IEEE and NIST Launch Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society announced lastweek a new competition for the advancement of robotic research, with atwist - the use of simulation systems and open source software to helplower the barriers of such competitions.

The IEEE announced the first full-day tutorial, designed tointroduce and discuss simulation platforms and other associateddetails, will take place Friday, Oct. 23 at a joint session hosted byboth Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.Full-day tutorials will also be held at the Georgia Institute ofTechnology on Dec. 4 and the University of California, Merced on Dec.11. Participants can also join in virtually at any of these events.

The IEEE is working with the National Institute of Standards andTechnology to support work in robotic research, especially in the areaof automated guided vehicles (AGVs). "Automating these systems tooperate in unstructured environments presents an exciting area ofcurrent research in robotics and automation," said the IEEE in astatement. "Unfortunately, the traditional entry barrier into thisresearch area is quite high. Researchers need an extensive physicalenvironment, robotic hardware, and knowledge in research areas rangingfrom mobility and mapping to behavior generation and scheduling. Anaccepted approach to lowering this entry barrier is through the use ofsimulation systems and open source software."

The competition will take place at next year's International Conference on Robotics and Automation(ICRA), which will take place in Kobe, Japan May 12-17, 2009. The themeof the conference is "Robotics and IRT for Livable Societies." Inaddition, the National Institute of Standards and Technology will beadministering a National Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition(VMAC) that will provide an opportunity for teams to try theiralgorithms on actual robotic platforms. "It is our belief thatcompetitions are an effective means of stimulating interest andparticipation among students by providing exciting technologicalproblems to tackle," the statement continued.

The IEEE is soliciting both faculty members and interested studentsfrom universities to join these workshops. It is also invitingresearchers with backgrounds in multi-agent cooperation, roboticmapping and localization, communications networks, and sensoryprocessing backgrounds are particularly encouraged to participate. Formore information, contact the NIST at [email protected].