Register Thomas Publishing Company One Penn Plaza New York, NY 10117-0139 tel: 212.695.0500 fax: 212.290.7362 About $250 for a 20-odd volume encyclopedia of US industry. Concentration on heavier industries - but still an amazing source for information. No company or lab building products should be without one. Available on CD-ROM for a much higher price. EEM - The 'Thomas Register' for Electrical engineers. [Address to add] _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Mobile robot companies: There are a small number of companies targeting the research community for the mobile robot market. TRC, RWI, and Cybermotion have all sold and are selling mobile devices for research and real applications. There are a number of Automatic Guided Vehicle companies as well and their primary applications are factory operations. Companies manufacturing Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV) are listed at the end of this section. Bell and Howell Mailmobile Company 81 Hartwell Avenue Lexington, MA 02173-3127 tel: 617.674.1110 Mailmobiles were developed by Lear-Siegler in the mid-70's for the industrial cleaning market. They left this market and Bell & Howell, the audio-visual company, was refocusing on office automation products and picked up this product from Lear-Siegler. There are three models of Mailmobile, the Packmobile, the Sprint and the Trailmobile. About 3000 systems sold and about 2000 probably in operation. They use a chemical trail that floureseces under UV light. Payloads up to a couple of hundred kg. Some systems have been operating for over 15 years. Branch & Associates Pty Ltd 1153 Tasman Highway Cambridge, Tasmania 7170 Australia (operating in Europe, Asia and America) tel: +61-02-485-807 fax: +61-02-485-809 contact: Alex Vail, Division Manager Since 1979, specialist in autonomous navigation and guidance; products and technology for applications, research, and teaching. Conquerer series of fully autonomous AGV's, mapping system, non-accumulated error, accuracy 1cm, 1 degree, no environmental modifications, $12K - $25K. Fander: research and educational mobile robot. $5.5K includes everything: built-in software demonstrates in real situations numerous exmaples of roboti mobility technologies for teaching, research and teaching manual, stand-alone and remote PC modes, real time graphics. Cybermotion 5457 Jae Valley Road Roanoke, VA 24014 tel: 703.982.2641 John Holland's company. Mobile K2 bases making use of ingenious torque-tube synchronous drive system. Security markets and research platforms, manipulators for base as well. Map building software too. Cyberworks 31 Ontario Street Orillia, Ontario L3V 6H1 Canada tel: 705.325.6110 fax: 705.325.8566 Primary product are 'building blocks' for mobile robot development including controllers, sensors, softare and chassis'. Denning Mobile Robotics Inc. [DENNING IS OUT OF BUSINESS] 21 Concord Street Wilmington, MA 01887 tel: 508.658.7800 Mobile robots - synchronous drive bases for research platforms. Building automated camera platforms for newsrooms, working on floor cleaning machines with an industrial partner. Denning also has a number of products including a position scanner, and IR beacons. A Denning floor scrubber is working in a post office in Pittsburgh, Denver and Washington, and at a UPS site. IS Robotics 4353 Park Terrace Drive Suite 6, 22McGrath Hwy Westlake Village, CA 91361 USA Somerville, MA 02143 tel: 818.597.1900 tel: 617.629.0055 net: fax: 617.629.0126 T-1: tracked robot approx 50cm x 36cm. $5k R-2: Wheeled machine. Gripper with 7.5cm opening, 18cm lift, 1kg lift force. $7K Ghengis II: Six-legged machine with whisker bump sensors and force detection on legs. About $2k. Use the ubiquitous MC68HC11E2 microcontrollers. Robots include IR and bump sensing for obstacle detection. Pyro sensors and color camera with pan-tilt are optional. Kentree Kilbritten, Co. Cork, Ireland tel: +353 23 49791, 49808 fax: +353 23 49801 Teleoperated bomb disposal vehicles in a range of sizes. mecos Robotics AG Technopark Pfingstweidstrasse CH-8005 Zurich Switzerland tel: + 41 1 445 11 35 fax: + 41 1 445 11 34 email: mecos@ifr.ethz.ch Contact: S. J. Vestli Company formed as a spin off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). "mecos Robotics" specialises in modular and adaptive robot manipulators and robot vehicles (mobile robots). All "mecos Robotics" systems uses the same type of controller, a VME based computer. This system comes with high level development tools, and for research institutions the systems have the advantage of being open. The overall goals of all "mecos Robotics" systems are flexility and modularity. The mobile robot program from "mecos Robotics" follows this principle. The physical size and the mechanical configuration can be altered. The standard configuration has three wheels with air tyres and independant suspension. One wheel is used for steering and propulsion (imagine a kids tricycle). The overall size is 0.7 m (W) * 1.0 m (L) * 0.5 m (H). The price depends on configuration and starts around the 70.000,- Swiss Franks mark. Nomadic Technologies 1060-B Terra Bella Avenue Mountain View, CA 94043 tel: 415.988.7200 ext. 203 fax: 415.988.7201 net: nomad@robots.com Nomad 200 is an integrated mobile robot system with four sensing modules including tactile, infrared, ultrasonic, and 2D laser. Integrated software development package for the host computer includes a graphic interface, robot simulator and a library of motion planning, motion control and sensory data interpretation functions. Geared toward teaching and research in Robotics and AI. The Nomad utilizes a synchronous steering system (ala Cybermotion and RWI). Speeds up to .5 meters/second and onboard battery power. Nomad 200 Mobile Base $10,000 Nomad 200 Control System $ 6,000 Sensus 100 Tactile Sensing System $ 1,500 Sensus 200 Fixed Sonar System $ 2,500 Sensus 500 Structured Light Vision System $ 7,000 RF Modem Kit $ 2,000 Digital Compass $ 450 Real World Interface (RWI) P.O. Box 270 Dublin, NH 03444 tel: 603.563.8871 fax: 603.563.8872 Small synchronous drive bases, primarily for research purposes. Approx $6K Remotec 114 Union Valley Road Oak Ridge, TN 37830 tel: 615.483.0228 fax: 615.483.1426 The ANDROS line of teleoperated mobile robots. These were designed to be useful in the nuclear industry and in other hazardous applications, and are very rugged. You can hose them down. Available in a range of sizes, with a variety of optional attachments, such as video cameras, arms, etc. TAG Technology 5 Bowlands Mill, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE661LN, UK tel: +44 655 604895 fax: +44 665 510624 Frank - a tracked vehicle. Cost $UK 2000 - 5785 depending on functionality. TRC 15 Great Pasture Road Danbury, CT 06810 tel: 203.798.8988 Labmate research platform - $7500, plus additional optional sensors etc. Other products for hospital markets and floor cleaning machines. (Helpmate and RoboKent respectively) Visual Inspection Technologies 27-2 Ironia Road Flanders, NJ 07836-9124 tel: 201.927.0033 fax: 201.927.3207 VIT specializes in remote visual and ultrasonic testing but sells or rents a small tracked rover for inspection work. Products include ROVVER, SPOT, and PIPECAT vertical pipe crawler. VIT also makes miniature remote pan and tilt devices. Yamazaki Construction Company, Tokyo Japan. Intelligent Robot Lab Kaika Building 2-7-1 Sotokanda Chiyoda-ku 101 Tokyo Japan tel: 81-3-5256-0715 LR1 robot - small research robot, basically a VME cage on wheels with some ultrasonic sensors and a nice constant force suspension. Has shown up at IEEE R&A conferences $30K. RoboSoft SA , , 6, allee Paul Cezanne 93360 Neuilly Plaisance FRANCE tel: +33 1 4944 3035 fax: +33 1 4944 3297 AGV Companies ------------- AGV Products 9307-E Monroe Road Charlotte, NC 28270-1485 tel: 704.845.1110 fax: 704.845.1111 Controls and components for AGV's. Supplier of Schabmuller motor-in-wheel drives. Apogee Robotics 2643 Midpoint Drive Fort Collins, CO 80525 tel: 303.221.1122 fax: 303.221.1774 Standard and custom-designed AGV's BT Systems 7000 Nineteen Mile Road Sterling Heights, MI 48314 tel: 313.254.5200 fax: 313.254.5570 Automated Handling Systems (Formerly Volvo Automated Systems) Caterpillar Industrial 5960 Heisley Road Mentor, OH 44060 tel: 216.357.2935 fax: 216.357.4410 Manufacturer and distributor of fork lift trucks and guided vehicles. Cat's SGV's use rotating laser scanner and barcodes as opposed to traditional wire-guided systems. Control Engineering Company Jervis Webb Company 34375 W. Twelve Mile Road Farmington Hills, MI 48331-5624 tel: 313.553.1220 fax: 313.553.1253 Eaton-Kenway 515 East 100 South PO Box 45425 Salt Lake City, UT 84145-0425 tel: 801.530.4000 fax: 801.530.4243 AGV's and integrated systems Elwell-Parker 4205 St. Clair Avenue Cleveland, OH tel: 216.881.6200 fax: 216.391.7708 Designs/manufactures rider style, electric, fork and platform mobile material handling equipment. Line includes AGV's, high tonnage capacity. Mobile cranes, explosion proof forklifts. Eskay Corporation 563 West 500 South Bountiful, UT 84010 tel: 801.295.5315 fax: 801.299.9990 Automated material handling systems including AGVS. Fata Automation 37050 Industrial Road Livonia, MI 48150 tel: 313.462.0678 fax: 313.462.0997 Sales and service of AGVs. FMC Corporation 400 Highpont Drive Chalfont, PA 18914 tel: 215.822.4300 fax: 215.822.4342 AGVs, Automated Handling Systems, Consulting, Trolley and Power and Free Converyors, Tow lines, Integrated Systems and Controls, Roll Handling Equipment. IDAB Incorporated 1 Enterprise Parkway, Suite 300 PO Box 8157 Hampton, VA 23666 tel: 804.825.2260 fax: 804.825.9307 Automatic handling systems and AGV's Litton Industrial Automation 2300 Litton Lane Hebron, KY 41048 tel: 606.334.2033 fax: 606.334.2847 Full service material handling company. Mannesmann Demag Corporation 29201 Aurora Road Cleveland, OH 44139-1895 tel: 216.248.2400 fax: 216.248.3086 Overhead cranes, wire rope and chain hoists, AGV systems, automatic storage and retrieval systems, monorail, aircraft maintenance equipment. Mentor AGVS Products 8500 Station Street PO Box 898 Mentor, OH 44060 tel: 216.255.4051 fax: 216.255.3430 AGV systems and automated transfer cars. Munck Automation Technology 315 E Street Hampton, VA 23661 tel: 804.838.6010 fax: 804.826.5651 Manufacturer and integrator of automated material handling systems. AGVS of many configurations (unitload, forklift, towing) The Raymond Corporation South Canal Street PO Box 130 Greene, NY 13778 tel: 607.656.2311 fax: 607.656.9005 Material handling equipment. Roberts Sinto Corporation 3001 West Main Street PO Box 40760 Lansing, MI 48901-7960 tel: 517.371.2460 fax: 517.372.4930 MGV's (Mechanically guided vehicles) Professional Materials Handling Co, Inc. 4203 Landmark Drive Orlando, FL 32817 tel: 305.677.0040 Steinbock fork trucks. Wire guided, use regenerative braking. _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Manipulator companies: Adept Technology 150 Rose Orchard Way San Jose, CA 95134 tel: 408.432.0888 fax: 408.432.8707 High speed direct-drive and harmonic-drive SCARA style arms. 0.001" (.025mm) repeatabiliy. Payloads from 4-25kg Can be used in clean room and food applications as well. Adept sells vision systems and controllers also. Antenen Research PO Box 95 Hamilton, OH 45012 tel: 800.323.9555 tel: 513.887.4700 fax: 513.887.4703 New and used robots for manufacturing, research and training. Used at savings of 40% - 70%. Also lots of parts and accessories. Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Vesteraas, Sweden ABB Robotics 2487 South Commerce Drive New Berlin, WI 53151 tel: 414.785.3400 fax: 414.789.9235 Now own Cinncinatti Milacron robotics group, Graco and Trallfa. Many types of larger industrial robots. Comau - Italy Via Rivalta 30 10095 Grugliasco Torino, Italy tel: 011 33341 fax: 011 7809156 A variety of industrial manipulators ranging in payloads from 6kg to 125kg. All electric AC drives. One of the novel designs is a 6DOF, 12kg payload robot The SMART-3 6.12 R. It uses a carbon fibre forearm, absolute resolver feedback and 0.15mm repeatability. CRS Plus, PO Box 163, Station A 830 Harrington Court Burlington, Ontario Canada L7R 3Y2 tel: 416.639.0086 fax: 416.639.4248 Sells several manipulators. 5-DOF around $25K, 6DOF around $33K. Sell end-effectors as well (electric, vacuum and penumatic) Wrist can be bought separately. Controllers use RAPL, a VAL-like language. Fairly open architecture. 3Kg payloads +/- 0.05mm repeatability. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. 24402 Sinacola Court Farmington Mills, MI 48331 tel: 313.474.6100 fax: 313.474.6101 Kawasaki was the first Japanese mfg to lead in the production of industrial robots. They licensed the former Unimation line of robots and now make about a dozen types of electric arms for welding, painting and assembly. Kraft Telerobotics 11667 W. 90th Street Overland Park, KS 66214 tel: 913.894.9022 fax: 913.894.1363 Nice telerobotic arms for underwater work. mecos Robotics AG Technopark Pfingstweidstrasse CH-8005 Zurich Switzerland tel: + 41 1 445 11 35 fax: + 41 1 445 11 34 net: Contact: E. Nielsen Spin-off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). modular and adaptive robot manipulators and robot vehicles (mobile robots). All "mecos Robotics" systems use a VME based computer as controller. The system comes with high level development tools, and are open systems. The manipulator's mechanical configuration can be changed at will (number and type of joints, length of links, etc.) Manipulators use linear aluminum extrusions with integral motions for joints. The controller accounts for configuration changes. With this principle of modularity and flexibilty hybrid force / position controllers have been realised on "mecos Robotics" arms. Price depending on configuration (50.000,- Swiss Franks and upwards). Motoman [Hobart/Yaskawa] 3160 MacArthur Boulevard Northbrook, IL 60062-1917 tel: 708.291.2340 fax: 708.498.2430 Large industrial manipulators for welding, painting, palletizing, dispensing, etc. Can be floor, ceiling or wall mount units. Payloads for the 8 robots in the K-series range from 3kg to 100kg and repeatability of 0.1 to 0.5 mm over that same range. They are vertical jointed-arm type manipulators. (i.e. 4 bar linkage to reduce arm intertias). 3 S-series robots are SCARA-type manipulators with payloads of 50-60kg and varying workspace sizes Yaskawa also has bought the rights to RobotWorld, Vic Schienman's unique gantry design robot system. This system allow a number of mobile modules in the same workspace to zip around at speeds up 80"/sec (3G accel). RAIL and C can be used in a multilevel programming environment. 0.002" Accuracy, 0.0005" repeatability. Neat stuff. Salisbury Robotics, Inc. 20 Pemberton St. Cambridge, MA 02140 tel: 617.661.8847 net: Sells the three-fingered Salisbury hand and force sensing fingertips. Contact: Ken Salisbury, Sarcos Research Corporation 390 Wakara Way, Suite 44, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 tel: 801.581.0155 Spinoff of University of Utah's Center for Engineering Design (CED). Teleoperated systems, manipulators. Audio-animatronic work as well. Beautiful force reflecting work and systems. High performance and small hydraulic valves and actuators. Schilling 1632 Da Vinci Court Davis, CA 95616 tel: 916.753.6718 fax: 916.753.8092 Electro-mechanical engineering and manufacturing company specializing in telerobotics. Various remote manipulator and telerobotic manipulator systems. Sony Corporation of America Factory Automation Division 542 Route 303 Orangeburg, NY 10962 tel: 914.365.6000 fax: 914.365.6087 Several SCARA type manipulators including a double armed manipulator. This model is used for the assembly of 8mm camcorders! Robotics Research Corp. P.O. Box 206 Amelia, OH 45102 tel: 513.831.9570 fax: 513.381.5802 RRC offers a variety of dexterous manipulators which can be operated individually or in dual-arm mode. Their second generation, denoted the "i-Series", is lighter and provides great dexterity. They are currently building "spaceflight-qualified" manipulators for NASA (GSFC) using this new generation of their product. They have also been doing some work developing sensor-based automatic obstacle detection and avoidance technology which uses a patented algorithm with arm-mounted sensors. They have also built two massively-redundant 17-DOF Anthropomorphic systems for Grumman and JPL to serve as testbeds for researching "man-equivalent" robots for space applications. UMI Microbot [no longer in business in the US] In the UK: Oxford Intelligent Machines, UK tel: 0865 204881 Originally known as the Microbot teachmover. A small cable driven manipulator for desktop robotics. Excellent teaching tool. Original design by John Hill (now at SRI) Microbot was bought out by the British company UMI two years ago. In May, 1991 they moved from Silicon Valley to Detroit, MI. As of Early 1994, only the UK company was still in business. USA Robot PO Box 4018 Portland, ME 04101 tel: 207.774.3822 Maxym production robots for business. Simple accurate 3D linear motions coupled with power tooling. Workspaces up to 60cmx120cmx15cm. IBMPC software for designing parts and production path. Units come with 2200W Porter- Cable router and vacuum foot. This is not a machine like the giant production turning and routing machines used by large furniture makers but is a nice small machine for small production shops. Western Space and Marine 111 Santa Barbara St. Santa Barbara, CA 93101 tel: 805.963.3831 fax: 805.963.3832 Telerobotic manipulators for space and undersea applications. Zebra Robotics Jeff Kerr Menlo Park tel: 415.328.8884 Small manipulators with integral force control. Zymark Corp Hopkinton, MA Robots for laboratory automation. Zymate Other companies: (no addresses, yet) International Submarine Engineering (ISE) Robotic Systems International (RSI) Furukawa Sumitomo Chubu Beckman Biomark HP ORCA _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Small Inexpensive Robots One of the most common discussions on the net are related to finding, building and working on small and low cost robots. There are a few small robots on the market and a number of construction kits that robots can be built from such as Lego, FischerTechnik and Capsula. None of these require large investments. These systems are at most a few hundred $US and can run on a desktop. Aleph Technology Parc Heliopolis 16 rue du Tour de l'eau BP 295-38407 Saint Martin d'Heres cedex, France tel: +33 76422999 fax: +33 76444620 Small, turtle robot for education. 17000FF Angelus Research 6344 Sugar Pine Circle Angelus Oaks, CA tel: 909.794.8325. A small differentially-steered mechanism (no casters!) utilizing a 68HC11 controller w/ 32K RAM and RS-232 interface. Four visible collision sensors (range 3-12 inches depending on ambient light) and two whiskers. On-board battery (Pb- acid and built in charger) monitors current as well for stall current. Software included with easy-to-use command set. A lot of features for a very affordable device. $395, controller board available separately and basic kit available for $325 Capsula Capsula is a robot construction set. Looks like a series of bubbles connected together. Some intriguing modules including IR control, voice commands, motorized clutches etc. Edmund Scientific sells this as do many toy stores. FischerTechnik Model Technology 2420 Van Layden Way Modesto, CA 95356 tel: 209.575.3445 fax: 209.527.6016 ----In the UK: Economatics Ltd Epic house Darnell Road Attercliffe Sheffield United Kingdom tel: +44 742 56 11 22 fax: +44 742 43 93 04 telex: 5 47 095 ECOMAT G Like Lego, Fischertechnik is a european-developed construction kit but much more comprehensive in scope. Electro-mechanical parts galore including a wide variety of switches, relays, slip rings, contacts, etc. Many types of building block units as well and computer interfaces available. More expensive than Lego. Model Technology, listed above, is one distributor. See also the Robot Explorer in the publications section. Khepera Support Team LAMI - DI - EPFL INF Ecublens 1015 Lusanne Switzerland tel: ++41 21 693.52.65 fax: ++42 21 693.52.63 net: contact: Franscesco Mondada A VERY small mobile robot. Motorola 68331 Processor with 256K RAM and 256 or 512K ROM. Serial port. Six 10bit analog inputs. DC motor powered with incremental encoders. Eight IR proximity and light sensors. NiCd batteries. Additional capabilities can be added by using stackable K-extension bus. Software environments: Calm assembler (PC or MAC), Gnu C compiler (on all machines supported by GNU) and LabView (PC, Mac or Sun). Size: 55mm diameter, 30mm high Weight: 70grams Cost: 3000 Swiss Francs [About $2K US] Vision and Gripper modules under development. Reference: Mondada et al. Mobile Robot Miniaturisation: A Tool for Investigation in Control Algorithms. Third International Symposium on Experimental Robotics, Kyoto, Japan, Oct 28-30, 1993 LEGO Lego Dacta 555 Taylor Road PO Box 1600 Enfield, CT 06083-1600 tel: 800.527.8339 fax: 203.763.2466 LEGO Dacta is the educational branch of the LEGO company. Dacta sells the LEGO Technic product line. These are the geared and motorized versions for the LEGO system. Use anonymous ftp to obtain a list of a variety of lego information and application programs from: location: earthsea.stanford.edu directory: /pub/lego filenames: Directory Structure: ~ftp/pub/lego/ CAD/ contains several languages for specifying models faq/ contains latest faq sheet for alt.toys.lego games/ Rules for games using lego people and pieces images/ Pictures and drawings of sets and instructions sets/ Database listings of lego sets and catalog numbers upload/ Place your files here! Lego kits recommended for robotics work include: 1038 Technical Universal Buggy - dual drive vehicle. $60 1032 Technic II w/ motorized transmission - $76 9605 Technic Resource Set - general parts kits - $200 Lego-to-Mac software: Paradigm Software 617.576.7675 Bots 415.949.2126 MIT has papers on LEGO projects available via FTP from: site: kame.media.mit.edu. dir: pub/el-memos file: memo8.* "LEGO/LOGO: Learning Through and About Design" Meccano/Erector There are several mechanical construction systems available. The best source of info I've seen is a list put together by Colin Hinz: location: psych.toronto.edu directory: /ftp/pub/ filenames: meccano The German model train company, Maerklin makes a Meccano compatible construction set. They also have a 1007 Robotic Arm kit and programmable controller as well. ~$300 You may be able to order it through a local train and hooby shop. Mondotronics 524 San Anselmo Ave., #107 San Anselmo, CA 94960 tel: 415.455.9330 800.374.5764 fax: 415.455.9333 net: A number of muscle wire (nitinol) projects including a small walking machine. Book and sample kit with 1m each of 50, 100 and 150 um wire, enough to build all 14 projects in the book. OWI (Movit robots) tel: 310.638.4732 fax: 310.638.8347 Available from: Kelvin Electronics 800.645.9212 Pitsco 800.835.0686 Edmund Scientific (See Robot Parts section for address) These are small toy-like robots that reflexively respond to obstacles, sounds or light depending on the model. They're cute and show what can be done with a relatively small amount of hardware. Edmund also has a Robotic Technology Curriculum with lessons and tests featuring the Movit robots. Curriculum is $65 from Edmund Scientific. QuikShut (?) Circuit Specialists Inc PO Box 3047 Scottsdale, AZ 85271-3047 tel: 800.528.1417 tel: 602.464.2485 Sold by Circuit Specialists for $259. Appears to be a nice low cost 5 axis arm for education. IBM (or compatible) interface, kit including all components and board, power supply kit, software package, logic probe and experiments and instructions. If anyone has information as to who actually makes this please send me email. Stiquito A small nitinol-based mobile robot is available from Indiana University in a technical report and as a kit. Send your request for the report with payment to: Computer Science Department 215 Lindley Hall Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 To receive the technical report only: Send $5.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN: TR363A To receive the technical report and a complete kit: Send $15.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN: TR 363A Squito Kit Tomy Armatron Sold by Radio Shack in the US, the Armatron was a popular small plastic manipulator and later a mobile version was sold. A number of articles appeared in the hobbyist press regarding linking the Armatrons to computers. The mobile version is still being sold in Japan and is called the "GO ROBO ARM" You might be able to pick one up at a flea market or garage sale. Buy it - they are neat clever devices and fun. _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Other organizations doing robotics: What companies and government laboratories are doing robotics work? This list is a small fraction of companies and other organizations that are actively working in robotics. By searching through proceedings of conferences, by noting member companies of many of the organizations listed in previous FAQ sections a significant number of companies can be generated. Industrial robotics is used widely throughout a number of companies. Most large aerospace companies have groups working in or looking into robotics. Martin Marietta (Denver), Rockwell International (Downey, CA), Boeing (Seattle) to name a few. Mitre Corporation of McLean VA and Houston TX, is also doing quite a bit in robotics. Advanced Robotics Research Centre Salford, UK. The Advanced Robotics Research Ltd (incorporating the National Advanced Robotics Research Centre, UK) is a joint UK Government and UK Industries funded research organisation involved in the research of enabling technologies for the advanced robotics systems. Mechanical Engineering Lab (MEL) Tsukuba City Kazuo Tanie: Robotics and cybernetics NASA Centers ------------ There are a number of NASA Centers that are researching and using robotics for lab prototypes, flight, ground servicing and many other applications. NASA Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL) Pasadena, CA Hazardous-environment robots, teloperation, control, space and planetary missions. Currently responsible for MESUR Pathfinder rover. Contacts: Tony Bejczy, Chuck Weisbin, Brian Wilcox, Larry Mathies, Henry Stone, Rajiv Desai. NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Moffett Field, CA Contact: Butler Hine III Terry Fong Telepresence and virtual user interfaces, vision (optical and parallel processing), free-flyers, task planning, agents. Ames has recently fielded a underwater vehicle in the Antarctic. The Teleoperated Remotely Operated Vehicle (TROV) purpose is to assess the capabilities of telepresence and virtual environments for performing remote scientific field work. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Greenbelt, MD 20771 Contact: Stephen Leake Since the cancellation of the Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS), the Robotics Lab has been concentrating on work in the area of automated space craft servicing. The goal is to replace or supplement Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) with teleoperated or semiautonomous robotic systems for external vehicle maintenance. Current project includes a robot to assist in second Hubble servicing mission. NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Houston, TX Contact: Charles Price More of an operations house but lots of shuttle RMS work. A number of robot projects including testing of space station manipulator systems happens at JSC. NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Robotics Group Contact: Bill Jones Like JSC, KSC is an operations house with responsibility to keep shuttles flying and integrate payloads. There is a small but growing robotics group that is emplacing ground support robotics applications. Recent work includes filter inspector for launch pad payload areas, shuttle radiator inspector and a mobile system for thermal protection system tasks. NASA Langley Research Center, (LaRC) Hampton, VA Contact: Jack Pennington - vision, inspection, 3-D sensors National Laboratories --------------------- The US National Laboratories are large complexes with a number of robotics efforts. One current focus is the enormous and costly cleanup of the weapons complexes throughout the country. Remediation, removal and cleanup of hazardous materials will require hundreds of billions of $$$ and many years. Robotics will be a key in much of this. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM Sandia is a DOE National Laboratory with a substantial program in robotics at its Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center. The Center has interests in manufacturing, hazardous material handling, site remediation, and research to support these applications. Consequently areas of focus include assembly planning, robotic interfaces, control theory, motion planning, sensor fusion, sensor development, mobile vehicles, telemanagement, mobile vehicles, and so on. At the time of writing (2/15/93) the center has nearly 100 full-time staff with degrees in computer science, mechanical engineering, mathematics, electrical engineering, as well as a few in other fields. The mix is about 30% PhD, 40%MS, and 30% BS. Recent hires have come from Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, Illinois, Penn, ... The center operates over 20 fully equipted labs including robots from Puma, Adept, GCA, Cincinnati Millacron, and Schilling. The virtual reality lab includes stereoscopic viewers from Fake Space, audio, speech recognition and synthesis, and big boxes from SGI to drive the graphics. In addition to the normal complement of departmental computing we have use of other compute resources at Sandia including a 1000 node N-cube, a 1000+node Intel Paragon, several crays, a CM-200 (16K procs). Contacts: Randy Brost, Pat Xavier, Sharon Stansfield, Pang Chen, David Strip, Jim Novak, Ray Harrigan, Pat Eicker, Bob Anderson. Oak Ridge National Lab ORNL/CESAR PO Box 2008, MS-6364 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6364 tel: 615.574.6126 Contact: Alex L. Bangs Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) Research in mobile and manipulator robotics, including redundant and multiple manipulators, cooperating mobile robots, parallel vision systems, sensor fusion, real-time quantitative reasoning and behavior based control, and machine learning. Current applications include robots for nuclear power stations, environmental restoration and waste management, material handling, and space exploration. Researchers: Alex Bangs, Marty Beckerman, Judd Jones, Reinhold Mann, Ed Oblow, Francois Pin, Michael Unseren Redzone Robotics 2425 Liberty Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4639 tel: 412.765.3064 fax: 412.364.3069 A spin-off of CMU, Redzone has focused on hazwaste and nuke manipulator applications but is also developing mobile applications. Primarily protoypes and not multiple unit manufacturing. Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, TX Robotics and Automation Department Some large systems for servicing aircraft (painting, spraying, deriveting etc) +++Architectures for Robots ______________________________________________________________________________ A robot 'architecture' primarily refers to the software and hardware framework for controlling the robot. A VME board running C code to turn motors doesn't really constitute an architecture by itself. The development of code modules and the communication between them begins to define the architecture. Robotic systems are complex and tend to be difficult to develop. They integrate multiple sensors with effectors, have many degrees of freedom and must reconcile hard real-time systems with systems which cannot meet real-time deadlines [Jones93]. System developers have typically relied upon robotic architectures to guide the construction of robotic devices and for providing computational services (e.g., communications, processing, etc.) to subsystems and components. These architectures, however, have tended thus far to be task and domain specific and have lacked suitability to a broad range of applications. For example, an architecture well suited for direct teleoperation tends not to be amenable for supervisory control or for autonomous use. One recent trend in robotic architectures has been a focus on behavior-based or reactive systems. Behavior based refers to the fact that these systems exhibit various behaviors, some of which are emergent [Man92]. These systems are characterized by tight coupling between sensors and actuators, minimal computation, and a task-achieving "behavior" problem decomposition. The other leading architectural trend is typified by a mixture of asynchronous and synchronous control and data flow. Asychronous processes are characterized as loosely coupled and event-driven without strict execution deadlines. Synchronous processes, in contrast, are tightly coupled, utilize a common clock and demand hard real-time execution. Subsumption/reactive references ------------------------------- Arkin, R.C., "Integrating Behavioral, Perceptual, and World Knowledge in Reactive Navigation", Robotics & Autonomous Systems, 1990 Brooks, R.A., "A Robust Layered Control System for a Mobile Robot", IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, March 1986. Brooks, R.A., "A Robot that Walks; Emergent Behaviors from a Carefully Evolved Network", Neural Comutation 1(2) (Summer 1989) Connell, J.H., "A Colony Architecture for an Artificial Creature", MIT Ph. D. Thesis in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1989. Erann Gat, et al, "Behavior Control for Robotic Exploration of Planetary Surfaces" To be published in IEEE R&A. FTPable. site: robotics.jpl.nasa.gov location: pub/gat filename: bc4pe.rtf Insect-based control schemes ---------------------------- Randall D. Beer, Roy E. Ritzmann, and Thomas McKenna, editors, Biological Neural Networks in Invertebrate Neuroethology and Robotics, Academic Press, 1993. Hillel J. Chiel, et al, "Robustness of a Distributed Neural Network Controller for Locomotion in a Hexapod Robot," IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 8(3):293-303, June, 1992. Joseph Ayers and Jill Crisman, "Biologically-Based Control of Omnidirectional Leg Coordination," Proceedings of the 1992 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 574-581. Asynchronous/synchronous (i.e., "traditional", "top-down", etc.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Amidi, O., "Integrated Mobile Robot Control", CMU-RI-TR-90-17, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1990. Albus, J.S., McCain, H.G., and Lumia, R., "NASA/NBS Stanford Reference Model for Telerobot Control System Architecture (NASREM)" NIST Technical Note 1235, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, July 1987. Butler, P.L., and Jones, J.P., "A Modular Control Architecture for Real-Time Synchronous and Asynchronous Systems", Proceedings of SPIE Applications of Artificial Intelligence 1993, Orlando, FL, 1993. Fong, T.W., "A Computational Architecture for Semi-autonomous Robotic Vehicles", AIAA Computing in Aerospace conference, AIAA 93-4508, 1993. Lin, L., Simmons, R., and Fedor, C., "Experience with a Task Control Architecture for Mobile Robots", CMU-RI-TR 89-29, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, December 1989. Schneider, S.A., Ullman, M.A., and Chen, V.W., "ControlShell: A Real-time Software Framework", Real-Time Innovations, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA 1992. ______________________________________________________________________________ +++Graduate Program in Robotics: Any good four-year school undoubtedly offers robotics courses within engineering programs. Departments of mechanical and electrical engineering and computer science are all good candidates for coursework in Robotics. However, a number of schools have established track records and a focus on robotics and those are listed here. The list is not exhaustive and a number of entries are incomplete, but it's a good starting point for those interested in graduate programs. ---Student Who's Who An additional source of information is the graduate student guide compiled by Ron Kube. It is a list of graduate students, their university, and their areas of research. The list is updated monthly and can be found at location: ftp.cs.ualberta.ca directory: /pub/kube filename: whoswho UNITED STATES------- Boston University Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering: John Baillieul: Control of Mechanical Systems and Mathematical System Theory. Pierre Dupont: Robot Kinematics and Dynamics, Friction Compensation in Robotics. Ann Stokes: Theoretical Dynamics and Control. Matt Berkemeier: Legged Robots, Robot Control. California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Pasadena, CA Joel Burdick - serpentine manipulation, control Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) The Robotics Institute is a 150 person organization that offers a PhD in Robotics but students from other programs (engineering and computer science mostly) do research in the Institute as well. Lots of mobile robot work, computer integrated manufacturing, rapid prototyping, sensors, vision, navigation, learning and architectures. Program is taking a set of qualifiers and a program of research leading to a thesis and the degree. Facilities include about a dozen mobile systems with more under design and construction. Many manipulator systems and lots of compute cycles/person. Faculty include: Takeo Kanade - Vision and Autonomous Systems Center Pradeep Khosla - Advanced Manipulator Laboartory Matt Mason - Manipulation Laboratory Tom Mitchell - Learning Robots Lab Hans Moravec - Mobile Robots Lab Mel Seigel - Sensors Laboratory (non vision) Steve Shafer - Calibrated Imaging Laboratory Red Whittaker - Field Robotics Center and many others..... Graduate program contact: Graduate Admissions Coordinator The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Colorado School of Mines Mobile Robotics/Machine Perception Laboratory Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences The Colorado School of Mines is a state university, internationally renowned in the energy, materials, and resource fields, attracting outstanding students in a broad range of science and engineering disciplines. The School of Mines is strongly committed to quality teaching and research. CSM provides an attractive campus environment, a collegial atmosphere, relatively small size (3000 students, about 30% in graduate programs), and an ideal location in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains 13 miles from downtown Denver and an hour from most ski areas. The Dept. of Mathematical and Computer Sciences offers BS, MS, and PhD degrees under the department title. With a faculty of 18 tenured and tenure track members, the department annually receives roughly a million dollars in grants; 116 undergraduate students and 70 graduate students are currently enrolled in ou r degree programs. The computer science group within the department has a strong focus in AI (symbolic and neural nets) and database and parallel processing syst ems. The Mobile Robotics/Machine Perception Laboratory is a facility devoted to basic and interdisciplinary research, technology transfer, and hands-on education in artificial intelligence through robotics. Research and technology transfer efforts concentrate on the reduction of human risk in hazardous situations, stewardship of the environment, and/or improvement of the quality of life throug h better manufacturing processes. Research in the MR/MP laboratory is supported by NSF, ARPA, NASA, and local industries. For more information, please send email to Dr. Robin R. Murphy, rmurphy@mines.colorado.edu. Include a brief summary of your educational (with GPA) and work experience, what your research interests are, and GRE scores. Cornell Ithaca, NY Mechanical Engineering Sam Landsberger Jeff Koechling Bruce Donald Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA Georgia Institute of Technology Robotics Activities Application study areas: Servo control and low level coordination Machine intelligence and high level control Design, sensors and actuators Human/machine interface Robot applications are in areas such as manufacturing {K. Lee} poultry processing {W. Daley, G. McMurray, J.C. Thompson} and nuclear waste inspection and cleanup {R. Arkin, W. Book, S. Dickerson, T. Collins, A. Henshaw} are underway. Several robotics researchers are regularly involved in a student aerial robot design competition in which concurrent engineering concepts are being used to tailor the characteristics of the system.{D. Schrage} This competition, held at Georgia Tech and sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems, has been won by Georgia Tech entries for two of the three years it has been held. --Current research topics and researchers: Long arm control {W. Book} Parallel actuation of manipulators {K. Lee} 3DOF direct drive actuator {K. Lee} Special purpose end-effectors {R. Bohlander, H. Lipkin} Parallel processing computer architectures for robot sensing and control. {R. Bohlander, C. Alford, T. Collins, A. Henshaw} Laser generated ultrasound to sense structure of materials {C. Ume} Gallium arsenide based rad-hard electronics. {W. Hunt} Autonmous vehicles positioning {S. Dickerson} Collision avoidance techniques {R. Arkin, W. Book} Flexible arm control {W. Book} Two arm coordinated motion.{Alford, Vachtsevanos} Advanced feedback control, learning control, bounded uncertainty approach, applications to rigid and flexible manipulators, force control . {N Sadegh, Y Chen, W. Book} Architectures, Framework for reactive control and hierarchical planning, vision feedback, fuzzy logic application {Arkin, D. Lawton, G Vachtsevanos} Human Computer Interaction {M Kelly, H. Lipkin} Harvard Roger Brockett Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science both have strong robotics efforts. Asada, Slotine, Brooks, Raibert and others are known and respected for their work in direct-drive arm, control techniques, architectures, running machines etc. New York University (NYU) Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Richard Wallace - vision North Carolina State Univerisity Raleigh, NC Professor Ren Luo 919.515.5199 Purdue Avi Kak: Vision and mobile robots Antti Koivo: Manipulation Mirek Skibiniewski: Construction Robotics Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Center for Intelligent Robotic Systems for Space Exploration (CIRSSE) George Saridis Arthur Sanderson Jon Wenn Appro. 20 PhD and 30 MS students working in the center. Path planning and multi-arm control are current focus. Stanford University Palo Alto, CA Mechanical Engineering: Bernard Roth (kinematics of manipulators) Mark Cutkosky: destrous manipulation and concurrent manufacturing Larry Liefer (rehabilitation, user interfaces) CS Department: Nils Nilsson Mike Genesereth Jean-Claude Latombe (path planning and geometric reasoning) Leo Guibas (geometric reasoning) Tom Binford (vision) Yoav Shoham (agents) Oussama Khatib Aerospace Robotics Laboratory: Bob Cannon (teleoperation, free flyers, space robotics, flexible manipulators) University of California at Berkeley Faculty in Robotics at UC Berkeley Dept. of EE&CS: Prof. J. Canny: motion planning Prof. R. Fearing: tactile sensing, dextrous manipulation Prof. J. Malik: computer vision Prof. S. Sastry: multi-fingered hands, control Dept. of Optometry/EE&CS: Prof. L. Stark: telerobotics Dept. of Mechanical Engineering: Prof. R. Horowitz: control of robotic manipulators Prof. H. Kazerooni: man-robotic systems Prof. M. Tomizuka: control of robotic manipulators Richard Muller - micro mechanisms University of Kansas Space Technology Center (Telerobotics) University of Kentucky Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems (founded 1990) University of Massachusetts Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics Computer Science Department Mosaic - http://piglet.cs.umass.edu:4321/lpr.html Faculty: Rod Grupen Robin Popplestone The lab is equipped with two General Electric P-50 robots, two GE A4s, a Zebra Zero, and a Denning mobile platform. In addition, the P-50s are fitted with a 4-fingered Utah/MIT and a 3-fingered Stanford/JPL* dexterous hand, respectively. The lab includes VxWorks distributed VME controllers and an experimental real-time kernel (Spring kernel). Research conducted at the lab includes: o controller composition for coordinating multiple robots o grasp planning o geometric reasoning for robust assembly & fine motion control o learning for admittance control & path optimization o biological models of motor planning o proprioceptive, tactile, & visual model acquisition o trajectory planning, coarse reaching o state-space decomposition The laboratory also engages in collaborative research with the Computer Vision (A. Hanson, E. Riseman, directors) and Adaptive Networks (A. Barto, director) groups within the department. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI Elec. Eng. and CS, relevant to robotics includes machine vision, systems and control, multiple cooperating agents (arms and mobile), and application of SOAR to robots (arms and mobile). (in conjunction with SOAR groups at CMU and elsewhere) Contacts: Johann Borenstein Yorem Koren University of Pennsylvania. UPenn offers Masters and PhD programs in Robotics and Robotics related fields of study. These programs are offered through the Departments of Computer and Information Science, Systems Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. The bulk of the robotics research is conducted in the inter-disciplinary General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception (GRASP) laboratory. Active areas of research are Telerobotics, Multiple Arm Control, Robotic Vision, Learning Control, Multi-agent Robotics and Mechanical Design. Leading Faculty members are Drs. R. Bajcsy and R.P. Paul. University of Southern California (USC) USC has a new MS Program called: Master of Science in Computer Science with specialization in Robotics & Automation Beginning in Fall, 1993, this new MS program seeks to prepare students for a career in the application of Computer Science to design, manufacturing, and robotics. It also serves as an introduction to this area for students who wish to pursue advanced studies and research leading to a Ph.D. A major goal is to produce a steady stream of graduates who are qualified to tackle challenging problems in the development of software for CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing) and robotics. There is a strong focus on designing and building within the program Exposure to the practical aspects (and difficulties) of robotics and automation is strongly encouraged through laboratory work, and an optional thesis, conducted in collaboration with industry and research laboratories. For additional information, a complete set of degree requirements, and application materials, contact our Student Coordinator: Ms. Amy Yung Computer Science Department University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781 tel: 213.740.4499 net: Faculty include: George Bekey : Assembly planning, design for assembly, neural nets for robot control, autonomous robots. Ken Goldberg : Motion planning, grasping, machine learning. Sukhan Lee : Assembly planning, sensor-based manipulation. Gerard Medioni: Computer vision. Ramakant Nevatia: Computer vision. Keith Price: Computer vision. Aristides Requicha: Geometric modeling, geometric uncertainty, planning for manufacture and inspection About twenty other faculty member associated with the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems and many others associated with USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI). Brochure can be obtained from: Ken Goldberg, Asst Professor IRIS, Dept of Computer Science Powell Hall Room 204 University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-0273 Internet: goldberg@usc.edu University of Maryland Space Systems Laboratory. Facilties include a large neutral bouyancy tank, and a number of free-flying teleoperators used underwater in the NBT. Much teleoperations research. Dave Akin - director Dave has flown shuttle experiments and his research is in the areas of teleoperation, control, man-machine interaction and is one of the very few in the robotics community to fly hardware in space. The University of Texas at Arlington F.L. Lewis Automation and Robotics Research Institute University of Texas at Arlington 7300 Jack Newell Blvd S Ft. Worth, TX 76118 tel: 817.794.5972 fax: 817.794.5952 UT Arlington is located in the heart of the Dallas / Ft. Worth metroplex. The EE department current has 33 faculty and the CSE department has 20 faculty. Participating students will also be able to conduct research at the Automation and Robotics Research Institute located in Ft. Worth. University of Wisconsin-Madison Mechanical Engineering & Electrical Engineering: Roland Chin - machine vision, pattern recognition Neil Duffie - teleoperation, autonomous systems, sensors Robert Lorenz - actuators and sensors, robot control algorithms Vladimir Lumelsky - motion planning, real-time sensing and navigation Computer Science: Charles Dyer - machine vision Wisconsin Center for Space Robotics and Automation (WCSAR) - Interdepartmental NASA center: work is done on various applications of robotic systems for space. University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 Steve Jacobsen Center for Engineering Design 3176 MEB Hands, manipulators, biomedical applications, teleoperation. Micro electro-mechanical systems design. Yale University - Vision and Robotics Group There is a broad spectrum of research activities in vision and robotics at Yale. The members of this group include faculty from Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Psychology, Neuroscience, and the Yale Medical School. Active areas of research include machine vision, humanand computer object recognition, geometric reasoning, mobile robotics, sensor-based manipulation, control of highly dynamic nonlinear systems, planning, and learning. There is also a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary work integrating robotics and machine vision. Faculty: James S. Duncan: Geometric/physical models for analysing biomedical images. Gregory D. Hager: Sensor-based/task-directed decision-making and planning. David J. Kriegman: Model-based object recognition, mobile robot navigation. Drew McDermott: Planning and scheduling reactive behavior, knowledge representation, cognitive mapping. Eric Mjolsness: Neural network approaches to vision and visual memory. Pat Sharpe: Computational models of hippocampal spatial learning. Michael J. Tarr: Behavioral and computational approaches to visual cognition. Kenneth Yip: Automated reasoning about complex dynamical systems. CANADA------------ McGill University Department of Biomedical Engineering 3775 University Street Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B4 Faculty: Ian Hunter and John Hollerbach Interests include: Master-slave manipulators for precise surgery University of Alberta Edmontom, Alberta Canada T6H 2H1 Center for Machine Intelligence and Robotics Robotics Research Laboratory, Department of Computing Science Ron Kube UNITED KINGDOM-------------- University of the West of England at Bristol [I had some email from David Eastlake on this in Jan but no followup - please send when you can. Thanks - nivek] Bristol University Mr Khodlebandelhoo Bi arm research Path planning for redundant robots Wall climbing robots Hull University, UK Prof Alan Pugh Garment Manufacturing Arm/controller design University of Oxford Robotics Research Group The Robotics Group currently comprises about seventy academics, postdoctoral research staff, overseas visitors, and graduate students. A broad range of topics in advanced robotics is studied in collaboration with industry and government establishments throughout Europe. Robot Design and Control A number of projects are concerned with the design and control of compliant robot arms. Parallel Architectures Real-time sensor-based control of systems such as robot vehicles is a topic of increasing interest. For low bandwidth sensors such sonar, the emphasis is on Transputer architectures. For high bandwidth sensors such as vision, hybrid SIMD/MIMD architectures are being developed. A rapidly growing effort is concerned with the design, implementation, and application of neural networks. Digital and hybrid digital/analog chips have been designed and are being fabricated. Algorithms and TTL circuits have been constructed for text-to-speech synthesis. Vision and Active Vision The theory and applications of vision accounts for approximately one-third of the laboratory's effort. Current projects include edge detection and texture segmentation and the computation of visual motion by a parallel algorithm that estimates the optic flow field. Sensors and Sensor Integration Includes laser rangefinder development in addition to analog and digital sonar sensors, as well as infrared rangers, have been developed for the AGV project (below). Autonomous Guided Vehicles Work on a research prototype of a fielded industrial AGV cuts across many of the separate themes of the laboratory's work. The goal of the initial project is to equip the AGV with sonar, infrared, laser ranging, trinocular stereo, and model-based vision sensors to enable it to avoid unexpected obstacles and to locate pallets. Reading University, UK Prof Kevin Warwick Using neural nets in robotics and novel control algorithms. Salford University Dr D.P.Barnes Dept. Of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Mobile Robots Research Group. Autonomous mobile robot system with a behaviour-based architecture are designed and built with the intent to study the processes of cooperation with and without communication. Such an approach has led us up a number of paths with present work in behaviour synthesis and evolutionary robotics. Expertise in: Robotics, Sensors, Communication, Connectionist Systems, Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming. Possible studies in PhD and MSc work and courses at undergraduate level. Dr D.Caldwell Dept Of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Multi-Functional Tactile Sensing and Feedback (Tele-taction) Tele-presence of an operator with a full mobile robot with two manipulator arms, stereo vision and sound. Tactile sensing datagloves are used to control the manipulators and video camera is used to move head (!). Expertise: Manipulators, Sensors, Tele-presence. Possible studies at PhD and MSc and courses at undergraduate level. Advanced Robotics Research Centre Ultrasonic wrist sensor for collision avoidance Controller design Stereo Vision Dr Francis Nagy Speech Control of a Puma-560 Control of an 'Inverted Pendulum' Miniature tactile sensors University of Surrey Mechatronic Systems and Robotics Research Group contacts: Prof G A Parker (g.parker@surrey.ac.uk) John Pretlove (j.pretlove@surrey.ac.uk) Primary Areas of Research activity: 3D co-ordinate tracking system for robot metrology Neural networks and expert systems for vision and inspection Active stereo vision for real-time robot arm guidance Design of controllable stereo vision systems. Open architecture Puma controller Mobile robots We also offer MSc courses and undergraduate courses in automation, control, mechanical engineering and CIM. FRANCE------------- University of Paris INRIA (Nice) just started a Phd program in Robotics. SWITZERLAND-------- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology The Institute of Robotics Postgrad diploma in Mechatronics The Institute of Robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) constitutes about 40 members of staff (including Ph.D. students). The main research theme is Intelligent Interactive Mechines. That is to say developing intelligent robots that in cooperation with man solves difficult tasks. The institute takes its students from the departments of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science. Robotics lectures and project work is offered to undergraduate students. In addition there is the "Nachdiplom" in mechatronics (somewhere near a M.Sc.) where robotics is a central theme. For further details on the "Nachdiplom" see below. Finally there are about 30 Ph.D. students curently registered working on a variety of themes and projects. Institute facilities include: several different robot arms including the in house developed modular robot arm (MODRO), mobile vehicles including the in house developed modular mobile robot, walking machines, supercomputing facilities, dedicated vision and signal processing hardware, etc. The head of the group is Professor G. Schweitzer. Address: Institute of Robotics ETH-Center, LEO, 8092 Zurich Switzerland tel: (01) 256 35 84 (secretary) fax: (01) 252 02 76. The "Nachdiplom" in mechatronics runs over two semesters plus three months project/thesis work. The lectures covers: robotics, mobile robotics, micro robots, computer based kinematics and dynamics of multibody systems, control theory, magnetic bearings, real time software techniques, information processing with neural networks, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. The fees are 2400,- Swiss Franks, founding is available. Contact: H.-K. Scherrer Mechatronics postgraduate course ETH-Centre, LEO B3 8092 Zurich Switzerland net: ___________________________________________________________________________ End of part1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Area # 2120 news.answers 02-26-94 15:19 Message # 6861 From : NIVEK@RI.CMU.EDU To : ALL Subj : comp.robotics Frequently ÿ@SUBJECT:comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 1/2 ÿ@PACKOUT:03-04-94øFr Message-ID: Newsgroup: comp.robotics,news.answers,comp.answers Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Archive-name: robotics-faq/part1 Last-modified: Thu Feb 24 23:56:56 1994 This is part 1 of 2 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list. This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to robotics. ____________________________________________________________________________ This FAQ was compiled and written by Kevin Dowling with numerous contributions by readers of comp.robotics. Acknowledgements are listed at the end of the FAQ. This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1993 Kevin Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is forbidden. This FAQ may be referenced as: Dowling, Kevin (1993) "Robotics: comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions" Usenet news.answers. Available via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu in pub/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part1 and part2. 70+ pages. Please send changes, additions, suggestions and questions to: Kevin Dowling tel: 412.268.8830 Robotics Institute fax: 412.682.1793 Carnegie Mellon University net: nivek@cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ___________________________________________________________________________ This FAQ's purpose is to provide a resource of information, pointers, and a guide to robotics related questions. If the expires date above is more than two months old you should obtain a new copy. See the section on Where to Find This FAQ. Table of Contents: [use +++ to search quickly] Part 1 +++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives +++Related FAQ's +++What is Robotics? +++Robotics Related Organizations +++Robotics Associations of Many Countries +++Robot Societies +++Conferences and Competitions +++Robotics Publications +++Mobile robot companies +++Manipulator companies +++Small Inexpensive Robots +++Architectures for Robots +++Organizations doing robotics +++Graduate programs in robotics Part 2 +++Sensors +++Imaging for Robotics +++Wireless communication +++Suppliers and sources for parts +++Hero Robots +++Puma Manipulators +++Simulators +++Real-Time Operating Systems +++Survey of Robot Development Environments +++What is the miniboard? +++Books +++Acknowledgements _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives: If you haven't done so, new users on the net should read news.announce.newusers. In particular, the following posts are a good idea: -A Primer on How to Work With The Usenet Community -Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Usenet -Hints on Writing Style for Usenet This FAQ is currently posted to comp.answers, news.answers and comp.robotics. All posts to news.answers are archived and are available via anonymous FTP, uucp and e-mail from the following locations: FTP: FTP is a way of copying file between networked computers. If you need help in using or getting started with FTP, send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq as the body of the message. location: rtfm.mit.edu [18.70.0.209] directory: /pub/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq filenames: part1, part2 location: ftp.uu.net [137.39.1.9] directory: /archive/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq filenames: part1.Z, part2.Z [use uncompress] location: nic.switch.ch [130.59.1.40] directory: info_service/Usenet/periodic-postings filenames: [Check info_service/Usenet/00index] location: ftp.cs.cmu.edu [128.2.206.173] directory: /user/nivek/ftp/robotics-faq filenames: part1, part2 UUCP: [Does anyone use this? - if no answer I will delete from FAQ] location: uunet!/archive/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/ filenames: part1.Z, part2.Z E-mail: Send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu containing these lines: send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part1 send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part2 Mosaic: I would like to convert the FAQ to html format and add many html links for robotics work such as Umass' hhtp server (See Graduate programs section). In this way, GIF's, MPEGS, technical reports could be made easily accessible. Is there someone who might assist in this task? Otherwise I'll wait for a wysiwyg html editor... comp.robotics archives: You can find a dozen or more sites in the US, Europe and Japan that store the FAQ and archives for comp.robotics by using the Internet search programs, Archie or Wais. One location is: location: wilma.cs.brown.edu: filenames: pub/comp.robotics/ In addition to the FTP archive maintained at wilma.cs.brown.edu, there are a couple of other mechanisms available: - the comp.robotics archive at wilma is also available as a WAIS source (called "comp.robotics.src"), and hence it is also available to WWW browsers, via the appropriate WAIS gateway. - Moises Lejter maintains a mailing list of individuals who would rather receive comp.robotics via Email as a daily digest of all messages posted to comp.robotics in each 24-hour period. Anyone interested should send email directly to ____________________________________________________________________________ +++Related FAQ's There are a number of newsgroups with topics related to robotics. These include comp.realtime, comp.ai, sci.electronics, sci.virtual worlds Most regularly posted FAQ's can be found at rtfm.mit.edu (rtfm is an acronym for Read The ... Manual, or at least something close to that...) location: rtfm.mit.edu [18.70.0.209] directory: /pub/usenet/news.answers/ where is the name of a given newsgroup. For sci.virtual-worlds: locations: milton.u.washington.edu directory: public/virtual-worlds filenames: cheap-vr ____________________________________________________________________________ +++What is Robotics? A reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks" Robot Institute of America, 1979 Obviously this was a committee-written definition. It's rather dry and uninspiring. Better ones might include: Force through intelligence. Where AI meet the real world. Webster says: An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human. Where did the word robot come from? The word 'robot' was coined by the Czechloslovakian playwright Karel Capek (pronounced "chop'ek") from the Czech word for worker or serf. Capek was reportedly several times a candidate for the Nobel prize for his works and very influential and prolific as a writer and playwright. Mercifully, he died before the Gestapo got to him for his anti-Nazi sympathies in 1938. The use of the word Robot was introduced into his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in Prague in January 1921. The play was an enormous success and productions soon opened throughout Europe and the US. R.U.R's theme, in part, was the dehumanization of man in a technological civilization. The robots were created through chemical means and weren't described as mechanical in nature. There is some evidence that the word robot was actually coined by Karl's brother Josef, a writer in his own right. But I cannot find subject. [I believe it was in SigART in the late 1970's - if anyone has this reference please send a pointer] The word 'robotics' was coined by Isaac Asimov, the prolific science and science fiction writer, in a number of his robot stories. First use was probably back in the late 30's or early 40's. The first real modern robots were the Unimates developed by George Devol and Joe Engleberger in the late 50's and early 60's. The first patents were by Devol for parts transfer machines. Engleberger created the company and was the first to market robots. As a result, Engleberger has been called the 'father of robotics.' ____________________________________________________________________________ +++Robotics Related Organizations: There are a number of organizations and societies related to robotics. Some are related specifically to industry, several to academia and a number of hobbyist groups. In addition, a number of the groups, such as the ASME or IEEE, are very large organizations and robotics is one of many sub-disciplines in their respective fields. Advanced Robot Technology Research Association (Japan) Kikai-shinko Bldg 3-5-8 Shiba-Kohen, Minato-ku, Tokyo tel: (03) 434-0532 fax: (03) 434-0217 Has joint research programs with member companies. Members are 20 or so Japanese companies including: Ishikawajima-Harima, Oki Electric, Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Kobe Steel, Komatsu, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Toshiba, JGC, NEC, Hitachi, Fanuc, Fujitsu, Fuji, Matshushita Research Institute, Mitsui, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Yaskawa American Society of Mechanical Engineers, (ASME) 345 E. 47th Street New York, NY 10017 Mechanical Engineering magazine, like the IEEE's Spectrum, is an excellent general publication on aspects of mechanical engineering. There are often publications on robotics and the ASME sponsors a number of other publications and conferences that are relevant to robotics. The ASME also has a BBS service, MechEng, with an email server. send email to with 'send info' in the body. Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVS) 1735 North Lynn Street Suite 950 Arlinton, VA 22209-2022 tel: 703.524.6646 fax: 703.524.2303 Promoting worldwide advancement of unmanned vehicle systems. Membership includes subscription to Unmanned Systems magazine, AUVS News Bulletin, regional seminars, annual symposium and trade show, and other opportunities. AUVS also sponsors an annual aerial Robotics Competition. See Conference announcements for more details. Student membership: $15/year Educational Institutions/Libraries $100/year Individual: $40/year Corporate memberships also available. Center for Autonomous and Man-controlled Robotic and Sensing Systems Charles Jacobus, CAMRSS director ERIM PO Box 8618 Ann Arbor, MI 48107 tel: 313.994.1200 X2457 Member companies include: Ball Aerospace, Coulter Electronics, ERIM, Fairchild, Ford Aerospace, Geospectra, Grumman, Industrial Technology Institute, KMS Fusion, Michigan State, UofM. American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW Washington, DC 20024 tel: 202.646.7400 tel: 212.247.6500 (Technical Information Service) Conferences and publications, several cover automation technologies for servicing on the ground and in space as well as exploration. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Service Center 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08854-4150 tel: 201.981.0060 tel: 800.678.IEEE A large organization with hundreds of publications including journals, transactions, Spectrum, sponsoring conferences, workshops and meetings. IEEE membership is $95 regular ($23 students) For membership in the IEEE Computer Society, add $22. $20 for IEEE Expert (Intelligent Systems and their Applications) $12 for Transactions on Neural Networks $12 for Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics $15 for Transactions on Robotics and Automation $19 for Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering $24 for Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine IntelligenceIEEE The International Society for Optical Engineering, (SPIE) P.O.Box 10 Bellingham, Washington 98227-0010. SPIE has publications, meetings and conferences in the field of intelligent robots, mobile robots, teleoperation, machine vision, etc. The Material Handling Institute 8720 Red Oak Blvd, Suite 201 Charlotte, NC 28217 Primary robotics focus is on AGV's. National Service Robots Association (NSRA) 900 Victors Way PO Box 3724 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 tel: 313.994.6088 An organization devoted to robots other than on the factory floor. Robotics Industry Association (RIA) (same address as NSRA) Society of Manufacturing Engineers, (SME) One SME Drive PO Box 930 Dearborn, MI 48121 tel: 313.271.1500 Utility/Manufacturer Robot Users group (UMRUG) Contact: Harry T. Roman MC: 16-H Public Service Electric and Gas Company 80 Park Plaza PO Box 570 Newark, NJ 07101 tel: 201.430.6646 +++Robotics Associations of Many Countries ______________________________________________________________________________ Compilied from a list provided by the British Robot Association. Alphabatized by English spelling of country. Australian Robot Association Inc G.P.O. Box 1527 SYDNEY 2001 New South Wales Australia Contact: Mr Michael Kassler tel: +61-2-959-32-39 fax: +61-2-959-46-32 Osterreichisches Forschungszentrum Seibersdorf GmbH Hauptabteilung Fertigungstechnik und Automation A-2444 SEIBERSDORF Austria Contact: Mr Erwin Fugger tel: +43-2254-80-22-13 fax: +43-2254-80-21-18 SOBRACON - Sociedade Brasileira de Comando Numerico, Automazacao e Computacao Grafica Rua General Jardim, 645-7 andar, cjto.72 01223 011 - Sao Paulo, SP Brazil Contact: Mr. Arnaldo Pereira Ribeiro tel: +55-11-256-1192 / 258 3320 fax: +55-11-256-94-96 British Robot Association (BRA) BRA Aston Science Park Love Lane Birmingham B7 4BJ England tel: +44 (0)21-628 1745 fax: +44 (0)21-628 1746 Meetings, newsletters, information, contacts, sponsor of several events in the UK. Individual and Student rate is 60 pounds UK. "Robot" Interindustry Research and Production Association (MNTK "Robot") Izmailovskaya sq.,7 MOSCOW - Russia CIS Contact: Mr. Vladimir P Stepanov tel: +7-095-367-85-36 fax: +7-095-367-88-81 China Society of Industrial Automation & Automated Industries 8, 7F, Tun Hwa N. Rd. TAIPEI - China Contact: Mr. Chen, Chen-Chang tel: +886-2-751-34-68 fax: +886-2-781-77-90 Danish Industrial Robot Association (DIRA) Teknologiparken DK-8000 AARHUS C Denmark Contact: Mr. John Nielsen tel: +45-86-14-24-00 fax: +45-86-14-43-55 Robotics Society in Finland c/o Suomen Automaation Tuki Oy Asemapaallikonk. 12 C FIN-00520 HELSINKI Finland tel: +358-0-146-1644 fax: +358-0-146-1650 Contact: Mr. Hannu Lehtinen e-mail: Hannu.Lehtinen@vtt.fi Fachgemeinschaft MHI im VDMA P.O. Box 71 08 64 D-6000 FRANKFURT (MAIN) 71 Germany Contact: Mr. Berndt Knoerr tel: +49-69-66-03-466 fax: +49-69-66-03-459 IPA Nobelstrasse 12 D-7000 STUTTGART 80 Germany Contact: Mr Rolf D Schraft tel:+49-711-970-12-00 fax: +49-711-970-13-99 Association Francaise de Robotique Industrielle (AFRI) Tour 66 4, Place Jussieu F-75252 PARIS CEDEX 05 France Contact: Mr. Arnauld Laffaille tel: +33-1-44-27-62-12 fax: +33-1-44-27-62-14 Hungarian Robotics Association c/o Tungsram T.H. Co.Ltd. Centre of Robotics and Automation H-1340 Budapest IV., Vaci ut 77 Hungary Contact: Dr. Jozsef K. Tar tel: +36-1-169-6144 fax: +36-1-169-6144 Government of India Ministry of Science & Technology Dept. of Science & Technology Technology Bhavan New Mehrauli Road New Delhi-110 016 India Contact: Mr. A.N.N. Murthy, Director tel: +91-11-662-260, 654-793 fax: +91-11-616-2418 SIRI - Associazione Italiana di Robotica c/o ETAS Periodici Via Mecenate 91 I-20138 MILANO Italy Contact: Mr Daniele Fabrizi tel: +39-2-580-842-24 fax: +39-2-554-003-88 Japan Industrial Robot Association c/o Kikaishinko Bldg 3-5-8, Shibakoen, Minato-Ku TOKYO Japan Contact: Mr Kanji Yonemoto tel: +81-3-3434-2919 fax: +81-3-3578-1404 KIST - Korea Institute of Science and Technology P.O. Box 131, Cheongryang Seoul Korea Contact: Mr. Chun Sik-lee tel: +82-2-967-3505, 963-4497 fax: +82-2-969-1763 Meininger Automation bv P.O. Box 743 NL-2280 AS RIJSWIJK Netherlands Contact: Mr Jack B Eijlers tel: +31-70-340-17-80 fax: +31-70-340-1602 Federation of Norwegian Engineering Industries (TBL) Box 7072 - H N-0306 OSLO 3 Norway Contact: Mr Johan Ulleland tel: +47-2-46-58-20 fax: +47-2-46-18-38 Polish Federation of Engineering Associations (NOT) Czackiego Str 3/5 PL-00950 WARSZAWA Poland Contact: Mr. Kazimierz Wawrzyniak tel: +48-22-26-87-31 fax: +48-22-27-29-49 Singapore Industrial Automation Association (SIAA) 151 Chin Swee Road #03-13 Manhattan House SINGAPORE 0316 Singapore Contact: Mr Stephen Teng tel: +65-734-69-11 fax: +65-235-57-21 MVVZ Robot Nam. Legionarov 3 CZ-080 01 PRESOV Slovakia Contact: Mr Vladimir Cop tel: +42-91-235-77 fax: +42-91-231-95 "J. Stefan" Institute Jamova 39 61000 Ljubljana Slovenia Contact: Mr Jadran Lenarcic tel: +38-61-159-199 fax: +38-61-161-029, 273-677 Asociacion Espanola de Robotica Rambla de Catalunya 70, 3r 2a E-08007 BARCELONA Spain Contact: Mr Luis Basanez tel: +34-3-215-57-60 fax: +34-3-215-23-07 Swedish Industrial Robot Association (SWIRA) Box 5506 S-114 85 STOCKHOLM Sweden Contact: Mr Thomas Hardenby tel: +46-8-783-80-00 fax: +46-8-660-33-78 Schweizerische Gesellschaft fur Automatik, Arbeitsgruppe Robotik Postgasse 17 CH-3011 BERN Switzerland Contact: Mr Charles Giroud tel: +41-31-21-22-51 fax: +41-31-21-12-50 British Robot Association (BRA) Aston Science Park, Love Lane Aston Triangle BIRMINGHAM B7 4BJ United Kingdom Contact: Mr. Donald Pitt tel: +44-21-628-17-45 fax: +44-21-628-17-46 Robotic Industries Assoc (RIA) P.O. Box 3724 ANN ARBOR, MI 48106 USA Contact: Mr. Donald A. Vincent tel: 1-313-994-6088 fax: 1-313-994-3338 Secretariat of IFR c/o Sveriges Verkstadsindustrier Box 5506 S-114 85 STOCKHOLM Swden Contact: Mr Lennart Djupmark Mrs Kerstin Teglof Delgado tel: +46-8-783-80-00 or +46-8-783-82-08 fax: +46-8-660-33-78 __________________________________________________________________________ +++Robot Societies The original computer club in Silicon Valley was the Homebrew computer club, out of which evolved a major portion of the personal computer industry. In that spirit, if not the hope for history repeating itself, a number of robotics societies and clubs have sprung up. [This list as posted had several typos - if you find an error please let me know - nivek] Atlanta Hobby Robotics Association P.O. Box 2050 Stone Mountain, GA 30086 There is also a robotics bbs in Atlanta, although I'm not sure it is directly connected with the AHRA. bbs: Robots R4U 404.978.7300 Austin Robotics Group 608 Garden Path Cove Round Rock, TX 78736 tel: 512.244.6707 Connecticut Robotics Society P.O. Box 127 Canaan CT 06018 tel: 203.824.0542 The Dallas Personal Robotics Group P.O. Box 1626 Hurst, TX 76053 LA Area Robotics and Automation Group Los Angeles, CA If you wish to subscribe to the mailing list, please send a message to: listproc@cad.ucla.edu with a blank Subject: line and the body of the message reading: subscribe la-ragroup [David Lee e-mail: dlee@cs.ucla.edu] Robot Society of Southern CA 10471 S. Brookhurst Anaheim, CA 92804 tel: 714.535.8161 Robotics Club of Maryland Computer Science Dept. A.V. Williams Bldg. (115) University of Maryland College Park, Md. 20742-3255 contact: Stephen Klueter, President net: The Robotics Society of America PO Box 1205 Danville, CA 94526-1205 tel:415.550.0588 fax: 415.550.0411 bbs: 415.648.6427 8N1 net: Subscription to SFRSA "Magazine" The normal subscription rate will be $25 for 12 monthly issues. Seattle Robotics Society P.O. Box 30668 Seattle, WA 98103-0668 tel: 206.782.5989 SRS also operates a bbs: 206.633.2905 Triangle Amateur Robotics Club P.O. Box 17523 Raleigh, NC 27619 tel: 919.782.8703 net: sasrer@unx.sas.com (Rodney Radford) tel: 919.677.8001 x7703 hme: 919.469.9359 Meets first Monday of every month at 7:30pm on NCSU campus (110 Clark Lab) A related group: MicroMechanics Information Clearinghouse Requests to join list are sent to: FTP site: location: mems.isi.edu directory: /pub/prm, /pub/prospero, /pub/mems, /pub/papers WWW-URL: http://mems.isi.edu/mems Robot related performance art: ----------------------------- Survival Research Laboratories 1458-C San Bruno Ave. San Francisco, CA 94110 tel/fax: 415.641.8065 contact: SRL director Mark Pauline net: Survival Research Laboratories is a not-for-profit machine- performance art group conceived of and founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare. Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations in the United States and Europe. Each performance consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators. Survival Research Laboratories is now available for email and time-restricted Gopher and anonymous FTP access from 0000-0600 PST daily. [NOTE TIME RESTRICTION!]: location: srl.org directory: /pub/SRLImageBank, /pub/SRLInfo The directory holds scanned-in photographs and video images of SRL shows in GIF format; /pub/SRLInfo has news. Image file sizes range from 70 to 250 Kbytes, but our link speed is only 9600 baud; please be patient. Always select BINARY mode before FTP file transfers. Filenames can be specified in upper or lower case. Comments or questions to support@srl.org. __________________________________________________________________________ +++Conferences and Competitions There are a wide variety and number of conferences related to robotics and automation. Some are focused on industrial applications, many are researchy in nature and most are a mixture of both. Proceedings should be available in most good libraries or by interlibrary loan. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1994 IEEE National Telesystems Conference (NTC '94) San Diego, CA May 26-27, 1994 Areas of interest include: Dual-use technology applications Advanced technology for Telesystems Aircraft Navigation/Landing Systems Communications Systems and Networks Satellite Communication Systems Space Navigation Systems Telemetry and Remote Sensing Telerobotics/Unmanned Vehicles Tethered Systems and RPV's Bob Bolger Publicity Chair ARINC Research Corporation tel: 619.222.7447 fax: 619.225.1750 net: rbolger@arinc.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- MVA'94: IAPR Workshop on Machine Vision Applications December 13-15, 1994 Kawasaki, Japan The International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) announces the 4th IAPR International Workshop on Machine Vision Applications to be held in Kawasaki on December 13-15, 1994. The workshop is sponsored by the IAPR Technical Committees 6, 8, and 10. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry, and to exchange their knowledge and stimulate each other through intensive discussions on the following research topics: Main Topic: Machine Vision and its Applications Machine Vision Algorithms Feature extraction, Range data / 3D shapes, Motion / Image sequence analysis, Neural network applications, Color image analysis, AI-based vision, Human interface, and related technologies. Special Purpose Architectures Intelligent sensors, VLSI image processor chips, Massively parallel processing, Architectures for 3D and/or motion processing, Image processing systems, Software environment for image processor, and related technologies. Industrial Applications Factory automation, Disaster prevention and rescue, Security control, Navigation, Mobile robots, Civil and construction engineering, Agriculture/Forestry/Fishery, Other applications, and related technologies. Document, Map and Line Drawing Processing Document image processing, Drawing recognition, Multimedia database, Map and engineering drawing database, Map processing and map-based systems, 3D reconstruction from maps or drawings, and related technologies. The workshop will include several invited talks and about 100 papers for oral and poster presentations on the above topics. All presentations will be in English. Those who wish to present a paper are requested to submit four copies of a 500-1000 word extended abstract with at least one main figure by June 15, 1994 to: Prof. Mikio Takagi Institute of Industrial Science University of Tokyo 7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, Japan FAX: +81-3-3402-6226 The abstract should contain the following in its first page. 1) Title of the paper 2) Author name(s) and his/her(their) affiliation(s) 3) A person's name and address to be contacted, also, phone and fax numbers, Email address if available 4) Answers to the following questions: a) What is the original contribution of this work? b) Why should this contribution be considered important? Authors of papers that are accepted will be notified by August 1, 1994. Final camera-ready papers are due by October 1, 1994. Notice: International Technical Exhibition on Image Technology and Equipment will be held in Tokyo, near the workshop site, on December 7-9, 1994. All participants for the workshop are encouraged to visit the exhibition. For further information, please contact: Prof. Mikio Takagi Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo 7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, JAPAN PHONE: +81-3-3479-0289 FAX: +81-3-3402-6226 EMAIL: takagi@tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Abstracts & Call for Exhibitors ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems February 5-10, 1995 Monterey, California USA Sponsored by: AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY Robotics and Remote Systems Division and the Northern California Section Cosponsored by o Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory o Electric Power Research Institute o The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers o British Nuclear Energy Society You are invited to submit extended abstracts for review and consideration for the ANS Sixth Topical Meeting on Robots and Remote Systems. The theme of this Topical is "Robots in the Environment," and emphasis will be placed on robot technology and applications in a variety of remote environments, including nuclear, environmental remediation, underwater and space. Sessions are arranged in four primary interest areas or "tracks" so that no two papers in a track are presented concurrently. The tracks and topics of interest for this abstract solicitation are listed below. APPLICATIONS Nuclear power and fuel cycle Environmental Restoration Waste Management Remote Manufacturing and Processing Laboratory Automation Manipulator Applications Medical Application HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS Hardening and Survivability Technologies Undersea Space Law Enforcement Emergency Response and HazMat Handling Military CONTROL SYSTEMS Control Systems and Architectures Virtual Reality Application to Remote Systems Sensors and Machine Vision Human Factors and the Human/Machine Interface Artificial Intelligence and Smart Systems Remote Viewing and Telepresence RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Autonomous Systems and Mobility Mechanical Design and Special Tooling Manipulator R&D Remote Engineering The ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems Symposium, sponsored by the American Nuclear Society, will be held at the Hyatt Regency Monterey in Monterey, California, just minutes from the beautiful California central coast. Updates in the various technology areas will be featured as well as several new special interest sessions which have proven popular in recent years. Both oral and poster papers will be presented, and submissions of your original work are requested. We encourage papers/presentations from European and Pacific Rim countries. Technical Sessions Both oral presentations and poster sessions will be featured for the four-day conference Send Abstracts on new and innovative work to: Program Chairman Scott A. Couture ANS 6th Topical on Robotics and Remote Systems P.O. Box 10333 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Phone: (510) 423-7970/FAX (510) 423-4606 INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACT PREPARATION AND MAILING ____________________ Abstracts of new and innovative work are solicited. Submission format is an extended typed abstract of at least 500-900 words. Please send the original and three copies to the program chairman. ABSTRACT DEADLINE - APRIL 1, 1993 - SEND TO: 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems Attn: Scott Couture, Technical Program Chair P.O. Box 10333 Pleasanton, CA 94588 Acceptance Categories: Papers may be accepted for: 1. Oral presentations for a specified time (20-35 minutes, nominal) 2. Poster presentation with the author expected to be in attendance to explain his or her paper and to answer questions. All papers accepted for the ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems are eligible for publication in the ANS Transactions issue for the Symposium subject to formal review and acceptance procedures. Return this information sheet Sixth Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems February 5-10, 1995, Monterey, California ___ I am interest edin attending this Topical Meeting. Please send additional information as it becomes available. ___ I am interested in presenting a paper at this Topical Meeting. Tentative title of paper: ___ I am interested in presenting a poster session ___ I am interested in Exhibit Space for this Topical Meeting. Name: Affiliation: Address: City/State/Zip --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** SAIT IEEE *** *** WESTERN CANADIAN ROBOT GAMES *** *** Third Annual Competition *** *** April 9, 1994 *** In the interest of promoting science and technology to the public and foster enthusiasm and creativity amongst students, the Western Canadian Robot Games committee holds an annual robotic contest in a centralized western location. This email message is sent to you in the hopes you may pass it on to suitable instructors, professors, staff and students to invite them to our next contest! If you would like to be included on our mailing list or receive our brochure, please provide me with an email or postal address. To all robotic enthusiasts and tinkerers! ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE! JOIN THE FUN! Bring your robot to our third annual contest The IEEE student branch at SAIT challenge all SUMO alumni, students, instructors, and inventive individuals to design and enter your robots in one or both of our contests: ROBOTIC SUMO WRESTLING and ATOMIC HOCKEY Form a team! Fill out the attached application! Prove your 'metal' in the furnace of competition! There is NO ENTRY FEE! ROBOTIC SUMO WRESTLING: The Tradition Continues This contest matches your own creation with another robot in the field of combat where brute strength and cat-like reflexes combine to create the ultimate battle! The challenge is to create a robot whose sole purpose is to push, throw, flip, drag, or otherwise move your opponent ular ring within 3 minutes. In the tradition of an ancient Japanese contest of similar name, SUMO wrestling robots can use any trick the creator conceives to get the job done, within the following limits: * No robot may be used which is a physical threat to other contestants or the audience. (i.e., Explosions, fire, bullets, mace etc...) * Robots must fit within a 9" x 9" square when the competition begins, but may expand to a larger size after battle starts. Height is unrestricted at all times. * Robots must be 11 pounds or less in weight. * After the battle is over, contestants are responsible for cleaning up any debris in the ring to the satisfaction of the judges. There are two separate classes to SUMO robotic wrestling: Autonomous and Remote-Control. Remote Control robots may be a radio or wired-remote control and may be operated by a biological (human, usually). Autonomous Robots must carry on-board all power and intelligence required to seek and conquer the enemy. Each robot class will be awarded its own prize! (Prizes will also be awarded for the most humorous entry) ATOMIC HOCKEY You have never seen the NHL like this before! A head-to-head game of robot mayhem played out on an atomic scale as each competitor fights for the opportunity to gather more protons than his opponent while avoiding the ever present electrons! Played out in a 5 foot diameter circular ring lined with a 2 inch high wall, the robots must locate and gather Ping-Pong balls (protons) and deposit them in their own goal (the nucleus) within a three minute period while their opponents do the same. Each proton carries a score of +1 point. Unfortunately, the ring also contains an equal number of small metal balls (electrons) worth -1 point each. Each electron in your nucleus reduces your score by one point, so be careful to avoid them (or at least put them in your opponent's nucleus)! * Robots are to be a maximum of 9" x 9" square with unlimited height and have no weight restriction. * Robots must not pose any physical threat to biologicals (see SUMO rules). * Autonomous robots may put any signaling device they wish in their nucleus to help the robot locate the goal. * Aggressive and devious play between robots is encouraged, so long as no damage occurs to the ring or room. As with Robotic SUMO Wrestling, there are two categories: Autonomous and Remote Controlled ( Radio or Tethered ) For a complete rule set for both competitions and application information, please email, phone, fax, or (gasp) write to me at: Craig Maynard Instructor, Electrical/Electronics Department, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology 1301-16th Ave NW Calgary, Alberta T2M-0L4 Phone (403) 284-8401 Fax (403) 284-8184 Email: maynard@trantor.el.sait.ab.ca ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artificial Life IV An Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems organized by: Rodney Brooks MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab July 6-8, 1994 MIT, Cambridge, MA CALL FOR PAPERS Proceedings Editors: Rodney Brooks, MIT AI Lab Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab We are happy to invite contributions for the Fourth Artificial Life Workshop, to be held at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 6-8, 1994. Artificial Life complements the traditional Biological sciences, concerned with the analysis of living organisms, by attempting to synthesize phenomena normally associated with natural living systems within computers and other "artificial" media. By extending the empirical foundation upon which the science of Biology rests beyond the carbon-chain based life that has evolved on Earth, Artificial Life can contribute to Theoretical Biology by locating "life-as-we-know-it" within the larger context of "life-as-it-could-be." The three previous workshops in this series were held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Next year's workshop is intended to continue in the spirit of the earlier events, encouraging people with a broad range of backgrounds to share and exchange opinions, ideas, and techniques. Contributions may made in the following categories: PAPER (30 minutes for presentation and questions); DEMONSTRATION, which includes robots, computer demos and/or videos (please give time estimate). Some PAPER contributions may be accepted as POSTERs. Presentations of posters may include a computer display (BYOC). Authors of PAPERs should send 4 copies of a full paper, not to exceed 14 pages of 12pt single spaced text to the address below by March 15, 1994 (you get to work all weekend then send it express on Monday the 14th...). No papers will be accepted for review after March 15th. Authors will be notified of the status of their contributions by April 15, 1994. Contributions should include an email address, telephone and fax numbers on the cover page. Proprietors of DEMONSTRATIONs should send a maximum four page abstract describing their contribution to the same address by March 15th. DEMONSTRATIONs will be held on Thursday afternoon, July 7th, and will incorporate an ``Artificial 4-H show''. All accepted PAPERs will be included in the proceedings which will be available to all registered participants at the workshop. Some POSTERs may be included in the proceedings, and some DEMONSTRATIONs will be included in a companion videotape. There will be a very tight production schedule on the proceedings and camera ready copy will be absolutely due by Friday May 13th. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: * Self-organization and emergent functionality * Definitions of life * Origin of life * Self-reproduction * Computer viruses * Synthesis of "the living state" * Evolution and population genetics * Coevolution and ecological dynamics * Growth, development and differentiation * Organization and behavior of social and colonial organisms * Animal behavior * Global and local ecosystems and their interactions * Autonomous agents (mobile robots and software agents) * Collective intelligence ("swarm" intelligence) * Theoretical biology * Philosophical issues in Alife (from Ontology to Ethics) * Formalisms and tools for Alife research * Guidelines and safeguards for the practice of Alife Papers should be sent to: Rodney Brooks/Alife IV MIT Artificial Ingelligence Lab 545 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139, USA alife@ai.mit.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conference Announcement and FINAL Call For Papers FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS Third International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB94) Brighton, UK, August 8-12, 1994 The object of the conference is to bring together researchers in ethology, psychology, ecology, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and related fields so as to further our understanding of the behaviors and underlying mechanisms that allow animals and, potentially, robots to adapt and survive in uncertain environments. The conference will focus particularly on well-defined models, computer simulations, and built robots in order to help characterize and compare various organizational principles or architectures capable of inducing adaptive behavior in real or artificial animals. Contributions treating any of the following topics from the ceive special emphasis. Individual and collective behavior Autonomous robots Neural correlates of behavior Hierarchical and parallel organizations Perception and motor control Emergent structures and behaviors Motivation and emotion Problem solving and planning Action selection and behavioral Goal directed behavior sequences Neural networks and evolutionary Ontogeny, learning and evolution computation Internal world models Characterization of environments and cognitive processes Applied adaptive behavior Authors should make every effort to suggest implications of their work for both natural and artificial animals. Papers which do not deal explicitly with adaptive behavior will be rejected. Submission Instructions Authors are requested to send five copies (hard copy only) of a full paper to the Program Chair (Dave Cliff). Papers should not exceed 10 pages (excluding the title page), with 1 inch margins all around, and no smaller than 10 pt (12 pitch) type (Times Roman preferred). LaTex template available by email, see below. This is same format as SAB90 and SAB92. Each paper must include a title page containing the following: (1) Full names, postal addresses, phone numbers, email addresses (if available), and fax numbers for each author, (2) A 100-200 word abstract, (3) The topic area(s) in which the paper could be reviewed (see list above). Camera ready versions of the papers, in two-column format, will be required after acceptance. Computer, video, and robotic demonstrations are also invited. Please contact Phil Husbands to make arrangements for demonstrations. Other program proposals will also be considered. Conference committee Conference Chair: Philip HUSBANDS Jean-Arcady MEYER Stewart WILSON School of Cognitive Groupe de Bioinformatique The Rowland Institute and Comp. Sciences Ecole Normale Superieure for Science University of Sussex 46 rue d'Ulm 100 Cambridge Parkway Brighton BN1 9QH, UK 75230 Paris Cedex 05 Cambridge, MA 02142, USA philh@cogs.susx.ac.uk meyer@wotan.ens.fr wilson@smith.rowland.org Program Chair: David CLIFF School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QH, UK e-mail: davec@cogs.susx.ac.uk Financial Chair: P. Husbands, H. Roitblat Local Arrangements: I. Harvey, P. Husbands Program Committee M. Arbib, USA R. Arkin, USA R. Beer, USA A. Berthoz, France L. Booker, USA R. Brooks, USA P. Colgan, Canada T. Collett, UK H. Cruse, Germany J. Delius, Germany J. Ferber, France N. Franceschini, France S. Goss, Belgium J. Halperin, Canada I. Harvey, UK I. Horswill, USA A. Houston, UK L. Kaelbling, USA H. Klopf, USA L-J. Lin, USA P. Maes, USA M. Mataric, USA D. McFarland, UK G. Miller, UK R. Pfeifer, Switzerland H. Roitblat, USA J. Slotine, USA O. Sporns, USA J. Staddon, USA F. Toates, UK P. Todd, USA S. Tsuji, Japan W. Uttal, USA D. Waltz, USA. Official Language: English Publisher: MIT Press/Bradford Books Conference Information The conference will be held in the centre of Brighton, on the South Coast. This is a resort town, less than one hour from London, only 30 mins from London Gatwick airport. A number of invited speakers will be giving tutorial talks in subject areas covered by the conference. Through sponsorship, conference fees will be kept to a minimum and there should also be some travel grants available. We have made arrangements for the Proceedings to be available at the conference, which requires efficient processing of submitted papers; hence if possible first submissions should be made using LaTex template available by email. Email Information Email sab94@cogs.susx.ac.uk with subject line "Subscribe mail-list" to be put on our mailing list and be sent further information about conference arrangements when available. Email sab94@cogs.susx.ac.uk with subject line "LaTex template" to be sent LaTex template for camera-ready and for initial submissions. Important Dates =============== JAN 5, 1994: Submission deadline MAR 10: Notification of acceptance or rejection APR 10: Camera ready revised versions due MAY 1: Early registration deadline JUL 8: Regular registration deadline AUG 8-12: Conference dates General queries to: sab94@cogs.susx.ac.uk ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPIE Mobile Robots IX 3-4 October 1994 Hynes Convention Center Boston, MA First day - major theoretical aspects of mobile, autonomous, and remotely controlled systes. Second day - working systems and their design, integration, and appliation. This includes autonomous systems for factory floors, guided path, roads, fence following, and other uses. For information contact: Wendell Chun Martin Marietta Astronautics 303.971.7945 net: chunw@ssv.den.mmc.com ------------------------------------------------ 2nd Annual International Unmanned Ground Vehicle Robotics Competition May 20-22, 1994 at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan $10,000.00 Prize Prize money to the university teams for the best Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles All Terrain (ATV) Class Outdoor Natural Terrain Course Sponsor: Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Host: AUVS Great Lakes Chapter [The National AUVS Convention is held nearby at Cobo Hall in Detroit on May 23-25, 194] For Information please contact: Paul Lescoe Robotics Office Army-Tank Automotive Command tel: 313.574.8678 fax: 313.574.5008 net: lescoep%ccmail@tacom-enmhl.army.mil Dr. Ka C. Cheok or Barbara Dhalman Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering Oakland University 248 Dodge Hall Rochester, MI 48309-4401 tel: 313.370.2232 or 313.370.2177 fax: 313.370.4261 Candy McLellan School of Engineering and Computer Science Oakland University tel: 313.370.2233 End of 2nd International UGV Competition Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS SYMPOSIUM ON AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY July 19-20 1994 The IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society is sponsoring a symposium on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Technology to be held in the Boston, MA. area at the Cambridge Center Marriott Hotel on July 19-20 1994. The objective of the Symposium is to disseminate knowledge of recent technological advances in the field, to be a focus for the current state of the art including identification of technology shortfalls and to provide a forum for discussion of new relevant ideas. TOPICS The Symposium will focus on topics that are related to the AUTONOMOUS OPERATION OF UNDERWATER VEHICLES. These include but are not limited to : Sensors and Multi-Sensor Fusion Communications and Telemetry Navigation Imaging Techniques and Systems Modeling and Simulation Methods Mission Control and Software Architectures Energy Systems Autonomous Manipulation Vehicle Design and Control Launch and Recovery Techniques and Issues Multiple Cooperating Vehicles The Symposium will include a VIDEO PROCEEDINGS Session and visits to area technical attractions including the C. S. Draper Laboratories. ABSTRACTS Prospective authors should submit a proposed title and an abstract (300-500 words) with a cover sheet containing title author(s) names, addresses with one author named as the point of contact including phone and fax numbers. Since acceptance is by review of abstracts, it would be helpful if authors would describe the problem addressed solutions obtained and its importance to the subject of the Professor A. J. Healey, Technical Program Chairman Department of Mechanical Engineering Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, CA 93943 Ph. 408-656-3462 Fax: (408)-656-2238 healey@lex.me.nps.navy.mil DEADLINES The following deadlines have been established and it is important that authors adhere closely to these dates. Abstracts Due: November 8 1993 Notice of Acceptance January 15 1994 and Authors Kits Distributed Full Paper Manuscript (Camera Ready) April 15 1994 INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERS OCEANIC ENGINEERING SOCIETY ---End of SYMPOSIUM ON AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xxxxxx PerAc'94 Lausanne xxxxxxx From perception to action A state of the art conference on perceptive processing, artificial life, autonomous agents, emergent behaviours and micro-robotic systems Lausanne, Switzerland, 7-9 september 1994 Swarm intelligence Micro-robotics Evolution, genetic processes Competition and cooperation Learning machines Self organization Active perception Sensory/motor loops Emergent behavior Cognition ---------------------------------------------- | Call for Papers, Call for Posters | | Call for Demonstrations, Call for Videos | | Contest | ---------------------------------------------- Contributions can be made in the following categories: -- Papers -- (30 to 45 minutes). 2-page abstracts should be submitted by February 1, 1994. The conference will have no parallel sessions, and a didactically structured program. Most of the papers will be solicited. The submitted abstracts should attempt a synthetic approach from sensing to action. Selected authors will have to adapt their presentation to the general conference program and prepare a complete well-structured text before June 94. -- Posters -- 4-page short papers that will be published in the proceedings and presented as posters are due for June 1, 1994. Posters will be displayed during the whole Conference and enough time will be provided to promote interaction with the authors. A jury will thoroughly examine them and the two best posters will be presented as a paper in the closing session (20' presentation). -- Demonstrations -- Robotic demonstrations are considered as posters. In addition to the 4-page abstract describing the scientific interest of the demonstration, the submission should include a 1-page requirement for demonstration space and support. -- Videos -- 5 minute video clips are accepted in Super-VHS or VHS (preferably PAL, NTSC leads to a poorer quality). Tapes together with a 2-page description should be submitted before June 1, 1994. Clips will be edited and distributed at the conference. -- Contest -- A robotic contest will be organized the day before the conference. Teams participating to the contest will be able to follow the conference freely. The contest will consist in searching for and collecting or stacking 36mm film cans. One or several mobile robots or robotic arms can be used for this task. The rules and preliminary registration forms will be sent upon request by air-mail only as soon as definitive (end of October 93). For further information: Prof J.D. Nicoud, LAMI-EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne fax ++41 21 693-5263, Email nicoud@di.epfl.ch Program Committee and referees (September 93) L. Bengtsson, Uni Halmstad, S. -- R. Brooks, MIT, Cambridge, USA. P. Dario, Santa Anna, Pisa, I. -- J.L. Deneubourg, ULB, Bruxelles, B R. Eckmiller, Uni, D|sseldorf, D. -- N. Franceschini, Marseilles, F T. Fukuda, Uni, Nagoya, JP. -- S. Grossberg, Uni, Boston, USA J.A. Meyer, Uni, Paris, F. -- R. Pfeifer, Uni, Z|rich, CH L. Steels, VUB, Brussels, B. -- A. Treisman, Uni, Princeton, USA F. Varela, Polytechnique, Paris, F. -- E. Vittoz, CSEM, Neuchbtel, CH J. Albus, NIST, Gaithersburg, USA. -- D.J. Amit, Uni, Jerusalem, Israel X. Arreguit, CSEM, Neuchbtel, CH. -- H. Asama, Riken, Wako, JP R. Beer, Case Western, Cleveland, USA. -- G. Beni, Uni, Riverside, USA P. Bourgine, Cemagref, Antony, F. -- Y. Burnod, Uni VI, Paris, F J.P. Changeux, Inst. Pasteur, Paris, F. -- D. Cliff, Uni Sussex, Brighton, UK Ph. Gaussier, LAMI, Lausanne, CH. -- P. Husbands, Uni Sussex, Brighton, UK O. Kubler, ETH, Z|rich, CH. -- C.G. Langton, Santa Fe Inst, USA I. Masaki, MIT, Cambridge, USA. -- E. Mazer, LIFIA, Grenoble, F M. Mataric, MIT, Cambridge, USA . -- H. Miura, Uni, Tokyo, JP S. Rasmussen, Los Alamos, USA. -- G. Sandini, Uni, Genova, I T. Smithers, Uni, San Sebastian, E. -- J. Stewart, Inst. Pasteur, Paris, F L. Tarassenko, Uni, Oxford, UK. -- C. Touzet, EERIE, Nnmes, F P. Vershure, NSI, La Jolla, USA. End of PerAc'94 Lausanne ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AIAA/NASA CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS IN FIELD, FACTORY, SERVICE, AND SPACE (CIRFFSS '94) March 21-24, 1994 Houston, TX "SHARING TECHNOLOGY IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST" The AIAA/NASA Conference on Intelligent Robots for Factory, Field, Service, and Space is a major national event in intelligent robotics. It provides a unique forum for engineers and scientists from industry, government, and academia, and >from a wide range of development and user environments, to exchange knowledge of the state of the art, unfulfilled requirements, and current research directions. The conference goals are a) to develop a shared technology base among the researchers, developers and users of intelligent robots, b) to understand the commonality and the differences among the requirements for applications in the different environments of space, service, field, and factory, and c) to increase the efficiency and synergy of ongoing efforts. Papers are invited that cover all aspects of the development, and use of intelligent robots. CIRFFSS '94 is organized in cooperation with the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, National Service Robot Association, Robotic Industries Association, SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering, AIAA Space Automation and Robotics Technical Committee, Clear Lake Council of Technical Societies, AIAA Houston Section, and the IEEE Galveston Bay Section. TECHNOLOGY TRACKS: Papers are solicited that describe the technology of building intelligent robotic systems, especially surveys of the state of the art, subsystem concepts, experimental results in different environments, system and subsystem metrics, and comparison of different approaches. Robotic Sensing, Vision, and Perception: Visible, radar, sonar,IR and laser sensors, innovative systems; and perception algorithms, architecture, and integration methods. Planning, Reasoning, and Control: Behavioral and subsumption methods, deliberative planners, reasoning architectures, combination and mediation of planning, and reasoning and control elements Systems Technology and Architectures: Methods for allocating functions, system and software architectures, and approaches to modularity and reuse. APPLICATION TRACKS: Papers are solicited that describe designs and uses of intelligent robots, especially those related to concepts, design experiments, operational experience, and requirements. Factory: Assembly, transport, inspection, warehousing, and manufacturing. Field: Underwater, explosive handling, hazardous environments, military applications, autonomous land vehicles, construction, very cold environments, mining, and drilling. Space: On-orbit servicing and assembly, planetary exploration and operations, spacecraft inspection, and ground-based operations. Service: Health care, security systems, cleaning systems, residential/office, facility maintenance, and others. VIDEO TAPES: Are encouraged in all areas. Papers should be submitted to the: Program Chairman: Dr. Lawrence P. Seidman The MITRE Corporation 1120 NASA Road 1 Houston, TX 77058-3320 tel: 713-335-8532 fax: 713-333-5147 Email: lseidman@mitre.org Address other conference inquires: Conference Chairman: Dr. Jon D. Erickson ter Mail Code ER Houston, TX 77058 tel: 713-483-1508 fax: 713 483-7580 Email: erickson@aio.jsc.nasa.gov ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IROS '94 FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP on INTELLIGENT ROBOTIC SYSTEMS '94 Grenoble, France, 11-15 July 1994 CALL FOR PAPERS This workshop is organized by : LIFIA Laboratory of Fundamental Informatics and Artificial Intelligence, Institute of Informatics and Applied Mathematics of Grenoble, Grenoble, France IPPT-PAN Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland THEME AND TOPICS The theme for this year workshop will be combining perception and action. The workshop will combine invited lectures by established researchers with original presentations by junior scientists about research in progress. Topics included : o Learning and Control; o Neural Network and Fuzzy Techniques for Control; o Active and Real Time Computer Vision; o Integration and Control of Perception and Action; o Planning and Plan Execution for Perception and Action; ORGANISERS General Chairman James L.Crowley, LIFIA IMAG, France, 46 av. Felix Viallet, 38031 Grenoble Cedex, Tel.:(33) 76574655 fax:(33) 76574602, E-mail: Jim.Crowley@imag.fr Chairman Adam Borkowski, IPPT PAN, Poland, of the Programme 21 Swietokrzyska Str., 00-049 Warsaw, Committee Tel. : (48-22) 261281 ext 250 fax : (48-22) 269815, E-mail: abork@ippt.gov.pl Co-Chairman Artur Dubrawski, IPPT PAN, Poland, of the Programme 21 Swietokrzyska Str., 00-049 Warsaw, Committee Tel. : (48-22) 261281 ext 250 fax : (48-22) 269815, E-mail: adubr@ippt.gov.pl Secretary Patrick Reignier, LIFIA - IMAG, France, 46 av. F'elix Viallet, 38031 Grenoble Cedex, Tel.:(33) 76574609 fax:(33) 76574602, E-mail: Patrick.Reignier@imag.fr Olivier Causse, Lab. of Image Analysis, DK, Fr. Bajers Vej 7 D, DK-9220 Aalborg Tel.:(45) 98158522-4940 fax:(45) 98154008, E-mail: causse@vision.auc.dk The event is organised in cooperation with the CEC Human Capital and Mobility Network SMART and the Committee for Automatics and Robotics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. LOCATION The event will take place at Grenoble, in the heart of the French Alps. Grenoble has many convenient railway and bus connections from all over France. International flights to Paris or Lyon would be suitable. LANGUAGE The conference language will be English SUBMISSION Persons wishing to submit a paper should send an extended abstract of approximately four pages to the programme chairman (Professor A. Borkowski, address before) TIMETABLE - Extended abstracts must be received by the programme chairman by January 15 1994. - Notification of acceptance will be sent before February 28 1994. - Full papers (8 pages) must be received before April 30 1994 All accepted papers will be published in the Proceedings of the Workshop. Detailed information regarding programme, conference fee, accomodation will be given in the second annoucement issued in January 1994. End of IROS '94 description ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Many annual conferences are held and here are a few of them: Annual International Conference of IEEE on Robotics and Automation (ICARA) Annual Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems Annual Symposium on Industrial Robots International Symposium of Robotics Research Autonomous Intelligent Systems International Conference on Computer Vision British Machine Vision Conference IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Conference IMAC/SICE International Symposium on Robotics, Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems. American Association for Artificial Intellignece (AAAI) Probably the largest and most prestigious conference on AI. Now sponsoring a robot competition at the annual AAAI conference. Competitions: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are a number of robot gatherings where robot builders can bring their creations to show and compete with others. Hong-Kong ping pong competitions: Contact: Robin Bradbeer BEAM robot olympics: Contact: Mark Tilden Articles on the BEAM Olympics: Dewdney, A.K. Photovores: intelligent robots are constructed from castoffs. Scientific American Sept 1992, v267, n3, p42(1) Maylon, John. At the Robot Olympics. Whole Earth Review. Spring 1992, pp 80-84. Smit, Michael C., and Mark Tilden, Beam Robotics. Algorithm, Vol. 2, No. 2, March 1991, Pg 15-19 International Robot Games September 23 - 25 1993 (DELAYED!!!) Glasgow, Scotland Organised by The Turing Institute Following the success of the First Olympic event which took place in September 1990, the Turing Institute is now in the process of organizing the second event in the series. This will take place in Glasgow, Scotland from 23rd-25th September 1993. Robot Contest sponsored by the Science Center of Connecticut. April 17th, 1994. Open to everyone. $1000 prize. For more information and rules contact: Jake Mendelssohn, SCoC 950 Trout Brook Drive West Hartford, CT 06119 tel: 203.231.2824 fax: 203.232.0705 Prodigy: KJRP71A ___________________________________________________________________________ +++Robotics Publications: There are a number of academic journals and trade magazines devoted to robotics. There are no magazines currently devoted to the hobbyist or designer of robotic mechanisms. In the 1980's Robotics Engineering (nee Robotics Age) lasted for 7-8 years but folded. The one difficulty I noted as a subscriber was that the magazine attempted to address the hobbyist, the curious and those whose work was devoted to robotics without successfully catering to all groups. This list of periodical covers the academic journals, the trade magazines devoted to both robotics and relevant sub-areas, and the lone newsletter for hobbyists. Automation in Construction Publisher: Elsevier Science Publisher B. V., Amsterdam. Desk Editor: Erik de Vries The Editor of the journal is Dr. T. Michael Knasel 10324 Lake Avenue Cleveland, OH 441102-1239. fax: 216.651.5136. Autonomous Robots ISSN 0929-5593 Kluwer Academic Publishers Journal Dept PO Box 358, Accord Station Hingham, MA 02018-0358 tel: 617.871.6600 fax: 617.871.6528 subscription: $50/individual Vol 1, 1994 (2 issues) Editor-in-chief George Bekey Industrial Robot ISSN 0143-991X Quarterly, $145/year MCB University Press Ltd. 62 Toller Lane Bradford, West Yorkshire England, BD8 9BY tel: (44) 274 499821, fax: (44) 274 547143 --in the US MCB University Press Ltd. PO Box 10812 Birmingham, AL 35201-0812 tel: 1-800-633-4931 (1-205-995-1567), fax: 1-205-995-1588 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) The IEEE has a formidable array of journals, transactions and magazines. Here are a few that are relevant to robotics work: IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics IEEE Control Systems Magazine IEEE Computer Magazine IEEN Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics Cost: Have to join IEEE and then subscribe. Student rates are much less expensive than non-student rates. International Journal of Robotics and Automation Published 4 times annually. ISSN 0826-8185 ACTA Press, PO Box 354, CH-8053, Zurich, Switzerland or ACTA Press, PO Box 2481, Anaheim, CA 92814. SubsUS or 313.50 SFr. ($12 US or 22.80 SFr postage and handling). A special rate is available to members of IASTED. International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR) MIT Press 28 Carleton Street Cambridge, MA 02142 Cost: $50/year to individuals Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems Three issues per volume, $58.50 per volume (individual) Kluwer Academic Publishers Group PO Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands --in the US: PO Box 358 Accord Station, Hingham, MA 02018-0358 Journal of Robotic Systems G. Beni and S. Hackwood, editors College of Engineering University of California, Riverside Riverside, CA 92521-0425 Publisher: Interscience Division Professional, Reference, and Trade Group John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 605 Third Ave. New York, NY 10158 Mechatronics (Mechanics, Electronics, Control) Editors-in-Chief: Dr. R. W. Daniel Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1-3PJ United Kingdom: tel: +44-865-273153 fax: +44-865-273153 Professor J. R. Hewit Engineering Design Institute Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Technology, Loughborough Leicestershire, LE11 3TU UNITED KINGDOM tel: +44-509-222936 fax: +44-509-268103) Published by Pergamon Press Ltd, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 0BW UK. 1993 subscription rates: 193 pounds Sterling (US $312) Personal subscription rates for those whose library subscribes at a regular rate are available on request. Subscription rates for Japan are available on request. Robot (Japanese) Industrial Robots and Application Systems published bimonthly Japan Industrial Robot Association (JIRA) Kikai-Shinko Building 3-5-8, Shiba-Kohen, Mina To-ku Tokyo, Japan tel: (03) 3434-2919 fax: (03) 3578-1404 Robot Explorer 'The newsletter of motile systems' ISSN: 1060-4375 Appropriate Solutions 145 Grove Street PO Box 458 Peterborough, NH 03458-0458 tel: 603.924.6079 fax: 603.924.9441 net: apsol@world.std.com $14.95/year in the US, $29.95 to the rest of the world. Robotica International Journal of Information, Education and Research in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Quarterly publication, US $179 per year! Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU (UK) in the US: Cambridge University Press Journals Department 40 West 20th Street New York, NY 10011-4211 Robotics and Autonomous Systems -- In Europe -- Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. Journals Department PO Box 211, 100 AE Amsterdam The Netherlands Editors in Chief: Prof. F.C.A. Groen University of Amsterdam Faculty of Mathematics and CS Dept. of Computer Systems Kruislaan 403 1098 SJ Amsterdam The Netherlands net: -- In the US and Canada -- Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc. Journal Information Center 655 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10010 Editor in Chief Prof. T.C. Henderson University of Utah Dept. of Computer Science 3160 Merrill Engineering Bldg. Salt Lake City, UT 84112 USA net: Robotics Today Published by: Society of Manufacturing Engineers One SME Drive PO Box 930 Dearborn, MI 48121 tel: 313.271.1500 Robotics World "The end-user's magazine of flexible automation" Published quarterly Communication Channels 6255 Barfield Road Atlanta, GA 30328 tel: 404.256.9800 They also publish the Robotics World Directory $49.95 Don't have addresses for: Advanced Robotics (in english) published by International Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing Useful and relevant trade magazines: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Usually free, mostly ads or industry news. Many articles written by advertisers. Great sources of product information. Our lab at CMU receives 50-60 trade magazines and journals per month and while no one reads all of the articles, pointers are passed on to people around the lab. This keeps the group abreast of new products and developments. Advanced Imaging 445 Broad Hollow Rd. Melville, NY 11747 tel: 516.845.2700 fax: 516.845.2797 Subscription free to qualified professionals, $50/yr otherwise. ComputerCraft CQ Communications 76 N. Broadway Hicksville, NY 11801 tel: 516.681.2922 fax: 516.681.2926 cost: $18.97/yr ISSN: 1055-5072 Computer Applications Journal Circuit Cellar Inc. 4 Park St. Suite 20 Vernon, CT 06066 Subscriptions: P.O. Box 7694 Riverton, NJ 08077 tel: 203.875.2751 cost: $21.95/yr ISSN: 0896-8985 Excellent for those building hardware, programming microcontrollers, etc. Also a very good source for companies who have products in these areas. Design News Cahners Publishing Co. 275 Washington Street Newton, MA. 02158 News and Applications for design engineers. Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise - ? EE Times CMP Publications, Inc. 600 Community Drive Manhasset, NY 11030 Cost: Free to qualified recipients (in the U.S.); otherwise - $159/yr (U.S. & Foreign) Electronic Design Penton Publishing Inc 1100 Superior Ave Cleveland, OH 44114-2543 611 Route #46 West Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604 tel: 201.393.6060 fax: 201.393.0204 cost: $95.00/yr (free if qualified) ISSN: 0013-4872 Electronics Now (formerly Radio Electronics) Gernsback Publications Inc Subscription Dept Box 55115 Boulder, CO 80321-5115 500-B Bi-County Boulevard Farmingdale, NY 11735 tel: 516.293.3000 cost: $19.97/yr ISSN: 0033-7862 Embedded Systems Programming Miller Freeman 600 Harrison St. San Francisco, CA 94107 tel: 800.829.5537 (customer service) tel: 415.905.2200 bbs: 415.905.2689. $49.95 for 12 issues Machine Design Penton Publishing Inc. 1100 Superior Ave. Cleveland, OH 44114-2543 tel: 216.696.7000 fax: 216.621.8469 Cost: Free to qualified recipients in the U.S.; otherwise - $100.00/yr in U.S.; $140/yr in Canada; $160/yr - all other Foreign Midnight Engineering 'Journal of Personal Product Development' Published by William E Gates, [No, not him...] 111 E. Drake Road Suite 7041 Fort Collins, CO 80525 tel: 303.225.1410 fax: 303.225.1075 One-year (6 issues) $24, canada and mexico $29, other foreign $49 (airmail) Perhaps marginal for this list but focus is on "resources and insight for the entrepreneurial engineer" Issues and articles on developing hardware, software, micro-controllers, product development, marketing, patenting issues, startups, etc etc. Excellent if you need this info. Modern Materials Handling 44 Cook Street Denver, CO 80206-5800 tel: 303.388.4511 Trade magazine covering productivity solutions for manufacturing, warehousing and distribution. Typically includes articles on factory automation, etc. Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise - $75 for US subscribers. Motion Control Tower Media Corp. 800 Roosevelt Rd. Bldg. C, Suite 206 Glen Ellyn, IL 60137 Trade magazine for Motion Control applications and Technology. Cost: Free to qualified recipients in the U.S.; otherwise - $50/yr in U.S. $90/yr foreign subscriptions. NASA Tech Briefs Associated Business Publications Co., Ltd. 41 E. 42nd St. New York, NY 10017-5391 Contains useful technology transfer information which very often includes robotics research performed at various NASA centers. Cost: Free to qualified recipients; otherwise - $75.00/yr in the U.S., $150.00/yr for Foreign subscriptions Nuts and Volts 430 Princeland Court Corona, CA 91719 tel: 800.783.4624 Electronics classifieds and ads. Lots of devices and products relevant for robot builders. Often features articles on robot building as well by Karl Lunt. Sensors Helmers Publishing 174 Concord Street PO Box 874 Peterborough, NH 03458-0874 tel: 603.924.9631 Trade magazine devoted to sensing devices. Publishes directory. Cost: Free to qualified subscribers, $55/yr otherwise [To add] GPS World (Global Positioning System related) RF Design Sea Technology Laser Focus POB (surveying profession) Broadcast Engineering (TV and radio engineering) Other sources: -------------- Thomas Register Thomas Publishing Company One Penn Plaza New0139 tel: 212.695.0500 fax: 212.290.7362 About $250 for a 20-odd volume encyclopedia of US industry. Concentration on heavier industries - but still an amazing source for information. No company or lab building products should be without one. Available on CD-ROM for a much higher price. EEM - The 'Thomas Register' for Electrical engineers. [Address to add] _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Mobile robot companies: There are a small number of companies targeting the research community for the mobile robot market. TRC, RWI, and Cybermotion have all sold and are selling mobile devices for research and real applications. There are a number of Automatic Guided Vehicle companies as well and their primary applications are factory operations. Companies manufacturing Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV) are listed at the end of this section. Bell and Howell Mailmobile Company 81 Hartwell Avenue Lexington, MA 02173-3127 tel: 617.674.1110 Mailmobiles were developed by Lear-Siegler in the mid-70's for the industrial cleaning market. They left this market and Bell & Howell, the audio-visual company, was refocusing on office automation products and picked up this product from Lear-Siegler. There are three models of Mailmobile, the Packmobile, the Sprint and the Trailmobile. About 3000 systems sold and about 2000 probably in operation. They use a chemical trail that floureseces under UV light. Payloads up to a couple of hundred kg. Some systems have been operating for over 15 years. Branch & Associates Pty Ltd 1153 Tasman Highway Cambridge, Tasmania 7170 Australia (operating in Europe, Asia and America) tel: +61-02-485-807 fax: +61-02-485-809 contact: Alex Vail, Division Manager Since 1979, specialist in autonomous navigation and guidance; products and technology for applications, research, and teaching. Conquerer series of fully autonomous AGV's, mapping system, non-accumulated error, accuracy 1cm, 1 degree, no environmental modifications, $12K - $25K. Fander: research and educational mobile robot. $5.5K includes everything: built-in software demonstrates in real situations numerous exmaples of roboti mobility technologies for teaching, research and teaching manual, stand-alone and remote PC modes, real time graphics. Cybermotion 5457 Jae Valley Road Roanoke, VA 24014 tel: 703.982.2641 John Holland's company. Mobile K2 bases making use of ingenious torque-tube synchronous drive system. Security markets and research platforms, manipulators for base as well. Map building software too. Cyberworks 31 Ontario Street Orillia, Ontario L3V 6H1 Canada tel: 705.325.6110 fax: 705.325.8566 Primary product are 'building blocks' for mobile robot development including controllers, sensors, softare and chassis'. Denning Mobile Robotics Inc. [DENNING IS OUT OF BUSINESS] 21 Concord Street Wilmington, MA 01887 tel: 508.658.7800 Mobile robots - synchronous drive bases for research platforms. Building automated camera platforms for newsrooms, working on floor cleaning machines with an industrial partner. Denning also has a number of products including a position scanner, and IR beacons. A Denning floor scrubber is working in a post office in Pittsburgh, Denver and Washington, and at a UPS site. IS Robotics 4353 Park Terrace Drive Suite 6, 22McGrath Hwy Westlake Village, CA 91361 USA Somerville, MA 02143 tel: 818.597.1900 tel: 617.629.0055 net: fax: 617.629.0126 T-1: tracked robot approx 50cm x 36cm. $5k R-2: Wheeled machine. Gripper with 7.5cm opening, 18cm lift, 1kg lift force. $7K Ghengis II: Six-legged machine with whisker bump sensors and force detection on legs. About $2k. Use the ubiquitous MC68HC11E2 microcontrollers. Robots include IR and bump sensing for obstacle detection. Pyro sensors and color camera with pan-tilt are optional. Kentree Kilbritten, Co. Cork, Ireland tel: +353 23 49791, 49808 fax: +353 23 49801 Teleoperated bomb disposal vehicles in a range of sizes. mecos Robotics AG Technopark Pfingstweidstrasse CH-8005 Zurich Switzerland tel: + 41 1 445 11 35 fax: + 41 1 445 11 34 email: mecos@ifr.ethz.ch Contact: S. J. Vestli Company formed as a spin off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). "mecos Robotics" specialises in modular and adaptive robot manipulators and robot vehicles (mobile robots). All "mecos Robotics" systems uses the same type of controller, a VME based computer. This system comes with high level development tools, and for research institutions the systems have the advantage of being open. The overall goals of all "mecos Robotics" systems are flexility and modularity. The mobile robot program from "mecos Robotics" follows this principle. The physical size and the mechanical configuration can be altered. The standard configuration has three wheels with air tyres and independant suspension. One wheel is used for steering and propulsion (imagine a kids tricycle). The overall size is 0.7 m (W) * 1.0 m (L) * 0.5 m (H). The price depends on configuration and starts around the 70.000,- Swiss Franks mark. Nomadic Technologies 1060-B Terra Bella Avenue Mountain View, CA 94043 tel: 415.988.7200 ext. 203 fax: 415.988.7201 net: nomad@robots.com Nomad 200 is an integrated mobile robot system with four sensing modules including tactile, infrared, ultrasonic, and 2D laser. Integrated software development package for the host computer includes a graphic interface, robot simulator and a library of motion planning, motion control and sensory data interpretation functions. Geared toward teaching and research in Robotics and AI. The Nomad utilizes a synchronous steering system (ala Cybermotion and RWI). Speeds up to .5 meters/second and onboard battery power. Nomad 200 Mobile Base $10,000 Nomad 200 Control System $ 6,000 Sensus 100 Tactile Sensing System $ 1,500 Sensus 200 Fixed Sonar System $ 2,500 Sensus 500 Structured Light Vision System $ 7,000 RF Modem Kit $ 2,000 Digital Compass $ 450 Real World Interface (RWI) P.O. Box 270 Dublin, NH 03444 tel: 603.563.8871 fax: 603.563.8872 Small synchronous drive bases, primarily for research purposes. Approx $6K Remotec 114 Union Valley Road Oak Ridge, TN 37830 tel: 615.483.0228 fax: 615.483.1426 The ANDROS line of teleoperated mobile robots. These were designed to be useful in the nuclear industry and in other hazardous applications, and are very rugged. You can hose them down. Available in a range of sizes, with a variety of optional attachments, such as video cameras, arms, etc. TAG Technology 5 Bowlands Mill, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE661LN, UK tel: +44 655 604895 fax: +44 665 510624 Frank - a tracked vehicle. Cost $UK 2000 - 5785 depending on functionality. TRC 15 Great Pasture Road Danbury, CT 06810 tel: 203.798.8988 Labmate research platform - $7500, plus additional optional sensors etc. Other products for hospital markets and floor cleaning machines. (Helpmate and RoboKent respectively) Visual Inspection Technologies 27-2 Ironia Road Flanders, NJ 07836-9124 tel: 201.927.0033 fax: 201.927.3207 VIT specializes in remote visual and ultrasonic testing but sells or rents a small tracked rover for inspection work. Products include ROVVER, SPOT, and PIPECAT vertical pipe crawler. VIT also makes miniature remote pan and tilt devices. Yamazaki Construction Company, Tokyo Japan. Intelligent Robot Lab Kaika Building 2-7-1 Sotokanda Chiyoda-ku 101 Tokyo Japan tel: 81-3-5256-0715 LR1 robot - small research robot, basically a VME cage on wheels with some ultrasonic sensors and a nice constant force suspension. Has shown up at IEEE R&A conferences $30K. RoboSoft SA , , 6, allee Paul Cezanne 93360 Neuilly Plaisance FRANCE tel: +33 1 4944 3035 fax: +33 1 4944 3297 AGV Companies ------------- AGV Products 9307-E Monroe Road Charlotte, NC 28270-1485 tel: 704.845.1110 fax: 704.845.1111 Controls and components for AGV's. Supplier of Schabmuller motor-in-wheel drives. Apogee Robotics ive Fort Collins, CO 80525 tel: 303.221.1122 fax: 303.221.1774 Standard and custom-designed AGV's BT Systems 7000 Nineteen Mile Road Sterling Heights, MI 48314 tel: 313.254.5200 fax: 313.254.5570 Automated Handling Systems (Formerly Volvo Automated Systems) Caterpillar Industrial 5960 Heisley Road Mentor, OH 44060 tel: 216.357.2935 fax: 216.357.4410 Manufacturer and distributor of fork lift trucks and guided vehicles. Cat's SGV's use rotating laser scanner and barcodes as opposed to traditional wire-guided systems. Control Engineering Company Jervis Webb Company 34375 W. Twelve Mile Road Farmington Hills, MI 48331-5624 tel: 313.553.1220 fax: 313.553.1253 Eaton-Kenway 515 East 100 South PO Box 45425 Salt Lake City, UT 84145-0425 tel: 801.530.4000 fax: 801.530.4243 AGV's and integrated systems Elwell-Parker 4205 St. Clair Avenue Cleveland, OH tel: 216.881.6200 fax: 216.391.7708 Designs/manufactures rider style, electric, fork and platform mobile material handling equipment. Line includes AGV's, high tonnage capacity. Mobile cranes, explosion proof forklifts. Eskay Corporation 563 West 500 South Bountiful, UT 84010 tel: 801.295.5315 fax: 801.299.9990 Automated material handling systems including AGVS. Fata Automation 37050 Industrial Road Livonia, MI 48150 tel: 313.462.0678 fax: 313.462.0997 Sales and service of AGVs. FMC Corporation 400 Highpont Drive Chalfont, PA 18914 tel: 215.822.4300 fax: 215.822.4342 AGVs, Automated Handling Systems, Consulting, Trolley and Power and Free Converyors, Tow lines, Integrated Systems and Controls, Roll Handling Equipment. IDAB Incorporated 1 Enterprise Parkway, Suite 300 PO Box 8157 Hampton, VA 23666 tel: 804.825.2260 fax: 804.825.9307 Automatic handling systems and AGV's Litton Industrial Automation 2300 Litton Lane Hebron, KY 41048 tel: 606.334.2033 fax: 606.334.2847 Full service material handling company. Mannesmann Demag Corporation 29201 Aurora Road Cleveland, OH 44139-1895 tel: 216.248.2400 fax: 216.248.3086 Overhead cranes, wire rope and chain hoists, AGV systems, automatic storage and retrieval systems, monorail, aircraft maintenance equipment. Mentor AGVS Products 8500 Station Street PO Box 898 Mentor, OH 44060 tel: 216.255.4051 fax: 216.255.3430 AGV systems and automated transfer cars. Munck Automation Technology 315 E Street Hampton, VA 23661 tel: 804.838.6010 fax: 804.826.5651 Manufacturer and integrator of automated material handling systems. AGVS of many configurations (unitload, forklift, towing) The Raymond Corporation South Canal Street PO Box 130 Greene, NY 13778 tel: 607.656.2311 fax: 607.656.9005 Material handling equipment. Roberts Sinto Corporation 3001 West Main Street PO Box 40760 Lansing, MI 48901-7960 tel: 517.371.2460 fax: 517.372.4930 MGV's (Mechanically guided vehicles) Professional Materials Handling Co, Inc. 4203 Landmark Drive Orlando, FL 32817 tel: 305.677.0040 Steinbock fork trucks. Wire guided, use regenerative braking. _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Manipulator companies: Adept Technology 150 Rose Orchard Way San Jose, CA 95134 tel: 408.432.0888 fax: 408.432.8707 High speed direct-drive and harmonic-drive SCARA style arms. 0.001" (.025mm) repeatabiliy. Payloads from 4-25kg Can be used in clean room and food applications as well. Adept sells vision systems and controllers also. Antenen Research PO Box 95 Hamilton, OH 45012 tel: 800.323.9555 tel: 513.887.4700 fax: 513.887.4703 New and used robots for manufacturing, research and training. Used at savings of 40% - 70%. Also lots of parts and accessories. Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Vesteraas, Sweden ABB Robotics 2487 South Commerce Drive New Berlin, WI 53151 tel: 414.785.3400 fax: 414.789.9235 Now own Cinncinatti Milacron robotics group, Graco and Trallfa. Many types of larger industrial robots. Comau - Italy Via Rivalta 30 10095 Grugliasco Torino, Italy tel: 011 33341 fax: 011 7809156 A variety of industrial manipulators ranging in payloads from 6kg to 125kg. All electric AC drives. One of the novel designs is a 6DOF, 12kg payload robot The SMART-3 6.12 R. It uses a carbon fibre forearm, absolute resolver feedback and 0.15mm repeatability. CRS Plus, PO Box 163, Station A 830 Harrington Court Burlington, Ontario Canada L7R 3Y2 tel: 416.639.0086 fax: 416.639.4248 Sells several manipulators. 5-DOF around $25K, 6DOF around $33K. Sell end-effectors as well (electric, vacuum and penumatic) Wrist can be bought separately. Controllers use RAPL, a VAL-like language. Fairly open architecture. 3Kg payloads +/- 0.05mm repeatability. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. 24402 Sinacola Court Farmington Mills, MI 48331 tel: 313.474.6100 fax: 313.474.6101 Kawasaki was the first Japanese mfg to lead in the production of industrial robots. They licensed the former Unimation line of robots and now make about a dozen types of electric arms for welding, painting and assembly. Kraft Telerobotics 11667 W. 90th Street Overland Park, KS 66214 tel: 913.894.9022 fax: 913.894.1363 Nice telerobotic arms for underwater work. mecos Robotics AG Technopark Pfingstweidstrasse CH-8005 Zurich Switzerland tel: + 41 1 445 11 35 fax: + 41 1 445 11 34 net: Contact: E. Nielsen Spin-off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). modular and adaptive robot manipulators and robot vehicles (mobile robots). All "mecos Robotics" systems use a VME based computer as controller. The system comes with high level development tools, and are open systems. The manipulator's mechanical configuration can be changed at will (number and type of joints, length of links, etc.) Manipulators use linear aluminum extrusions with integral motions for joints. The controller accounts for configuration changes. With this principle of modularity and flexibilty hybrid force / position controllers have been realised on "mecos Robotics" arms. Price depending on configuration (50.000,- Swiss Franks and upwards). Motoman [Hobart/Yaskawa] 3160 MacArthur Boulevard Northbrook, IL 60062-1917 tel: 708.291.2340 fax: 708.498.2430 Large industrial manipulators for welding, painting, palletizing, dispensing, etc. Can be floor, ceiling or wall mount units. Payloads for the 8 robots in the K-series range from 3kg to 100kg and repeatability of 0.1 to 0.5 mm over that same range. They are vertical jointed-arm type manipulators. (i.e. 4 bar linkage to reduce arm intertias). 3 S-series robots are SCARA-type manipulators with payloads of 50-60kg and varying workspace sizes Yaskawa also has bought the rights to RobotWorld, Vic Schienman's unique gantry design robot system. This system allow a number of mobile modules in the same workspace to zip around at speeds up 80"/sec (3G accel). RAIL and C can be used in a multilevel programming environment. 0.002" Accuracy, 0.0005" repeatability. Neat stuff. Salisbury Robotics, Inc. 20 Pemberton St. Cambridge, MA 02140 tel: 617.661.8847 net: Sells the three-fingered Salisbury hand and force sensing fingertips. Contact: Ken Salisbury, Sarcos Research Corporation 390 Wakara Way, Suite 44, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 tel: 801.581.0155 Spinoff of University of Utah's Center for Engineering Design (CED). Teleoperated systems, manipulators. Audio-animatronic work as well. Beautiful force reflecting work and systems. High performance and small hydraulic valves and actuators. Schilling 1632 Da Vinci Court Davis, CA 95616 tel: 916.753.6718 fax: 916.753.8092 Electro-mechanical engineering and manufacturing company specializing in telerobotics. Various remote manipulator and telerobotic manipulator systems. Sony Corporation of America Factory Automation Division 542 Route 303 Orangeburg, NY 10962 tel: 914.365.6000 fax: 914.365.6087 Several SCARA type manipulators including a double armed manipulator. This model is used for the assembly of 8mm camcorders! Robotics Research Corp. P.O. Box 206 Amelia, OH 45102 tel: 513.831.9570 fax: 513.381.5802 RRC oof dexterous manipulators which can be operated individually or in dual-arm mode. Their second generation, denoted the "i-Series", is lighter and provides great dexterity. They are currently building "spaceflight-qualified" manipulators for NASA (GSFC) using this new generation of their product. They have also been doing some work developing sensor-based automatic obstacle detection and avoidance technology which uses a patented algorithm with arm-mounted sensors. They have also built two massively-redundant 17-DOF Anthropomorphic systems for Grumman and JPL to serve as testbeds for researching "man-equivalent" robots for space applications. UMI Microbot [no longer in business in the US] In the UK: Oxford Intelligent Machines, UK tel: 0865 204881 Originally known as the Microbot teachmover. A small cable driven manipulator for desktop robotics. Excellent teaching tool. Original design by John Hill (now at SRI) Microbot was bought out by the British company UMI two years ago. In May, 1991 they moved from Silicon Valley to Detroit, MI. As of Early 1994, only the UK company was still in business. USA Robot PO Box 4018 Portland, ME 04101 tel: 207.774.3822 Maxym production robots for business. Simple accurate 3D linear motions coupled with power tooling. Workspaces up to 60cmx120cmx15cm. IBMPC software for designing parts and production path. Units come with 2200W Porter- Cable router and vacuum foot. This is not a machine like the giant production turning and routing machines used by large furniture makers but is a nice small machine for small production shops. Western Space and Marine 111 Santa Barbara St. Santa Barbara, CA 93101 tel: 805.963.3831 fax: 805.963.3832 Telerobotic manipulators for space and undersea applications. Zebra Robotics Jeff Kerr Menlo Park tel: 415.328.8884 Small manipulators with integral force control. Zymark Corp Hopkinton, MA Robots for laboratory automation. Zymate Other companies: (no addresses, yet) International Submarine Engineering (ISE) Robotic Systems International (RSI) Furukawa Sumitomo Chubu Beckman Biomark HP ORCA _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Small Inexpensive Robots One of the most common discussions on the net are related to finding, building and working on small and low cost robots. There are a few small robots on the market and a number of construction kits that robots can be built from such as Lego, FischerTechnik and Capsula. None of these require large investments. These systems are at most a few hundred $US and can run on a desktop. Aleph Technology Parc Heliopolis 16 rue du Tour de l'eau BP 295-38407 Saint Martin d'Heres cedex, France tel: +33 76422999 fax: +33 76444620 Small, turtle robot for education. 17000FF Angelus Research 6344 Sugar Pine Circle Angelus Oaks, CA tel: 909.794.8325. A small differentially-steered mechanism (no casters!) utilizing a 68HC11 controller w/ 32K RAM and RS-232 interface. Four visible collision sensors (range 3-12 inches depending on ambient light) and two whiskers. On-board battery (Pb- acid and built in charger) monitors current as well for stall current. Software included with easy-to-use command set. A lot of features for a very affordable device. $395, controller board available separately and basic kit available for $325 Capsula Capsula is a robot construction set. Looks like a series of bubbles connected together. Some intriguing modules including IR control, voice commands, motorized clutches etc. Edmund Scientific sells this as do many toy stores. FischerTechnik Model Technology 2420 Van Layden Way Modesto, CA 95356 tel: 209.575.3445 fax: 209.527.6016 ----In the UK: Economatics Ltd Epic house Darnell Road Attercliffe Sheffield United Kingdom tel: +44 742 56 11 22 fax: +44 742 43 93 04 telex: 5 47 095 ECOMAT G Like Lego, Fischertechnik is a european-developed construction kit but much more comprehensive in scope. Electro-mechanical parts galore including a wide variety of switches, relays, slip rings, contacts, etc. Many types of building block units as well and computer interfaces available. More expensive than Lego. Model Technology, listed above, is one distributor. See also the Robot Explorer in the publications section. Khepera Support Team LAMI - DI - EPFL INF Ecublens 1015 Lusanne Switzerland tel: ++41 21 693.52.65 fax: ++42 21 693.52.63 net: contact: Franscesco Mondada A VERY small mobile robot. Motorola 68331 Processor with 256K RAM and 256 or 512K ROM. Serial port. Six 10bit analog inputs. DC motor powered with incremental encoders. Eight IR proximity and light sensors. NiCd batteries. Additional capabilities can be added by using stackable K-extension bus. Software environments: Calm assembler (PC or MAC), Gnu C compiler (on all machines supported by GNU) and LabView (PC, Mac or Sun). Size: 55mm diameter, 30mm high Weight: 70grams Cost: 3000 Swiss Francs [About $2K US] Vision and Gripper modules under development. Reference: Mondada et al. Mobile Robot Miniaturisation: A Tool for Investigation in Control Algorithms. Third International Symposium on Experimental Robotics, Kyoto, Japan, Oct 28-30, 1993 LEGO Lego Dacta 555 Taylor Road PO Box 1600 Enfield, CT 06083-1600 tel: 800.527.8339 fax: 203.763.2466 LEGO Dacta is the educational branch of the LEGO company. Dacta sells the LEGO Technic product line. These are the geared and motorized versions for the LEGO system. Use anonymous ftp to obtain a list of a variety of lego information and application programs from: location: earthsea.stanford.edu directory: /pub/lego filenames: Directory Structure: ~ftp/pub/lego/ CAD/ contains several languages for specifying models faq/ contains latest faq sheet for alt.toys.lego games/ Rules for games using lego people and pieces images/ Pictures and drawings of sets and instructions sets/ Database listings of lego sets and catalog numbers upload/ Place your files here! Lego kits recommended for robotics work include: 1038 Technical Universal Buggy - dual drive vehicle. $60 1032 Technic II w/ motorized transmission - $76 9605 Technic Resource Set - general parts kits - $200 Lego-to-Mac software: Paradigm Software 617.576.7675 Bots 415.949.2126 MIT has papers on LEGO projects available via FTP from: site: kame.media.mit.edu. dir: pub/el-memos file: memo8.* "LEGO/LOGO: Learning Through and About Design" Meccano/Erector There are several mechanical construction systems available. The best source of info I've seen is a list put together by Colin Hinz: location: psych.toronto.edu directory: /ftp/pub/ filenames: meccano The German model train company, Maerklin makes a Meccano compatible construction set. They also have a 1007 Robotic Arm kit and programmable controller as well. ~$300 You may be able to order it through a local train and hooby shop. Mondotronics 524 San Anselmo Ave., #107 San Anselmo, CA 94960 tel: 415.455.9330 800.374.5764 fax: 415.455.9333 net: A number of muscle wire (nitinol) projects including a small walking machine. Book and sample kit with 1m each of 50, 100 and 150 um wire, enough to build all 14 projects in the book. OWI (Movit robots) tel: 310.638.4732 fax: 310.638.8347 Available from: Kelvin Electronics 800.645.9212 Pitsco 800.835.0686 Edmund Scientific (See Robot Parts section for address) These are small toy-like robots that reflexively respond to obstacles, sounds or light depending on the model. They're cute and show what can be done with a relatively small amount of hardware. Edmund also has a Robotic Technology Curriculum with lessons and tests featuring the Movit robots. Curriculum is $65 from Edmund Scientific. QuikShut (?) Circuit Specialists Inc PO Box 3047 Scottsdale, AZ 85271-3047 tel: 800.528.1417 tel: 602.464.2485 Sold by Circuit Specialists for $259. Appears to be a nice low cost 5 axis arm for education. IBM (or compatible) interface, kit y kit, software package, logic probe and experiments and instructions. If anyone has information as to who actually makes this please send me email. Stiquito A small nitinol-based mobile robot is available from Indiana University in a technical report and as a kit. Send your request for the report with payment to: Computer Science Department 215 Lindley Hall Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 To receive the technical report only: Send $5.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN: TR363A To receive the technical report and a complete kit: Send $15.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN: TR 363A Squito Kit Tomy Armatron Sold by Radio Shack in the US, the Armatron was a popular small plastic manipulator and later a mobile version was sold. A number of articles appeared in the hobbyist press regarding linking the Armatrons to computers. The mobile version is still being sold in Japan and is called the "GO ROBO ARM" You might be able to pick one up at a flea market or garage sale. Buy it - they are neat clever devices and fun. _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Other organizations doing robotics: What companies and government laboratories are doing robotics work? This list is a small fraction of companies and other organizations that are actively working in robotics. By searching through proceedings of conferences, by noting member companies of many of the organizations listed in previous FAQ sections a significant number of companies can be generated. Industrial robotics is used widely throughout a number of companies. Most large aerospace companies have groups working in or looking into robotics. Martin Marietta (Denver), Rockwell International (Downey, CA), Boeing (Seattle) to name a few. Mitre Corporation of McLean VA and Houston TX, is also doing quite a bit in robotics. Advanced Robotics Research Centre Salford, UK. The Advanced Robotics Research Ltd (incorporating the National Advanced Robotics Research Centre, UK) is a joint UK Government and UK Industries funded research organisation involved in the research of enabling technologies for the advanced robotics systems. Mechanical Engineering Lab (MEL) Tsukuba City Kazuo Tanie: Robotics and cybernetics NASA Centers ------------ There are a number of NASA Centers that are researching and using robotics for lab prototypes, flight, ground servicing and many other applications. NASA Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL) Pasadena, CA Hazardous-environment robots, teloperation, control, space and planetary missions. Currently responsible for MESUR Pathfinder rover. Contacts: Tony Bejczy, Chuck Weisbin, Brian Wilcox, Larry Mathies, Henry Stone, Rajiv Desai. NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Moffett Field, CA Contact: Butler Hine III Terry Fong Telepresence and virtual user interfaces, vision (optical and parallel processing), free-flyers, task planning, agents. Ames has recently fielded a underwater vehicle in the Antarctic. The Teleoperated Remotely Operated Vehicle (TROV) purpose is to assess the capabilities of telepresence and virtual environments for performing remote scientific field work. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Greenbelt, MD 20771 Contact: Stephen Leake Since the cancellation of the Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS), the Robotics Lab has been concentrating on work in the area of automated space craft servicing. The goal is to replace or supplement Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) with teleoperated or semiautonomous robotic systems for external vehicle maintenance. Current project includes a robot to assist in second Hubble servicing mission. NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Houston, TX Contact: Charles Price More of an operations house but lots of shuttle RMS work. A number of robot projects including testing of space station manipulator systems happens at JSC. NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Robotics Group Contact: Bill Jones Like JSC, KSC is an operations house with responsibility to keep shuttles flying and integrate payloads. There is a small but growing robotics group that is emplacing ground support robotics applications. Recent work includes filter inspector for launch pad payload areas, shuttle radiator inspector and a mobile system for thermal protection system tasks. NASA Langley Research Center, (LaRC) Hampton, VA Contact: Jack Pennington - vision, inspection, 3-D sensors National Laboratories --------------------- The US National Laboratories are large complexes with a number of robotics efforts. One current focus is the enormous and costly cleanup of the weapons complexes throughout the country. Remediation, removal and cleanup of hazardous materials will require hundreds of billions of $$$ and many years. Robotics will be a key in much of this. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM Sandia is a DOE National Laboratory with a substantial program in robotics at its Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center. The Center has interests in manufacturing, hazardous material handling, site remediation, and research to support these applications. Consequently areas of focus include assembly planning, robotic interfaces, control theory, motion planning, sensor fusion, sensor development, mobile vehicles, telemanagement, mobile vehicles, and so on. At the time of writing (2/15/93) the center has nearly 100 full-time staff with degrees in computer science, mechanical engineering, mathematics, electrical engineering, as well as a few in other fields. The mix is about 30% PhD, 40%MS, and 30% BS. Recent hires have come from Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, Illinois, Penn, ... The center operates over 20 fully equipted labs including robots from Puma, Adept, GCA, Cincinnati Millacron, and Schilling. The virtual reality lab includes stereoscopic viewers from Fake Space, audio, speech recognition and synthesis, and big boxes from SGI to drive the graphics. In addition to the normal complement of departmental computing we have use of other compute resources at Sandia including a 1000 node N-cube, a 1000+node Intel Paragon, several crays, a CM-200 (16K procs). Contacts: Randy Brost, Pat Xavier, Sharon Stansfield, Pang Chen, David Strip, Jim Novak, Ray Harrigan, Pat Eicker, Bob Anderson. Oak Ridge National Lab ORNL/CESAR PO Box 2008, MS-6364 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6364 tel: 615.574.6126 Contact: Alex L. Bangs Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) Research in mobile and manipulator robotics, including redundant and multiple manipulators, cooperating mobile robots, parallel vision systems, sensor fusion, real-time quantitative reasoning and behavior based control, and machine learning. Current applications include robots for nuclear power stations, environmental restoration and waste management, material handling, and space exploration. Researchers: Alex Bangs, Marty Beckerman, Judd Jones, Reinhold Mann, Ed Oblow, Francois Pin, Michael Unseren Redzone Robotics 2425 Liberty Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4639 tel: 412.765.3064 fax: 412.364.3069 A spin-off of CMU, Redzone has focused on hazwaste and nuke manipulator applications but is also developing mobile applications. Primarily protoypes and not multiple unit manufacturing. Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, TX Robotics and Automation Department Some large systems for servicing aircraft (painting, spraying, deriveting etc) +++Architectures for Robots ______________________________________________________________________________ A robot 'architecture' primarily refers to the software and hardware framework for controlling the robot. A VME board running C code to turn motors doesn't really constitute an architecture by itself. The development of code modules and the communication between them begins to define the architecture. Robotic systems are complex and tend to be difficult to develop. They integrate multiple sensors with effectors, have many degrees of freedoime systems with systems which cannot meet real-time deadlines [Jones93]. System developers have typically relied upon robotic architectures to guide the construction of robotic devices and for providing computational services (e.g., communications, processing, etc.) to subsystems and components. These architectures, however, have tended thus far to be task and domain specific and have lacked suitability to a broad range of applications. For example, an architecture well suited for direct teleoperation tends not to be amenable for supervisory control or for autonomous use. One recent trend in robotic architectures has been a focus on behavior-based or reactive systems. Behavior based refers to the fact that these systems exhibit various behaviors, some of which are emergent [Man92]. These systems are characterized by tight coupling between sensors and actuators, minimal computation, and a task-achieving "behavior" problem decomposition. The other leading architectural trend is typified by a mixture of asynchronous and synchronous control and data flow. Asychronous processes are characterized as loosely coupled and event-driven without strict execution deadlines. Synchronous processes, in contrast, are tightly coupled, utilize a common clock and demand hard real-time execution. Subsumption/reactive references ------------------------------- Arkin, R.C., "Integrating Behavioral, Perceptual, and World Knowledge in Reactive Navigation", Robotics & Autonomous Systems, 1990 Brooks, R.A., "A Robust Layered Control System for a Mobile Robot", IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, March 1986. Brooks, R.A., "A Robot that Walks; Emergent Behaviors from a Carefully Evolved Network", Neural Comutation 1(2) (Summer 1989) Connell, J.H., "A Colony Architecture for an Artificial Creature", MIT Ph. D. Thesis in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1989. Erann Gat, et al, "Behavior Control for Robotic Exploration of Planetary Surfaces" To be published in IEEE R&A. FTPable. site: robotics.jpl.nasa.gov location: pub/gat filename: bc4pe.rtf Insect-based control schemes ---------------------------- Randall D. Beer, Roy E. Ritzmann, and Thomas McKenna, editors, Biological Neural Networks in Invertebrate Neuroethology and Robotics, Academic Press, 1993. Hillel J. Chiel, et al, "Robustness of a Distributed Neural Network Controller for Locomotion in a Hexapod Robot," IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 8(3):293-303, June, 1992. Joseph Ayers and Jill Crisman, "Biologically-Based Control of Omnidirectional Leg Coordination," Proceedings of the 1992 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 574-581. Asynchronous/synchronous (i.e., "traditional", "top-down", etc.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Amidi, O., "Integrated Mobile Robot Control", CMU-RI-TR-90-17, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1990. Albus, J.S., McCain, H.G., and Lumia, R., "NASA/NBS Stanford Reference Model for Telerobot Control System Architecture (NASREM)" NIST Technical Note 1235, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD, July 1987. Butler, P.L., and Jones, J.P., "A Modular Control Architecture for Real-Time Synchronous and Asynchronous Systems", Proceedings of SPIE Applications of Artificial Intelligence 1993, Orlando, FL, 1993. Fong, T.W., "A Computational Architecture for Semi-autonomous Robotic Vehicles", AIAA Computing in Aerospace conference, AIAA 93-4508, 1993. Lin, L., Simmons, R., and Fedor, C., "Experience with a Task Control Architecture for Mobile Robots", CMU-RI-TR 89-29, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, December 1989. Schneider, S.A., Ullman, M.A., and Chen, V.W., "ControlShell: A Real-time Software Framework", Real-Time Innovations, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA 1992. ______________________________________________________________________________ +++Graduate Program in Robotics: Any good four-year school undoubtedly offers robotics courses within engineering programs. Departments of mechanical and electrical engineering and computer science are all good candidates for coursework in Robotics. However, a number of schools have established track records and a focus on robotics and those are listed here. The list is not exhaustive and a number of entries are incomplete, but it's a good starting point for those interested in graduate programs. ---Student Who's Who An additional source of information is the graduate student guide compiled by Ron Kube. It is a list of graduate students, their university, and their areas of research. The list is updated monthly and can be found at location: ftp.cs.ualberta.ca directory: /pub/kube filename: whoswho UNITED STATES------- Boston University Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering: John Baillieul: Control of Mechanical Systems and Mathematical System Theory. Pierre Dupont: Robot Kinematics and Dynamics, Friction Compensation in Robotics. Ann Stokes: Theoretical Dynamics and Control. Matt Berkemeier: Legged Robots, Robot Control. California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Pasadena, CA Joel Burdick - serpentine manipulation, control Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) The Robotics Institute is a 150 person organization that offers a PhD in Robotics but students from other programs (engineering and computer science mostly) do research in the Institute as well. Lots of mobile robot work, computer integrated manufacturing, rapid prototyping, sensors, vision, navigation, learning and architectures. Program is taking a set of qualifiers and a program of research leading to a thesis and the degree. Facilities include about a dozen mobile systems with more under design and construction. Many manipulator systems and lots of compute cycles/person. Faculty include: Takeo Kanade - Vision and Autonomous Systems Center Pradeep Khosla - Advanced Manipulator Laboartory Matt Mason - Manipulation Laboratory Tom Mitchell - Learning Robots Lab Hans Moravec - Mobile Robots Lab Mel Seigel - Sensors Laboratory (non vision) Steve Shafer - Calibrated Imaging Laboratory Red Whittaker - Field Robotics Center and many others..... Graduate program contact: Graduate Admissions Coordinator The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Colorado School of Mines Mobile Robotics/Machine Perception Laboratory Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences The Colorado School of Mines is a state university, internationally renowned in the energy, materials, and resource fields, attracting outstanding students in a broad range of science and engineering disciplines. The School of Mines is strongly committed to quality teaching and research. CSM provides an attractive campus environment, a collegial atmosphere, relatively small size (3000 students, about 30% in graduate programs), and an ideal location in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains 13 miles from downtown Denver and an hour from most ski areas. The Dept. of Mathematical and Computer Sciences offers BS, MS, and PhD degrees under the department title. With a faculty of 18 tenured and tenure track members, the department annually receives roughly a million dollars in grants; 116 undergraduate students and 70 graduate students are currently enrolled in ou r degree programs. The computer science group within the department has a strong focus in AI (symbolic and neural nets) and database and parallel processing syst ems. The Mobile Robotics/Machine Perception Laboratory is a facility devoted to basic and interdisciplinary research, technology transfer, and hands-on education in artificial intelligence through robotics. Research and technology transfer efforts concentrate on the reduction of human risk in hazardous situations, stewardship of the environment, and/or improvement of the quality of life throug h better manufacturing processes. Research in the MR/MP laboratory is supported by NSF, ARPA, NASA, and local industries. For more information, please send email to Dr. Robin R. Murphy, rmurphy@mines.colorado.edu. Include a brief summary of your educational (with GPA) and work experience, what your research interests are, and GRE scores. Cornell Ithaca, NY Mechanical Engineering Sam Landsberger Jeff Koechling Bruce Donald Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA Georgia Institute of Technology Robotics Activities Application study areas: Servo control and low level coordination Machine intelligence and high level control Design, sensors and actuators Human/machine interface Robot applications are in areas such as manufacturing {K. Lee} poultry processing {W. Daley, G. McMurray, J.C. Thompson} and nuclear waste inspection and cleanup {R. Arkin, W. Book, S. Dickerson, T. Collins, A. Henshaw} are underway. Several robotics researchers are regularly involved in a student aerial robot design competition in which concurrent engineering concepts are being used to tailor the characteristics of the system.{D. Schrage} This competition, held at Georgia Tech and sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems, has been won by Georgia Tech entries for two of the three years it has been held. --Current research topics and researchers: Long arm control {W. Book} Parallel actuation of manipulators {K. Lee} 3DOF direct drive actuator {K. Lee} Special purpose end-effectors {R. Bohlander, H. Lipkin} Parallel processing computer architectures for robot sensing and control. {R. Bohlander, C. Alford, T. Collins, A. Henshaw} Laser generated ultrasound to sense structure of materials {C. Ume} Gallium arsenide based rad-hard electronics. {W. Hunt} Autonmous vehicles positioning {S. Dickerson} Collision avoidance techniques {R. Arkin, W. Book} Flexible arm control {W. Book} Two arm coordinated motion.{Alford, Vachtsevanos} Advanced feedback control, learning control, bounded uncertainty approach, applications to rigid and flexible manipulators, force control . {N Sadegh, Y Chen, W. Book} Architectures, Framework for reactive control and hierarchical planning, vision feedback, fuzzy logic application {Arkin, D. Lawton, G Vachtsevanos} Human Computer Interaction {M Kelly, H. Lipkin} Harvard Roger Brockett Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science both have strong robotics efforts. Asada, Slotine, Brooks, Raibert and others are known and respected for their work in direct-drive arm, control techniques, architectures, running machines etc. New York University (NYU) Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Richard Wallace - vision North Carolina State Univerisity Raleigh, NC Professor Ren Luo 919.515.5199 Purdue Avi Kak: Vision and mobile robots Antti Koivo: Manipulation Mirek Skibiniewski: Construction Robotics Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Center for Intelligent Robotic Systems for Space Exploration (CIRSSE) George Saridis Arthur Sanderson Jon Wenn Appro. 20 PhD and 30 MS students working in the center. Path planning and multi-arm control are current focus. Stanford University Palo Alto, CA Mechanical Engineering: Bernard Roth (kinematics of manipulators) Mark Cutkosky: destrous manipulation and concurrent manufacturing Larry Liefer (rehabilitation, user interfaces) CS Department: Nils Nilsson Mike Genesereth Jean-Claude Latombe (path planning and geometric reasoning) Leo Guibas (geometric reasoning) Tom Binford (vision) Yoav Shoham (agents) Oussama Khatib Aerospace Robotics Laboratory: Bob Cannon (teleoperation, free flyers, space robotics, flexible manipulators) University of California at Berkeley Faculty in Robotics at UC Berkeley Dept. of EE&CS: Prof. J. Canny: motion planning Prof. R. Fearing: tactile sensing, dextrous manipulation Prof. J. Malik: computer vision Prof. S. Sastry: multi-fingered hands, control Dept. of Optometry/EE&CS: Prof. L. Stark: telerobotics Dept. of Mechanical Engineering: Prof. R. Horowitz: control of robotic manipulators Prof. H. Kazerooni: man-robotic systems Prof. M. Tomizuka: control of robotic manipulators Richard Muller - micro mechanisms University of Kansas Space Technology Center (Telerobotics) University of Kentucky Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems (founded 1990) University of Massachusetts Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics Computer Science Department Mosaic - http://piglet.cs.umass.edu:4321/lpr.html Faculty: Rod Grupen Robin Popplestone The lab is equipped with two General Electric P-50 robots, two GE A4s, a Zebra Zero, and a Denning mobile platform. In addition, the P-50s are fitted with a 4-fingered Utah/MIT and a 3-fingered Stanford/JPL* dexterous hand, respectively. The lab includes VxWorks distributed VME controllers and an experimental real-time kernel (Spring kernel). Research conducted at the lab includes: o controller composition for coordinating multiple robots o grasp planning o geometric reasoning for robust assembly & fine motion control o learning for admittance control & path optimization o biological models of motor planning o proprioceptive, tactile, & visual model acquisition o trajectory planning, coarse reaching o state-space decomposition The laboratory also engages in collaborative research with the Computer Vision (A. Hanson, E. Riseman, directors) and Adaptive Networks (A. Barto, director) groups within the department. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI Elec. Eng. and CS, relevant to robotics includes machine vision, systems and control, multiple cooperating agents (arms and mobile), and application of SOAR to robots (arms and mobile). (in conjunction with SOAR groups at CMU and elsewhere) Contacts: Johann Borenstein Yorem Koren University of Pennsylvania. UPenn offers Masters and PhD programs in Robotics and Robotics related fields of study. These programs are offered through the Departments of Computer and Information Science, Systems Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. The bulk of the robotics research is conducted in the inter-disciplinary General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception (GRASP) laboratory. Active areas of research are Telerobotics, Multiple Arm Control, Robotic Vision, Learning Control, Multi-agent Robotics and Mechanical Design. Leading Faculty members are Drs. R. Bajcsy and R.P. Paul. University of Southern California (USC) USC has a new MS Program called: Master of Science in Computer Science with specialization in Robotics & Automation Beginning in Fall, 1993, this new MS program seeks to prepare students for a career in the application of Computer Science to design, manufacturing, and robotics. It also serves as an introduction to this area for students who wish to pursue advanced studies and research leading to a Ph.D. A major goal is to produce a steady stream of graduates who are qualified to tackle challenging problems in the development of software for CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing) and robotics. There is a strong focus on designing and building within the program Exposure to the practical aspects (and difficulties) of robotics and automation is strongly encouraged through laboratory work, and an optional thesis, conducted in collaboration with industry and research laboratories. For additional information, a complete set of degree requirements, and application materials, contact our Student Coordinator: Ms. Amy Yung Computer Science Department University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781 tel: 213.740.4499 net: Faculty include: George Bekey : Assembly planning, design for assembly, neural nets for robot control, autonomous robots. Ken Goldberg : Motion planning, grasping, machine learning. Sukhan Lee : Assembly planning, sensor-based manipulation. Gerard Medioni: Computer vision. Ramakant Nevatia: Computer vision. Keith Price: Computer vision. Aristides Requicha: Geometric modeling, geometric uncertainty, planning for manufacture and inspection About twenty other faculty member associated with the Institute for th USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI). Brochure can be obtained from: Ken Goldberg, Asst Professor IRIS, Dept of Computer Science Powell Hall Room 204 University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-0273 Internet: goldberg@usc.edu University of Maryland Space Systems Laboratory. Facilties include a large neutral bouyancy tank, and a number of free-flying teleoperators used underwater in the NBT. Much teleoperations research. Dave Akin - director Dave has flown shuttle experiments and his research is in the areas of teleoperation, control, man-machine interaction and is one of the very few in the robotics community to fly hardware in space. The University of Texas at Arlington F.L. Lewis Automation and Robotics Research Institute University of Texas at Arlington 7300 Jack Newell Blvd S Ft. Worth, TX 76118 tel: 817.794.5972 fax: 817.794.5952 UT Arlington is located in the heart of the Dallas / Ft. Worth metroplex. The EE department current has 33 faculty and the CSE department has 20 faculty. Participating students will also be able to conduct research at the Automation and Robotics Research Institute located in Ft. Worth. University of Wisconsin-Madison Mechanical Engineering & Electrical Engineering: Roland Chin - machine vision, pattern recognition Neil Duffie - teleoperation, autonomous systems, sensors Robert Lorenz - actuators and sensors, robot control algorithms Vladimir Lumelsky - motion planning, real-time sensing and navigation Computer Science: Charles Dyer - machine vision Wisconsin Center for Space Robotics and Automation (WCSAR) - Interdepartmental NASA center: work is done on various applications of robotic systems for space. University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 Steve Jacobsen Center for Engineering Design 3176 MEB Hands, manipulators, biomedical applications, teleoperation. Micro electro-mechanical systems design. Yale University - Vision and Robotics Group There is a broad spectrum of research activities in vision and robotics at Yale. The members of this group include faculty from Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Psychology, Neuroscience, and the Yale Medical School. Active areas of research include machine vision, humanand computer object recognition, geometric reasoning, mobile robotics, sensor-based manipulation, control of highly dynamic nonlinear systems, planning, and learning. There is also a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary work integrating robotics and machine vision. Faculty: James S. Duncan: Geometric/physical models for analysing biomedical images. Gregory D. Hager: Sensor-based/task-directed decision-making and planning. David J. Kriegman: Model-based object recognition, mobile robot navigation. Drew McDermott: Planning and scheduling reactive behavior, knowledge representation, cognitive mapping. Eric Mjolsness: Neural network approaches to vision and visual memory. Pat Sharpe: Computational models of hippocampal spatial learning. Michael J. Tarr: Behavioral and computational approaches to visual cognition. Kenneth Yip: Automated reasoning about complex dynamical systems. CANADA------------ McGill University Department of Biomedical Engineering 3775 University Street Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B4 Faculty: Ian Hunter and John Hollerbach Interests include: Master-slave manipulators for precise surgery University of Alberta Edmontom, Alberta Canada T6H 2H1 Center for Machine Intelligence and Robotics Robotics Research Laboratory, Department of Computing Science Ron Kube UNITED KINGDOM-------------- University of the West of England at Bristol [I had some email from David Eastlake on this in Jan but no followup - please send when you can. Thanks - nivek] Bristol University Mr Khodlebandelhoo Bi arm research Path planning for redundant robots Wall climbing robots Hull University, UK Prof Alan Pugh Garment Manufacturing Arm/controller design University of Oxford Robotics Research Group The Robotics Group currently comprises about seventy academics, postdoctoral research staff, overseas visitors, and graduate students. A broad range of topics in advanced robotics is studied in collaboration with industry and government establishments throughout Europe. Robot Design and Control A number of projects are concerned with the design and control of compliant robot arms. Parallel Architectures Real-time sensor-based control of systems such as robot vehicles is a topic of increasing interest. For low bandwidth sensors such sonar, the emphasis is on Transputer architectures. For high bandwidth sensors such as vision, hybrid SIMD/MIMD architectures are being developed. A rapidly growing effort is concerned with the design, implementation, and application of neural networks. Digital and hybrid digital/analog chips have been designed and are being fabricated. Algorithms and TTL circuits have been constructed for text-to-speech synthesis. Vision and Active Vision The theory and applications of vision accounts for approximately one-third of the laboratory's effort. Current projects include edge detection and texture segmentation and the computation of visual motion by a parallel algorithm that estimates the optic flow field. Sensors and Sensor Integration Includes laser rangefinder development in addition to analog and digital sonar sensors, as well as infrared rangers, have been developed for the AGV project (below). Autonomous Guided Vehicles Work on a research prototype of a fielded industrial AGV cuts across many of the separate themes of the laboratory's work. The goal of the initial project is to equip the AGV with sonar, infrared, laser ranging, trinocular stereo, and model-based vision sensors to enable it to avoid unexpected obstacles and to locate pallets. Reading University, UK Prof Kevin Warwick Using neural nets in robotics and novel control algorithms. Salford University Dr D.P.Barnes Dept. Of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Mobile Robots Research Group. Autonomous mobile robot system with a behaviour-based architecture are designed and built with the intent to study the processes of cooperation with and without communication. Such an approach has led us up a number of paths with present work in behaviour synthesis and evolutionary robotics. Expertise in: Robotics, Sensors, Communication, Connectionist Systems, Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming. Possible studies in PhD and MSc work and courses at undergraduate level. Dr D.Caldwell Dept Of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Multi-Functional Tactile Sensing and Feedback (Tele-taction) Tele-presence of an operator with a full mobile robot with two manipulator arms, stereo vision and sound. Tactile sensing datagloves are used to control the manipulators and video camera is used to move head (!). Expertise: Manipulators, Sensors, Tele-presence. Possible studies at PhD and MSc and courses at undergraduate level. Advanced Robotics Research Centre Ultrasonic wrist sensor for collision avoidance Controller design Stereo Vision Dr Francis Nagy Speech Control of a Puma-560 Control of an 'Inverted Pendulum' Miniature tactile sensors University of Surrey Mechatronic Systems and Robotics Research Group contacts: Prof G A Parker (g.parker@surrey.ac.uk) John Pretlove (j.pretlove@surrey.ac.uk) Primary Areas of Research activity: 3D co-ordinate tracking system for robot metrology Neural networks and expert systems for vision and inspection Active stereo vision for real-time robot arm guidance Design of controllable stereo vision systems. Open architecture Puma controller Mobile robots We also offer MSc courses and undergraduate courses in automation, control, mechanical engineering and CIM. FRANCE------------- University of Paris INRIA (Nice) just started a Phd program in Robotics. SWITZERLAND-------- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Robotics Postgrad diploma in Mechatronics The Institute of Robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) constitutes about 40 members of staff (including Ph.D. students). The main research theme is Intelligent Interactive Mechines. That is to say developing intelligent robots that in cooperation with man solves difficult tasks. The institute takes its students from the departments of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science. Robotics lectures and project work is offered to undergraduate students. In addition there is the "Nachdiplom" in mechatronics (somewhere near a M.Sc.) where robotics is a central theme. For further details on the "Nachdiplom" see below. Finally there are about 30 Ph.D. students curently registered working on a variety of themes and projects. Institute facilities include: several different robot arms including the in house developed modular robot arm (MODRO), mobile vehicles including the in house developed modular mobile robot, walking machines, supercomputing facilities, dedicated vision and signal processing hardware, etc. The head of the group is Professor G. Schweitzer. Address: Institute of Robotics ETH-Center, LEO, 8092 Zurich Switzerland tel: (01) 256 35 84 (secretary) fax: (01) 252 02 76. The "Nachdiplom" in mechatronics runs over two semesters plus three months project/thesis work. The lectures covers: robotics, mobile robotics, micro robots, computer based kinematics and dynamics of multibody systems, control theory, magnetic bearings, real time software techniques, information processing with neural networks, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. The fees are 2400,- Swiss Franks, founding is available. Contact: H.-K. Scherrer Mechatronics postgraduate course ETH-Centre, LEO B3 8092 Zurich Switzerland net: ___________________________________________________________________________ End of part1 -- aka: Kevin Dowling Carnegie Mellon University tel: (412) 268-8830 The Robotics Institute adr: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 -- aka: Kevin Dowling Carnegie Mellon University tel: (412) 268-8830 The Robotics Institute adr: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Area # 2120 news.answers 02-26-94 15:19 Message # 6876 From : NIVEK@RI.CMU.EDU To : ALL Subj : comp.robotics Frequently ÿ@SUBJECT:comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 2/2 ÿ@PACKOUT:03-04-94øFr Message-ID: Newsgroup: comp.robotics,news.answers,comp.answers Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Archive-name: robotics-faq/part2 Last-modified: Thu Feb 24 20:33:06 1994 This is part 2 of 2 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list. This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to robotics. Part 2 [use the +++ to assist in searching] +++Sensors +++Actuators +++Imaging for Robotics +++Wireless Communication +++Robot Parts: Suppliers and Sources +++Hero Robots +++Puma Manipulators +++Simulators +++Real-Time Operating Systems +++Robot Controller Survey +++Microcontrollers +++Books +++Acknowledgements ____________________________________________________________________________ This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1993 Kevin Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is forbidden. Changes, additions, comments, suggestions and questions to: Kevin Dowling tel: 412.268.8830 Robotics Institute fax: 412.682.1793 Carnegie Mellon University net: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ___________________________________________________________________________ +++Sensors: This list covers only the most frequently requested types of robot sensors. These include point-range sensors, cameras, and acoustic devices. See Sensors magazine directory for a large and comprehensive list. This list covers the following: [use === to search] ===cameras ===inertial measurement devices ===rangefinding devices ===force/torque sensors, accelerometers, tactile ===sonar sensors ===position determination devices ===pan/tilt mechanisms ===shape memory devices ===measuring linear motion ===Cameras There are a large number of cameras on the market and even many consumer products such as the smaller camcorders are inexpensive and suitable for some imaging applications. I'll try to list some different and unusual ones here. Note that although some of these cameras are very small many of them are appended to a large box of electronics via a cable that supplies power and transmits video. For mobile applications DC power inputs may be an issue as well. Cohu 5755 Kearny Villa Road San Diego, CA 92123 tel: 619.277.6700 X225 fax: 619.277.0221 Cohu makes a number of solid state cameras including board level and remote head devices. The 1100 series is designed for OEM use. It outputs standard RS-170 with 768x494 CCD resolution. 10cmx4.5cmx1.6cm w/o lens. Other units include the 550 series Intensified Monochrome CCD Camera for low-light applications. The 4110 has digital output (eliminates pixel jitter), The 6X00 series are small monochrome remote head cameras and the 8000 series cameras are color remote head devices. A variety of ouputs are available includeing NTSC, RGB, PAL/Y-C. A high resolution unit, the 8410 series, provides 1134x486 pixels (850 horz TV lines) Sony Component Products 15 Essex Road, Paramus, NJ 07652 tel: 201.368.5188 fax: 201.368.3514 Sony XC/999/999P is a nice small color CCD camera the size of a microphone. CCD resolution is 768Hx493V. The 999 is NTSC and the 999P is the PAL format. XC-75 has small camera head and separate electronics. Toshiba America Information and Imaging Technologies Group 1010 Johnson Drive Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-6900 tel: 800.253.5429 fax: 708.541.1927 Toshiba IK-M40A high resolution microminiature color camera. Camera head is 39mm long, 17mm diameter and weighs 16g. 1/2" CCD w/ 410,000 pixels, high sensitivity (5 lux at F1.6) and electronic shutter. RGB output standard. uses cables up to 30m. Several lenses available. About $2K. Panasonic GP-KS152 -- head is 1 3/8" long, 15/32" diameter CCTV Corporation 315 Hudson Street New York, NY 10013 tel: 800.221.2240 fax: 212.463.9758 CCTV makes a number of small CCD surveillance cameras. Some as small as a pack of cigarettes that sell for less than $300. Texas Instruments TI makes a $35 CCD Imager, the TC-211, with 192x165 resolution. Following article is on a design for a camera using this chip over a parallel port from a PC. Telescope Making, Issue 46, Winter 91/92 Newark Electronics sells the TC211-M for around US$50.00 See TI's Array Image Sensor Products data manual for more details. Wintriss Engineering Corp 6342 Ferris Square San Diego, CA 92121 tel: 619.550.7300 tel: 800.733.8089 Wintriss makes a 2048 pixel line scan camera that can be used for object imaging, velocity measurement and positioning with multiple cameras. Can be used to determine spped and trajectory of objects in flight. This has been used in archery applications. RS485 interface with 8Mb/sec serial data rate. Can be linked directly with Wintriss DSP boards for post-processing and communications. Price $1250. DAK Industries 8200 Remnet Ave Canoga Park, CA 91304 tel: 800.325.0800 (ordering) tel: 800.888.9818 (technical) fax: 818.888.2837 DAK sells all kinds of gadgets for the home and business. One device is a security camera that is smaller than a credit card (length and width) and 38mm deep. B/W 251,904 pixels, 60 degree lens and built-in microphone. Has built-in IR transmitters for seeing in total darkness. $199 for camera, 20m cable, AC adapter and stands. Other packages include monitors and two-camera switcher for $299 total. Extra cable is $29.90 ====Inertial measurement devices This includes such devices as accelerometers such as accelerometers, gyros, and inertial devices used for measuring orientation or acceleration of moving vehicles. Accelerometers are devices for measuring the rate of change in velocity and can provide estimations of distance or be used to detect high forces. There are several gyros mainly for radio controlled helicopters. These are rate gyros, used to sense the rate of turn about a particular axis (usually vertical, for tail rotor control), and are designed to connect between an R/C receiver and a servo. These gyros work by modifying the PWM signal that the rx produces, before it gets to the servo. The sensing is usually done by a linear hall effect device, which senses the position of a magnet on the bottom of the flywheel assembly. The gyros have both sensitivity and gain controls, and some can be switched on and off remotely. They have been used for sensing rotation about an axis for a VR headset, with some success. The big advantage is they are relatively cheap, the big disadvantage is high drift rate. BEI - Systron Donner 2700 Systron Drive, Concord, CA 94518-1399 tel: 510.682.6161 fax: 510.671.6590 GyroChip - a very small solid state angular rate sensor. Based a quartz tuning fork device - all support electronics are included. Max range available: +/-10 deg/sec to +/-1000 deg/sec. Input +/- 5VDC Output scale +/- 2.5VDC. Systron Donner also makes a variety of linear accelerometers and inertial measurement products. Solid state six axis inertial sensor. It provides analog signals for 3 axis acceleration and 3 axis rate. The package is 3"x3"x3.56, weighs ~600grams and takes +-15V unreg in (7W). Bias drift is on the order of 0.005 deg/sec short term (0.1deg/sec long term). Cost is $12,000 for one or $10,000 for 2-9 (a good single axis rate gyro usually costs $6K+). Various acceleration and rate range o +- 20g). Delivery is about 6wks. Gyration Inc. Saratoga CA tel: 408-255-3016 Sells small vertical and directional gyros for ~$500. These are standard gimballed gyros, but the drift specs probaly aren't as good as aircraft-quality gyros. Humphrey [Need Address] Wide variety of gyro and accelerometer devices. KVH Industries 110 Enterprise Center Middletown, RI 02840 tel: 401.847.3327 Nice small well-designed units that provide heading data. About $1K w/ RS232 adapter. Lucas NovaSensor 1055 Mission Court Fremont, CA 94539 tel: 510.490.9100 Lucas makes a 1"x1"x0.5" accelerometer for about $200. Good noise immunity but fragile. Murata Erie North America 2200 Lake Park Drive Smyrna, GA 30080 tel: 800.831.9172 fax: 404.436.3030 Gyrostar piezoelectric vibrating gyroscope. Uses equilateral triangular prism with PE elements attached to faces of prism. High precision compared to other vibration gyroscopes. Measures augular velocity with good linearity. Max augular vel +/- 90 deg/sec, No hysteresis, 58x25x25mm, 45g, output is DC voltage porportional to angular rate. 22.2mV/deg/sec scale factor. Gerhard Weiss has provided some results of experiments with the unit: location: ag_vp_file_server.informatik.uni-kl.de [131.246.192.2] directory: /Public/Gerd/Public/ filename: Gyrostar.ps Sundance Model Products 2427 W. Adrian St. Newbury Park, CA 91320 tel: 805.498.8857 Lists a solid state gyro for model helicopters. The SSG/1 is 38mm x 38mm x 13mm and weighs 43g. Completely solid state with no motor or moving parts. Claims to draw 10% of the power of a gyro with moving parts. No drift specs. ====Laser rangefinders -Principles There are four basic techniques for distance measurement using electro magetic radiation. These are 1 Pulse Timing 2 Phase Comparison 3 Doppler Methods 4 Interferometry All are used in practice for distance measurement depending on the particular application. Pulse timing, as the name suggests, involves measuring the round time for a signal to be transmitted to a reflective surface and return. This is the principle used in Radar, DME for aircraft, LORAN, Satellite Altimetry, Airborne RADAR Altimetry, Lunar Laser Ranging etc. Some of the newer EDM instruments used by surveyor are also using pulse timing and accuracies of +/- 5mm are possible. Most of the military range finders also use pulse timing. The GPS system uses pulse timing for coarse distance measurement. Very Long Base Interferometry (VLBI) is also a pulse timing technique where signals from pulsars are timed from two or more radio telescopes and the difference in times of arrival are converted to intercontinental distances with a precision of a few centimetres. Phase difference involves the use of a carrier wave which may be modulated at different wavelengths. By measuring the diference in phase between the transmitted signal and the received signal after it has been reflected from the other end of the line, the distance can be determined as an integer number (unknown) of wavelengths plus a fraction of a wavelength which is known from the phase comparison. By using a range of modulation frequencies the ambiguity can be resolved. There are many applications of this technique. A wide range of carrier frequencies are used ranging from visible through infra red to microwave and right down to VLF. Typical instruments used by surveyors have accuracies of +/-(1to2 mm +1to3 parts per million) and use infra red as the carrier. Precise positioning using GPS can be achieved by phase comparison of the carrier wave signals of the various satellites. Accuracies in position of better than 1 part per million can be achieved. Doppler techniques were used in the earlier satellite positioning systems. The received frequency of a low orbit satellite is compared with the actual transmitted signal as a function of time. The rate of change of frequency gives the slant range between the satellite and the observer while the instant when the two freqencies are the same gives the point of closest approach. By knowing the orbital parameters of the satellite which are transmitted, the observers position can be determined. Interferometric methods are the same as those used in the original Michelson Interferometer. It is used for metrology, high precision distance measurement over short distances (up to 60 metres) and in the definition of the metre. There are a variety of laser rangefinding devices that have been built and used over the past 8 years or so for robotics. The 3D devices are still large, power hungry and heavy but give very nice images suitable for fast map building and navigation work. Expect to pay over $80K for these time-of-flight devices. Most AM Lidars measure phase shift between outgoing and reflected beams. A mirror system rasters the beam forming a video-camera-like image. Some devices supply the reflectance image as well as range which is nice for corresponding the two. Comprehensive references include: Electronic Distance Measurement by JM Rueger, Springer-Verlag P. Besl, ``Active, Optical Range Imaging Sensors'', Machine Vision and Applications, v. 1, p. 127-152, 1988. A longer version of Besl's paper appears in ``Advances in Machine Vision: Architectures and Applications'', J. Sanz (ed.), Springer-Verlag, 1988. Other good surveys are Ray Jarvis' article in IEEE TPAMI v5n2 and Nitzan's article in IEEE PAMI v10n2. A good report on the characterization of a particular scanner is: Experimental Characterization of the Perceptron Laser Rangefinder, In So Kweon, Regis Hoffman, and Eric Krotkov. Carnegie Mellon University Technical Report, CMU-RI-TR-91-1. 1991. A number of laboratory works have also demonstrated FM or chirp systems which can be highly accurate (e.g. high resolution elevation maps of coins) but these are very specialized and I don`t know of commercial devices currently. -COMMERCIAL DEVICES ERIM (Environmental Research Institute of Michigan) ERIM has built a number of custom AM laser rangefinders including those used in the ALV (Autonomous Land Vehicle) program. CMU and Martin Marietta have both used this systems in extensive work. Basic system was a 128x64 2fps 20m (ambiguity interval) system. Odetics 1515 South Manchester Ave Anaheim, CA 92802-2907 tel: 714.758.0300 Odetics has made a number of smaller laser scanners. That is, smaller than their larger ERIM and Perceptron brethren. I have not heard any independent reviews of the product however. Perceptron 23855 Research Drive Farmington Hills, MI 48335-2643 tel: 313.478.7710 tel: 800.333.7753 fax: 313.478.7059 A spin-off of ERIM, Perceptron has also built a number of AM laser rangefinders. CMU and Caterpillar have used these for map building and obstacle avoidance work in rough terrain navigation. 128x128 programmable up to 2048x2048 through tilt, 2fps, programmable tilt on nodding mirror. About $90K. Prices have come down substantially recently. LASAR product - provides range and reflectance. Programmable field of view (15 to 60 deg) Vertical viewing angle from 3 to 72 degrees. Depth of field from 2 to 40 meters. Up to 1024 x 2048 pixels per image (programmable) and 360,000 pixels/second data acquisition. VME and PC-compatible interfac cards available. Windows software provides starting point for custom applications. Schwarz Electro-Optics 3404 N. Orange Blossom Trail Orlando, FL 32804 tel: 407.298.1802 fax: 407.297.1794 Schwarz makes some very nice point range laser ranging devices. These devices are slightly bigger than a soda can. About $6-12K. CMU experience for use in simulated unmanned air vehicle platform worked well. Their MARS (marine angle range system) is a rotating laser device that reflects off targets in the environment. Max range up to 1000meters using corner prisms. Accuracy +/- 1m. Erebus (Dante) Scanner used Schwarz device as base. Origin Instruments 854 Greenview Drive Grand Praire, TX 750750-2438 tel: 214.606.8740 fax: 214.606.8741 The Dynasight sensor is a 3-D optical radar that provides real-time 3-D measurements of passive targets with sub-millimeter resolution. Automatic search and track is provided, eye-safe operation and no lignment required. Original application was head tracking of computer users but end- effector tracking is also viable. Operatin range depends on target size 0.1-1.5m for 7mm target, 0.3-4m for 25mm target and 1 to 6m for 75mm targets. RS-232 interface. Accuracies 1mm cross range and 4mm down range, resolutions 0.1mm cross range and 0.4mm down range. A number of labs have built light stripe devices using projected light LCD shutters and laser line projectors determine distance through geometry (as opposed to directly measuring distance through time-of-flight means) One common need is that of generating the laser line. LaserMax Rochester, NY tel: 716.272.5420 Manufactures semiconductor laser diode packages and cylindrical lenses. Packages and small and rugged. Hammamatsu Corp. New Jersey tel: 908.231.0960 fax: 908.231.1539 Hamamatsu S4282 Light Modulation Photo IC The size of a normal transistor (approx 1/4" square). It has 4 leads, Vcc, Gnd, Vout, LED. All you do is attach an IR LED to the LED lead to give you an instant IR proximity detector (the photo diode detector is built into the part). Two can be aimed at each other and they won't interfere since they'll be out of phase. They have another model with a lens over the photo diode that is claimed could be used up to 30 feet! Hammamatsu also sells a number of photo sensors like color sensors, position sensitive detectors, pyroelectric sensors. S4282-11 short range $7.75 single unit S4282-72 long range $19.00 single unit [from articles by Prabal K Dutta and Shane Bouslough ] ESP Technologies 21 LeParc Drive Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 tel: 609.275.0356 fax: 609.275.0356 $15K LED based IR ranging system. 15cm diameter rotating scanning device with collimated LED light beam that uses phase differences to calculate distance. Range 0.6 to 6m. 2.5cm resolution, 15cm accuracy. 1Khz update rate IBEO Lasertechnik Ingenieurburo fur Elektronik + Optik Fahrenkron 125 D 2000 Hamburg 71 tel: 040 645 87 - 01 fax: 040 645 87 - 101 2D and 3D laser scanners. 8frame/sec, 220 degree view, 4600 points/sec. Accuracy +/- 20mm (1 sigma) from 0.5 - 500? 24W power. System specs can be configured for variety of applications. ===Force and Torque Sensors: Force measurement provides indications of magnitude and direction of forces for use in manipulation or locomotion. A variety of control schemes have been implemented in force controlled systems to allow smooth and accurate control in situations that would otherwise be precluded without such devices. A number of load cells and acceleration measuring devices are described here: Analog Devices tel: 617.937.1426 Analog Devices have the ADXL50 accelerometer which comes in a 10-pin TO-5 can. It is primarily used with air-bags and has a 1994 projected price of $5 in quantities. In the Electronic Design August 8, 1991 issue it quoted the current price as $21.75 for 1000 off quantities. Assurance Technologies (ATI) (formerly Lord Industrial Automation) 503D Highway 70 East Garner, North Carolina 27529 tel: 919.772.0115 fax: 919.772.8259 Largest supplier of multi-axis force sensors. Use silicon rather than foil strain gages for lower strain levels and increased life. F/T sensor ratings from +/- 15lbs to +/- 150lbs (+/- 15 in-lbs to +/- 600 in-lbs) weights are 0.4 and 2.2 lbs for the 4 available sensors. Serial or parallel digital interface or analog interface. ATI also makes robotic tool-changers and an RCC device for assembly operations. An ATI sensor is also incorporated in the Hughes SMARTee end-effector. California Cybernetics 10322 Sherman Grove Sunland, CA 91040 tel: 818.353.5991 fax: 818.951.3889 Six DOF F-T devices. Up to 1000Hz sampling rate, reportedly easy to interface. Cybernet 1919 Green Road Suite B-101 Ann Arbor, MI 48105 tel: 313.668.2567 fax: 313.668.8780 net: PER-force - A 6dof compact force-reflecting controller. Can be used for teleoperationor interactive graphics applications. Hughes STX 4400 Forbes Blvd Lanham, MD 20706 tel: 301.794.5016 fax: 301.306.0963 A 6-dof end-effector with automatic load sensing and compensation. Control modes include position control (cartesian with user spec-ed poses and frames), impedence and force control modes. Programmable behaviors (sliding, hinge, move-to-touch, guarded move, follow etc), open architecture (VxWorks, VME, user-linakable libraries) and a lot more. Interfaces available included RS-232, ethernet, RS-422 and SCSI. Pretty amazing end-effector! Interlink Electronics 1110 Mark Ave. Carpinteria, CA 93013 Force Sensing resistors. Article in March 1993 issue of Electronics Now/Radio Electronics. JR3 22 Harter Avenue Woodland, CA 95695 tel: 916.661.3677 6-DOF force-torque sensors. Strain gage technology. Newer packages have all electronics built into the sensor. Make some high-force devices as well. CMU's Ambler used JR3's on all the feet with good success. Complete force torque data at 8Khz, signal digitization within sensor body, low noise susceptibility, synch serial at 2MHz, inexpensive cabling. The following are tactile sensors - need addresses: Ercon MA Conductive rubber and conductive inks. You build a semi-rigid circuit board with inter-digitated fingers to apply to one side of the rubber. The rubber has a rough surface that under increasing load allows more rubber to contact. They can make rubber with all sorts of conductive properties. Interlink Polymer based array sensor used in many robotic fingers. Bonneville Scientific Array sensor system that uses a little ultrasonic emmiter/dector stuck to compliant material. They measure TOF of the pulse as it bounces off of other side of the material. Bonneville claims it can be made thin enough for a skin and they have pictures of it being used on a robot finger picking up a washer which can be recognized on their output graphics. Emed Systems Capacitive-based sensor. A complete electronics system must be purchased with sensor. ===Sonar sensors -PRINCIPLES The time it takes for an acoustic pulse to propagate through air or water, reflect from the environment and return to a detector is porportional to the distance. Acoustic time-of-flight devices have been around for awhile now. The ubiquitous Polaroid device is cheap and easily integrated and has has found wide use in robotic devices. Other companies have developed nice complete turnkey sonar devices though and Polaroid is no longer the only choice. Polaroid 119 Windsor St, Cambridge, MA 02139 tel: 617.577.4681 fax: 617.577.3213 tel: 800.225.1000 ordering tel: 800.225.1618 technical assistance Polaroid Ultrasonic Components Group offers two ultrasonic ranging kits: Specs: Distance range: 0.26 to 10.7 meters Resolution: Nominal +- 3mm to 3m, +-1% over entire range Sonar acceptance angle: approx. 20 degrees Power Requirement: 6VDC, 2.5 Amps (1 ms pulse), 150mA quiescent Weight: Transducer, 8.2gm, Ranging module, 18.4 gm Designer's Kit: 1 transducer, 1 ranging module, electronics display accurate to 1/10th meter. Cost is $169 OEM kit: 2 transducers, 2 ranging modules. $99. NEW Piezotransducer kit 2.5cm-1500cm +/- 1%, RS-232 port and analog output, extra real estate, $299 This section describes a simple addition to the drive circuitry, the Polaroid ranging system can detect objects as close as 10cm. The board has two extra signals: BLNK and BINH. Asserting BLNK (driving it HIGH) resets the ECHO RS-latch, and asserting BINH shortens the internal blanking interval (which is 2.38 ms by default). Thus, the solution would seem to lie in asserting BINH after a reasonable amount of time (< 2.38 ms after asserting INIT) to detect objects closer than 1.3 feet. This doesn't work very well because BINH is very susceptable to noise, and attaching a driver to it wreaks havoc possibly because of the anomalous current sink during the transmit phase. This can be fixed by asserting BLNK during the blanking period (ie the new blanking period) while negating BINH and asserting BIHN after the blanking period while negating BLNK. This ly with a one-shot or some other timing device (eg computer timer, etc). A computer timer can be used. The timer goes HIGH tblank ms after INIT is asserted, where tblank=0.15*dist and dist is the threshold distance in inches). The timer output goes to BINH and the inverted timer output goes to BLNK. The timer output should be inverted with an LS/TTL inverter to delay the negation of BLNK, otherwise the RS latch may do weird things. [From Richard LeGrand] Siemans - nice complete sensor package, 5 degree cone angle Massa - components Texas Instruments Type SN28827 Sonar Ranging Module See TI Applications Notes D2780 Under $50, needs only 5VDC Not sure if these units are still manufactured but they are often in surplus catalogs. ===Position determination How do I measure the postion of my arm/mobile robot/thing? In many applications there is a need to accurately measure the position of an end-effector (hand or gripper) or find coordinate locations on objects, or track motion, or give a time and position history of a moving object. Virtual reality applications have really needed this kind of device to provide realtime adjustments to views that are projected to VR users. See sci.virtual-worlds for discussions on this topic. Robotics people have needed this to provide accurate assessments of manipulator motions and mobile robot positions. Required measurement ranges can be as small as a tabletop and can extend for kilometers. Useful papers to solve for transforms from positioning devices for multiple reference frames: Roger Tsai and Rainer Lenz, June 1989 IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation C. C. Wang, April 1992 IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation) Commercial Devices: ------------------- Polhemus, Acension and Shooting Star provide 6DOF devices that are geared to local tracking of a small wired RF or EM style beacon. Distances are limited to a couple of meters and accuracies to sub-cm range: Polhemus Inc. tel: 802.655.3139 fax: 802.655.1439 Burlington, VT 3Space, Isotrak, FasTrak: Electromagnetic devices for sensing xyz and rotations remotely. Limited to 1m or so radius. Sensitive to metallic objects in vicinity. Approx $3k Ascension Technology tel: 802.860.6440 fax: 802.860.6439 The Bird. A 6d0f measuring device much like the Pohlhemus device. Shooting Star Technology 1921 Holdom Avenue Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5B 3W4 tel: 604.298.8574 fax: 604.298.8580 ADL-1 6DOF tracker. Gives position/orientation measurements up to 240 times/second, with low latency (0.35 to 1.88 milliseconds.) ---Hand motions Mattel marketed the PowerGlove for use in gaming (Nintendo). It tracked finger motions through small bend sensors. The Mattel PowerGlove was developed by: Abrams-Gentile Entertainment, Inc., 244 West 54th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10019 tel: 212.757.0700. The sensors themselves are simple resistors varying from about 200K to 500K ohms depending on the amount of flex. --The following can be used to track in rooms or warehouse sized environments. Accuracies in the cm or better range. Denning Mobile Robots [DENNING IS NOT Quite DEAD - BUT CANNOT BE EASILY CONTACTED] 21 Concord Street Wilmington, MA 01887 tel: (508) 658-7800 fax: (508) 658-2492 LaserNav 2: rotating laser (Class 1 eyesafe) scans barcode targets in area and returns target angle. This is combined with target location to provide vehicle position and heading. RS-232 interface. Guidance Control Systems 44 Hidcote Road, Leicester 011 44 455 822 441 ext 3808 fax 011 44 455 824 551 Contact: Malcolm Roberts GCS's core group developed the rotating scanner and passive target system. Featured in several papers out of Oxford. Caterpillar has North American rights for materials handling applications. Uses passive targets with barcodes. Targets have unique ID's and surveyed positions. Rotating laser gives angles between targets. Target positions combined with angles gives vehicle position and heading. 2Hz scan rate but clever use of dead reckoned information and kalman filtering can give very impressive results. MacLeod Technologies 315 Littleton Rd. Chelmsford, MA 01824 tel: 508.250.4949 Update speed: 20 hz position accuracy: +/-0.05inches (1.27 mm) direction accuracy: +/- 0.05 degrees 3 D reference points cover 1 acre 1D, 2D or 3D feedback Cost: About $5K for positioning system They claim to be able to get this kind of accuracy even while the robot is moving at several meters/sec. Selspot Systems Ltd 1233 Chicago Road Troy, MI 48083 tel: 313.583.6940 fax: 313.583.1746 In Sweden: tel: +46-31-878110 fax: +46-31-278992 Two camera system registers 3D position of IR LED's at very high rates. Selspots Robot Check System can provide non-contact 3D measurement and analysis of robot motion at 500 Hz rate. System has been used for over 20 years. Used in motion studies for people, animals and robots. Qualisys AB Ogardesvagen 4 S-433 30 Partille Sweden MacReflex system uses CCD-based cameras for non-contacting measurement of robots. Two camera system is typical. Uses small passive targets and IR LED's colocated with the cameras lens. Video processor calculates centroid of markers and displays in real-time. Information is used to provide data and analysis of position, velocity, acceleration, angles, angle velocity and acceleration and position vs. time. Specs: Noise level 1:200000, Resolution 1:70000, Relative accuracy: 1:30000, and absolute accuracy 1:10000. Accuracy is defined as standard deviation of difference between measured and true positions/longest diagonal in measurement volume. Both Selspot and Qualisys are represented in the US by: Innovision Systems 30521 Schoenherr, Ste 104 Warren, MI 48093 tel: 313.751.0600 fax: 313.573.9845 Coordinate Measuring Machines are now widely used for process control, statistical monitoring, entering 3D from a physical part into a CAD system and many other uses. CMM's tend to be large and expensive. Supraporte Inc 5145-I Avenida Encinas, Carlsbad, CA 92008 Portable 6-axis measuring system. Model 2000 now available with battery power pack. Very accurate. Very expensive. Faro 125 Technology Park Lake Mary, FL 32746-6204 tel: 800.736.6063 tel: 407.333.9911 fax: 407.333.4181 Metrecom: 6DOF articulated pointer, like a portable CMM. Endpoint accuracies are around .005" -> .025", depending on model. Counterbalnaced design. Three models from 1.8m to 2.4m reach and accuracies ranging from +/- .635mm to .127mm and prices from $14.4K to $51.4K respectively. ===Pan/Tilt devices A common robotic need. Most pan-tilts sold today by companies such as Pelco and Vicon are for CCTV applications for continuous scanning or remote operation. At most these will have potentiometers for feedback. A number of undersea companies make pan-tilt devices as well that are rugged and nicely packaged, but these tend to be heavier and more expensive than their terrestrial counterparts. CameraMan CameraMan is a pan/tilt device built to support any camcorder and has a wireless interface to an external remote control. 360 deg pan and 50 deg of tilt. The unit is made by ParkerVision and sold through Columbia AudioVideo (and probably other suppliers) CCTV Corporation 315 Hudson Street New York, NY 10013 tel: 800.221.2240 fax: 212.463.9758 Standard CCTV pan-tilt devices like those from Vicon and others. Inexpensive but no computer control. $557 - $1400 Directed Perception 1451 Capuchino Avenue, Burlingame, CA 94010 tel: 415.342.9399 Small computer controlled pan-tilt unit Model PTU-46-17.5 Weighs 1kg and can support ~1.5kg camera payload. Very nice specs: 330 deg/sec slew, 3.06 arcmin accuracy, on-the-fly position and speed changes. 11-40VDC unregulated power input, RS-232 interface. Can use RS-485 using RJ-11 to provide control of multiple PT units. Cost: $1935 Includes PT unit, controller, cable and power supply. $1800 w/o power supply. Photosea 6377 Nancy Ridge Drive San Diego, CA 92121 tel: 619.452.8903 Underwater pan-tilts including Cobra, very small design. stems 5111-L Santa Fe Street San Diego, CA 92109 tel: 619.483.3902 fax: 619.483.2407 Underwater P/T systems, expensive but very nicely packaged . RSI Research Sidney, BC tel: 604.656.0101 Underwater pan-tilts Telemetrics Hawthorne, NJ tel: 201.423.0347 Computer controlled P/T devices - fairly large though. TeleRobotics International, Inc. 7325 Oak Ridge Hwy Suite 104 Knoxville, TN 37931 tel: 615.690.5600 fax: 615.690.2913 An all-electronic pan/tilt/zoom resampler. That is, they put a box behind a camera with a fish-eye lens. The box has digital inputs for pan, tilt, zoom, rotation. The box resamples the video signal and produces an output as though the image were acquired by a camera with those parameters. Used as an alternative to pan/tilt devices. Zebra Kinesis (spin-off of Zebra Robotics) Jeff Kerr tel: 415.328.8884 Small Pan/tilt head. ===Shape memory materials: Nickel-titanium alloys were first discovered by the Naval Ordinance Laboratory decades ago and the material was termed NiTinOL. These materials have the intriguing property that they provide actuation through cycling of current through the materials. It undergoes a 'phase change' exhibited as force and motion in the wire. Mondotronics 524 San Anselmo Ave., #107 San Anselmo, CA 94960 tel: 415.455.9330 tel: 800.374.5764 fax: 415.455.9333 net: A number of muscle wire (nitinol) projects including a small walking machine. Book and sample kit with 1m each of 50,100 and 150 um wire - enough to build all 14 projects in book. Memry Technologies 57 Commerce Drive Brookfield, CT 06804 tel: 203.740.7311 fax: 203.775.2359 Memry sell a Mitsubishi developed polyurethane based Shape Memory Polymer. The material undergoes property changes in hardness, flexibility, elastic modulus and vapor permeability under temperature change. Medical applications is one focus for this material. === Linear position measurement There are very few devices to directly give absolute position for linear motions. Often rack and pinion drives are combined with geared rotary encoders to give absolute position. Here are some manufacturers of Magneorestrictive sensors for measuring absolute linear position. Accuracy is usually around 0.05% of full scale. Gemco Magnetek 1080 N. Crooks Road Clawson, MI 48017-1097 tel: 313.435.0700 fax: 313.435.8120 Balluff PO Box 937 8125 Holton Drive Florence, KY 41042 tel: 800.543.8390 fax: 606.727.4823 MTS Systems Corporation (Temposonics) Sensors Division Box 13218 Research Triangle Park, NC 27708 tel: 919.677.0100 fax: 919.677.0200 Norstat PO Box 377 Hibernia, NJ 07842 tel: 201.586.2500 fax: 201.586.1590 +++Actuators [New section - much to add] ____________________________________________________________________________ How do I get a motor under computer control? What kind of motor should I use? What are the differences between actuator types? What other types of actuation are there? Types of motors: Synchronous Stepper AC servo Brushless DC servo Brushed DC servo Radio Control (RC) Servos - how do they work? Commerical controller for RC servos: ----------------------------------- Pontech 401 E 17th St Suite B Costa Mesa, CA 92627 tel: 714.642.8458 Pontech has a SV100 Servo Motor Controller which is based on the PIC 16C84 microcontroller. It accepts RS232 serial data signal from a host computer and poutput PWM to control up to four RC servo motors. Multiple boards can be parallel together to allow more servos. They also sell FUTABA FP-S148 servos. boards: $49.95, servos: $16.95, + $5.00 shipping and handling Muscle-like Actuators ---------------------- See Shape Memory section in Sensors area above. Bridgestone Corporation 3-2-25 Nishikubo, Musashino City, Tokyo 180. tel: 0422 54 5820 Rubber-based device that bends under applied pneumatic pressure. For a rotation unit typical rotation angles are 360,120,90 degrees for linear unit the contraction rate cannot exceed 20%. +++Imaging for Robotics ____________________________________________________________________________ [This is a new and incomplete section - need mmore information here] There are a wide variety of frame grabbers, computer vision systems and image processing tools available. For VME, Multibus, PC Bus, even SBUS and STD, there are a number of options for getting images into your computer. Data Cube Data Translation Mandex Technology, Inc. 1191 Chicago Road Troy, MI 48083 tel: 810.585.1165 fax: 810.585.3745 contact: M. Gupte SMART EYE I: DSP-based real-time image processing system designed specifically for mobile and fixed base robotics systems. Stand-alone image processing system on a single board. Low power consumption, small form factor, and low weight. The single board system includes: four monochrome camera inputs, video digitizer (gain and offset software adjustable), input look-up table, two frame grabbers, additional two video buffers, color mappable image display buffer, color mappable graphics overlay buffer, RGB display driver, serial communications port, and application program RAM and EPROM. Program code can be burned into EPROM. Wide variety of language and development platform support. Additional hardware expansion to provide addtional I/O capabilities. ____________________________________________________________________________ +++Wireless Communication Tethers are sometimes impractical and at best an annoyance. Digital communication via RF and IR links is becoming cheaper and a number of companies are providing off-the-shelf solutions. For basic serial line communication a wide variety of radio modems are available that use fixed frequencies or spread spectrum techniques. In many cases they are also transparent. That is, you plug them directly into serial ports on the robot and off-board computing directly. Higher bandwidths such as Ethernet or high speed synchronous serial require different hardware. However, with high speed serial communication you may even be able to SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocal) instead of using a LAN-based device. Video: For regular frame rate video over relatively short distances it's hard to beat the price and availability of several consumer products in the $100 range. Check local stores or place like the Sharper Image (Rabbit is one of the companies making these units) Microwave systems require line-of-site communication, licensing, and are expensive. Ethernet: There are some related articles in the Feb/93 Byte Magazine. Proxim Inc. 295 North Barnardo Ave. Mountain View, CA 94043 tel: 415.960.1630 fax: 415.964.5181 A product announcement for wireless LAN board on p.68 in May/92 Byte Magazine Price: $495 Range: 800 ft. Data Rate: 242 Kbps Channels: 3 Telesystems SLW 85 Scarsdale Road, Suite 201 Don Mills, Ontario, Canada ARLAN radio LAN We've used ARLAN with CMU's Ambler work. It's an ethernet bridge and it smart about routing traffic across the repeater. The 620 is about $5K. Can be used without a license in the US. (spread spectrum) 6 miles range. Motorola Radio-Telephone Systems Group, Arlington Heights, ILL tel: 708.632.5000 AltairNet: 18GHz-based system design for wireless, indoors networking. The boxes are fairly large, about the size of a shoebox, and are relocatable but not portable. Problem is that is really isn't for mobile applications. Area is really like swiss cheese. Not a problem for fine adjustment in stationary applications but a big problem for mobile devices. NCR sells the WaveLAN, which has about a 1Mbit/sec data rate. Not exactly "ethernet", but interfaceable to most networks using MS-DOS boxes as routers. Tetherlink in California is experimenting with a 2Mbit/sec cellular system that is designed for roving portables. [Need address] O'Neil and GRE America provide bidirectional 19.2Kps RS-232 links that you can run a terminal emulator or SLIP over, range about 100 ft. [need addresses] Hamtronics, Inc. 65-D Moul Rd. Hilton, NY 14468-9535 tel: 716.392.9430 fax: 716.392.9420 1200 and 9600 baud units/modules for a few hundred dollars. Cylink 310 N. Mary Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 tel: 408.735.5800 fax: 408.735.6643 AirLink - series of highspeed synch or async modems to 256kb/s. Interfaces include V.11, RS-232, EIA-530. Spread spectrum device operating in 902-928Mhz range. Monicor Electronics Fort Lauderdale, FL tel: 305.979.1907 fax: 305.979.2611 System 310 two-card OEM set for use in palmtops and handheld computing. System 310 board set transmits at 1mW to 2W for a range of 3 to 3km range. Priced at $660 in quantity. Model IC-15-48 - rugged RS232 4800 baud modem. Can network a number of these portables. $1630. A number of articles have also been posted about the modification of inexpensive walkie-talkies for wireless communication. Typical bandwidths are limited to about 1200 baud. This may be sufficient for simple command-level control of a mobile mechanism. See Archives. ____________________________________________________________________________ +++Robot Parts: Suppliers and Sources Many inquiries on comp.robotics are of the form: Where can I find X? where X might be motors, gears, fasteners, connectors etc. The following companies carry a wide selection of electronics and mechanical parts. With the possible exception of computing these companies should have all you need to build robot mechanisms. Also see the file regularly posted to sci.electronics and a number of the radio newsgroups: site: rtfm.mit.edu directory: pub/usenet/sci.electronics/ filename: My_List_of_Mail_Order_Electronics_Companies All Electronics Corp. P.O. Box 567 Van Nuys, CA 91408 tel: 800.826.5432 Electronics parts. Allied Devices 2365 Milburn Avenue, PO Box 502 Bladwin, NY 11510 tel: 516.223.9100 fax: 516.223.9172 Standard precision mechanical components American Science and Surplus tel: 708.475.8440 C&H Sales 2176 E. Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA tel: 818.796.2628 tel: 800.325.9465 Surplus parts. Motors etc. Digi-Key Corp. 701 Brooks Avenue South P.O. Box 677 Thief River Falls, MN 56701-0677 tel: 800.344.4539 Distributor of electronics components and semiconductors. Edmund Scientific 101 E. Gloucester Pike Barrington, NJ 08007-1380 tel: 609.573.6250 order tel: 609.573.6260 customer service Lots of optics, science and educational items. A little pricey but nice selection. Edmund also has a Robotic Technology Curriculum with lessons and tests featuring the Movit robots. Curriculum is $65. Graymark Box 5020 Santa Ana, CA 92704 tel: 800.854.7393 Robot and electonics kits, tools and instruments. Herbach and Rademan Co. 18 Canal St. P.O. Box 122 Bristol, PA 19007-0122 tel: 800.848.8001 (orders) tel: 215.788.5583 (office) fax: 215.788.9577 (fax) Electro-mechanical "surplus" parts, equipment and insturments. JDR Microdevices tel: 408.559.1200 fax: 800.538.5005 Surplus and lots of electronic components including cameras and some sensors. Some recent components have included: TV transmitter (part # RK-TV6, $19.95 US) transmits composite video + audio to any television set withing 600' on one of channels 2 - 6. Runs on 12VDC. Microwave doppler radar sensor. Claims to detect a person or animal up to 12' away (part number RK-MD3, $19.95 w/o case. Claims to come with complete circuit theory and instructions. Marlin P. Jones tel: 407.848.8236 McMaster-Carr Supply Company PO box 440 New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0440 tel: 908.329.3200 fax: 908.329.3772 An amazing catalog of hundreds of thousands of parts. Lots of mechanical things but not much for electronics or computing. MECI tel: 800.344.4465 Mendelson Electronics Co., Inc tel: 800.422.3525 Newark Electronics 500 N. Pulaski St. Chicago, IL 60624-1019 tel: 312.784.5100 (check locally) Major distributor of electronics components and equipment (1200+ pages) with branches throughout the US. Nordex 50 Newton Road Danbury, CT 06810-6216 tel: 203.792.9050 Gears, cams, universals etc. PIC Design PO Box 1004 Benson Road Middlebury, CT 06762-1004 tel: 800.243.6125 (except CT) tel: 203.758.8272 Bearings, clutches, brakes, couplings, tools, belts, pulleys, gears etc. Radio Shack Electronic parts and kits. Local retail stores in just about every city) SECS, Inc. 520 Homestead Avenue Mt. Vernon, NY 10550 tel: 914.667.5600 Gears and gear assemblies, belt drives, couplings, bearings, small parts. Seitz Box 1398 Torrington, CT 06790 tel: 203.243.5115 Drive components, gears etc. Servo Systems 115 Main Road PO Box 97 Montville, NJ 07045-9299 tel: 201.335.1007 fax: 201.335.1661 Surplus pieces and prices, motors, actuators, geardrives, controllers, robots, encoders, transducers, amplifiers. Small Parts Inc. 6891 NE Third Ave PO Box 381966 Miami, FL 33238-1966 tel: 305.557.8222 fax: 305.751.6217 Lots of neat small supplies including: materials, metal stock, fasteners, tools etc. Stock Drive Products 2101 Jericho Turnpike Bobx 5416 New Hyde Park, NY 11042-5416 tel: 516.328.3300 fax: 516.326.8827 Great set of handbooks of thousands of components. Winfred M. Berg 499 Ocean Ave., East Rockaway, LI, NY 11518 tel: 516.599.5010 Precision Mechanical Components Any technical library should have catalogs from the larger distributors. These include McMaster-Carr, Grainger, Allied, Newark, etc. ____________________________________________________________________________ +++Hero robots: Heath/Heathkit/Zenith [OUT OF BUSINESS] Benton Harbor, MI order: 800.253.0570 tech: 616.982.3980 Heros are no longer being made but Heath (Zenith) still offers some replacement parts. They had about 8 years of sales: 4,000 Hero Jr's, 3,000 Hero 2000's, 14,000 assembled Hero 1's. Ones with less capability didn't do as well but higher priced ones did ok in the market. Service and maintainability are a problem due to the sheer number of bolts, pulleys, boards, sensors, cables etc. Used ones can be picked up cheap - but caveat emptor. There is also a mailing group for hero owners managed by Dave Goodwin: Send the following command in the message body: Subscribe Hero-owners You may also want to include a HELP command line to get the commands and their syntax. Note that the subject on the message is irrelevant. Of course, to post a message to the group, just send it to hero-owners at the same host. The Mailserv software can handle files as well, but none are currently available. Hopefully, list subscribers will start to provide any nifty code they write for the archive. Finally, the list of subscribers is available from the Mailserv. See the help file for how to get it. Questions or problems should be addressed to Goodwin@smcvax.smcvt.edu, not at the waldo address. _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Puma manipulators: Pumas are probably the most common robot in university laboratories and one of the most common assembly robots. Designed by Vic Schienman and financed by GM at MIT in the mid-70's, the Puma (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly) was produced for many years by Unimation (later purchased by Westinghouse and sold at a loss later to Staubli, a Swiss company) Found in many university labs as well. Staubli Automation 211 Overlook Drive Sewickly, PA 15143 tel: 412.741.1740 Staubli Unimation Ltd Unit G, Stafford Park 18 Telford, Shropshire, TF3 3Ax UK PUMA singularities: The PUMA has three singularities: the ``alignment'' singularity (wrist is as close to the axis of joint 1 as it can get), the ``elbow'' singularity (elbow is fully extended or folded up; the latter is not possible because of joint limits), and the wrist singularity (the axes of joints 4 and 6 are aligned). The angles corresponding to these depend on the Denavit-Hartenburg (DH) parameter assignment. For the PUMA, the definitions given in [1] are perhaps the most commonly used Using these, and letting A2, A3, D3, and D4 denote the translational DH offsets, the singularities occur when the following are true: Alignmng2+ang3) == 0 Elbow: sin(ang3 - atan2(A3,D4)) == 0 Wrist: sin(ang5) == 0 Typical offset values for the PUMA 560 are A2 = 431.80 D3 = 149.09 A3 = 20.32 D4 = 433.070 [information provided by John Lloyd ] Puma Gear Ratios ---------------- Joint # Gear Ratio -------- ----------- 1 0.01597 2 0.00931 3 0.01884 4 0.01428 5 0.01391 6 0.01303 ------------------------------------ Trident Robotics and Research, Inc. 2516 Matterhorn Drive Wexford, PA 15090-7962 (412) 934-8348 email: A board for replacing the PUMA LSI/11 controller with the CPU of your choice: The board is basically an I/O board with D/A's, A/D's, encoder counters and some digital I/O lines and is available to connect to several bus architectures including VMEbus, IBM-PC bus, Multibus and IndustryPack bus. (with others under consideration) It comes as a two-board set: A PUMA board and a bus interface board. This allows several buses to be supported and keeps the analog electronics away from the noise of the bus. (It also makes switching buses cheap, if the need ever arises.) Since it is primarily an I/O board set, it can be used in applications other than controlling a PUMA. The user's manuals are available by anonymous ftp: ftp ftp.cs.cmu.edu login as "anonymous" cd /usr/anon/user/deadslug get trc4um.ps This is a PostScript file that can be printed or viewed (to conserve paper) and describes the remote board that mounts inside the Unimate controller, replacing the VAL computer. The file trd0001.ps shows the board arrangement diagrammatically. Useful Puma references: [1] Richard Paul, Brian Shimano, and Gordon Mayer, ``Kinematic Control Equations for Simple Manipulators''. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Vol SMC-11, No. 6, June 1981. [2] B Armstrong, O Khatib, and J. Burdick The Explicit Dynamic Model and Inertial Parameters of the PUMA 560 Arm Proceedings IEEE Int. Conference on Robotics and Automation, April 1986 San Francisco, CA pp510-518 _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Simulators: Simulation allows researchers, designers and users to construct robots and task environments for a fraction of the cost and time of real systems. They differ significantly from traditional CAD tools in that they allow study of geometries, kinematics, dynamics and motion planning. This list is NOT a comparative analysis of the different systems but rather a list of systems that are available. Commercial Simulators --------------------- Auto Simulations, Inc. 655 Medical Drive Bountiful, UT 84010 tel: 801.298.1398 contact: Teresa Francis, ext 330 Products: AutoMod II Platforms: ? Cost: ? CADSI PO Box 203 Oakdale, IA 52319 tel: 800.383.1322 tel: 319.337.8968 DADS - kinematics and dynamics package. Have ProEngineer to CADSI interface. Supports rigid and flexible body analysis. Animation and interfaces to FEA/FEM and CAD programs. Deneb Robotics, Inc. 3285 Lapeer Road West PO Box 214687 tel: 313.377.6900 Product: IGRIP Platforms: SPARCs, SGI Cost: US$50-$60,000. Allows offline programming, dynamics capability etc. Mechanical Dynamics Inc. 2301 Commonwealth Blvd Ann Arbor, MI 48105 tel: 313.944.3800 ADAMS dynamics package Silma/Cimstation 1601 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road Cupertino, California 95014 tel: 408.725.8908 Product: CimStation Platforms: SGI-4D, SUN SparcStation, Apollo, Intergraph, Computervision, HP, IBM Risc6000 and DEC. Cost: Base system around $55K (commercial license) They also have a University Partnership Program to enable universities to purchase CimStation for around $20K US and $25K International. Features: Silma offers application solutions for Spot Welding, Arc Welding, Painting, Stamping and Assembly, as well as Robot Calibration Tools. Also, SILMA has direct CAD interfaces to Computervision CADDS, Parametric Technology Corporation Pro/ENGINEER, IBM CATIA ans MCS ANVIL5000. We also support VDAFS and SET in addition to IGES. Finally, in addition to CimStation Robotics, we also offer SILMA(R) CimStation Inspection - used to create, simulate and edit DMIS programs for coordinate measuring machines- (CMMs) and SILMA(R) CimStation NC Verification- used to simulate and verify NC part programs. Provides: Basic CAD Tools: 2D and 3D solid & wireframe, IGES interface, Robot Modelling: generate the required governing equations (iterative or closed form) automatically for "many" classes of robots Path Generation Kinematic Simulation with Collision Detection Dynamic Simulation (CimStation only at this point) I/O Operations John Craig, who wrote the book, Introduction to Robotics is head of Silma's R&D. Silma has a programming environment called SIL complete with its own PASCAL-like iterative language with graphics and robotics extensions. CimStation is built out of this language. This allows you to add your own functionality. E.g. your own path planner. You can also write C-code, compile it, and add it to the system. Comutek 1223 Peoples Avenue Troy, NY 12180 tel: 518.276.2817 fax: 518.276.XXXX contact: Vinay Joshi Products: Work-Out Cost: Around $25000. Tecnomatix Technologies/Robcad 39750 Grand River Avenue Suite A-3 Novi, MI 48375 tel: 313.471.6140 fax: 313.471.6147 Platforms: HP, Silicon Graphics, IBM and Sun Tecnomatix makes several packages for simulation including ones for Spot welding, Arc welding, Painting, Teleoperation (Martel), CMM and Drilling. They also have an open systems environment, ROSE, that allows user customization and interface design. ROBCAD itself allows robot modeling (library of 100 robots is supplied), collision free path generation, importation of IGES, VDAFS and SET files and direct interface with Catia and ComputerVision. [GMF - the entry that used to be here, no longer supports OLPW-200, instead they are a Robcad reseller] Simulators on the net --------------------- Ars Magna The ARS MAGNA robot simulator provides an abstract world in which a planner controls a mobile robot. The simulator also includes a simple graphical user-interface which uses the CLX interface to the X window system. Version 1.0 of the ARS MAGNA simulator is documented in Yale Technical Report YALEU/DCS/RR #928, "ARS MAGNA: The Abstract Robot Simulator". This report is available in the distribution as a Postscript(tm) file, as well as from: Paula Murano Yale University Department of Computer Science P.O. Box 2158 Yale Station New Haven, CT 06520-2158 net: Comments to Sean Engelson: ARS MAGNA is available by anonymous ftp: location: ftp.cs.yale.edu directory: pub/nisp filenames: * Flakey: A mobile robot simulator and controller. Contact: Kurt Konolige of SRI A Preliminary version of a mobile robot simulator and controller. All written in C, but you need Motif to run the graphics. This is essentially the same software run on Flakey, (robot at SRI used for research in AI), behaviors using fuzzy control (there's lots more on Flakey in terms of sensor interpretation and higher-level control, but I haven't ported that from LISP to C yet). There are three example behaviors implemented, showing dumb obstacle avoidance and goal achievement. There's not much documentation yet, but I will get some out over the next few months. The intent is to make the simulator/controller suitable for a course in mobile robotics, and to have eventually a cheap physical platform that will imitate the simulator (or vice versa). Available by anonymous ftp from: location: ftp.ai.sri.com directory: /pub/konolige filename: erratic-ver1.tar.Z Uncompress, untar and check the README file for installation. A collection of five tech reports on Flakey's fuzzy controller is also available at: location: ocean.ai.sri.com directory: /pub/saffiott filename: flakey_papers_93.tar.Z ------------------------ Simderella Simderella is a robot simulator consisting of three programs: connel: the controller simmel: the simulator bemmel: the X-windows oriented graphics back-end Simmel is the part which actually simulates the robot. It performs a few matrix multiplications, based on the Denavit Hartenberg method, calculates velocities with the Newton-Euler scheme, and communicates with the other two programs. Bemmel only displays the robot. It is a fast general-purpose display method which places separate objects in space depending on the homogeneous matrices it receives from simmel. Connel is the controller, which must be designed by the user (in the distributed version, connel is a simple inverse kinematics routine. I didn't include my neural networks.) The three programs use Unix sockets for communication. This means that 1. you need sockets 2. all the programs can run on different machines Since data communication is high-level (meaning, in this case, that I do not send doubles, integers, and so on, but encode them first), running the programs on different architectures is no problem. In fact, it was thus designed that connel can, at the same time, control a real robot _and_ the simulated one. Simderella likes to sleep; that is, when nothing happens, no processor time will be used. The software is available as a compressed tar file from: site: galba.mbfys.kun.nl [IP 131.174.82.73] directory: pub/neuro-software/pd. filename: simderella.1.0.tar.Z Extract the simulator from the tar file by typing at the Unix command line: zcat simderella.tar.Z | tar xf - or use your favourite extracting commands. In the simderella/ directory, type make The sub-directories are recursively visited and executables are compiled and linked. The software has been compiled using gcc on SunOS running under X11R4/5 on Sun3, Sun4, Sun Sparc 1, 2, and 10, and Silicon Graphics architectures (using cc, of course, which is what the gnu compiler is called there). If you're impatient, execute the thing as follows: cd bemmel; Zoscar & cd .. cd simmel; source env; simmel1 ns & cd .. cd connel; connel s all on one machine. Then type commands like f 50 50 50 k 50 50 50 or move the mouse pointer in the bemmel window and press an `l' or `r' or `u' or `d' or .... [CMU has been using this recently to facilitate software development of the Shuttle servicing robot before the hardware and mechanics are available to test the various parts of the controller - it has also been linked to TCA calls and worked very well] Public Domain SGI based simulator: This is a Silicon Graphics based delux robot simulator with lots of nice graphics Stuff. It was written by Andrew Conway and Craig Dillon as undergraduates for an electrical engineering project at the University of Melbourne. Not much in installation instructions. There is a latex manual with usage instructions and the mathematics. Warning: It is 4.3Mbytes compressed, and the US-Australia link is quite slow. Disclaimer: I [Andrew] haven't used this software for years. If it malfunctions, don't sue me or Craig, we don't guarantee it. site: krang.vis.citri.edu.au directory: pub/robot MODULSH: The complete programe is divided into three menus: Main, Drawing and Robot Menus. features such as selecting elements or the complete screen, rotating, translating, zooming, enlarging or reducing the scale and passing to the two dimensional drawing window from the three dimensional one are available. The Drawing Menu also offers many other possibilities like drawing three dimensional circles, ellipses, arcs, elliptical arcs, cylinders, cones, prisms, ellipsoids, toroids, etc. In addition to these, it is also possible to obtain hidden line drawing and to change the point numbers of the circular drawing elements. Whereas in Robots Menu, operations like selecting modules from the sub-menus, containing graphics, which concern body, wrist, hand systems and work spaces of robots, finding direct and inverse kinematics solution of these systems, point by point simulation of the robot motions, changing Denavit-Hartenberg parameters and joint freedom extremums from the menus can be performed. site: WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil and OAK.Oakland.Edu directory: pd1: filenames: MODULSH1.ZIP Design and animation of robots, 1 of 2 MODULSH2.ZIP Design and animation of robots, 2 of 2 Author: Dr. Hikmet Kocabas Istanbul Technical University MKKOCABS%TRITU.BITNET@FRMOP11.CNUSC.FR MKKOCABS@TRITU.BITNET _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) This is an abridged list of the RTOS'. See comp.real-time and news.answers for the complete FAQ. location: rtfm.mit.edu [18.70.0.209] directory: /pub/usenet/news.answers/realtime-computing filenames: faq Below is a list of both commercial and research Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) which are being used around the world for implementing robotic systems. Only the names and addresses of the distributors are included. Since the available features of each are constantly changing, and the advantages and disadvantages of each are greatly a matter of opinion and target application, no such descriptions are given. Commercial RTOS: * iRMX III Runs on Intel 80X86-based computers U.S.A.: Intel Corporation 3065 Bowers Avenue Santa Clara, California 95051 tel (408) 987-8080 * LynxOS Runs on wide variety of platforms, including Motorola, Intel, Sun, and Hewlett Packard. Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc 16780 Lark Los Gatos, CA 95030 tel (408) 354-7770 fax (408) 354-7085 * OS-9 Runs on Motorola MC680X0-based single board computers. Microware System Corporation 1900 N.W. 114th St. Des Moines, Iowa 50322 tel (515) 224-1929 * pSOS+ Runs on a variety of Motorola 680X0 and 88100, and Intel 80386 computers. Requires a host workstation or personal computer if pASSPORT+ real-time programming environment is to be used. Software Components Group, Inc. 1731 Technology Drive San Jose, CA 95110 tel (408) 437-0700 fax (408) 437-0711 * E-VENIX & VENIX VenturCom Inc 215 First St. Cambridge, MA. 02142 P: (617) 661-1230 I: info@vci.com Product runs on ix86 platforms and PC/104 systems. Product is real UNIX, SVR3.2 & SVR4.2. Workstation version requires ~4MB, 120MB, 80{3|4}86 processor. Embedded version requirements vary depending on features used. Embedded product allows for completely ROMed UNIX systems, from read-only root to stand alone applications. * VRTX Runs on a wide variety of processors, including Motorola 680X0, Intel 80X86 and 80960, National Semiconductor series 3200. Ready Systems 470 Potrero Avenue P.O.Box 60217 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (800) 228-1249 fax (214) 991-8775 * VxWorks Runs on a wide variety of MC680X0 and SPARC-based single board computers. Requires a workstation for program developments. Widely used in Unix environments for realtime work. Wind River Systems Inc. 1000 Atlantic Avenue Alameda, CA 94501 tel: 510.748.4100 or 800.545.WIND (9463) fax: 510.814.2010 QNX Distributed, POSIX, real-time microkernel for Intel x86 processors. Supports fault tolerance and also hosts MS-Windows in Standard mode QNX Software Systems QNX Software Systems 175 Terrence Matthews Cr. Westendstr.19 6000 Frankfurt Kanata, Ontario K2M 1W8 am main 1 Canada Germany voice: (613) 591-0931 x111 (voice) voice: 49 69 97546156 x299 fax: (613) 591-3579 (fax) fax: 49 69 97546110 are available via anonymous FTP: An Architectural Overview of QNX A Microkernel POSIX OS for Realtime Embedded Systems location: ftp.cse.ucsc.edu [128.114.134.19] directory:/pub/ filenames: qnx-paper.ps.Z, qnx_embed.ps.Z Research RTOS that are distributed: * Chimera II Runs on MC680X0-based single board computers. Requires a Sun workstation for program development U.S.A.: Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213 ATTN: David B. Stewart tel (412) 268-7120 fax (412) 268-3890 email: chimera@ri.cmu.edu * Harmony Runs on MC680X0-based single board computers Canada: Division of Electrical Engineering National Research Council of Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0R6 ref: NRCC Tech Report No. 30081 * REXIS REXIS (Real-time EXecutive for Intelligent Systems) is a small multi-tasking preemptive real-time executive for implementing control programs for intelligent systems such as robotics and distributed networks. It provides functions for managing tasks, memory allocation, message ports, timers, and event processing. It is distributed as shareware at a low cost to hobbyists / students. The current requirements for compiling and running REXIS is an ANSI C HC11 cross compiler and a HC11 target with at least 24K of RAM. Other targets are under consideration. For more information, please contact Richard Man P.O. Box 6 North Chelmsford, MA 01863 (phone+FAX) (508) 452-5203 imagecft@world.std.com, or man@labrea.zko.dec.com Robot Control C Library (RCCL) A robot programming environment embedded in C/UNIX. A graphics simulator is provided which supports the PUMA, Stanford, and `Elbow' manipulators. The system can be compiled on SGIs (so the Indigo should be fine), and the graphics runs under either X or GL. You can get the system from RCIM for a small fee to cover copying and shipping. If you are interested send mail to: John Lloyd Research Center for Intelligent Machines lloyd@curly.mcrcim.mcgill.edu McGill University, Montreal tel: 514.398.8281 fax: 514.398.7348 _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Survey of Robot Development Environments This is an updated survey compiled by Willie Lim This file can be ftp'd from location: ftp.ai.mit.edu directory: /pub filename: mobot-survey.text ********************************************************************** ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; RESPONSES TO INFORMAL SURVEY ON DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS ;;; ;;; FOR MOBILE ROBOTS ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; Updated: Mon Dec 6 07:30:28 1993 ;;; ;;; Created: Sat May 23 09:37:24 1992 ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; Maintained by: wlim@gdstech.grumman.com (for now) ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; Please send updates, additions, corrections, etc. to: ;;; ;;; wlim@gdstech.grumman.com ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; A complete version of this survey including detailed ;;; ;;; descriptions of the various projects is available via ;;; ;;; anonymous ftp from the host ftp.ai.mit.edu as the file ;;; ;;; /pub/mobot-survey.text. ;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Organization Robot Development Languages & Type HW Environment SW Enviroment ============= ==== ============== ============= Alcatel Alsthom Indoor robot SPARC II, VME proc VxWorks, MOTIF Recherche (AAR) Outdoor robot Brown U. Mobile robots SPARC I & II, OS/9, GNU Emacs, Xlib, VME 68030 MOTIF, Forth, C, C++ CMU a) SM^2(walker) VME 68020 & 68030, Chimera II RTOS, C, Sun Sun tools b) AMBLER VME 68020 & 68030, MOTIF, VxWorks, SPARC II, Iris X windows, C c) Mobile Mani- Z8088s, Sun IPC & ELC, X Window, Lisp, C, Hero pulator NeXT Basic d) Mobile robot SPARC, Iris, Mac, X windows, Openwindows, VME, Maspar, Titan VxWorks, Chimera RTOS, TCA, GIL, LISP e) Navlab Sun-4 X windows, C Colorado Sch. Denning MRV-3 Sparc IIs, IPXs, C, X11, Khoros, potential fields of Mines IBM RS/6000s X11 visualization tool (homemade) Colorado St. 6-legged robot 68HC11EVM, AT C Cornell U. 2 mobile robots Gespak 68000, Intel Scheme, Lucid Lisp (robot with 80c196, Sun(?) tank-tread base coming) Cray Research(?)Mobile robot MC68HC16EBV, 386 Assembler Georgia Tech Denning DRV-1 SUN IPC, Decstation, X windows, C, & MRV-II Microvax II Lisp Grumman CRC SmartyCat Mac II's/IIci's, C, CLOS, LISP, SAL (Cybermotion uExplorer, SGI VxWorks(soon) K2A) 68030 VME board(soon) LLV (Grumman SGI, 68030 VME board, C, CLOS, LISP, SAL Long Life Veh., mini-boards. the US Postal Truck) IBM TJ Watson TJ, TJ2 Symbolics, RS/6000, LISP, CLOS, CLIM, (1989?-1992) 286, 386, Suns C, X-windows, MOTIF, GNU Emacs ISX Corp Subsumption Mac II cx's/ci's C(?) JPL 7 robots Suns to 6811 RCCL, ALFA McGill U Mobile robot Sparcs, mc68hc11, PC GNU, X, Small-C C, C++ QUADRIS SUNs, Macs, C-40, 68K C, X-windows, IRIS GL Michigan Tech. Tracy 6502, Apple IIe, SUN, C, Assembly U. 68HC11 Unnamed(Andros) Minirobots 6811 MIT 20 robots Mac II & IIsi, HC6811 Behavior Language GOPHER (ISR R2) 68332, Mac, Sun GCC, Behavior Language, Lisp, X-windows Polly VME, 6811, Mac Senselisp(Scheme) SOZZY(homemade) 6811, Mac Lisp, Behavior Language MITRE Denning MRV-1 MacQuadra, uExplorer Lisp, REX/GAPPS, C, C++ Northeastern U. Lobster Robot HC11, Mac C, Pascal, Assembly Phaeton Sun 4/330, Mac C, epsilon (Cognex), (Denning MRV3) X-windows NRC of Canada EAVE Mac II's, 68020's C, HARMONY OS, MacAPP (Cybermotion) NC State Mobile robot VME 68020 & 68040, OS/9, P/NET Osaka U. Homemade VME 68030, SUN IPX, C, X-windows Sparc 2 Purdue U. PETER Sun4, 68030 C, VxWorks (Cybermotion) SRI FLAKEY Sparc10/30, Z80 Lucid Lisp, C, X-windows Stanford Landmark based Mac IIci C, LISP Navigation (Nomadic) Swiss FIT Mobile robot Mac MacMETH, Modula-2 U of Central a) 6-leg walker Commodore 64 SuperC, C b) 6-leg walker Amiga 500 C U of Edinburgh a) ALDER 8052, SUN, PC Basic (Fischertecknik) b) CAIRNGORM 68000, SUN C (Fischertecknik) c) Bill (RWI) PC, transputers C d) Ben Hope(RWI) transputers C e) (LEGO based) 68000 C, CPL U of Mass., Denning DECstation 5000, C, LISP Amherst Sparcstation U of Michigan BORIS (TRC) 486, Decstations, SGI, Borland C++, FORTH, DOS RS/6000 CARMEL (K2A) 286, 486, (ditto) Borland C++, FORTH, DOS MAVERIC 486, Sparc 10, Lisp, GCC, Borland C++, X, DOS Datacube, (ditto) U of New Underwater Sparcstation, VxWorks, C(?) Hampshire robots CMOS VME boards U Wash. Denning HP 9000 series 300's, Gensym G2, OS/9 68000 LLAMA (Forth), Lisp, C Worcester Poly- James NEC 76310, 68HC11, Assembly, Small-C (DOS) technic Inst. (RWI B12) Gateway 2000 PC Wright Lab, Hero 2000 286 MS C (DOS), Assembly Wright-Pat. Air Force Base VTT (Technical Akseli HP-1100, 386 MS-DOS, LynxOS (soon) Research Center C of Finland) ______________ +++What is the miniboard? The Mini Board is an outgrowth of the MIT 6.270 robot course and design project. It is a small and inexpensive design for a controller board based on the ubiquitous (yet hard to find) 68HC11 micro-controller. A fifty-page manual describing how to build and operate the Mini Board is on-line on the FTP server cherupakha.media.mit.edu in directory pub/miniboard/docs. Also on-line is software for programming the Mini Board from MS-DOS, Macintosh, and Unix machines. Hard copies of the Mini Board manual may be ordered by sending a check payable for U.S. $5 to "MIT Epistemology and Learning" at Epistemology and Learning Publications, MIT Media Laboratory, 20 Ames Street E15-301, Cambridge MA 02139. There is now a mailing list for discussing the board. The purpose of the mailing list is to discuss robot controller boards, and robot control in general. In particular, the list will be used to support the Mini Board 2.0 and 6.270 board design by Fred Martin and Randy Sargent of MIT. However, any and all traffic related to robot controllers is welcome. Administrative address: listserv@oberon.com (send a message containing the word "help" for directions) Mailing list address: robot-board@oberon.com Maintainer: Please DO NOT send administrative things to the main mailing list address, as then everyone will get annoyed. _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Microcontrollers Which microcontroller should I use and what are the differences between them? What about motor controllers? There are a wide variety of microcontrollers that can be used in robotics projects. Some of the most popular are 6811's (Miniboard and many, many single board computer), 80186, and PIC's. This topic can can hot debates of the merit of one chip over the other. The best way for you to decide is to understand your problem requirements and see which devices fit your needs. At that point, you can look at issues of support platforms, cost etc to make the best decision. [from a post by Chuck McManis] Basically there are three kinds of "boards" out there that are of interest to design engineers (and the definitions are necessarily broad.) 1) The evaluation board. This is a board designed by the manufacturer of a part to demonstrate its features. Using such a board a DE can decide whether the part will meet their needs for the design they are creating. Generally somewhat expensive (because they are produced in relatively small numbers) except when the part is being 'pushed' by the manufacturer and there is some sort of promotional deal going on. Often the evaluation board will have some sort of breadboard area on the board for custom circuitry. 2) The Single Board Computer or SBC. These are generally produced by a third party using some manufacturers chip. The are generally pretty flexible but may not 'expose' all features. SBCs come in all sizes and price ranges, some are availabe in kit form. Many have development tools available for them. 3) The Embedded processor. These are generally boards dedicated to some particular function (like driving a stepper motor, running a modem etc) and are usually available pretty cheaply on the surplus market. Unlike SBCs there are rarely any design tools available to use with them but they can be quite inexpensive. 68HC11: ------- A 68HC11 is an 8-bit data, 16-bit address microcontroller from Motorola, with an instruction set similar to the older 68xx (6801, 6805, 6809) parts. It has several on-chip resources including digital I/O, timers, PWM, A/D RAM, various types of ROM, and synchronous and asynchronous communications channels (RS-232 and SPI). It can easily be integrated into single-chip applications. Less than 20ma current draw. Good freeware assembly-language tools are available, as well as several good commercial C compilers. It is widely used because it is very inexpensive and the availability of developments tools makes it very attractive. Moto nows offers an evaluation kit that includes DOS and Mac compatible software, low-power design tutorial and extensive technical literature. M68EBLPIIKIT has batteries included and has 68HC11E9 microcontroller, LCD display, Moto LCD driver, RS232 line driver/receiver chips, wire-wrap area for custom work, simple development platform and development code. Includes asembler, several examples, and extra crystals. $199.11 through 4/22/94. Motorola 683xx -------------- The 683xx family from Moto are highly integrated CPU's. Several have onboard RAM (eg, up to 2K), none have on-board ROM, but they do have timers, software programmable chip selects, etc, making it possible to build very small systems. 68302: designed for communications, especially ISDN. On-board nice serial controller. 68000 CPU, some memory. 68330: Has CPU32, which is in between a 68000 and a 68020. Not much else. 68331: Add standard async serial controller. 68332: Add separate Time Processing Unit and some RAM. The TPU can do things like off-line PWM processing. Nice general package. 68340: Delete TPU, add DMA controller. Intel 80C186: ------------- An 80C186 is a evolution from the 8086. It is an embedded processor sold by Intel, and has the same instruction set as the 8086, with the additional "real-mode" instructions of the 286. It has the same 16-bit data and 20-bit address bus structure of the 8086. The 80C188 is an 8-bit data bus version, just like the 8088 (of PC & PC/XT fame). For embedded systems, it is much easier to use than the 8086. It has an on-chip timer system, interrupt controller, DMA controller, and clock generator. For DRAM operation, it also has an integrated DRAM refresh generator. However, it has no on-chip I/O, nor does it have any memory on-chip. There is, however, extra circuitry for selecting external memory with a minimum of extra logic. Can be programmed using most DOS compilers and assemblers, but requires a linker that knows about locating code in absolute memory. The '186 is not as accessible; it is harder to set up, the tools cost more, and robotics & control resources have to be added externally. The timers can be configured for PWM or pulse timing, It does, however, run at higher speeds, have more accessible memory, and can be hooked up to a floating-point co-processor (C187). It looks a lot like a DOS machine. This may be important when software is run on multiple platforms and also helps with the learning curve. Intel 8051 ---------- The 8051 and varients are now sourced by more than a half-dozen companies including Intel, AMD, Dallas, Signetics, Siemans and others. Russ Hersch is compiling a faq specific to the 8051. Contact him for details. Intel 8096 ---------- It is 16 bit, many registers, internal RAM, the usual compliment of on-board peripherals (serial, A/D, pwm, timer/counters, etc) Microchip PIC16/17 ------------------ Microchip Technology Corporate Office 2355 West Chandler Blvd Chandler, AZ 85224-6199 tel: 602.786.7200 fax: 602.899.9210 UK: Arizona Microchip Technology tel: 44 062-885-1077 fax: 44 062-885-0178 Japan: Microchip Technology tel: 81 45/471-6166 fax: 81 45/471-6122 CMOS field-programmable microcontrollers - PIC16/17. high performance low cost and small package size. Large numbers are used in consumer electronics and automotive applications, computer peripherals, security and telecommunication applications. Over 40 million units shipped. PIC16CXX and PIC17Cxx are 8-bit microcontrollers that use a high-speed RISC architecture.The PIC17CXX is probably the faster 8-bit controller. 16-bit instruction word and vectored interrupt capabilities.You can add external program memory, up to 64K words. The PIC17C42 has a number of counter/timer resources and I/O handling capabilities. Features include: timers, embedded A/D, extended instruction/data ation and ROM, EPROM and EEPROM memories. assemblers, linkers, loaders, libraries and source-level debuggers are available. Digi-Key carries PIC's (See Parts Suppliers) Vendor of PIC boards: [from a review by Chuck McManis ] Micro Engineering Labs P.O. Box 7532, Colorado Springs, CO 80933 tel: 719.520.5323 contact: Jeff Schmoyer MEL has designed a couple of PC boards for prototyping PIC systems PICProto 18 - $9.95 US including shipping in the US. This board is 1.5" by 3", double sided, solder masked, and has plated through holes. the top 7/8" x 1.5" of the board (oriented with the narrow side "up") consists of an 18 pin socket print, holes to conviently mount either a crystal or RC oscillator and a set of holes to mount a 5v regulator, either the TO-220 type or the low power TO-92 type as used on the Miniboard. All of the PIC I/O pins, RB0 - 7, RA0 - 3, RTC, Vdd and Gnd are brought out to a dual row of pads. they are followed by 15 rows of pads, with the outer pad on one side being the Vdd bus and the outer pad on the other side being the Vcc bus. After this there are two rows of pads, offset, that can accomodate a DB9, DB15, or DB25 connector. This board will accept either the 16C5x series (in the 18 pin package) or a 16C71 PIC. The PICProto Dual - $14.95 US Is similar except it has pads for 1 18 pin PIC and 1 24 pin (or another 18 pin) PIC. It is 3" x 3" and shares all of the same properties of the PICproto 18 with respect to setting up crystal or RC timing for the PICs. It has pads for 1 DB connector that is 25 pins or less. It adds about 50% more prototyping pads so you can put two or three more chips on it. The nice thing about this one is that one PIC can do asynchronous things like be a serial interface while the other provides I/O pins and monitoring functions. Parallax BASIC Stamp -------------------- The Stamp is a 1x2" (2.5x5cm) computer that runs BASIC programs written on a PC. 8 I/O lines which can be used for serial communications, potentiometer inputs, pulse measurement, switches, speaker drivers etc. Usually you'll have to add no more than a resistor or capacitor at most. A BASIC editor on the PC converts instructions into token that are downloaded to the Stamp via a 3-conductor cable and stored in EEPROM. Whenever the Stamp is powered up, the on-board interpreter runs the program. Battery clips are built in for a 9V battery (Stamp has 5V supply built in.) and the Stamp has a small prototyping area as well. From Digikey the Development Kit (including a Stamp) is $139, and a Stamp is $39. National Semiconductor LM628/629 -------------------------------- Small motor control chip. Does PWM for motion control at a very low cost. A couple of H-bridges on the outputs. Good reference for using the 628/9 for motion control is in: Closing the Loop on DC Motor Control by Tom Dahlin and Don Krantz The Computer Applications Journal, Issue #28 Aug/Sept, 1992 Hewlett-Packard HCTL 1000, 2000 ------------------------------- HP's motor and encoder interface chips. _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Books: The readership of this group ranges from the beginner to experienced robot designers and users. Accordingly, this list covers the gamut as well. I would like to include net resources as well such as papers or tech reports so send me your sites! Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation. J. L. Jones and A. Flynn, This book grew out of the Mobot Lab at MIT and covers many aspects of mobile robots including design and the mechanics and electronics of construction as well as robot programming. Good for the beginner and experienced robot builder. Klaus Peters President and Publisher AK PETERS, LTD. 289 Linden Street Wellesley, MA 02181 tel: 617.235.2210 fax: 617.235.2404 net: Robot Motion: Planning and Control Brady, Hollerbach, Johnson, Lozano-Perez, and Mason. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press 1982) Collection of excellent papers on the topic of robot motion. Autonomous Robot Vehicles I.J. Cox and G.T. Wilfong (eds) New York, Springer-Verlag, 1990 Collection of seminal papers on autonmous robot vehicles. The Robot Builder's Bonanza: 99 Inexpensive Robotics Projects Gordon McComb TAB Books Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics and the Coming Robotopia Frederik L. Schodt Kodansha International New York, NY 1988 Lots of interesting views of robots in Japan and Japan's fascination with robots. The Robot Book Richard Pawson Windward, 1985, 192 pages. Utilizes Lego kits. Interfacing Test Circuits With Single-Board Computers Robert H. Luetzow TAB Books Build Your Own Universal Computer Interface Bruce Chubb TAB Books Robots Peter Marsh Crescent (Crown) Publishers, NY 1985 Marsh edited the volume and the book is made up of several contributions from robotics researchers. A very well illustrated book that covers the general topic of robots. Excellent source materials and graphics. Microprocessor Based Robotics Mark J. Robillard Howard Sams & Co. 1983 Advanced Robot Systems Mark J. Robillard Howard Sams & Co. 1984 JTEC report on Japanese Space Robotics Available from NTIS (see below) A summary of the Japanese Technology Evaluation Center (JTEC) panel's report on the state of the art of Japanese robot technology. Lots of pictures of wierd and wonderful robots -- elephant trunk, caterpillar, space tentacle, wall builder, Komatsu's walking undersea rubble-leveler, humanoid two-armed assembly robot, 4-legged stair climber. Also tells where to write for videotapes of these machines in action. Here's the info (two years old, remember) ... Tape with narration by William "Red" Whittaker: cost: $37.50 University Video Communications Box 20006 Stanford, CA USA 94309 tel: 415.327.0131 Shorter tape of highlights from many Japanese labs: National Technical Information Service (NTIS) 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA USA 22161 tel: 703.457.4650 Article: "Japan robotics aim for unmanned space exploration" William L. Whittaker, Takeo Kanade. IEEE Spectrum, December 1990 Robotics edited by Marvin Minsky Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985 ISBN: 0385194145, LCCN: 84024390 Control System Design Guide George Ellis ISBN 0-12-237470-3 Covers hardware,software and theory of ordinary PID control. Minimalist Mobile Robotics Jonathan H Connel ISBN 0-12-185230-X Brooks subsumption architecture robots. Shows complex behaviors are possible with little of the massive architectures done in other programs. Robotic Technology: Principles and Practice. Werner G. Holzbock Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, 1986, ISBN 0-442-23154-7 Microcontroller Technology: The 68HC11 Peter Spasov Regents/Prentice Hall, 1993, ISBN 0-13-583568-2 Aimed at the 68HC11 family, good reference. Machines That Walk Shin-Min Song and Kenneth J Waldron ISBN 0-262-19274-8 Like it says: legged locomotion. Focus is on the OSU Adaptive Suspension Vehicle. Directed Sonar Sensing for Mobile Robot Navigation by John J. Leonard & Hugh F. Durant-Whyte Kluwer Academic Press Boston (1992) ISBN 0-7923-9242-6 An expansion on John's thesis work, which he did at Oxford. CDROM ----- Isaac Asimov's The Ultimate Robot. It is an excellent intro and retrospective on robotics. Includes movie clips from several cinema robots, robotic terminology defined and illustrated (linkages, kinmatics, arm types etc), vignettes of many historically important robots including Moshers work from the 60's, many teleoperated devices, several mobile machines including the ASV and many others. There is also a fun part where you get to select parts, build a robot and animate it. (Design by Ralph MacQuarrie who was production designer on Star Wars) There are video interviews with Asimov and all of his robot stories and essays as well Published by Microsoft. $35 at CMU's Computer Store, price may vary elsewhere. ARTICLES [List Provided by Dave Hrynkiw] -------- Best source for most general articles and journal articles is your library. Discover Magazine, March 1991, Pg 43 An excellent 6 page article of the goings-on in the MIT Artificial- Intelligence lab. "Mathematical Recreations - Insectoids Invade a Field of Robots" Scientific American Magazine, July 1991 Another excellent 4 page article about MIT's work in the field of mobile robotics. "Gearing Down" Science News, Vol. 139 No. 2, January 12 1991, Pg 26-27 I haven't seen a copy of this article yet. If you find it, PLEASE fax/send me a copy. Referenced from Scientific American Magazine, July 1991 ("Mathematical Recreations" column) "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control" Research News, May 1990, Pg 959-961 One of the better MIT Lab articles. Worth hunting down. "Working the bugs out of a new breed of 'insect' robots" Smithsonian Magazine, June 1991, pgs 63-73. Another excellent & more technical article on MIT's robot research. "The Iconoclast - Life in the Anthropomorphic Lane" Macworld magazine, May 1991, Pg 43-47 Another basic, but decent review of MIT's AI Robot labs. "People - A Mind of Their Own" Connoisseur Magazine, May 1991, Pg 42-46 A more personal look at Rodney Brook. "Robot Insects" Popular Science, March 1991, Pg 52-55,86 Popular Science does it's regular quality article. Some detail, but not to technical. Good, basic read. "New Approaches to Robotics" Science Magazine, Vol.253, September 1991, Pg 1227-1232 Very complete & technical document by Rodney Brooks. Has a very complete reference & notes section. "Artificial Intelligence - Building a Better Mouse" Omni Magazine, ??, Pg 22,126 Interesting Article about Dave Otten, the micro-mouse champ. Short, but interesting read. "Tech Update - Transformer Robots Crawl Up Stairs" Popular Mechanics, March 1993, Pg 17 Not much to say, but look at the pictures - what innovation! "Mighty Mouse" MIT Reporter, July 1991, Pg 12 A short piece about Dave Otten's micromice. "The OMNI Photovore - How to build a robot that thinks like a roach" Omni Magazine, October 1988, Pg 201-210,212 MIT developed this basic robot for the magazine. A really interesting read, with good technical. Haven't built mine yet, but I have all the parts... (Excellent article) "Annual Report of Microbot Technology, Inc." Omni Magazine, ??? Pg 68,70,76 Omni's interesting futuristic look of the possibilities with micro robots. "Tech Update - Mechanical Caterpillar" Popular Mechanics, June 1992, Pg 24 Another neat idea to look at. "Tech Update - Silicon Ants Could Prove Tireless Workers" Popular Mechanics, May 1992, Pg 21 Interesting little bit on the future of solar powered microbots. Neat graphic. "Trends - Let's Get Small" Technology Review, Aug/Sept 1992, pg 18-19 Article on JPL/IS Robotics small robots. Decent article "Go Robots, Go!" Popular Science, December 1992, Pg 97-102,138,140 Interesting overview of the AAAI Mobile Robotics Competition held in San Jose. "New Trends - Legs win over wheels for moon work" Machine Design Magazine, February 11 1988 A dated article on Georgia Tech's "Skitter". Short, but has photograph. "Light Elements - RoboHockey" Discover magazine, May 1990, pg 82 Interesting bit about MIT's Mech Eng 2.70 competition. "Society - Technology - For the Love of Robotics" Newsweek magazine, March 9 1992, Pg 68-69 Public-robot fodder. Nothing new here but some interesting pictures. Covers the Austin area Robot Group "Robots Go Buggy" Science News Magazine, Vol 140, November 30 1991, Pg 361-3 Very good article about the comparison between "simple" robotics and biologics (bugs) "Build This Robot Bug" Radio-Electronics Magazine, June 1992, Pg 33-38 _Very_ basic robot. Not a bad place to start tho... ONLINE REPORTS -------------- There are emerging sources on the net for tech reports and papers. If you know of additional ones please send me email. Thanks. The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide Fred Martin site: cherupakha.media.mit.edu (18.85.0.47) directory: pub/6270/docs/ filenames: *.PS.Z This directory contains "The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide", the course notes to the 1992 MIT LEGO Robot Design Competition. Hardcopy also available for $15 from: E&L Memo Requests MIT Media Laboratory 20 Ames Street Room E15-309 Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Check made out to 'MIT Epistemology and Learning' Contact: Fred Martin at fredm@media-lab.media.mit.edu Cambridge University Tech report on 3D object model acquisition and recognition: location: svr-ftp.eng.cam.ac.uk directory: reports filename: vinther_tr136.ps.Z MIT AI Laboratory net: publications@ai.mit.edu tel: 617.253.6773 fax: 617.253.5060 MIT bibliography, general info about the lab and most recent research publications. location: publications.ai.mit.edu directory: bibliography, ai-publications/general-pubs [choices of ascii or ps fles] NASA Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL) site: robotics.jpl.nasa.gov location: pub/gat filenames: bc4pe.rtf, aaai92.rtf, nats.rtf Notice that all files are in Microsoft Word RTF format. Contact if you don't have access to a Mac. LIFIA/INRIA site: imag.fr (129.88.32.1) location: /pub/LIFIA filenames: [several compressed PS files] University of Massachusetts: site: rabbit.cs.umass.edu directory: pub/papers filenames: [The files are compressed postscript, topics include path planning, neuroscience, and control.] University of Kaiserslautern FTP-Server is : site: ftp.uni-kl.de directory: reports_uni-kl/computer_science/mobile_robots/... subdirectory 1993/papers filename: Zimmer.learning_surfaces.ps.Z subdirectory: 1992/papers filename: Zimmer.rt_communication.ps.Z subdirectory: 1991/papers filename: Edlinger.Pos_Estimation.ps.Z Edlinger.Eff_Navigation.ps.Z Knieriemen.euromicro_91.ps.Z Zimmer.albatross.ps.Z SPIE abstracts: location: mom.spie.org directory: /abstracts/1800/1831.txt filenames: 1831.txt [From Mobile Robots VII 1992 SPIE bookorders can be made through bookorders@mom.spie.org _____________________________________________________________________________ +++Acknowledgements: Thanks to those who responded with updates, new material, corrections, suggestions etc. Some of the names are indirect; that is, they replied to queries on the newsgroup: Hans Moravec, Maki Habib, Ken Goldberg, David Stanton, John Nagle, Sean Graves, Sjur Vestli, Mark Yim, Rich Wallace, Dan Hudson, Sanjiv Singh, Matt Stein, Dave Stewart, Ed Cheung, Ron Fearing, Klaus Biggers, Lisa Rendleman, Nobuhiko Mukai, Paul Sharkey, Fred Martin, Willie Lim, Allen Brown, Erann Gat, Judd Jones, Tony Sprent, Richard Seldon, Brian Richardson, Ross McAree, Nathan Stratten, Chuck McManuis, Ben Brown, Terry Fong, Jeff Fox, Bill Lye and many others who dropped off suggestions, comments and changes. Thank you. Patrick Arnold, Chuck McManis, David Novick, Stephen Klueter Chris Malcolm, Frank Hausman, Sam Miller, Jean-Pierre Merlet, Karl Altenburg, Dave Hrynkiw, Ken Baker -- aka: Kevin Dowling Carnegie Mellon University tel: (412) 268-8830 The Robotics Institute adr: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 -- aka: Kevin Dowling Carnegie Mellon University tel: (412) 268-8830 The Robotics Institute adr: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------