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From: nivek@cs.cmu.edu (Kevin Dowling) Newsgroups: comp.robotics.misc, comp.robotics.research Subject: comp.robotics.* Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) part 3/5 Date: 16 Sep 1996 05:25:27 GMT Message-ID: <c.r.part3_842851502@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu> Reply-To: nivek@ri.cmu.edu Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions and their answers about robotics. It should be read by anyone who wishes to post to the comp.robotics newsgroups Archive-name: robotics-faq/part3 Last Modified: Mon Sep 16 01:00:38 EDT 1996 _________________________________________________________________ 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 1995 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 posted to any USENET newsgroup, on-line service, or BBS as long as it or the section is posted in its entirety and includes this copyright statement. This FAQ may not be distributed for financial gain. This FAQ may not be included in commercial collections or compilations without express permission from the author. Please send changes, additions, suggestions and questions to: Kevin Dowling tel: 412.268.8830 Robotics Institute fax: 412.268.5895 Carnegie Mellon University net: [2]nivek@cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15213 url: [3]http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~nivek This FAQ may be referenced as: Dowling, Kevin (1995) "Robotics: comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions" Available as a hypertext document at http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/robotics-faq. 90+ pages. _________________________________________________________________ Last-Modified: Thu Dec 7 16:40:11 1995 [4]Kevin Dowling <nivek@cmu.edu> References _________________________________________________________________ [6] What University Programs are there? [3][6.1] Graduate Programs in Robotics [4][6.2] Student Who's Who _________________________________________________________________ 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 with a focus on robotics and those are listed here. _________________________________________________________________ [6.1] Graduate Programs in Robotics This list is grouped by countries including the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland. Many European and Asian universities are not represented and should be. Please drop me a line if you have information on those that should be included. [5]Australia [6]University of Western Australia [7]Canada [8]McGill University [9]University of Alberta [10]Finland [11]Helsinki University of Technology [12]France [13]University of Paris [14]Japan [15]Waseda University [16]Sweden [17]Lulea University of Technology [18]Switzerland [19]Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [20]United Kingdom [21]Bristol University [22]Edinburgh University (UK) [23]Hull University, UK [24]Reading University, UK [25]Salford University [26]University of Birmingham [27]University of Essex (UK) [28]University of Manchester [29]University of Oxford [30]University of Surrey [31]University of the West of England at Bristol, U.K. [32]United States [33]Boston University [34]Brandeis University [35]California Institute of Technology (Caltech) [36]Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) [37]Colorado School of Mines [38]Clemson University [39]Cornell [40]Georgia Institute of Technology [41]Harvard [42]Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) [43]New York University (NYU) [44]North Carolina State University [45]Northeastern University [46]Purdue [47]Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI) [48]Stanford University [49]University of California at Berkeley [50]University of Iowa [51]University of Kansas [52]University of Kentucky [53]University of Massachusetts [54]University of Michigan [55]University of Pennsylvania. [56]University of Rochester [57]University of Southern California (USC) [58]University of Maryland [59]The University of Texas at Arlington [60]University of Wisconsin-Madison [61]University of Utah [62]Yale University [63]Wilkes University _________________________________________________________________ Australia University of Western Australia Some neat telerobotic work can be found at [64]http://telerobot.mech.uwa.edu.au _________________________________________________________________ Canada McGill University Center for Intelligent Machines McGill University McConnell Engineering Building, Room 420 3480 University Street Montreal, Que, Canada H3A 2A7 School of Computer Science McGill University McConnell Engineering Building, Room 420 3480 University Street Montreal, Que, Canada H3A 2A7 There is a web page and ftp archive at [65]http://www.cim.mcgill.ca The McGill Centre for Intelligent Machines, CIM, was founded in 1985 to provide researchers in robotics, computer vision, speech recognition, and systems and control with a context in which to pursue their common goal: the understanding and creation of systems which exhibit intelligent behaviour. The three main research foci are perception, robotics and control theory. The Centre now includes faculty members and graduate students from five departments: Electrical, Mechanical, Biomedical, and Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, and the School of Computer Science. The center itself does not have a degree program, rather students enroll in one of the associated departments and gain access by being supervised a faculty member who is also a CIM member. There are research programs directly related to computer vision, robot mechanical systems, walking machines, mobile robotics, etc. CIM Members: J. Angeles, P.R. Belanger, M. Buehler, P.E. Caines, L. Daneshmend, R. De Mori, G. Dudek, F. Ferrie, J. Hollerbach, V. Hayward, D. Levanony, M.D. Levine, A. Malowany, H. Michalska, J. Owen, E. Papadopoulos, M. Verma, S. Whitesides, G. Zames, P.J. Zsombor-Murray, S.W. Zucker _________________________________________________________________ University of Alberta Edmontom, Alberta Canada T6H 2H1 _Center for Machine Intelligence and Robotics_ Robotics Research Laboratory, Department of Computing Science _Faculty_ Ron Kube _________________________________________________________________ Finland _________________________________________________________________ Helsinki University of Technology Research includes outdoor walking machines, all-terrain autonomous vehicle and many other projects. See [66]Automation Home Page and [67]Research Home page France _________________________________________________________________ University of Paris INRIA (Nice) recently started a Phd program in Robotics. _________________________________________________________________ Japan [68]Waseda University Tokyo, Japan Humanoid Research Laboratory (HUREL), Advanced Research Center for Science and Engineering [69]Humanoid Project Sweden Lulea University of Technology _Department of Robotics and Automation_ S-971 87 LULEE WWW: [70]http://www.sm.luth.se/csee/er/sm-roa/ _________________________________________________________________ Switzerland Swiss Federal Institute of Technology _The Institute of Robotics_ ETH offers a 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. 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: _________________________________________________________________ United Kingdom _________________________________________________________________ Edinburgh University Department of Artificial Intelligence, 5, Forrest Hill, Edinburgh EH1 2QL Scotland The Department of Artificial Intelligence has robot and vision groups within it. Main interests of the robotics group include: * behaviour-based control of robots (both mobiles and arms) * hybrid control -- symbolic planning and behaviour-based actions * learning, both reinforcement and other types implementations of biological systems eg cricket ears; vertebrate learning models * active vision * real-time control * long survival times * direct-drive arm control As well as PhDs by research, the Department offers a one-year, taught, modular, Masters course in Information Technology for Knowledge-based Systems where one of the possible specialisations is in robotics and vision. This course is designed for people without specific AI background. One module involves the Masters students building and programming their own robot out of Lego and supplied electronics. Another module gives hands-on experience with a simple robot arm. Contact the Admissions Secretary Judith Gordon for information about courses. _Principal Researchers_ * John Hallam autonomous mobiles and survival * Bob Fisher vision * Chris Malcolm assembly robotics and hybrid systems * Gillian Hayes active vision and biological control _________________________________________________________________ University of Birmingham Birmingham, England See [71]School of Computer Science _________________________________________________________________ University of Essex _Brooker Laboratory for Intelligent Embedded Systems_ email: robots@essex.ac.uk Main interests of the laboratory: * Behavior-Based Architectures (software and hardware) * Active Vision * Collaborative AI (ie multiple agents) * Fuzzy and Neural Systems * Virtual Systems (eg robot simulation and telepresence) * Planning & Learning * Reliable Robots (ie for inaccessible or hazardous environments) _Principal Researchers:_ * Victor Callaghan * Paul Chernett behavior-based architectures, virtual systems and active vision * Libor Spacek active vision and face recognition * Jim Doran Collaborative AI * Chang Wang fuzzy and neural systems * Edward Tsang & Sam Steel planning & learning * John Standeven & * Martin Colley reliable robotic systems In addition to PhDs by research, there is a one-year, taught, Masters course in Computer Science where it is possible to undertake robotics, AI or vision. Contact csdept@essex.ac.uk for further details of courses or robots@essex.ac.uk for information on research. In addition some useful information on the laboratory can be obtained at [72]ftp://ftp.essex.ac.uk/pub/robots/SXlab.ps.Z _________________________________________________________________ University of the West of England at Bristol (used to be Bristol Polytechnic) Undergraduate Robotics is taught as part of undergraduate programs in engineering courses and as part of a real time computing course. The engineering department has in its teaching labs Puma, Adept, IBM, Cincinatti-Milacron and Funac robots. _Intelligent Autonomous Systems group_ * Yichuang Jin, Will Wray Neural net control of manipulators, especially stability-based adaptive control. Comparative modelling of neurocontroller design for robotics. * Lawrence Bull, Owen Holland, Chris Melhuish Behaviour-based mobile robots, collective behaviour, reinforcement learning and genetic algorithms. _Intelligent Flexible Assembly Technology (InFACT/ALASCA Group):_ Eureka/FAMOS Projects (EC colaborative project - academic and Industry) The group has a large gantry based robot designed and built by the group. * Farid Dialami, Alan Redford Advanced Large scale flexible assembly (Peugot cars etc), generic tooling. * David Eastlake (hardware), Mike Morgan(software) Transputer based robot control of co-operating manipulators. Email: _________________________________________________________________ Bristol University _Faculty_ Mr Khodlebandelhoo * Bi arm research * Path planning for redundant robots * Wall climbing robots _________________________________________________________________ Hull University _Faculty_ Prof Alan Pugh * Garment Manufacturing * Arm/controller design _________________________________________________________________ University of Manchester _Department of Computer Science_ The web page below describes research in mobile robotics in the areas of autonomous competence acquisition, learning by tuition and navigation. Papers are also available at this site. [73]http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/robotics _________________________________________________________________ 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 _Faculty_ * Prof Kevin Warwick Using neural nets in robotics and novel control algorithms. _________________________________________________________________ Salford University [74]http://WWW.salford.ac.uk/ or robotics work more directly at: [75]http://WWW.salford.ac.uk/docs/depts/eee/homepage.html _Faculty_ * 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. * Ruth Aylett, Information Technology Institute Robot planning systems, multi-agent systems, robot architectures, hybrid behavioural/symbolic robots * 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. Dr Francis Nagy Speech Control of a Puma-560, Control of an 'Inverted Pendulum', Miniature tactile sensors _Advanced Robotics Research Centre_ * Ultrasonic wrist sensor for collision avoidance * Controller design * Stereo Vision _________________________________________________________________ University of Surrey Mechatronic Systems and Robotics Research Group _Faculty_ * 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. _________________________________________________________________ United States _________________________________________________________________ Boston University _Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering_ _People_ 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 _________________________________________________________________ Brandeis University> Waltham, MA Brandeis has a program in autonomous agents, focusing on multi--agent and multi--robot systems and machine learning, headed by Maja Mataric For details on research directions and a photo of the available robot herd see: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/dept/faculty/mataric For graduate admission information see: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/dept/grad-info/application.html To get more information about the Volen Center for Complex Systems, about the Computer Science Department, and about other faculty, see: http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/dept. For more information about the cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience programs at Brandeis see: http://fechner.ccs.brandeis.edu/cogsci.html _________________________________________________________________ California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA Joel Burdick serpentine manipulation, control Richard Murray control of nonholonomic systems, grasping Pietro Perona biological and machine vision For more detailed information on robotics research at Caltech see [76]http://robby.caltech.edu/ _________________________________________________________________ Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Graduate program contact: Graduate Admissions Coordinator The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213 [77]The Robotics Institute is the world's largest academic organization devoted to robotics. The Robotics Institute (RI) has over 45 full-time faculty, over 100 technical staff, 150 graduate students (90 in the RI program) and 25 visitors and post-docs. The Robotics Institute is part of CMU's [78]School of Computer Science The Robotics Institute also offers a [79]Robotics PhD and students from other programs (e.g. engineering and computer science) also do research in the Institute. Institute development spans the spectrum from fundamental and basic research to development and integration of complete systems for specific applications. Research includes many aspects of mobile robots, computer integrated manufacturing, rapid prototyping, sensors, vision, navigation, learning and architectures. The RI PhD program is comprised of a set of qualifiers and a program of research leading to a thesis and the degree. The many centers and laboratories include the [80]National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC), a facility and organization devoted to technology transfer between laboratory and companies. Facilities include about a dozen mobile systems with more under design and construction. Facilities include over 2000m^2 of offices and over 15,000 m^2 of laboratory and highbay space. Facilities available include many mobile robots, manipulator systems and lots of computer cycles/person. _People_ 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) Red Whittaker Field Robotics Center and many others..... _________________________________________________________________ Case Western Reserve University Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics Glennan Building 10900 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44106 Phone (216)368-4088 Fax (216)368-2668 See [81]file://alpha.ces.cwru.edu/pub/agents/home.html Electrical engineering at CWRU is a broad, dynamic field offering a great diversity of career opportunities in areas such as microwave and rf communications, microprocessor-based digital control systems, robotics, solid state microelectronics, signal processing, and intelligent systems. The Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics offers Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Master of Engineering, and Doctor of Philosophy degree programs which provide preparation for work in these areas. The department offers a minor in electrical engineering for bachelor's degree students in other engineering disciplines as well as a minor in electronics for bachelor's degree students enrolled in the College of Arts and Science. _________________________________________________________________ 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. _________________________________________________________________ Clemson University (CU) Graduate program contact: Robotics and Mechatronics (RAM) Laboratory Center for Advanced Manufacturing Clemson University Clemson SC 29634 Lab Phone: 864-656-6988 Fax: 864-656-7220 For more information browse our web site at [82]http://crb.eng.clemson.edu or contact: Dr. Darren Dawson (ECE) [83]ddawson@eng.clemson.edu Tel: (864) 656-5924 Fax: (864) 656-7220 [84]http://crb.eng.clemson. edu/advisor/dawson.htm Dr. Chris Rahn (ME) [85]cdrahn@eng.clemson.edu Tel: (864) 656-5261 Fax: (864) 656-4435 [86]http://www.eng.clemson .edu/~cdrahn/resume.html Summary of Laboratory Activities * Research and Development * Education * Technology Transfer * Classroom/Laboratory Workshops * Faculty/Student Summer Interns Electrical and Computer Engineering RAM Personnel * Darren Dawson, Professor * John Luh, McQueen Quattlebaum Professor Mechanical Engineering RAM Personnel * Chris Rahn, Assistant Professor * Frank Paul, McQueen Quattlebaum Professor Approximately 25 Ph.D and Masters Thesis Students from both ECE and ME departments. RAM Research Facilities * Robotics Lab: Seven Robot Stations Including a Dual Robot Arm Workcell and two Direct Drive Robot Manipulators * Computational Lab: Cluster of Personal Computers and Workstations * Union Camp Lab: Motor Drive Equipment, a Magnetic Bearing, and Real Time Workstations * Environmental Restoration Lab: Virtual Reality Based Equipment and Software * Rapid Isothermal Processing Lab: Three Chemical Vapor Deposition Testbeds * Square D Lab: Three Vibration Control Testbeds RAM Research Thrust Areas * Advanced Computer-Based Software Interfaces and Position/force Control Systems for Robot Manipulator Systems * Dynamic Modeling Techniques and Tension Controllers for High Speed Transport of Fibers and Webs * High Precision Position Controllers for Electric Motors and Magnetic Bearings * Control Algorithms for Payload Swing Reduction for Overhead Cranes * Vibration Control Techniques for Flexible Beams and Cables * Closed-Loop Modeling, Control, Measurement, Techniques for Semiconductor Manufacturing (Chemical Vapor Deposition) _________________________________________________________________ Cornell Ithaca, NY Mechanical Engineering Bruce Donald _________________________________________________________________ Georgia Institute of Technology _Atlanta, GA_ _Georgia Institute of Technology Robotics Activities_ See also: [87]MRLHome.html Application study areas include: * 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. Lipk * 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 _________________________________________________________________ Iowa State University _Iowa Center for Emerging Manufacturing Technology_ _Ames, Iowa 50011_ See also: [88]http:// www.vislab.iastate.edu Iowa State University has one of the better visualization labs in the country. The lab consists of mainly mechanical engineers and computer scientists. _________________________________________________________________ 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) NYU's Department of Computer Science home page is at: [89]http://cs.nyu.edu/ _Degrees:_ We offer Ph.D. and MS in computer science. Ph.D. students may work thesis research in robotics. MS students may work on a thesis (as a substitute for one course). All graduate students are eligible to enroll in Advaned Laboratory and work on a project in robotics. Qualified undergraduates may take Independent Study. The Department of Computer Science offers graduate and undergraduate courses in robotics, computer vision, AI and neural computation. There is also a weekly robotics colloquim For admissions information, contact karmen@cs.nyu.edu _Research (1994):_ * Multimedia (Schwartz, Wallace, Perlin) See Below * 3-D target recognition (Hummel) * Grasp Metrics (Mishra, Yap) * Reactive Robotics (Mishra) * Wavelets and Compression (Mallat) * Human Body Animation (Perlin) _Faculty:_ * Ken Perlin (Computer Graphics, Multimedia) * Jacob T. Schwartz (Robotics, Multimedia, Computational Logic) * Bud Mishra (Robotics, Theory of Computation) * Chee Yap (Robotics, Computational Geometry) * Stephane Mallat (Wavelets, Computer Vision) * Robert Hummel (Computer Vision) _What is Multimedia Robotics?_ "Multimedia Robotics" is a new area of computer science concerning new markets for robotics technology, emphasizing the emerging areas of virtual reality and telepresence, animation and entertainment, and bioscience material processing. Wrench Displays Force and Torque input/output devices for user interfaces, also called "haptic displays". Bioscience Applications Microrobots in DNA micromanipulation, Wrench displays for surgical VR training applications, Microsurgical instruments Advanced actuators for VR and Multimedia Scaling theory and dynamics of piezeoelectrics, shape memory metals, electromagnetics and other new actuator technolgies. Telepresence Robotics and the WWW, Video Telephony, Telesensuality Research underway at NYU represents each of these four areas. _________________________________________________________________ North Carolina State Univerisity Raleigh, NC Professor Ren Luo tel: 919.515.5199 _________________________________________________________________ [90]Northeastern University> Boston, MA 02115 The Marine Systems Engineering Laboratory (MSEL) of Northeastern University is pleased to announce its presence on the World Wide Web at [91]MSEL Home Page MSEL is a small, internationally-known lab that focuses on research in ocean engineering, in particular autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). AUVs are unmanned, untethered submersibles that are capable of carrying out missions autonomously. MSEL developed one of the first AUVs, EAVE-EAST. Currently, the EAVE AUVs are in their third generation, the EAVE-III vehicles. The lab maintains two EAVE-III vehicles for both single-agent and multiagent research. The lab is also developing a long-range AUV (LRAUV) for extended full-ocean depth missions. We have active research programs focusing on intelligent AUV control, AUV control architectural issues, long-range AUV development for ocean science applications, and multiple AUV systems and cooperative distributed problem solving. [92]Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 Here's a pointer to Purdue's [93]Robot Vision Lab _Faculty_ * [94]Avi Kak: Vision and mobile robots * Antti Koivo: Manipulation * Mirek Skibiniewski: Construction Robotics * Anthony Maciejewski: Kinematics of redundant robotic arms, computer graphic techniques for animation, visualization * George Lee: Robot Control, Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks * Akio Kosaka Vision-based navigation for mobile robots _________________________________________________________________ Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI) _Faculty_ * George Saridis * Arthur Sanderson * Jon Wenn About 20 PhD and 30 MS students. Path planning and multi-arm control are current focus. _________________________________________________________________ Stanford University Palo Alto, CA [95]http://www.stanford.edu/ _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:_ _Deparment 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 www: [96]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: * controller composition for coordinating multiple robots * grasp planning * geometric reasoning for robust assembly & fine motion control * learning for admittance control & path optimization * biological models of motor planning * proprioceptive, tactile, & visual model acquisition * trajectory planning, coarse reaching * 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 Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are relevant to robotics research. Research includes 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. Umich robotics work can be found at [97]Umich Robotics _Contacts_ * Johann Borenstein [98]johann_borenstein@um.cc.umich.edu * Yorem Koren [99]yorem_koren@um.cc.umich.edu _________________________________________________________________ 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. [100]GRASP Web SiteActive areas of research are Telerobotics, Multiple Arm Control, Robotic Vision, Learning Control, Multi-agent Robotics and Mechanical Design. _Faculty_ * R. Bajcsy * R.P. Paul * Vijay Kumar * Max Mintz * Jim Ostrowski * Eero Simoncelli _________________________________________________________________ University of Rochester _Computer Science Department_ Well known Computer Vision group. See the following web pages: [101]http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/PercAct/dvfb.html [102]http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag _________________________________________________________________ University of Southern California (USC) USC has a new MS Program called: Master of Science in Computer Science with specialization in Robotics & Automation This Master of Science program prepares graduates for the future of manufacturing engineering. Emphasized areas include manufacturing as an international enterprise, and information engineering, with concentrations in specialties including multimedia, CAD for rapid prototyping, electronic packaging, magnetic recording, and manufacturing management. Classroom teaching is transferred into a practical format and weekly seminars. A nine month internship is a key part of the practical track for this Program. Students have been placed in internships with companies such as Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Qualcomm, Alcoa Electronic Packaging, Kyocera America, Maxtor Corporation, Spectragraphics, StorageTek, and Valor Electronics. Financial aid is available. Preferential assistance will be given to displaced defense industry professionals. For information on applying to the Program, or accessing an intern for your company, e-mail [103]PAM@ece.ucsd.edu or contact Vivian Shinmoto at 619-534-7398. 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. See also [104]http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/robotics/home.html 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_ * 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). A 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 _Faculty_ * Dave Akin Director, 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 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. _________________________________________________________________ University of Notre Dame South Bend, Indiana The Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame offers several courses which are directed toward an fundamental understanding of the mechanics, kinematics, estimation and control theory, and computer programming which are important considerations in the design of robotic systems. Of special interest is a novel approach for achieving robust and precise vision-based control of manipulators - "camera-space manipulation". Doctoral recipients >from this program are teaching and doing research in tenure-track positions at US universities. For more information, see, on the World-Wide Web: [105]Skaar Home.html [106]AME HomePage.html or contact Prof. Steven B. Skaar, Director of Graduate Studies, [107]steven.b.skaar.1@ND.EDU Research in Vision-Based Robotics Using Estimation The multimedia monograph discusses recent experimental and theoretical work conducted at the University of Notre Dame aimed at using methods of estimation to achieve accurate, robust and reliable vision-based guidance of various kinds of mechanisms, including typical holonomic robots, fork-lifts and other vehicles. The monograph is divided into two parts: Part 1 discusses the method of "camera-space manipulation" and is in the early stages of development. Part 2 discusses vision-based navigation of a vehicle. Both parts include several QuickTime movie illustrations of existing experiments, and part 2 includes 3-D animations for illustration of principles. _________________________________________________________________ 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_ _Faculty_ * 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 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. _________________________________________________________________ Wilkes University Wilkes-Barre, PA [108]Wilkes University is a small, private university located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Despite its size, Wilkes is well equipped with robotics laboratories and has two faculty ( [109]Dr. C.R. Mirman Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and [110]Dr. M.R. Stein, Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Pennsylvania) to sponsor graduate robotics research. Robotics is an integral part of the undergraduate Mechanical Engineering curriculum, and may be a topic for graduate study in Electrical Engineering. Wilkes offers a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering. See also their [111]Robotics and Automation page. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ [6.2] Student Who's Who An useful additional source of information is the graduate student guide compiled by Ron Kube . It is a list of graduate students, their universities, and areas of research. The list is updated monthly and can be found at [112]ftp://ftp.cs.ualberta.ca/pub/kube/whosWho and is also available on the Web as: [113]http://www.sm.luth.se/csee/ra/sm-roa/Robotics/WhoSWho.html The list is a good starting point for those interested in graduate programs and for those looking for individuals with similar research interests. _________________________________________________________________ Last-Modified: Fri Aug 30 02:19:04 1996 [114]Kevin Dowling <nivek@cmu.edu> References 1. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/copyright.html 2. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/TOC.html 3. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#6.1 4. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#6.2 5. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Australia 6. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Western Australia 7. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Canada 8. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#McGill University 9. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Alberta 10. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Finland 11. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Helsinki 12. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#France 13. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Paris 14. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Japan 15. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Waseda University 16. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Sweden 17. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Lulea University of Technology 18. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Switzerland 19. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Swiss Federal Institute of Technology 20. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#United Kingdom 21. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Bristol University 22. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Edinburgh University (UK) 23. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Hull University, UK 24. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Reading University, UK 25. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Salford University 26. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Birmingham 27. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Essex (UK) 28. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Manchester 29. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Oxford 30. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Surrey 31. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of the West of England at Bristol, U.K. 32. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#United 33. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Boston University 34. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Brandeis 35. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#California Institute of Technology (Caltech) 36. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) 37. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Colorado School of Mines 38. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Clemson University 39. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Cornell 40. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Georgia Institute of Technology 41. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Harvard 42. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 43. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#New York University (NYU) 44. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#North Carolina State University 45. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Northeastern 46. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Purdue 47. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 48. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Stanford University 49. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of California at Berkeley 50. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Iowa 51. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Kansas 52. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Kentucky 53. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Massachusetts 54. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Michigan 55. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Pennsylvania. 56. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Rochester 57. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Southern California (USC) 58. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Maryland 59. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#The University of Texas at Arlington 60. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Wisconsin-Madison 61. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#University of Utah 62. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Yale University 63. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/6.html#Wilkes University 64. http://telerobot.mech.uwa.edu.au/ 65. http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/ 66. http://www.hut.fi/English/HUT/Units/Faculties/T/Automation/index.htm 67. http://www.hut.fi/English/HUT/Units/Faculties/T/Automation/res/research.htm 68. http://www.waseda.ac.jp/ 69. http://www.shirai.info.waseda.ac.jp/humanoid/index.html 70. http://www.sm.luth.se/csee/er/sm-roa/ 71. http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/ 72. ftp://ftp.essex.ac.uk/pub/robots/SXlab.ps.Z 73. http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/robotics 74. http://WWW.salford.ac.uk/ 75. http://WWW.salford.ac.uk/docs/depts/eee/homepage.html 76. http://robby.caltech.edu/ 77. http://www.ri.cmu.edu/ 78. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/ 79. http://www.ri.cmu.edu/ri-home/phdprog.html 80. http://128.2.197.1/home.html 81. file://alpha.ces.cwru.edu/pub/agents/home.html 82. http://crb.eng.clemson.edu/ 83. mailto:ddawson@eng.clemson.edu 84. http://crb.eng.clemson.edu/advisor/dawson.htm 85. mailto:cdrahn@eng.clemson.edu 86. http://www.eng.clemson.edu/~cdrahn/resume.html 87. http://www.gatech.edu/aimosaic/robot-lab/MRLHome.html 88. http:// www.vislab.iastate.edu/ 89. http://cs.nyu.edu/ 90. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/www.northeastern.edu 91. http://cdps.cs.unh.edu/MSEL/home.html 92. http://www.purdue.edu/ 93. http://RVL1.ecn.purdue.edu/ 94. http://RVL4.ecn.purdue.edu/~kak/ 95. http://www.stanford.edu/ 96. http://piglet.cs.umass.edu:4321/lpr.html 97. http://www.engin.umich.edu/~johannb 98. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/johann_borenstein@um.cc.umich.edu 99. file://localhost/usr/nivek/faq/HTML/yorem_koren@um.cc.umich.edu 100. http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~grasp/home.html 101. http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/PercAct/dvfb.html 102. http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag 103. mailto:PAM@ece.ucsd.edu 104. http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/robotics/home.html 105. http://www.nd.edu/NDInfo/Research/sskaar/Home.html 106. http://www.nd.edu/Departments/EN/AME/HomePage.html 107. mailto: steven.b.skaar.1@ND.EDU 108. http://www.wilkes.edu/ 109. http://wilkes1.wilkes.edu/~mme/fachp/CM.html _________________________________________________________________ [7] What is the State of the Robot Industry? In general, there was a significant slump in the mid to late 1980's in industrial robotics. However in the early 1990's sales and number have rebounded to surpass early 1980 numbers and dollars. From Motion Control Magazine April 1994: Robotics Industries Association said recently Robot orders jumped 40% through June, 1993 as the industry posted its best opening half-year ever.... Net new orders received by U.S. based robotics companies totalled 3,640 robots valued at $306.2 million, the highest unit and dollar figures ever. From the New York Times, Wednesday September 7th pC1 (paraphrased) In the late 1980's a steep decline in robot orders drove most US companies out of the business. In the first half of 1994 4,335 robots with a total value of $383.5 million. Fanuc is the leader with about $360M in sales this year. Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) is second with sales estimated at $120M. The next several are Japanese: Motoman, Panasonic, Sony and Nachi. The only major US producer to have survived is Adept Technology with about $50M in sales in a $700M market. The following table is interpreted from a graph in the article. Net new orders in US: Year # of robots $US 1984 5800 $480M 1985 6200 $380M 1986 5400 $320M 1987 3800 $300M 1988 4000 $325M 1989 4500 $510M 1990 5000 $510M 1991 4000 $410M 1992 5250 $500M 1993 6800 $630M 1994 4335 (6 mos) $383M (6 mos) _________________________________________________________________ From Industry Flash Vol1, No. 4, Dec 5, 1994: _DEMAND FOR U.S. INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS SURGING_ ANN ARBOR, Mich. - U.S.-based robotics companies are enjoying the best of times. The Robotics Industries Association (RIA) says surging demand recently led American robotic companies to their best nine-month totals ever. Through September, new orders totaled 6,218 robots valued at $548 million, a 12 percent increase in units and 13 percent increase in revenue over the previous nine-month period last year. The greatest demand, says the trade group, is coming from U.S. manufacturers which are finally learning what the Japanese have known for years: robots can play a significant role in improving productivity, quality, flexibility and time-to-market. But, even though demand is surging and the U.S. is the world's second largest robotics user with some 53,000 systems, the Japanese have more than seven times as many robots in use, RIA says. _________________________________________________________________ Last-Modified: Sun Aug 11 08:49:43 1996 [3]Kevin Dowling <nivek@cmu.edu> _________________________________________________________________ [8] What companies sell or build robots? [3][8.1] Mobile robot companies [4][8.1.1] AGV Companies [5][8.1.2] Underwater robots [6][8.2] Manipulator companies [7][8.3] Other Organizations doing robotics [8][8.4] Small Inexpensive Robots [9][8.5] Entertainment Robots _________________________________________________________________ [8.1] Mobile robot companies There are a small number of companies targeting the research community for the mobile robot market. Helpmate, 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. Robot lawn mowers too! _________________________________________________________________ _Action Machinery Co._ One Vulcan Drive Helena, AL 35080, USA tel: 205.663.0814 fax: 205.663.3445 Severe-duty hydraulic robots and manipulators. Payloads from 65kg - 7000kg. Primarily forge, foundry, and casting operations. _________________________________________________________________ _Applied AI Systems_ Suite 500, Gateway Business Park 340 March Rd, KANATA Ontario, Canada K2K 2E4 net: 71021.2755@compuserve.com Representing IS Robotics and Khepera (see below). MIT subsumption architecture style robots. Ghengis-II walker runs $8636.00 including a development system and downloading board, but without LISP. _________________________________________________________________ _Arrick Robotics _ 2107 W. Euless Blvd. Euless, Texas 76040 USA tel: 817.571.4528 fax: 817.571.2317 net: rarrick@ix.netcom.com url: [10]www.http://robotics.com/ R20 mobile robot platform for use by AI software developers. 3-wheel design, 14" wide, 14" long, 10" tall, 15lbs. 20lb payload. On-board controller connects to the user's laptop computer by cable or low-cost RF modem (RS232). Sensors include compass, tilt, wheel travel, temperature, light level, bumpers, battery status, etc. Price as of 1/1/95 $2,900.00. Units in use at UTA Automation Robotics Research Institute. Send for detailed specifications. _________________________________________________________________ _Bell and Howell_ Bell & Howell Mailmobile Company 411 E. Roosevelt Ave. Zeeland MI 49464 tel: 616.772.1000 fax: 616.772.6380 email: For now [11]rpaske@iserv.net Mailmobiles were developed by Lear-Siegler in the mid-70's for the industrial cleaning market. They decided to leave this market and Bell and Howell, the audio-visual equipment 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_ 115 Sheraton Drive Salem VA 24153 tel: 540.562.7626 fax: 540.562.7632 url: [12]Cybermotion Mobile Robotic Systems 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 Branch International Robotics_ 1401 Ridge Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15233 tel: (412) 322-4412 fax: (412) 322-2040 email: Soon. Messages to hpm@cs.cmu.edu will be forwarded. Denning-Branch is a merger of Denning Mobile Robotics, once located in the Boston area, and makers of human-size mobile robots since 1983, and Branch and Associates, of Hobart, Australia, designers and builders of smaller mobile robots since 1979. Among the first products available is an MRV retrofit kit, which substitutes a modern Intel 80486 system with more power and a simpler interface for the 1985 vintage MC 68000 based controller. Fander Small (~60x30x30 cm) 80486 based robot for educational purposes, with infrared and rotating sonar sensors, preprogrammed for several autonomous navigation tasks, and externally controllable via serial link. $5.5K MRV 1 &4 Large (~90x90x120 cm) heavy payload capacity synchro drive robot, with optional sonar ring and laser nav sensors and software. $13.5K LaserNav Robot-mounted scanning infrared laser unit that uses wall mounted bar-coded retroreflectors or active transponders to navigate to centimeter precision in 10-meter-scale areas. $8K RotoSonar Small-scale revolving sonar head with 4 sonar units and software. $3K Sonar Ring MRV-scale belt of 24 sonar units and driving hardware and software. _________________________________________________________________ _General Robotics_ 14618 W. 6th Avenue Suite 150 Golden, CO 80401 tel: 800.422.4265 (US and Canada) tel: 303.277.1574 fax: 303.277.0310 RB5X mobile robot for educational use. Developed in the early 80's and has been sold for many years. Similar to design and market for Heathkit robots. RB5X is $2995. Also sell base unit without wheels and shell board mounted for experimentation or building your own robot: $1995. A variety of other options including sensors, cameras, radio link and software for for Mac, Apple II and PC's are available. Educational curriculum workbooks and manuals are also available separately. _________________________________________________________________ _HelpMate Robotics (formerly TRC)_ Shelter Rock Lane Danbury, CT 06810 tel: 203.798.8988 fax: 203.791.1082 [13]Helpmate Home Page Labmate research platform - $7500, plus additional optional sensors etc. Other products for hospital markets and floor cleaning machines. (Helpmate and RoboKent respectively) _________________________________________________________________ _IS Robotics_ Suite 6, 22McGrath Hwy Somerville, MA 02143 tel: 617.629.0055 fax: 617.629.0126 net: url: [14]http://isr.com/~isr * R-3, wheeled robot, $14K * Genghis II, 15" walking robot, $8.6K * Pebbles III, tracked robot, $12.5K * Hermes - high end walking robot Robots use the 16MHz 68332 (68020 core) microcontrollers (except Ghengis). Robots include IR and bump sensing for obstacle detection. Pyro sensors and color camera with pan-tilt are optional. ISR also performs contract engineering (custom robots). Check the [15]ISR home page for more details. _________________________________________________________________ _Kentree_ Kilbritten, County 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@mecos.ch Contact: S. J. Vestli Company formed as a spin off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH wiss 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 flexibility 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 _________________________________________________________________ _OTO MELARA_ Via Valdilocchi 15 19136 La Spezia ITALY tel: +39 187 58 2843 fax: +39 187 58 2669 contact: Gian Carlo Caligiani, Robotic Systems Office OTO MELARA R.2.5.Robotized System The Robotized R.2.5 (R.2.5.R) Project aims at prototyping a mobile robot for intervention in hostile environments. The system is composed by three main units: the transportable control station, the radio communication set and the mobile robot based on an armoured, diesel propelled, wheeled platform called R.2.5. Gorgona, produced by OTO MELARA. Robot can be remotely controlled via full-duplex radio link. Can be teleoperated and provides supervised modes as well. Speeds from 30cm/sec to 30km/h. As of May 1994 the locomotion system and teleoperated system are complete. Additional functionality in the form of supervised and autonomous operation are planned. _________________________________________________________________ _Poulan/Weed Eater_ c/o Robotic Solar Mower Dept. PO Box 91329 Shreveport, LA 71149-1329 tel: 318.687.0100 X3939 [Boiled out of their press release - Gareth Branwyn] The Robotic Solar Mower is a 5.6kg (12.5lb). automated solar-powered "lawn groomer." It uses a wire boundary system to keep it inside the mowing area. It runs continuously when the sun shines. Its operation is "virtually noise free." It continues on its constant mowing course, taking between several hours and several days to complete a grooming cycle (depending on size of yard, obstacles, etc.). Instead of cutting 1/3 of the grass blades (as in a conventional mower), it only trims the tips. It can handle a yard up to 1250m^2 (13,500 ft^2) and has a slope tolerance of 15-20 degress. A pilot program is currently offering the mower in the US for $2,000. _________________________________________________________________ _Real World Interface (RWI) _ PO Box 375 32 Fitzgerald Drive Jaffrey, NH 03452 tel: 603.532.6900 fax: 603.532.6901 net: [16]sales@rwii.com [17]RWI homepage RWI manufactures the B14 (an evolved B12) and B21 Mobile Robot Systems, and in collaboration with ActivMedia, Inc. and Kurt Konolige of SRI, the newer, low-cost, Pioneer 1 Mobile Robot. Recently redesigned, the B14's 35.5 x 61cm (14" x 24") (d x h) Synchro Drive Base now has built-on, tool-less access Smart Panels(tm) with tactile sensors, a 192-watt hr, hot-swappable battery power system for continuous service, and carries up to a 9kg (20 lb) payload. New B14 Enclosure mounts on top the Base and hosts Linux computer system, complete with RWI's RAI robotics servers and client development software libraries. Full range of IR, sonar, and tactile sensors included (seamless 360-degrees, top-to-bottom bump protection). RWI's flagship robot -- the B21 -- is for mobile autonomous research and commercial applications. The 53x30cm (21" x 12") (d x h) 4-wheel drive B21 Synchro Drive Base carries a payload of 190kg (200 lbs) and has 1500-watt hours of independent battery power, hot-swappable for continuous service. The B21 Enclosure mounts on top the Base and hosts two internal computers plus a console laptop, all integrated via an onboard Ethernet, Linux OS, and RWI's RAI robotics software. Smart Panels(tm) around give easy access to Base and Enclosure equipment and host a full range of IR, sonar, and tactile sensors. Optional four-axis arm has gripper and 360-degree wrist, and mounts inside Enclosure. Both the B14 and B21 Mobile Robots come with a variety of accessories, including a newly released stereo vision system and other video options, radio Ethernet, compass, text-to-speech interface, and more. Released Summer '95 at IJCAI, the Real World/ActivMedia/Konolige [18]Pioneer 1 Mobile Robot is targeted for research and training where affordability (under $2500!) and many platforms are required. Based on the popular and winning (AAAI '94) Flaky, Pioneer 1 has a position-accurate 2-wheel drive in a 46 x 35.5 x 23cm (18x14x9") (l x w x h) chassis, which also carries a 84 watt-hr powerpack and hosts seven sonars. The custom on-board 68HC11-based controller runs a suite of robotics servers accessible via onboard serial port by piggyback laptop or basestation computer client software running SRI's Saphira software for research in multiple-intelligence and interactive behaviors. Client libraries and a simulator are included to assist application development. Fast-Track Vision System, based on [19]Newton Labs' Cognachrome Vision System now available for Pioneer 1. Manipulation gripper, vision system, experimenter's modules, and supporting textbooks by Dr. Kurt Konolige to come. (B14) B14 Base w/ tactile Smart Panels(tm) $8,500 B14 Enclosure w/ full sensor array $6,000 B14 Pentium (100/16/540MB)* $2,850+/- B14 Power Station $400 (B21) B21 Base w/ tactile & IR Smart Panels(tm) $19,500 B21 Enclosure w/ full sensor array $11,500 B21 Four-Axis Arm $18,250 B21 Pentium (133/32/1200)* $4,125+/- B21 Pentium Console (100/16/540/28cm screen) $4,350+/- B21 Power Station $1,500 (Acc) Pan-Tilt Head $1,950 PCI-based Video Frame Grabber $950 CCD Cameras (color & B &W) $931-$1,375 Radio Links (RS-232 & Ethernet) $595-$5,390 Digital Navigation Compass $850 (New) Basic Robot $2,495 Fast-Track Vision System $2,995** Gripper $750 ComRad RS-232 Radio $595 Experimenter's Module $200 * All Bxx computers come with Linux and RWI RAI software installed and with Ethernet networking. ** Introductory price good through May, 1996. _________________________________________________________________ _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, Dispensary Street Alnwick, Northumberland, NE661LN, UK tel: +44 655 604895 fax: +44 665 510624 net: [20]http://www.tag.co.uk/robots/ A variety of small modular mobile robots, sensors and controllers. * Frank - a tracked vehicle. Cost $UK 3198 * Igor - a small quadraped walking machine. $UK 2238 * Sensors - ultrasound and IR. $UK 144 - 318 depending on model. * Neural modeling system - single eurocard board for neural work. _________________________________________________________________ _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_ 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 _________________________________________________________________ [8.1.1] AGV Companies AGV's are Automatic Guided Vehicles. They are common in factory automation and usually consist of mobile platforms for transporting goods and materials within factories. Most still use buried wires for guidance, but several vendors have or will have off-wire capabilities. AGV subsystems can also be useful in building mobile bases. Wheel modules can be purchased that already include hub, tire, motor, bearings, suspension and sometimes steering as well as drive. The first AGV was installed by the Cravens Company at Mercury Motor Express in Columbia, SC in 1954. The use of AGV's did not take off however and even by the early 80's the investment by US firms in AGV's was less than $70M. However, several European companies took hold of the idea and rapidly evolved it. The industry in the US peaked in 1985 at about $175M and is slowly recovering. -- From Modern Materials Handling - 4/96 _________________________________________________________________ _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. _________________________________________________________________ _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 (now FMC)_ 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. _________________________________________________________________ _Frog Navigation Systems b.v._ Cartesiusweg 120 3435 BD Utrecht The Netherlands tel: (+31) 30 244 05 50 fax: (+31) 30 244 07 00 net: frog@ich.nl contact: Leo Lans USA-office: 1091 Centre Road, Ste 170 Auburn Hills, MI 48326 tel: (+1) 810 377 4000 fax: (+1) 810 377 4004 contact: Charles Rouse - dir of marketing and sales net: 102024.665@compuserve.com FROG makes AGVs and AGV navigation systems that utilize infrastructure components to accurately determine AGV position. FROG, and the SuperFROG AGV supervisory software, are used in both 'traditional' and 'non-traditional' AGV Markets. Traditional applications include manufacturing and warehousing. Non-traditional applications include container handling, personnel transport, mining and military use. FROG will fit any vehicle and can be used in any environment from clinically clean warehouses to weather beaten dockyards. Articles on Frog are in 'Automation' February 1991 or in 'Modern Materials Handling', December 1994 P.46. _________________________________________________________________ _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 _________________________________________________________________ _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_ 161 Enterprise Drive Newport News, VA 23603 tel: 804.887.8080 fax: 804.887.0558 url: [21]http://www.munck.com 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. _________________________________________________________________ _Saurer Automation Systems_ Saurer Automation Systems 11818 James Street Holland, MI 49424-9658 tel: 616.393.0101 fax: 616.393.0331 Holland, MI Saurer was formerly Litton Industrial Automation and is a full service material handling company. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ [8.1.2] Underwater robots [new section, need more information] There are a number of companies building underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROV's). _[22]R.O.V. Technologies, Inc_ Franklin Road, Vernon, Vermont 05354 tel: 802.254.9353 net: [23]rovtech@sover.net Nuclear Underwater Equipment, Sales and Service * Hydrovision Tel UK ? 224-740145 * Benthos Tel US 1-800-446-1222 * JW Fishers Tel US 1-800-822-4744 * Sutec Tel Sweeden ? 46-13-15-80-60 * Rovtech Tel Uk ? 229-813641 * Deep Ocean Engineering Tel US 501-562-9300 * UWI Tel UK ? 224-896913 _________________________________________________________________ [8.2] Manipulator companies This is only a partial list of manipulator manufacturers. A wide variety of arms and arm components are made by these vendors and other vendors. _________________________________________________________________ _Adept Technology_ 150 Rose Orchard Way San Jose, CA 95134 tel: 408.432.0888 fax: 408.432.8707 url: [24]http://www.adept.com/ 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 also sells vision systems and controllers. _________________________________________________________________ _AEA Technology_ AEA is the commercial division of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. markets the NEATER series telerobots for decommssioning in the nuclear industry. The system includes a bilateral input device and active (autonomous) force control. The system can deploy drills, reciprocating saws, nibblers, grippers for insertions etc. Larger range of robots including the AEA Technology 200 Kg arm, use filtering compliance to avoid damage to the robot when deploying heavy duty dismantling tools. _________________________________________________________________ _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. ABB Robotics is part of a ABB, large swiss-based company, with Many types of larger industrial robots. Many are optimized for painting, welding and sealant applications. _________________________________________________________________ _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,_ 5344 John Lucas Drive Burlington, Ontario Canada L7L 6A6 tel: 905.332.2000 fax: 905.? 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. _________________________________________________________________ _Eshed Robotics_ Eshed Robotec Israel (HQ) tel: 03-498136 fax: 03-498889 In the US Eshed Robotec Inc. 445 Wall St. Princeton, NJ 08540-1504 tel: 609.683.4884 tel: 800.777.6288 Eshed Robotec BV Oude Torenweg 29 5388 RK Nistelrode The Netherlands tel: +31.412.611476 fax: +31.412.613185 net: [25]eshedbv@pi.net url: [26]http://www.pi.net/~eshedbv/ and [27]http://www.eshed.com Eshed makes a variety of robot manipulators for education, training and instructional use. This includes a half-dozen manipulator products, vision systems and a variety of machining and manufacturing systems. Eshed has sold over 8000 robots for training and education. Eshed has many dealers throughout Europe. Many dealers can be found at: [28]dealer list _______________________________________________________________ _International Submarine Engineering Ltd, ISE_ 1734 Broadway Street Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada V3C 2M8 tel: 604.942.5223 fax: 604.942.7577 url: [29]http://www.ise.bc.ca/ E-mail: [30]info@ise.bc.ca Underwater manipulators and teleoperated underwater vehicles. _______________________________________________________________ _Kawasaki Robotics (USA Inc.)_ 28059 Center Oaks Court Wixom MI 48393 tel: 810.305.7610 fax: 810.305.7618 [31]KR Home page 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. _______________________________________________________________ _Kinetic Sciences_ 3250 East Mall Vancouver, BC, CANADA V6T 1W5 tel: 604.822.2144 fax: 604.822.6188 net: [32]info@kinetic.bc.ca url: [33]http://www.asi.bc.ca/asi/affiliates/kinetic/KSI_home_pg.html Kinetic Sciences Inc. (KSI) provides technology innovation, research services and product development in the field of advanced robotics for operation in hazardous or menial environments. Our areas of expertise include: innovative robotic mechanisms (such as our Tentacle robot arm), computer vision (6 DOF position measurement and automatic inspection), advanced sensors, and autonomous control. For further information check out our web pages at: [34]KSI _______________________________________________________________ _Komatsu_ Construction Robotics Department contact: Shigeo Ohno fax: 81.44-288-6177 (japan) email: shigo-o@aix.or.jp url: [35]http://www.japan.hosting.ibm.com:80/komatsu/index-e.htm (English) The LM15-1 mini crane is a compact and portable electrically powered manipulation system. The device can be transported in a van and can be easily moved up and down stairs by rubber crawler tracks or winched vertically. The LM15-1 can work in relatively small spaces of 4x10m in area. It is powered by 100VAC, and has wireless remote control. Load specifications are 150kg at 3m. The telescoping boom can reach to 4m. It can be stored in a compact size of about 1m^2 and can be split into two even smaller pieces to ease storage and transport further. See the URL listed above for more details and pictures. Price: Y3,200,000 (between US$25-32K depending on the exchange rate) _______________________________________________________________ _Kraft Telerobotics_ 11667 W. 90th Street Overland Park, KS 66214 tel: 913.894.9022 fax: 913.894.1363 Nice telerobotic arms for underwater work. _______________________________________________________________ _Labman Automation Ltd_ Stokesley, North Yorkshire. TS9 5JY. UK net: tel:INT 44 642 710580 url: [36]www.quay.co.uk/labman/ [soon to be www.zebra.co.uk/labman/] Contact: Andrew Whitwell Tailoring mainly gantry based systems for laboratory applications. Designs include storage systems, multiple manipulators, special probes, modification of instruments and laboratory equipment. PC driven stepper drives, linear drives, dc motors, pneumatics, all sensors, RS232 links, LIMS communication. Systems include powder feeding, wet chemistry analysis, microtitre plate handling and many more. _______________________________________________________________ _mecos Robotics AG_ Technopark Zurich Pfingstweidstrasse 30 CH-8005 Zurich Switzerland tel: + 41 1 445 11 35 fax: + 41 1 445 11 34 net: mecos@mecos.ch 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). NTSC or PAL videos available for Sfr. 40 per tape. _______________________________________________________________ _Mitsubishi_ Mitsubishi PA-10 portable robot. 7 DOF, with continuous path control Supposedly *open* control architecture, using PC 30 Kg arm, 25 Kg controller, 10 Kg payload [I have no other information on this, anyone?] _______________________________________________________________ _Motoman [Hobart/Yaskawa]_ Corporate Office: 805 Liberty Lane, West Carrollton, OH, 45449. tel: 513.847.3300 Sales Office Dublin, OH tel: 614.718.6200 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. _______________________________________________________________ _Oxford Intelligent Machines (OxIM)_ 12 Kings Meadow, Osney Mead Industrial Estate Oxford, OX2 0DP, UK tel: +44 (0) 865 204881 fax: +44 (0) 865 204882 contact: Dr. Peter Davey Incorporated in 1990, OxIM provides a complete design service in the related fields of industrial sensors and automation. OxIM is manufacturing and developing robots and advanced industrial equipment. The MAP-IT vehicle is an open architecture research vehicle for indoor environments. The top surface, complete with an array of mounting holes, is available to the user for moutning experimental sensors and payload. Two direct drive motor-gearbox units provide locomotion. An extended 3U rack contains a controller card and power converter drive card. A third spare slot is provided. 400mm diam with payload surface 200mm above ground. Remote base station including power supply, dual RS232 ports, Full ANSI source code, 2 spare axes of servo control, bumper system, 10kg payload, 65W power supply. Several options are also available including PC interface. _______________________________________________________________ _Salisbury Robotics, Inc._ 20 Pemberton St. Cambridge, MA 02140 tel: 617.661.8847 net: jks@ai.mit.edu Sells the three-fingered Salisbury hand and force sensing fingertips. Contact: Ken Salisbury, _______________________________________________________________ _Sands Technology International_ US Sands Technology International Inc. 825 Highway 33, Trenton NJ 08619 tel: 1.609.584.7522 fax: 1.609.584.0239 email: [37]robotics1@aol.com contact: David Sands or Annis Monforte UK/Europe Sands Technology Ltd. Orwell House, Cowley Road, Cambridge, UK tel: 44 1223 420288 fax: 44 1223 420291 email: [38]robotics1@dial.pipex.com contact: David Sands or Cathy George Sands has been making robots since 1989. Sands make 3 robots, a low cost 5 axis bench top articulated arm, a bench top cylindrical format arm and a modular Cartesian arm which can be quite small or quite large depending on customer needs. All the robots are low cost, driven by stepping motors with sophisticated controls. Fairly fast, fairly accurate, very reliable. The controller is open, and uses an extension of FORTH we called ROBOFORTH which has over 400 commands (not counting building blocks) See [39]Sands Home Page for more details including drawings dimensions, speeds, payloads etc. _______________________________________________________________ _Sarcos Research Corporation_ 390 Wakara Way, 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. IP address: sarcos.com _______________________________________________________________ _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. _______________________________________________________________ _Seiko Instruments_ Torrance, CA tel: 310.517.7850 fax: 310.517-8158 url: [40]Seiko Instruments Seiko Instruments offers a complete line of industrial robots including SCARA, Cylindrical and Cartesian robots which are some of the fastest in the world. They also offer a point and click Microsoft Windows based Vision System which works with all our robots or as a stand alone system. _______________________________________________________________ _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. _______________________________________________________________ _Robotic Systems International (RSI), Ltd._ 9865 W. Saanick Rd. Sydney, BC V8L 3S1 Canada tel: 604.656.0101 _______________________________________________________________ _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: 207.761.9039 Maxym production robots for business. Simple accurate 3D linear motions coupled with power tooling such as routers, air drills and sanders. Workspaces up to 60cmx147cmx15cm. IBMPC software for designing parts and production path but takes DXF files as input. 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. Prices range from $14.5K to $19.9K. _______________________________________________________________ _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. _______________________________________________________________ _Yamaha Robotics_ PO Box 956 Broomall, PA 19008-0956 tel: 800 92-YAMAHA fax: 610.543.8113 Yamaha makes HXYA series of light cartesian robots. AC brushless motors can move payloads up to 50kg at 1.4m/s. Aluminum extruded frames that are lightweight, rigid and easy to mount. Work envelope sizes from 250mm x250mm to 2050mm x 1050mm. _______________________________________________________________ _Zymark Corp_ Zymark Center Hopkinton, MA 01748-1668 tel: 508-435-9500 Robots for laboratory automation. Zymate Robots. _______________________________________________________________ Other companies: (no addresses, yet) Furukawa Sumitomo Chubu Beckman Biomark HP ORCA Tecan _______________________________________________________________ [8.3] What other Organizations are working with robotics? This list is a small fraction of companies and other organizations that are actively working in robotics. One way to obtain more companies is to search through proceedings of conferences or find member companies of many of the organizations listed in previous FAQ sections. Industrial robotics is used widely throughout a number of companies. Most large aerospace companies have groups working in or looking into robotics. Lockheed Martin (Denver), Rockwell International (Downey, CA), Boeing (Seattle) to name a few. Educational Organizations (Not Universities) _______________________________________________________________ _KISS Insitute for Practical Robotics (KIPR)_ 10719 Midsummer Drive Reston, VA 22091 contact: Dave Miller tel: 703.620.0551 fax: 703.860.1802 net: [41]kipr@src.umd.edu url: [42]http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/dmiller/kipr/kipr.html KISS Institute for Practical Robotics is a private non-profit educational corporation. As an organization dedicated to promoting education and utilization of practical integrated robotics, KISS Institute provides an umbrella for conducting joint research projects, dispersing information, and teaching courses involving members from many different home institutions. _Computers, Robotics and Artists Society of Houston [CRASH]_ See [43]CRASH Research Centers _______________________________________________________________ _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. _______________________________________________________________ _Automation and Robotics Research Institute (ARRI)_ 7300 Jack Newell Blvd. South Ft. Worth, Texas 76118 tel: 817.794.5900 _______________________________________________________________ _Mechanical Engineering Lab (MEL)_ Tsukuba City, Japan Kazuo Tanie: Robotics and cybernetics _______________________________________________________________ _Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL), AIST, MITI._ 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305 Japan. General description: ETL is a govermental institute with about 630 staffs and annual budget of over 10 billion yen including personnel expenses, covering a broad area related to electronics, physics, material sciences, device technology, energy technology, standards and measurements technology, bio-electronics, information science, computer science, computer systems, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Gopher host: [44]gopher://etlport.etl.go.jp Robotics group: Intelligent Systems Division covers robotics and related areas. It consists of following sections; Intelligent Machine Behavior, Autonomous Systems, Computer Vision, Interactive Interface Systems, and Communicating Intelligence. The robotics group in the division foucuses on intelligent robots and system integration. Its current research topics include, but not limited to, Dextrous manipulation, Motion planning, Active vision, Multi-sensor fusion, Multi-fingered hands, Hand-eye systems, Mobile robot navigation, Multiple-robot cooperation, Intelligent teleoperation, Learning, and Architecture. The robotics group at ETL has continuously been at the frontier of intelligent robotics research. PostDoc positions: ETL accepts postdoctoral research fellows from all over the world. Mainly two support programs are available: STA fellowship and AIST fellowship. They require a doctoral degree, age no greater than 35, fluency in Japanese or English, etc. Typical research period is one year (2 yrs max.). The fellowship includes a basic allowance (270,000yen/month) plus family allowance (50,000yen/month), housing cost, and a round trip air ticket (1 person). The fellowships are highly competetive and have different application procedures depending on an applicant's nationality. Those who are interested should contact their local governmental agency for international research cooperation (such as NSF in USA). A more convenient way might be to catch a member of ETL staff at some conference and inquire about the fellowships. Graduate Summer Institute Program: ETL is a member of the graduate summer institute program. The robotics group hosts a couple of guest student researchers every summer. The Graduate Summer Institute program is based on Japan-USA contract on research cooperation in science and technology. It is open for graduate students in the USA who are majoring in science and technology fields. The aim of the program is to provide opportunities for the students to get acquainted with Japanese culture, science and techonology, and to promote future collaboration in research in science and techonology. Here is some data from last year's example. Period: 2 months (Late June -- Late August). Program (subj. to change): Japanese classes. Research at host institutes. Lectures, Meetings, Going to Kabuki, Kyoto tour, Official Receptions. Support: Return air ticket, domestic transportation, accomodation, japanese classes, tours. Contact: Japan Programs, Division of International Programs, NSF. _______________________________________________________________ _Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Groforschungseinrichtungen (AGF)_ (Association of National Research Centers) Wissenschaftszentrum Ahrstrae 45 Postfach 20 14 48 53144 Bonn tel: (02 28) 3 76 74-1 fax: (02 28) 3 76 74-4 [45]http://www.gmd.de/AGF-Anschriften.html These are sixteen research centers in Germany. One of the research centers is GMD and they do robotics. GMD is at [46]http://borneo.gmd.de/AS/janus/pages/janus.htm _______________________________________________________________ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) _NASA Headquarters_ NASA Headquarters, Washington DC. Contact: Dave Lavery email: dave.lavery@hq.nasa.gov, URL: [47]Dave Lavery Home Page The ongoing NASA robotics research program develops autonomous, semi-autonomous and teleoperated systems and technologies for applications in Earth orbit and on planetary surfaces. Technology efforts are focussed on local autonomy, dexterous manipulation, task-level command and control, and contending with extremely harsh environments. [48]NASA HQ Telerobotics Home Page _______________________________________________________________ _NASA Ames Research Center_ Moffet Field, CA. I, TROV and Ranger projects. [49]http://maas-neotek.arc.nasa.gov/ _______________________________________________________________ _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 Jet Propulsion Laboratory_ 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA Contact: Chuck Weisbin, The JPL robotics efforts concentrate on development, integration and demonstration of A&R technologies, with a focus on plantary surface systems and autonomous mobile rovers. [50]NASA JPL Robotics Home Page _______________________________________________________________ _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. [51]http://tommy.jsc.nasa.gov _______________________________________________________________ _NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC)_ Robotics Group Contact: Bill Jones [52]http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/ksc.html 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 [53]http://www.arc.nasa.gov/ _______________________________________________________________ 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.