State of the Art in Robotics Worldwide - International Meeting

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Friday April 16, 9:00 am Eastern Time

State of the Art in Robotics Worldwide is Focus of International 
Meeting Sponsored by American Nuclear Society and Carnegie 
Mellon  

PITTSBURGH, April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Robotics experts from 
around the world will gather in Pittsburgh, April 25-29, to hear more 
than 140 papers on the state of robotics in industry, academia and 
government research laboratories at the Eighth Bi-Annual 
International Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems.  

The event is sponsored by the American Nuclear Society, Carnegie 
Mellon University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Federal 
Energy Technology Center at the Westin William Penn Hotel.  

The meeting will highlight the importance of robots to the nuclear 
power and other industries, as well as their role in the nation's 
defense nuclear complex. Speakers will describe recent advances 
in robotic technology, lessons learned from field applications, 
accomplishments in the later part of the 20th century, such as the 
Sojourner project on Mars, and offer a preview of the spectacular 
advances expected in the 21st century, including the cleanup of 
the nuclear power station at Chernobyl.  

William L. ``Red'' Whittaker, the Fredkin research professor at 
Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, is honorary chairman of the 
meeting. Robotics Institute Senior Project Scientist James Osborn, 
is the technical co-chairman.  

Among the highlights of the five-day event is a roundtable on April 
26, featuring robotics decision makers from NASA, the
National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Naval Post-
Graduate School, Sandia Laboratories Intelligent Systems and
Robotics Center, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the 
U.S. Army Research Laboratory Command. They will
share their views on robotic problems that need to be solved and 
opportunities to be addressed from the perspective of their
organizations.

``This represents a unique opportunity to get a broad cross section 
of the future of robotics from a wide variety of participants in the 
field,'' Osborn said.  

In a special session which will be open to the public at 8 p.m., 
April 27, Robert Anderson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will give 
a retrospective discussion of the Sojourner robot's mission on 
Mars. The public is also invited to visit the exhibition area to view 
commercially available robotic technologies.  

The meeting will conclude with tours of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics 
Institute and Pittsburgh area companies, including RedZone 
Robotics, a Carnegie Mellon spinoff established after the nuclear 
disaster at Three Mile Island to develop robots for hazardous 
environments.  

Some 250 people are expected to attend the meeting. For more 
information, check the Web site at http://www.ri.cmu.edu/ans99. 

SOURCE: Carnegie Mellon University

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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