Keynote Lectures

Abstract

In the future, humans and robots will have to work together in complex environments, to solve difficult problems and perform hard tasks, as a team. Thus, methodologies to enable intelligent robot-robot and human-robot cooperation are needed in order to allow this joint work.
This talk will be focused on methodologies developed for creating multi-robot and human-robot heterogeneous teams with emphasis on the interaction/cooperation methodologies developed on the following projects: - FC Portugal, HearBot and Intellwheels. FC Portugal project developed methodologies for creating heterogeneous robotic soccer teams capable of following human/robot coach high-level advice using concepts such as strategy, tactics, formations and setplays. The project enabled our research groups to win 4 World and 10 European robotic soccer championships of distinct leagues/competitions, including simulation 2d, simulation 3d (humanoids), coach, rescue simulation, small-size and middle-size leagues. At HearBot, together with Honda-RI we developed human robot interaction methodologies enabling advanced interaction while the robots dance to the beat.
Finally, Intellwheels project developed the concept of Intelligent wheelchair (IW) with flexible human-robot interface. The user is capable of creating his own multimodal human-robot interaction language that may inclusively be learned from scratch and that may then be refined, using the human-robot interaction information, while the user drives the IW. The talk will be illustrated with videos, results and examples from these three projects.

Abstract

A 50-year history of robotics shows  that  robots have been continuously  getting close to humans. This means that not only the physical, but also the social distance between robots and humans is decreasing.  The development of  robotic designs evolves  from a total robot-human separation in industrial and exploration applications, through service and assistive robots that get into physical contact with humans, until  symbiotic, interactive,  sentient, and social robots.  A robot may be called social, if he acts autonomously and can interact with humans using social cues. A  social robot capable of  accompanying a human for a longer time is called a robotic companion. This lecture is devoted to the design and control issues of  the robotic companion. The robot  FLASH, recently built in our laboratory within the European project LIREC (LIving with Robots and intEractive Companions), will serve as a reference frame. FLASH is a wheeled mobile robot moving on a balancing platform, equipped with a pair of arms with hands, and an emotive head. The presentation  focuses on the robot's appearance, communication,  control, and emotionality. Video demos show  human attitudes toward the robot and give an idea of the robot's  skills. Prospective advancements of  the companion design will be outlined.

Abstract

The impressive progress in miniaturisation of electronics offers in space exploration interesting perspectives for a paradigm shift from traditional large multifunctional satellites towards distributed systems of multiple small satellites. Scientific challenges are related to establish cooperation by networked control via inter-satellite communication links and autonomous reaction capabilities. This will enable in particular innovative solutions for applications in Earth observation and telecommunication.

In this presentation the experiences from the UWE-Program (University Wuerzburg's Experimental satellites) to implement complete satellites at a mass of just 1 kg will be reported. So far the two satellites UWE-1 and -2 have been successfully placed in orbit 2005 and 2009. UWE-1 (University Würzburg's Experimental satellite) optimized internet in space, while UWE-2 investigated advanced attitude determination systems.
UWE-3 addresses attitude control and will be launched begin of 2013, while UWE-4 with focus on orbit control is in implementation stage.
Thus step by step a roadmap towards small satellite formation flying is realized and offers long-term perspectives for future UWE missions.
Efficient operations of such distributed systems raise challenging tasks combining control topics with approaches in communication, man-machine interfaces, tele-operations, autonomous reaction capabilities, sensor and data processing systems. Exchange of navigation data via communication links form the basis for local autonomous reaction capabilities, which are to be coordinated with remote human teleoperators, in particular in time critical situations.

Abstract

In the 7th Framework Programme, more than 100 projects in the area of robotics and cognitive systems have been funded with the overall amount approaching €600 million, ranging from blue-sky to more applied research. The focus has been on robotics as an enabling technology for diverse applications in real-life. 2013 is the last year of FP7 and the relevant work programme presents a balance between continuity and transition towards the next Framework Programme (Horizon 2020). The new ingredients include more emphasis on industry-led RTD topics, substantially increased effort to attract new levels of industry participation and focus on use-cases in service robotics. Twenty new projects resulting from the last call for proposals in FP7 will start later this year.
The EC proposal of Horizon 2020 includes the establishment of so called Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) to strengthen Europe‘s competitive position. European robotics community has been actively preparing a European PPP in robotics building on previous networking activities including the robotics researchers network EURON and the industry-driven European technology platform EUROP. The PPP in robotics will boost research and innovation in this field and will foster a positive perception of robotics. It will aim at strengthening competitiveness of manufacturers and providers of robotics technologies and services, the widest uptake by the users of robotics technologies and services as well as at the excellence of its science base.