KEYNOTE SPEECH I

Mutli-Scale Robotics

Toshio Fukuda

Beijin Institute of Technology, Nagoya University, Meijo University
IEEE Fellow (1995). SICE Fellow (1995). JSME Fellow (2002), RSJ Fellow (2004), VRSJ Fellow (2011) and member of Science Council of Japan (2008-2013 ), and Academy of Engineering of Japan (2013-).

ABSTRACT  This talk is an overview of the Multi-scale robotics, based on the Cellular Robotics System, which is the basic concept of the emergency of intelligence in the multi-disciplinary way from Cell Level to the Organizational Level, proposed 30 years ago. It consists how the system can be structured from the individual to the group/society levels in analogy with the biological system. It covers the wide range of challenging topics:

  1. Individual robot level, Brachiation Robots and Multi-locomotion robots, medical robotics and simulator,
  2. Cooperation and competition of the multiple robotics system
  3. Distributed autonomous robotic system
  4. Micro and nano robotics system
  5. Bio analysis and synthesis: cyborg and bionic system

K_Fukuda_ToshioBIOSKETCH  Toshio Fukuda graduated from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan in 1971 and received the Master of Engineering degree and the Doctor of Engineering degree both from the University of Tokyo, in 1973 and 1977, respectively, while he studied at Graduate School of Yale University in 1973-1975. He joined the National Mechanical Engineering Laboratory in Japan in 1977, while he was a research Scientist at University of Stuttgart in 1979-1981, the Science University of Tokyo in 1981, and then joined Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan in 1989.

He is currently one thousand talented foreign Professor at BIT. He is Professor Emeritus of Nagoya University, having worked as Professor of Dept. of Micro and Nano System Engineering and Dept. of Mechano-Informatics and Systems, Nagoya University, Japan and as director of Center for Micro and Nano Mechatronics. He has been working as Professor of Shenyang University of Technology, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Science, Russell Springer Chaired Professor at UC Berkeley, Seoul National University, Advisory Professor of Industrial Technological Research Institute and etc. He is mainly engaging in the research fields of intelligent robotic system, micro and nano robotics, bio-robotic system, and technical diagnosis and error recovery system.

He was the President of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (1998-1999), Director of the IEEE Division X, Systems and Control (2001-2002), the Founding President of IEEE Nanotechnology Council (2002-2005), Region 10 Director (2013-2014) and is Director-elect, IEEE Division X, Systems and Control (2016). He was Editor-in-Chief of IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatronics (2000-2002).

He was the Founding General Chairman of IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) held in Tokyo (1988).  He was Founding Chair of the IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics Technology and Social Impacts (ARSO, 2005), Founding Chair of the IEEE Workshop on System Integration International (SII, 2008), Founding Chair of the International Symposium on Micro-Nano Mechatronics and Human Science (MHS, 1990-2012).

He has received many awards such as IEEE Eugene Mittelmann Achievement Award (1997), IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000) , IEEE Robotics and Automation Pioneer Award (2004), IEEE Transaction Automation Science and Engineering Googol Best New Application Paper Award (2007), George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation (2009), IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Field Award (2010). He received the IROS Harashima Award for Innovative Technologies (2011), Friendship Award of Liaoning Province PR China (2012), Friendship Award of Chinese Government (2014), IROS Distinguished Service Award (2015), Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon from Japanese Government (2015).

 


KEYNOTE SPEECH II

Cyber Physical Computing System Activating Intelligent Robotics: Challenges and Perspectives

Ren C. Luo

Irving T. Ho Chair Professor, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Chief Technology Officer, ASUS Computer Inc.

ABSTRACT  Germany has established sustainable leading Industry 4.0 vision with cyber physical system (CPS) as the core technology which integrate computation, communication and control technologies along with intelligent robotics, internet of things, big data and cloud computing. It intends to solve problems for industrial production needs on exceeded orders,excess inventory or less as well as not timed production. It is expected to enhance their international competitiveness, and create high added value of high pay job opportunities. In this talk, issues and approaches of the core spirits of the cyber physical system and its relevance with robotics and computing will be addressed. The impact to the future of design innovation and service innovation resulting from CPS system and robot-integrated manufacturing automation will also be presented.

K_Luo_RenBIOSKETCH  Dr. Ren C. Luo received both Dipl.-Ing, and Dr.-Ing. Degree in EE from the Technische Universitaet Berlin, Germany. He is currently a Chief Technology Officer of ASUS COMPUTER INC. and Chair Professor at National Taiwan University. He served two terms as President of National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan and Founding President of Robotics Society of Taiwan. He was an Assistant, Associate Professor and tenure Full Professor of Department of Elec and Computer Eng. and University of North Carolina System Director of Robotics and Intelligent Machines Research Center at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA and Toshiba Chair Professor at University of Tokyo, Japan.

His research interests include, sensors and control systems for intelligent robotics, multi-sensor fusion and integration, computer vision, 3D printing manufacturing technologies. He has authored more than 450 papers on these topics, which have been published in refereed international journals and refereed conference proceedings. He also holds more than 25 international patents. Dr. Luo received IEEE Eugean Mittleman Outstanding Research Achievement Award, IEEE IROS Harashima Innovative Technologies Award; ALCOA Company Foundation Outstanding Engineering Research Award, USA; Ministry of Science and Technology Outstanding Research Awards, and Ministry of Science and Technology Distinguished Research Awards; TECO Company Outstanding Science and Technology Research Achievement Award in Taiwan. Dr. Luo is currently served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (Impact Factor 4.70), he was also Co-Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (Impact Factor 6.50) and served 5 years as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (Impact Factor 3.75). From 2000-2001 he served as President of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. He also served as President of Chinese Institute of Automation Engineers, Program Director of Automation Technology Division, Ministry of Science and Technology; Adviser of Ministry of Economics Affairs and Science and Technology Adviser for the Prime Minister in Taiwan. Dr. Luo is a Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of IET.

 


KEYNOTE SPEECH III

Computer-Assisted Medical Interventions

Jocelyne Troccaz

CNRS Research Director
TIMC Laboratory – School of Medicine – Grenoble – France

ABSTRACT  Computer-Assisted Medical Intervention systems aim at providing assistance to clinicians for planning, simulating and executing safely, accurately and efficiently diagnostic or therapeutic actions. Such systems are based on a strong connection between digital data (patient images and signals, a priori information embedded in atlases, statistical models, biomechanical models, surgical protocols, etc.) and the real world where the clinician has to operate the patient. Sensors may enable intra-operative data acquisition for refined decision making and action monitoring; actuators such as robots may be involved in the action itself with different levels of cooperation with a human operator. Many disciplines are involved in this research such as: imaging and signal processing, data fusion, modeling (organs, surgical protocols, diseases, etc.), biomechanical simulation, robotics, man-machine interface design, biomedical engineering and of course medicine. In my presentation I will describe the domain and its history and evolution; I will introduce the scientific and technical problems to be handled and I will present typical clinical applications. Special attention will be given to robotic development, its past and future.

k_troccaz_jocelyneBIOSKETCH  Dr. Jocelyne Troccaz received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the “Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble” in 1986 and has been a teaching assistant from 1984 to 1988 in the “University Grenoble Alpes”. She is a CNRS researcher since 1988 and holds a position of Research Director since 1998.

Until 1990, her activity was in the field of automatic robot programming for industrial and spatial robotics. She moved to Medical Robotics in 1990. Her research activity in the TIMC laboratory is about medical robotics and medical imaging. She is also or has been responsible for different clinical research projects (urology, radiotherapy, cardiac surgery, orthopedics, etc.) in collaboration with Grenoble University Hospital and La Pitié Salpétrière Paris Hospital. Therefore, a major part of her activity is about image-guided robotics and more generally image-guided diagnostic or therapeutic systems. She co-authored more than 200 publications. She is inventor or co-inventor of 11 international patents; most of them were licensed to industrial partners. Hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide benefited from technology and systems she developed.

She has been on the editorial board of several international journals: formerly associate editor of Journal of Computer-Aided Surgery, associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation and IEEE Transactions on Robotics; now Editorial board of Medical Image Analysis and International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Aided Surgery.

She is fellow member of the MICCAI society (2010) and senior member of IEEE. In 2014, she received the “French Academy of Surgery” award and was elected as a member of the “French Academy of Surgery”. In 2015, she received the “Silver Medal” from CNRS. In 2016, she was nominated to receive the highest French decoration (Légion d’Honneur).

From 1996 to 2013, she has been Director of the « Computer Assisted Medical Interventions » research group (about 40 people) of the TIMC laboratory. From 2006 to 2015, she was the Deputy Director of the laboratory (about 250 people). She coordinates the French Medical Robotic Network and the French Research Network about Computer Assisted Medical Interventions.

 


KEYNOTE SPEECH IV

The Importance of Models in Robotic Computing

Timothy Bretl

Associate Head of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

ABSTRACT  This talk argues for the importance of models in robotic computing. It does so by presenting three models of different types and considering their utility.

The first model is analytical. It describes the configuration space of a deformable linear object (e.g., a flexible wire) and makes it possible to say remarkable things about the topology of this space. This result leads to algorithms for robotic manipulation and perception that are easy to implement and that work well in practice.

The second model is empirical. It describes the relationship between stimulation parameters, skin impedance, and sensation intensity in electrotactile stimulation. This result leads to algorithms that keep sensation intensity constant despite large variability in skin impedance (e.g., when electrodes peel or users sweat), eliminating a longstanding barrier to practical use of electrotactile stimulation for sensory substitution and haptic feedback, for example in prosthetic hands.

The third model is descriptive. It suggests a vision of civic culture in robotics education that opens a conversation about our role as citizens as well as scholars.

BIOSKETCH  Timothy Bretl is an Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his B.S. in Engineering and B.A. in Mathematics from Swarthmore College in 1999, and his M.S. in 2000 and Ph.D. in 2005 both in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. Subsequently, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, also at Stanford University. He has been with the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Illinois since 2006, where he now serves as Associate Head for Undergraduate Programs. He holds an affiliate appointment in the Coordinated Science Laboratory, where he leads a research group that works on a diverse set of projects in robotics and neuroscience. Dr. Bretl received the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award in 2010. He has also received numerous awards for undergraduate teaching in the area of dynamics and control, including all three teaching awards given by the College of Engineering at Illinois (the Rose Award for Teaching Excellence, the Everett Award for Teaching Excellence, and the Collins Award for Innovative Teaching).

 

 

 

 

 


KEYNOTE SPEECH V

Artificial Haptic Intelligence for Human-Robot Systems

Veronica J. Santos

Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, USA
Director of the UCLA Biomechatronics Lab, University of California at Los Angeles, USA

ABSTRACT  Artificial haptic perception and human-like dexterity remain Grand Challenges for artificial hands. I will present ongoing work to enhance the functionality and control of artificial hands in human-machine systems. The functionality of artificial manipulators could be enhanced by artificial “haptic intelligence” that enables the identification of object features and interactions with the environment via touch. This could be especially useful when other sensory modalities, such as vision and proprioception, are unavailable or unreliable. I will describe efforts to teach robots how to haptically perceive salient geometric features such as edges and fingertip-sized bumps and pits using machine learning techniques. I will describe the use of reinforcement learning to teach robots goal-based policies for a functional contour-following task: the closure of a deformable ziplock bag. I will describe how robot actions are tightly coupled to the tactile and proprioceptive consequences of the actions, and how future actions are selected based on prior experiences, the current context, and a functional task goal in a resource-conscious manner. Finally, I will describe current efforts to develop real-time capabilities for the perception of motion of a grasped object within the hand (to infer handheld object-environment interactions), and to haptically locate objects buried in granular media. Real-time haptic perception and decision-making capabilities could be used to advance semi-autonomous robot systems, improve quality of life and work, and reduce the cognitive burden on human teleoperators of devices ranging from neuroprostheses and wheelchair-mounted robots to nuclear waste clean-up and explosive ordnance disposal robots.

BIOSKETCH  Veronica J. Santos is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Director of the UCLA Biomechatronics Lab. She received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering with a music minor from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. From 2000 to 2001, she was a Quality Engineer and Research and Development Engineer at Guidant Corporation in Santa Clara, CA, specializing in life-saving cardiovascular technology. Dr. Santos received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering with a biometry minor from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY in 2004 and 2007, respectively. From 2007 to 2008, she was a postdoctoral research associate at the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California where she contributed to the development of a novel biomimetic tactile sensor for prosthetic hands. From 2008 to 2014, Dr. Santos was an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program at Arizona State University.

Her research interests include human hand biomechanics, human-machine systems, haptics, tactile sensors, machine learning, machine perception, prosthetics, and robotics for grasp and manipulation. Dr. Santos was awarded a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development CAREER Award (2010), two Arizona State University Engineering Top 5% Teaching Awards (2012, 2013), and an Arizona State University Young Investigator Award (2014). She was selected as a National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium participant (2010), and as a Lindseth Lecturer by the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University (2012). She currently serves as an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, and Editor of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).