The development of robots and robotic technology requires the mastery of multiple disciplines – primarily software development, mechanical and electrical engineering.  Robotics development is made even more difficult as it is limited by embedded and real-time constraints.  But real-time concerns are only the beginning, especially as robots and robotic technology become more prevalent in the home, the workplace and in public places.  The next generation of robots and robotic devices must also be integrated with other systems in their environment.

Although robotics technology in commercial robots such as entertainment robots can differ radically from hobbyist robots, competition robots, education robots and robotic research platforms, the areas of commonality greatly outnumber their differences.  For both the hobbyist and professional developer, the choice of operating systems, development tools, platform software and hardware such as micro-controller and sensors, and a myriad of other options must be addressed. 

KEYNOTES

Inspire! - Using Robotics to Foster Educational Aims, Teach Life Skills and Promote Innovation
Dean Kamen, CEO, DEKA Research & Development Corporation and Founder, FIRST

In this exciting and inspirational keynote presentation, Dean Kamen, whose
engineering innovations have enriched lives and who has dedicated his efforts to helping young people see the value of education and careers in science and technology, will speak on the world’s unending need for waves of energetic and innovative scientists, mathematicians and engineers. He will also describe what led him to found FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization that helps young people discover the fun and excitement in science and technology through participation in robotic competitions.

The role of hands-on robotic development to inspire an interest in science
and increase self-esteem, as well as teach basic life skills such as collaborative problem solving, decision making, goal setting and logical thinking, will also be discussed.

As an inventor, entrepreneur and tireless advocate for science and technology, Dean Kamen has dedicated his life to developing technologies that help people lead better lives. He is president of DEKA Research and Development Corp., a company focused on developing radical new technologies that span a diverse set of applications including the Independence IBOT Mobility System, a battery-powered wheelchair capable of climbing stairs and raising users to eye-level, infusion devices such as the Hydroflex Irrigation Pump, the HomeChoice portable peritoneal dialysis machine for Baxter Healthcare Corporation and the Segway Human Transporter (HT). He is also chairman of Segway, LLC.  One of Dean Kamen's proudest accomplishments is the founding of FIRST in 1989, an organization dedicated to inspiring an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Kamen remains the driving force behind FIRST, recruiting American business, government, and education leaders to invest time and resources in the initiative. The FIRST Robotics Competition, a multinational program teaming professional engineers with high school students, attracts hundreds of teams to regional events and the Championship. The FIRST LEGO League, an international program created in a partnership between FIRST and the LEGO Company in 1998, engages middle school students in authentic scientific research and hands-on robotics design using LEGO MINDSTORMS^TM technologies to solve real-world challenges. In 2003, over 42,000 children participated in North America and 12 additional countries.

The Design and Development of Sociable Robots
Cynthia Breazeal, Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
MIT Media Lab

No longer restricted to the factory floor or hazardous environments, robots are making their way into human environments. Although current examples of domestic robots are more akin to smart appliances or supervised tools, the need to help ordinary people as capable partners and interact with them in a socially appropriate manner poses new challenges and opens new opportunities for robot applications in the home, office, school, entertainment locales, healthcare institutions, and more. Developing robots with social and emotional intelligence is a critical step towards enabling them to be intelligent and capable in their interactions with humans, intuitive to communicate with people, able to work cooperatively with people, and able to learn quickly and effectively from natural human instruction.

This talk explores issues related to the design of sociable robots from artistic, scientific, and technological perspectives. Specific research projects are highlighted to illustrate how robots with social capabilities are being applied to assist or entertain their human counterparts.

Cynthia Breazeal is an assistant professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab where she is director of the Robotic Life Group and holds the LG Group career development chair. She is a pioneer of the areas of human-robot interaction and sociable robotics, and leading in the scientific pursuit and technological innovation necessary to create machines that understand and engage people in social and affective terms. Kismet, her anthropomorphic robotic head, has been featured in international media and is the subject of her book Designing Sociable Robots, published by the MIT Press. She continues to develop anthropomorphic robots as part of her ongoing work of building artificial systems that learn from and interact with people in an intelligent, life-like, and sociable manner. Breazeal earned ScD and MS degrees at MIT in electrical engineering and computer science, and a BS in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The 5 Robotics Challenges for the Next 20 Years
Dr. François Pierrot, Director of Research, CNRS
Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics - LIRMM
Co-founder & Chairman, Wany Robotics

The massive use of robotics to serve our human society will necessarily require the overcoming of great technological challenges, of which some of them are as important as the first steps of man on the moon. Certain Asian countries such as Japan and Korea have made robotics a national priority. Significant progress has also already been made in other countries, and the growing consumer robotics market will enable to fund the next steps and the next generations of robotic devices and services ever more efficient and useful to us humans. In this visionary Keynote presentation, Dr. François Pierrot details the 5 main robotic challenges for the next 20 years. Work to overcoming these 5 challenges will enable massive use of robotics in our lives and will be the next growth support for the main worldwide market players as well as creating new economy giants.

Dr. François Pierrot is Director of Research, by the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Wany Robotics Corp, specialist in embedded low-cost robotics technologies applied to useful mass-market consumer robots. He is the inventor of the HEXA parallel robot already in use in the tooling machinery industry, and he received the Robotics Society of Japan Award for Innovation in 1995. He received the Best Paper Award at ISRAM 1992, Santa-Fe, New-Mexico, for his work on robust control of parallel robots.

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Applying 32-bit Operating Systems in Educational Robotics
Stewart Tansley, Program Manager, Microsoft Research

The compelling price-performance ratio of computing technologies derived from the PC industry is increasingly influencing the embedded systems market, and robotics is no exception. Where historically a microcontroller would be found at the heart (or rather, head) of a robot, a common scenario today is to see such processors dedicated to perform certain functions within the robot, but use a modern 32-bit processor as the main CPU. This architecture supports much more powerful applications software than is possible on a microcontroller, especially the ability to run today's 32-bit operating systems. In this session, attendees will hear how a 32-bit operating system configuration on a robot is particularly attractive for education, because the wide variety of software that runs on current 32-bit operating systems can then be leveraged for the robot, as can the wide experience of software development and tools for such platforms and how the relative lack of computing resource constraints on such a device also frees the imagination of researcher and student alike in realizing the potential of their robot designs.

As Program Manager, University Relations for Microsoft Research, Stewart Tansley is responsible for Embedded Systems technical advocacy as part of the University Relations team in Redmond. Before this, he was responsible for Microsoft's production IPv6 software as part of the Windows Networking team. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2001, Stewart spent 13 years in the telecommunications industry in various technical and management positions in network software research and development, focusing on technology transfer. Stewart has a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence applied to Engineering from the University of Technology, Loughborough, UK. He has published a variety of papers in artificial intelligence and network management, several patents, and co-authored a book on software engineering for artificial intelligence applications.

The 10 (or 11) Basic Ways to Make Things Move
Roger G. Gilbertson, President & Cofounder, RobotStore.com,
Mondo-tronics, Inc.

Robots move. And what technologies do we have in our 21st Century tool kit for converting electricity into useable motion? Motors and solenoids use electromagnetism to move everything from wall clocks to
pin balls, but we have also discovered nine (or ten) other ways, including piezoelectricity, shape memory effect, electrohydrodynamics, magnetostriction and more - some you will recognize, others you may never have seen or even heard of before.

Robot builder, author and experimenter Roger G. Gilbertson presents a fast paced overview of the basic ways of making motion, with lots of toys and real-world demonstrations of these "magical" phenomena.

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Model Driven Architecture (MDA)-based Software Development in Robotics
Dr. Jon Siegel, Vice President, Technology Transfer, Object Management Group

The Object Management Group (OMG) is a not-for-profit computer industry standards consortium best known for specifications including the Model Driven Architecture (MDA), Unified Modeling Language (UML), and Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). The MDA unifies application requirements analysis, architecture, design, and development by standardizing the route from a platform-independent functional model defined in UML to an application coded on virtually any platform. MDA has already been adapted to high-assurance, resource-constrained real-time applications and has been proven in such areas as telecommunications network management and fighter-jet avionics. In this session attendees will hear of recent applications in robotics have proven so successful that a number of companies have joined together to establish standards for MDA in Robotics using OMG's open process.

Dr. Jon Siegel, OMG's Vice President of Technology Transfer, heads OMG's technology transfer program with the goal of teaching the technical aspects and benefits of the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) based on OMG's industry-standard Unified Modeling Language (UML). He presents tutorials, seminars, and company briefings around the world, and writes magazine articles and books including the popular "CORBA 3 Fundamentals and Programming" and "Quick CORBA 3".