Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to invite participants to:

The Fifth International Summer School on

Screw-Theory Based Methods in Robotics

3 -- 11 September 2014

University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

http://summerscrews2014.ing.unibo.it
http://www.summerscrews.org

For its fifth edition, our summer school on screw theory comes
to the world's oldest university. The enthusiastic feedback
from each of the first four very successful Summer Screws
events (in Genoa, Italy, in Shanghai, China, again in Genoa,
and in Florianopolis, Brazil) proves that this initiative
continues to provide a service that the robotics community
values. This year, with the support of our sponsors, we will
again be able to offer financial support to some participants.

Summer Screws 2014 will gather six experts in the robotics
applications of screw theory and up to 40 participants at the
University of Bologna from 3 to 11 September. The School will
teach attendees how to apply existing methods and empower them
to develop new ones in their own research. The basic
theoretical notions will be introduced in a rigorous manner,
with emphasis on examples, applications, and exercises.

The main topics will be:

1. Basic vector-space properties of twists and wrenches:
physical interpretation of the linear operations; linear
dependence and independence, subspaces; bases and coordinates.
(Lecturer: Dimiter Zlatanov)

2. Scalar products, dual spaces, reciprocity. Constraint and
freedom in mechanisms. Constraint analysis, type synthesis of
single-loop mechanisms, type synthesis of parallel
manipulators. (Lecturer: Xianwen Kong)

3. Velocity and singularity analysis of parallel and
interconnected-chain mechanisms. Derivation of input-output
velocity equations and singularity conditions. (Lecturers:
Matteo Zoppi and Dimiter Zlatanov)

4. Mappings between screw spaces, stiffness and inertia.
Structure of robot compliance. Eigenvalue problems and
eigenscrews. Synthesis with springs. (Lecturer: Harvey Lipkin)

5. 6D formulation of the dynamics of individual rigid bodies
and rigid-body systems. Equations of motion. Dynamics
algorithms. (Lecturer: Roy Featherstone)

6. Basic Lie-group theory, matrix representations of the group
of rigid-body displacements. Lie algebras as related to screw
theory. The exponential map and its applications in modern
robotics. (Lecturer: Jon Selig)

Marco Carricato will be this year's invited lecturer, with a
talk about persistent screw systems.

Up to 40 registrations are available at the price of 300 Euro,
no later than 31 June, 2014. Scholarship applications will be
accepted until 1 June, 2014. For details, see the registration
page, http://summerscrews2014.ing.unibo.it/registration.html,
of the University of Bologna's Summer Screws site,

Summer Screws 2014 is organized by the Group of Robotics and
Articular Biomechanics (GRAB), at the Department of Industrial
Engineering of the University of Bologna, Italy, and the
Laboratory of Design and Measurement for Automation and
Robotics (PMAR), at the Department of Mechanical, Energy,
Industrial, and Transport Engineering of the University of
Genoa, Italy. It is endorsed by IFToMM, the Robotics and
Automation Society of the IEEE, the Italian Robotics and
Automation Association (SIRI), the Bologna Society of
Engineers, and the City of Bologna. We acknowledge the
financial support of IMA Industries, the Department of
Industrial Engineering and the School of Engineering and
Architecture of the University of Bologna, as well as of the
IFToMM Young Delegates Program.

For more information visit the School's web pages:

http://summerscrews2014.ing.unibo.it
http://www.summerscrews.org

Sincerely yours,

Dimiter Zlatanov, Marco Carricato, Vincenzo Parenti-Castelli,
Matteo Zoppi, and Rezia Molfino