RoboDevelopment Conference Sessions
The RoboDevelopment Conference & Exposition conference program was designed to impart technical professionals with the information they need to develop the next generation of personal, service and mobile robots. Full conference attendees will have access to all keynote presentations and general sessions.
>>Click here for information on the CONFERENCE TRACKS.
>>Click here to view the KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS.
>>Click here to view the CONFERENCE AGENDA.
2:00PM – 2:45PM
| | STEVE COUSINS CEO and President Willow Garage |
Developing Open Source Software for Robotics
Track: Systems, Design & Development
In conjunction with Stanford and other partners, Willow Garage, a research lab focused on open source robotics, is developing the software necessary for constructing PR2, a personal robot platform that will pave the way to an industry of personal robots that will help people. In this session, Steve will share his experiences, as well as expand on a number of related subjects including the current state of the software for PR2, and the ROS Program (Robot Operating System) and university collaboration currently underway.
| | BRUCE BOYES Founder and Chief Technical Director Systronix Inc. |
An Affordable Swarm Architecture Platform
Track: Tools and Platforms
In this session, Bruce Boyes will describe a robot platform specifically designed for university-level swarm and emergent behavior education and research. He will describe TrackBot, a unique chassis design that includes an on-board Robot Area Network and an array of infrared sensors which completely encircle the robot, providing capabilities of robots costing 10 times as much. He will also describe how TrackBot and a wireless sensor such as Sun SPOT (Sun’s Small Programmable Object Technology) can provide universities with a powerful tool for teaching embedded control, robotics, wireless sensors, networking, and other topics of intense current interest. Speed bumps encountered while developing the platform will be elucidated, as well as new capabilities of the platform including positional awareness, simulation and smart code development.
| | DAN VIGGIANO III Vice President & General Manager New Scale Technologies |
Miniature Piezoelectric Motors Enable Greater Articulation and Precision for Microrobotics
Track: Enabling Technology
The desire for greater articulation and finer control in robotic systems has created a need for ever smaller actuators and sensors for “end-of-arm” actuation. The actuators and sensors must not only be small; they must also have low power consumption, high speed, high precision and fairly high force. The classic actuator solutions - DC motors, stepper motors, shape memory alloys and solenoids – are unable to meet all of these requirements. New miniature ultrasonic piezoelectric motors are stepping up to the challenge. Unique design techniques have resulted in robust piezoelectric motors that are half the size of the smallest electromagnetic motors, yet offer greater push force and precision with an overall reduction in power consumption. We present the smallest piezoelectric motor, the linear SQUIGGLE motor, which is only 1.8 x 1.8x 6 mm in size and simply constructed of only seven parts – no gears. We discuss SQUIGGLE motor operating parameters, integration with miniature Hall effect sensors, and controller considerations. Finally, we present a case study from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute describing the use of SQUIGGLE motors in the design of the next generation HeartLander, a mobile robot for minimally invasive cardiac therapy.
CHRIS BROWN
Business Development Manager
Autonomous Solutions
Achieving Manipulator Autonomy in Outdoor Environments
Track: Achieving Autonomy
Robotic manipulators in automated factory environments have been consistently performing complex tasks for decades. But implementing this same level of capability on mobile robots operating in outdoor or other uncontrolled environments has lagged far behind. US EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) technicians in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, are still stuck laboriously controlling simple teleoperated manipulators joint-by-joint. In this session, based on real world experience, attendees will hear how manipulator autonomy can be achieved using commercially available sensors and advanced software that allows even simple manipulators to perform complex tasks in uncontrolled environments. Attendees will also learn how sensors can give robots awareness of 3D environments in real time, including awareness of distinct objects and textures, how to visualize the environment for the robot operator, how to allow the operator to interact with a 3D world on a 2D display to command the robot, and how the robot executes very high level commands to interact intelligently with the real world. The session will use extensive video demonstrations of manipulator automation using the fielded iRobot Packbot and Foster-Miller TALON robots. Although these particular demonstrations showcase EOD applications, industrial applications in construction and mining are also highlighted.
3:00PM – 3:45PM
| | SHELLEY GRETLEIN Senior Group Manager, Real-Time and Embedded Systems National Instruments |
Defining a Common Architecture for Robotic Systems
Track: Tools and Platforms
Most robots have a common set of subsystems and components that define their basic architecture from controllers to sensors to peripherals. This presentation will discuss this basic architecture, as well as the underlying technologies used to deploy these subsystems. System design tools that manage and view robotics systems will be discussed and comparisons made.
| | LAURO OJEDA Chief Engineer Microinfinity |
Low Cost Accurate Positioning Systems for Consumer Robotics Applications
Track: Enabling Technology
Autonomous robot navigation is dependent upon the positioning system performance. Accurate and uninterrupted knowledge of the location of the robot provides important benefits in today's applications and in some cases it can be critical. However, high accuracy commercial navigation systems are expensive and bulky, therefore consumer robotics cannot benefit from this technology. In this session attendees will learn about new technology developments that provide affordable navigation solutions based on dead reckoning techniques and MEMs gyroscopes. Since dead reckoning is greatly affected by wheel slippage, the solutions also employ Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques using low cost range sensors.
| | DAVID BRUEMMER Technical Director for Unmanned Ground Vehicles Department of Energy, Idaho National Laboratory |
Application of Intelligent Plug and Play Payloads for Detection and Mapping of Multiple Hazards
Track: Achieving Autonomy
This session will cover the rigorous experimental results achieved by developing and deploying a variety of plug and play payloads onto many different kinds of commercial and military robots. Each of the payloads used is focused on a specific application area including landmine detection and marking, mapping chemical and radiological hazards, IED detection and neutralization, and human detection and tracking. Each of these payloads uses the Robot Intelligence Kernel that, in addition to intelligent behavior and dynamic autonomy, provides interoperability across many robots. In fact, the RIK is being used on over 20 different kinds of commercial robots. This talk will focus on rigorous, independent experimentation by the Army, Navy, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce to assess the value of these payloads in terms of human workload, time to completion, training requirements, human error, quality of data, cost and a variety of subjective measures such as trust, preference and the users' willingness to relinquish control. The talk will also discuss plans to license the RIK technology to existing robotics companies to support their lines of intelligent robots.
| | AKHIL MADHANI Project Lead and Lead Mechanical Engineer Walt Disney Imagineering |
Bringing WALL*E to Life – Transitioning Disney/Pixar’s Star From the Big Screen to the Real World
Track: Bonus Track
In this interesting and insightful session, representatives from Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Imagineering will jointly deliver a presentation which describes the process of designing and building a robot based on the robot character WALL`E from Disney/Pixar’s summer blockbuster film of the same name. Attendees will learn of the creative and technical challenges involved with creating a working, fully realized, real-world version of WALL`E that exhibits all of the characteristics and attributes of its of its (his?) film counterpart.
4:15PM – 5:00PM
| | BRAD DOLBIN Manager, Digital Drive Design Advanced Motion Controls |
Drive and Control Topologies for Robot Development
Track: Systems, Design & Development
Technology innovations from power electronics and digital signal processors have fueled advancements in drive technologies for robotics applications. For example, these advances now make it possible to shift more control functionality to drives, thereby reducing the overhead and burdens that complicate control schemes. Also, the physical size of drives has changed dramatically and robots are now able to take advantage of increased power densities. Network topologies allow greater flexibility in design and provide a backbone for distributed control techniques. These advancements provide today’s robot designer with options that could not be considered in the past due to complexity of implementation. In this session, attendees will learn of these and other advancements in drive technology and their impact on robotics development.
| | JOSEPH JACOB Senior Vice President Objective Interface Systems |
High Assurance CORBA for Robotics
Track: Tools and Platforms
Increasingly, robots and robotic technology must meet various safety-critical and/or security certifications. The question is how this is to be accomplished, particularly with regard to mobile robots. In the last few years, significant work has been done to develop high-performance, small footprint CORBA ORBs that can also support stringent safety-critical certifications and security certifications. This presentation will describe how this technology can significantly reduce risk, cost and timetables associated with any safety-critical or security certification process. How CORBA ORB implementation also improves code re-use and code portability among various generations of robots will also be discussed. Attendees will also learn how a robotics project can achieve a safety-critical or security certification, and will also recommend processes, artifacts and approaches to be taken to ensure that a robotics program can realize its safety-critical and/or security certification goals with a minimum amount of disruption to its development timetable.
| | SERGEY POPOV Chief Scientist Skilligent |
Developing Robotics Systems Using Learning and Behavior Control Software
Track: Enabling Technology
Trainable service robots have many advantages over “hardwired" or remotely-controlled robots. If a robot can be trained by its user, the cost and time for development are greatly reduced. In addition, the cost of ownership is lowered. In this presentation Sergey Popov, Chief Scientist at Skilligent, will discuss advanced robot learning technology and its application in the development of service and industrial robots, including software components that can be integrated into control systems of PC-controlled robots.
BRIAN COX
Unmanned Systems Tactical Area Manager
Applied Systems Intelligence
Tactical Behaviors for Unmanned Systems
Track: Achieving Autonomy
This presentation will demonstrate how knowledge-based systems can be used to build tactical behaviors (command and control) for both ground and air unmanned robotic vehicles. Attendees will also learn how this approach can increase the autonomy of robotic vehicles while always keeping their operators in charge. While much of work using this approach has been in the military arena, this presentation will discuss on how these tactical behaviors can be employed in commercial applications.
1:45PM – 2:30PM
| | DAVID BAGGALEY Sales & Marketing Director Inspired Energy |
Smart Batteries Make Smarter Robots
Track: Tools and Platforms
As robotic applications become increasingly complex, the advantages of Smart Battery Technology, a method to monitor a rechargeable battery pack to produce optimum charge control, are becoming more apparent. There are a number of advantages to Smart Battery Technology – its an open standard, it has a great track record of being deployed into many hundreds of thousands of applications and it offers much more than just a fuel gauge. The system is not only chemistry independent, allowing it to be seamlessly deployed across differing cell chemistries, but it also offers its advantages to future technologies - in smart SMBus fuel cells for example. The latest innovation of high power density Lithium Ion batteries brings higher discharge currents into our reach and is an enabler for new robotic applications using smaller power sources. For an un-tethered robot operating away from its base station, the advantage of knowing when to return for a recharge is only part of the story. This presentation will discuss methods to implement the Smart Battery System to enhance the capabilities of your robot.
| | JONAS LAMIS Executive Director SciVestor Corporation |
Intelligent Sensor Technologies 2010 to 2020: Impact and Implications for the Development Community
Track: Enabling Technology
Over the next decade, intelligent sensor technologies will perform increasingly important tasks in our vehicles, homes, workplaces, neighborhoods and even our bodies. Ubiquitous sentinels of behavior, sensors will dramatically reduce inefficiencies in the ways we work and live. However their emergence will also raise challenging questions of privacy, security and liability. In this session, Jonas Lamis, Executive Director, SciVestor Corporation, will present a cross-industry analysis of emerging sensor platforms and the implications on the development community. Key sensing concepts and companies will be examined and how applications that integrate sensors will enable our society. This session will also address the adoption challenges that these technologies will face as the public and political process becomes attuned to their emergence.
| | REGIS VINCENT Senior Research Scientist SRI International |
Karto: An Autonomous Navigation Toolkit
Track: Achieving Autonomy
In this session, Regis Vincent, Senior Research Scientist at SRI International, will provide attendees with a comprehensive overview of Karto, an SDK for robotic navigation, mapping and exploration, that enables developers of mobile robot solutions to integrate navigation and mapping intelligence into their designs. He will demonstrate how Karto, a software-only solution that leverages three decades of leading edge research by SRI International to provide high accuracy navigation, mapping, and exploration functionality across a broad range of mobile robot platforms, gives developers the flexibility to work with the widest range of mobile robot platforms, simulation environments, operating systems and robotics middleware.
| | TOM BENSON Director and Chief Product Architect Readybot Robot Challenge |
Commercial Service and Domestic Robotics: A Huge Potential Market, Starting Now
Track: Tools and Platforms
When will service robots be commercialized on a large scale? When will robots be cleaning kitchens, caring for the handicapped, emptying the garbage? Gather any group of roboticists and ask these questions, and you will get answers ranging from three years to 40 years. Tom Benson, the director of the Readybot kitchen-cleaning robot challenge, makes the case that the time to start aggressively commercializing human-sized robots is now. He will discuss the Readybot market analysis that hints at a market size many times larger than other estimates, as well as explore practical business issues such as sales, service, and revenue model that will be required to succeed in the domestic robotics market.
2:45PM – 3:30PM
| | RICHARD BYRNE Senior Computer Scientist Applied Research Associates |
Realizing JAUS Interoperability in Robotics Control System Architectures
Track: Systems, Design & Development
The Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) is mandated for use by all of the programs in the DoD Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (JGRE). Since JAUS is designed to be a flexible standard that can express any reactive, hierarchical or hybrid robotic paradigm, it can theoretically be superimposed on any existing robotic architecture. This presentation, delivered by Richard Byrne, Senior Computer Scientist, Applied Research Associates (ARA), will discuss the nature of the abstract network interface developed to add JAUS to their robotic platform architecture. He will provide lessons learned from developing this code and interfacing to the JAUS standard that can be applied to other similar efforts. Specifically, the presentation will highlight lessons learned from adding JAUS architecture to the Nemesis robotic platform, a DOD funded project for humanitarian de-mining. Richard will discuss how JAUS compliance for the Nemesis program was accomplished using this approach. He will also comment on how ARA was able to design a robotic framework independent of any JAUS considerations with the intent of adding JAUS compliant behavior as an option to an existing communication structure.
| | PETER NORDIN VP Research Institute of Robotics in Scandinavia |
Brainstorm: A Learning Robotics Platform
Track: Tools and Platforms
In this session, attendees will be introduced to a new software platform from the Institute of Robotics in Scandinavia, which can be applied to robotic applications ranging from special purpose UGVs to humanoids, that automatically detects sensors and actuators and then learns basic hardware specific autonomous control on its own. Developers can expand applications by adding special-purpose components, by initiating additional learning procedures for the robot's continuous self-development and adaptation, or by combining both approaches. This software – Brainstorm in name - allows robots to build models of the world around them and “think through” problems using simulation integrated with an evolutionary reasoning system. This creates a level of artificial intelligence capable of making judgments in new situations.
| | BRUCE HALL President Velodyne Lidar |
| | MICHAEL DUNBAR Business Development Manager Velodyne Lidar |
A High Definition 3D Laser Scanner for Autonomous Vehicle and Mapping Applications
Track: Enabling Technology
For years, autonomous vehicles have relied on components and hardware that were built for purposes other than navigation or mapping. Since the resolution, Field Of View (FOV), and frame rates are inadequate for data acquisition from a single sensor, it takes tremendous effort to setup, calibrate, and integrate multiple sensors. The most notable example is the use of multiple single-plane laser scanners designed for industrial process control coerced into performing mapping and obstacle avoidance tasks, usually involving actuating them using homegrown means. In this session, attendees will hear of a new approach to the problems of multiple sensors that use spinning, multiple fixed-laser design, giving a complete 360-degree FOV. This High Definition (HD) lidar solution makes data-rich, 3-dimensional information about the surrounding environment easily available for autonomous vehicle navigation, terrain mapping, surveying and robotics applications.
| | STEVEN GENTNER Founder RoboRealm |
Machine Vision Obstacle Avoidance for Mobile Robots
Track: Achieving Autonomy
As computing power on mobile robots increase, the camera is becoming one of the central sensors that a robot uses to understand and navigate around its environment. This session will introduce attendees to image processing, how to use machine vision to avoid real world objects, and how such a solution can be integrated into mobile robot systems. Steven Gentner, the founder of RoboRealm, will demonstrate several vision techniques including monocular and stereo vision that can be used for obstacle avoidance, using the popular and free RoboRealm software.
4:00PM – 4:45PM
| | KEITH CURTIS Technical Staff Engineer Microchip Technology |
Track: Systems, Design & Development
Enabling Sensor Techniques for Low-Cost Robotics
After decades of anticipation, robots and robotics technology are becoming common in the home. However, before robots can really ‘go mainstream’ in the home, there is one final hurdle that must be overcome – cost. To be accepted, a robotic solution will have to be cost competitive with a traditional, non-robotic solution. Cost constraints can place a severe limitation on robotic design, particularly with respect to sensor technology (for example, limiting the number and sophistication of the sensors that act as the robot’s eyes and ears). However, using a combination of low-cost microcontroller peripherals, a few components and some software, as well as ingenuity combined with simple electronics and physics can, sophisticated, yet low-cost, robotic sensor solutions can be developed. In this session, attendees will learn of some of the low-cost sensor techniques that are possible using a few simple peripherals, simple mechanics and software. Examples include, using a capacitive touch-sense peripheral to create tilt and acceleration sensors, using a PWM peripheral/voltage comparator/op amp to implement an ultra-sonic ranging system and combining a voltage comparator/wire coil/ferrite rod to create custom force/pressure sensors.
| | KEITH McFARLANE Senior Software Architect LiveOps, Inc. |
Open Source Event Processing for Sensor Fusion Applications
Track: Tools and Platforms
The increase in the native processing power of robotics platforms has put more open source software into scope for complex projects. One good example of a potentially useful project is Esper, the open source event processing engine. Although this software is typically applied to complex event processing in a business context, its event stream correlation features and performance characteristics make it a potential fit for coarse-grained sensor fusion applications. During this talk, Keith will provide design and code examples, and will demonstrate the use of Esper on a physical robotics platform for a simple sensor fusion task. Attendees will leave with an understanding of how event processing software might be applied, and where to start within their own projects.
| | BRIAN LONG Innovation Manager Bayer MaterialScience |
Advanced Material Technology for Robots
Track: Enabling Technology
Renowned for its multidisciplinary approach, robot technology is created primarily by collaboration of mechanical, electrical and software engineers. Up to now, material science has played only a minor role in these developments. However, new material contributions are enhancing the functionality, aesthetics and acceptance of mobile robots in users’ environments. Furthermore, unlike their factory floor ancestors, the eventual ubiquity of service robots in everyday life necessitates the thoughtful consideration of how robots look, feel and even smell in order to cohabit with humans. This session will deal with developments, trends and challenges of materials for mobile robotics. Several examples of polymer material technology developments for robot research projects will be presented. Results of Bayer MaterialScience’s global robotics material needs assessment will be discussed.