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Members and non-members can now add Society membership when giving the Gift of IEEE Membership. The new option to add Society memberships is currently available as part of the half-year membership period, where IEEE and Society memberships are half price. Give the Gift of IEEE Membership for half price is available for the entire half-year period (1 March through 15 August).
Help someone in your life find their professional home in IEEE. Start by giving them the gift of IEEE Membership and consider adding a Society or two! IEEE membership will impact their professional and social life for years to come. IEEE delivers access to the industry's technical information, offers career development tools, and provides access to IEEE's discount programs. Now you can add Society memberships to provide access to their professional benefits as well. Don't wait: get someone started today!
For additional information, please contact Denise Maestri: d.maestri@ieee.org
Each year, the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society offers financial support for three Technical Education Programs (RAS-TEP), also known as "Summer Schools." In an effort to bring RAS closer to its membership, three programs are held each year: one in the Americas, one in Europe/MiddleEast/Africa, and one in Asia/Pacific Rim.
The RAS-TEP program is jointly run by the RAS Member Activities Board (MAB) and the RAS Technical Activities Board (TAB). These Boards will review proposals and select the TEP programs each year. The program sponsors up to three schools per year around the world. Each of the three Technical Education Programs (Summer Schools) will receive up to USD$25,000.00 in funding from RAS. Funding should be used to reduce the event cost for RAS Student Members, and to assist in securing high quality instructors.
The review of TEP proposals is based on assessments from two different viewpoints, the first one with respect to the general structure, including organizational matters and budget, and the second one with respect to the technical content. One or more relevant RAS Technical Committees (TCs) must endorse all submitted proposals. Current TCs are listed at: www.ieee-ras.org/technical-committees.
Guidelines for hosting an RAS-Technical Education Program are HERE
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
Technical Education Program Proposal - online proposal form
IMPORTANT DATES
Deadlines for the submission of 2019 proposals EXTENDED: 1 May 2019 10 May 2019
Decision: ICRA 2019
Notification: July 2019
This event is part of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) wich will be held in Montreal, Canada from 20-24 May 2019.
Robots conjure images of motion. A large body of work in robotics research is concerned with the motion of machines. The 2019 edition of the ICRA Robots and Art program, now the ICRA-X Robots and Art program, invites researchers and practitioners to explore robot motion as creative expression. The program encourages and explores edgy collaborations between engineers and artists in preparation for the significant societal changes to come in the near future as robotics moves beyond the traditional bounds of industry into more social contexts.
For the first time in ICRA history, this year features a curated exhibition of over seven robotic art installations as part of the program (Curated by Alain Thibault, artistic director Elektra). In addition, a separate student art exhibition curated by professional artists and art professors (Alexandre Castonguay and Jean-Pierre Gauthier) will be hosted in parallel to the main exhibition providing early career artists with the opportunity to engage with the robotics research community. A full day forum will explore topics related to the theme, Expressive Motions with the participation of artists/researchers involved in the exhibition alongside a poster/interactive session. An eminent panel is also planned to discuss collaborative aspects of multidisciplinary research.
Invited Speakers (initial)
* Ken Goldberg
* Bill Vorn
* Guillaume Credoz
* Jean-Pierre Gauthier
* Michel de Broin
* Anouk Wipprecht
* Samuel St-Aubin
* Jean-Paul Laumond
* More to confirm
Call for Extended Abstracts/Short Papers
Short papers/extended abstracts are invited to be presented at a special poster/interactive session as part of the main forum. Submissions should be related to the forum topic and should represent work relevant to robotic art. All submissions will be peer-reviewed and accepted abstracts/short papers will be archived on roboticart.org with the possibility of being invited to publish extended work in a special issue in a suitable journal.
Topics include (non-exhaustive):
* Human-Robot Interaction
* Attention systems
* Robot motion planning
* Path planning
* Human-centred manipulation and navigation
* Collaborative robotics
* Human/Robot performances
* Natural movements in robots
* Creative agents
* Embodied agents
* Robot Swarms
* Human motion tracking and analysis
Open Call for Student Artwork
For the first time, ICRA will also host a curated robotic art exhibition for students which will be open to the public (without needing ICRA registration). We are looking to include several outstanding robotic art installations through this open call. Please send a clear description of your work to be considered for inclusion, including a high-quality photograph and any other supporting material including detailed technical requirements such as electrical needs (120V/60Hz only), sketches with dimensions. Please note that the work should be self-contained, and no funding will be made available for transport or any other costs related to the installation. If selected for inclusion, our support is limited to providing a space within the exhibition and access to a standard power source and 24hr security. All selected art works will be catalogued on the website program.
Important Dates
Abstracts/Short Papers/Student Art proposals: 31 March 2019
Decisions Announced: 21 April 2019
ICRA-X program dates: 20-22 May 2019
Please send your submissions to robotsandarts@gmail.com
For more information see: http://roboticart.org/icra2019/
The IEEE Robotics & Automation Society recognizes and congratulates the following individuals for their outstanding accomplishments and service to RAS and the robotics and automation community. They will be honored during an award luncheon to be held during the IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA 2019) on 22 May 2019 at the Montreal Convention Centre, Montreal, Canada. Please join us in congratulating these outstanding recipients!
RAS Pioneer Award
Roland Siegwart - ETH Zurich, Switzerland
"For fundamental pioneering contributions to Robotics Research in the areas of autonomous navigation and design of flying and walking robots"
Bradley J. Nelson - ETH Zurich, Switzerland
"In recognition of outstanding contributions in micro and nano robotics"
RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation
Nancy Amato - University of Illinois (IL), United States
"For exceptional leadership in service of RAS conferences, publications, and membership, as well as mentorship of RAS volunteers"
Alessandro De Luca - Sapienza Universita di Roma, Italy
"For contributions to the robotics and automation community through research innovation and education, and for leadership in publication and conference activities in RAS"
David E. Orin - The Ohio State (OH), United States
"For exceptional leadership and dedication to RAS financial activities, governance, and awards"
IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award
Allison Okamura - Stanford University (CA), United States
"For outstanding service as Editor-in-Chief of the RAS Conference Editorial Board and contributions to RAS’s new journal, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters"
Early Academic Career Award in Robotics and Automation
Jeannette Bohg - Stanford University (CA), United States
"For contributions to robot perception and learning for manipulation"
Marco Hutter - ETH Zurich, Switzerland
"For his major contributions to actuation, design, and control of legged robots"
Ilana Nisky - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
"For contributions to neuroscience-grounded analysis, design, and training in haptic, teleoperation, and robot-assisted surgery systems"
IEEE Robotics and Automation Award for Product Innovation
Sarcos Robotics - Kristi Martindale
"Sarcos® Robotics Guardian S Mobile IoT Platform: A first-of-its-kind, cloud-connected mobile IoT & sensor platform that provides inspection and surveillance capabilities to augment human-based inspections"
RAS Most Active Technical Committee Award
Technical Committee on Soft Robotics
Co-Chairs: Fumiya Iida, Cecilia Laschi, Ryuma Niiyama, Yiğit Mengüç
RAS Chapter of the Year Award
Italian Chapter of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society - Italy
Co-Chairs: Lucia Pallottino, Andrea Maria Zanchettin
Are you a current Member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society? You can now access and download a customized Membership Certificate through IEEE Collabratec® !
Steps to download and print your certificate:
- Log into Collabratec here using your IEEE Member email and password >>
- Click on your name in the top right of the screen and select “Member Certificates” from the drop-down menu
- From the "Member Certificates" page, click on the “Download PDF” link to the right of “IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Membership”
- Open the PDF and print it
Proudly display in your workplace.
The IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2018) was held 1-5 October 2018 in Madrid, Spain. Congratulations to the following Award Recipients - which were announced on 4 October during the Awards Luncheon. Photos of the event are available here: https://www.iros2018.org/videos-and-pictures
IROS Harashima Award for Innovative Technologies
This award is to honor Professor Fumio Harashima, the Founding Honorary Chair of the IROS conferences, by recognizing outstanding contributions of an individual of the IROS community who has pioneered activities in robotics and intelligent systems.
Wolfram Burgard -University of Freiburg, Germany
"For pioneering research in robot simultaneous localization and mapping"
IROS Distinguished Service Award
This award recognizes an individual who has performed outstanding service and leadership for the benefit and advancement of the IROS Conference. Up to two awards will be given annually at the IROS Conference.
Anthony A. Maciejewski - Colorado State University, USA
"For leadership and service on the IROS Conference Paper Review Board"
Hong Zhang - University of Alberta,Canada
"For leadership and distinguished service for IROS Conferences"
IROS Toshio Fukuda Young Professional Award
This award recognizes individuals (from academic institutions, government, industry, or research labs) who, in their early career, have made identifiable contributions that have had a major impact on intelligent robots and systems. Up to two awards will be given annually at the IROS Conference.
Ming Liu - Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,China
"For outstanding contributions to mobile robot path planning and control"
IROS Best Paper Award
This award recognizes the most outstanding paper at the annual IROS Conference.
"Robust Visual-Inertial State Estimation with Multiple Odometries and Efficient Mapping on an MAV with Ultra-Wide FOV Stereo Vision"
M. G. Müller, F. Steidle, M. J. Schuster, P. Lutz, M. Maier, S. Stoneman, T. Tomic, W. Stürzl
IROS ABB Best Student Paper Award
This award recognizes the most outstanding paper authored primarily by a student at the annual IROS Conference.
"Online Temporal Calibration for Monocular Visual-Inertial Systems"
Tong Qin, (Shaojie Shen)
IROS JTCF Novel Technology Paper Award for Amusement Culture
This award recognizes technical papers which have made practical technology contributions to Toys, Toy Models and Amusement Culture. Two recipients this year!
"Real-Time Dance Generation to Music for a Legged Robot"
Thomas Bi, Péter Fankhauser, Dario Bellicoso, Marco Hutter
"Hands and Faces, Fast: Mono-Camera User Detection Robust Enough to Directly Control a UAV in Flight"
Sepehr MohaimenianPour, Richard Vaughan
IROS RoboCup Best Paper Award
This award recognizes technical papers which have made identifiable contributions to RoboCup.
"A Multimodal Classifier Generative Adversarial Network for Carry and Place Tasks from ambiguous Language Instructions"
Aly Magassouba, Komei Sugiura, Hisashi Kawai
IROS KROS Best Paper Award on Cognitive Robotics
This award is to promote interdisciplinary researches on cognition for technical systems and advancements of cognitive robotics in industry, home applications, and daily life.
"Augmenting Physical Simulators with Stochastic Neural Networks: Case Study of Planar Pushing and Bouncing"
Anurag Ajay, Jiajun Wu, Nima Fazeli, Maria Bauza, Leslie P. Kaelbling, Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Alberto Rodriguez
IROS Best Paper Award on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics
This award is to promote advanced research on safety, security and rescue robotics. The name of the award is connected with Mr. Motohiro Kisoi who was killed in Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on 17 January 1995. He was a master student of Kobe University, Japan at that time. He had a dream to create a robot that can help people. To memorialize him and Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the award has established.
"Fire-Aware Planning of Aerial Trajectories and Ignitions"
Evan Beachly, Carrick Detweiler, Sebastian Elbaum, Brittany Duncan, Carl Hildebrandt, Dirac Twidwell, Craig Allen
IROS ICROS Best Application Paper Award
This award is to promote researches on excellent robot application.
"Closed-Loop Single-Beacon Passive Acoustic Navigation for Low-Cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicles"
Nicholas R. Rypkema, Erin M. Fischell, Henrik Schmidt
Congratulations to Seth Hutchinson, RAS President Elect 2018-2019! He has recently been selected Executive Director of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM), Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
At Georgia Tech, IRIM serves as an umbrella under which robotics researchers, educators and students from across campus can come together to advance the many high-powered and diverse robotics activities.
IRIM’s mission is to create new and exciting opportunities for faculty collaboration; educate the next generation of robotics experts, entrepreneurs, and academic leaders; and partner with industry and government to pursue truly transformative robotics research. IRIM serves more than 90 faculty members, 180 graduate students and 40 robotics labs.
We wish Seth much success in this new role at Georgia Tech, and look forward to a closer collaboration in the future.
IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members. The honor is conferred by the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.
If you know of an IEEE colleague who is a Senior Member or Life Senior Member in good standing, has completed five years of service in any grade of IEEE Membership and who has made an outstanding contribution to the electronic or electrical engineering profession, you can nominate this person in one of four categories:
- Application Engineer/Practitioner
- Educator
- Research Engineer/Scientist
- Technical Leader
Nominations for the Fellow Class of 2020 are now being accepted. To learn more about the Fellow program and the nomination process, visit the Steps to Become an IEEE Fellow page.
NOMINATION DEADLINE: 1 March 2019
Additional information about the IEEE Fellow program, and a list of RAS Fellows is available HERE.
Purpose
RAS-funded projects shall create valuable educational materials in wide variety of RA science and technologies for broad users including young students who are beginning to learn about this area and top-class researchers/practitioners/educators who need the latest advanced knowledge. The developed material must be available through an RAS webpage, and distributed worldwide on social media, IEEE Press, conference tutorials, robot competitions and/or exhibitions.
Background
As a leader in the field of robotics and automation, IEEE RAS is expected to provide valuable educational material to its members and the public. However, RAS does not have sufficient content, except for excellent books and conference tutorials. The RAS webpage and social media must provide content for education by which people can learn about robotics and automation.
Examples of Content
- Open courses for RAS members (scientific/technical specialists)
- Open courses for general public (outreach, school teachers, children)
- Electronic material in the form of videos
- Content can be theoretical or practical or a combination
Funding
IEEE RAS will fund up to 10,000 USD total for each project. Project duration must be one year. In 2014, five projects were accepted. In 2015, five projects were accepted. In 2016, four projects were accepted. In 2017, four projects were accepted. In 2018, one project was accepted. Up to five projects will be accepted in 2019. Budget can be used for course material development (a webpage or video), student assistants, translation, and meetings following the IEEE financial rules. Institutional overhead is not eligible.
Proposal
RAS Technical Committees (TCs), RAS MAB Education Committee (EC), or groups endorsed by TC or EC are eligible to submit a proposal. The proposal should state the following in no more than five pages:
- Title of proposal
- Names and affiliations of the principle investigator and co-principle investigators
- Name(s) of TC or EC
- Executive summary of the proposal
- Motivation and need for the material with a clear indication of the gap in existing open material
- Expected deliverables (webpage, video tutorial, book, etc.)
- Target audience and dissemination plan
- Planned tasks and timeline
- Sustainability plan (continuity plan beyond the project completion date)
- Plan for assessment of impact (indicators such as the number of participants, downloads, views, etc…)
- Budget and budget justification
- One-page CV for each PI and Co-PI
The review process for the proposals is included at the end of this call for proposals.
Deliverables
In addition to the planned deliverables listed in the proposal, all accepted proposals are required to:
- Submit a final report documenting the outcomes from the project. Review criteria for final reports are included at the end of this call for proposals.
- Submit a short video introduction of the material developed to be used for public presentation of the project outcomes. This video will be shared on RAS social media.
- All the submitted material we will be reviewed by the IEEE RAS CEMRA committee for quality and consistency before making it publicly available.
Note: all developed deliverables must clearly acknowledge IEEE RAS, and be accessible from IEEE RAS webpage.
Important Dates
25 March 2019 - Proposals Due date: 25 March 2019 (Submission Link)
Presentation for 2019 Projects: During TAB meeting at ICRA2019
1 June 2019 - Notification of Acceptance
1 June 2019 - 31 May 2020 - Period of 2019 Projects
Review Process for IEEE RAS-Funded Project Proposals on Creation of Educational Material in Robotics and Automation (CEMRA Projects)
Purpose
This document is to define the review process and criteria for the IEEE RAS-Funded Project Proposals on Creation of Educational Material in Robotics and Automation (CEMRA Projects).
Review Process
- All proposals should be reviewed by the same review committee
- Review committee must consist of at least 3 anonymous senior reviewers preferably from different regions
- Strict avoidance of conflict of interest must be observed in the review committee selection (No reviewers from same institution, no co-authors, no collaborators, etc…)
- Review committee individual reviews must be submitted independently to RAS TAB chair prior to the proposal presentation
- Proposing group representative presents the project during ICRA 2019
- Review committee meets after presentation during ICRA 2019 and deliberates
- Recommendations made to TAB and AdCom
Review Criteria
Based on the call for proposals the following criteria will be used for the evaluation:
- Topic: current, fits the scope and is of broad interest with minimal similarity to existing material.
- Dissemination Plan: Impactful and accessible to broad audience
- Budget: reasonable and well justified (10,000 USD max total irrespective of the duration; the approved project can use the budget for webpage, assisting student work, translation, meetings, travel, etc.)
- Plan: clear and appropriate
- Team: experienced and knowledgeable in the topic
Review Process for Final Reports of the IEEE RAS-Funded Projects on Creation of Educational Material in Robotics and Automation (CEMRA Projects)
Purpose
This document is to define the review process and criteria for Final reports for the IEEE RAS-Funded Projects on Creation of Educational Material in Robotics and Automation (CEMRA Projects).
Review Process
- All final reports should be reviewed by the same review committee
- The review committee must consist of at least 3 anonymous senior reviewers preferably from different regions
- Strict avoidance of conflict of interest must be observed in the review committee selection (No reviewers from the same institution, no co-authors, no collaborators, etc…)
- Review committee individual reviews must be submitted independently to RAS TAB chair prior to the proposal presentation
- CEMRA Project group representative presents the project during IROS 2019
- Review committee meets after the presentation during IROS 2019 and deliberates
- Recommendations made to TAB and AdCom with feedback to the project group
Final Report (Under 3 pages)
The final report must be submitted to AVP 2 months before IROS 2019. The report must include:
- Summary of tasks as initially proposed and as completed.
- Summary of deliverables as initially proposed and as completed with links to each deliverable.
- Description of the dissemination activities carried out and the number of participants or estimate of the number of beneficiaries (for example: hits on a website).
- Budget: details of expenditures compared with the initially planned budget justifying any deviation.
- Assessment of the learning experience formally conducted. Describe if the assessment was different from what was initially proposed.
- Plan: a detailed sustainability plan which describes how the material will be maintained and kept accessible beyond the end of the project.
IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) is the flagship automation conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and constitutes the primary forum for cross-industry and multidisciplinary research in automation. Its goal is to provide a broad coverage and dissemination of foundational research in automation among researchers, academics, and practitioners. IEEE CASE 2019 will be held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, on 22-26 August 2019. The theme of the conference is Smart Automation.
CALL for Papers and Workshop Proposals
IEEE CASE 2019 invites special session proposals, workshop proposals, regular papers, work-in-progress and industry papers related to the topics of the conference, which include but are not limited to:
- Adaptive automation systems
- Agent-based collaborative automation systems
- Automated fault detection, diagnostics, and prognostics
- Automation in life science
- Autonomous systems
- Big data, data mining, and machine learning
- Cloud-based automation
- Cognitive Automation
- Cyber physical production systems and industry 4.0
- Cybersecurity in automation systems
- Human-in-the-loop, human-machine interactions, human-robot / robot-robot collaboration
- Micro- and nano-scale automation technologies and applications
- Modeling, simulation, and optimization of automation systems
- Networked control systems
- Power and energy system automation
- Sensor-fusion for intelligent automation systems
- Smart factories, smart logistics and supply chains
- Smart products with embedded intelligence
- Smart automation in construction and manufacturing
- Smart home/building automation
- Smart and connected healthcare automation
- Standardization in smart manufacturing/home/building/healthcare etc.
- Sustainability and green automation
Submission
Submission Web Site: https://ras.papercept.net/conferences/scripts/start.pl
Important Dates
15 February 2019: RA-L paper submission deadline (Extended: 15 March 2019)
15 February 2019: Special session proposal submission due
1 March 2019: Regular & special session paper submission due
1 April 2019: Workshop proposal, industry paper & poster submission due
15 May 2019: Paper acceptance notification
15 June 2019: Final paper submission due
15 June 2019: Author registration due
22-26 August 2019: Conference
Contact
General Chair:
Weiming Shen, National Research Council Canada
+1 (519) 266-4862
wshen@ieee.org
Program Chair:
Jingshan Li, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA
+1 (608) 890-3780
jingshan.li@wisc.edu
For more information see: http://case2019.hust.edu.cn/index.htm
Congratulations to the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society members recently elevated to Senior Member status by the IEEE Admission and Advancement (A&A) Senior Member Review Panel.
- To be eligible for application or nomination, candidates must:
- Be engineers, scientists, educators, technical executives, or originators in IEEE-designated fields
- Have experience reflecting professional maturity
- Have been in professional practice for at least ten years (with some credit for certain degrees)
- Show significant performance over a period of at least five of their years in professional practice
Nominees for IEEE Fellow must hold the grade of Senior Member or Life Senior Member in order to qualify for elevation to Fellow status.
| Paolo L Malapelle Pittsburgh Section Siemens |
Gabriel Gomez Cordoba Subsection National University of Cordoba |
Jianchao Yao Singapore Section DSO National Laboratories |
| Giampiero Campa Coastal Los Angeles Section MathWorks |
Geoffrey Hollinger Oregon Section Oregon State University |
Redwan Alqasemi Florida West Coast Section University of South Florida |
| Jindong Liu United Kingdom and Ireland Section Imperial College London |
Narendra Kumar Delhi Section Delhi Technological University |
Michael M. Zavlanos Eastern North Carolina Section Duke University |
| Ryo Kurazume Fukuoka Section Kyushu University |
AlphaAgape Gopalai Malaysia Section Monash University |
Liang Ding Harbin Section Harbin Institute of Technology |
| Luca Carlone Boston Section Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Mohammed Hoque Bangladesh Section Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology |
Eva Esther Ebenezer Ghana Section BlueCrest University College |
| Fakheredine Keyrouz Lebanon Section Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) |
Ji-Young Lee Busan Section University of Science & Technology (UST) |
Nippun Kumaar A A Bangalore Section Amrita School of Engineering |
| Ilana Nisky Israel Section Ben Gurion University of the Negev |
Pedro Plaza Merino Spain Section Siemens |
Ravikumar K M Bangalore Section S J C Institute of Technology |
| Anca Sala Northeast Michigan Section Baker College |
Pawel Burdziakowski Poland Section Gdańsk University of Technology |
Engineering the future of medicine
IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics (T-MRB) is a multi-disciplinary journal covering the most significant advances in biorobotics and bionics and publishing papers reporting high-quality research in the field of robotics and of bionics applied to healthcare.
T-MRB lies at the intersection between biomedical engineering and robotics, fulfilling a dream shared by the two IEEE Societies (Robotics and Automation – RAS, and Engineering in Medicine and Biology – EMBS).
MAIN JOURNAL TOPICS
T-MRB publishes non-incremental results on innovative systems able to support prevention, diagnosis or treatment of human diseases. Such systems can be based on robotics and automation technology-related paradigms (e.g. surgical robots, devices for physical and cognitive rehabilitation, supporting systems for independent living, etc.) on bionics paradigms (e.g. medical systems which mimic living organisms or technologies that intimately interact with the human body), or the combinations of them, e.g. robotic artificial organs and other active implantable devices featuring direct interfaces to the human body. In addition, T-MRB promotes works investigating mechanisms and principles observed in nature in order to unravel scientific issues, and to exploit them to develop innovative bionic technologies. The Transactions also welcomes survey and commentary papers providing: critical, systematic review of research areas and trends within its scope; evidence-based studies on early clinical validation, and contributions on early ethical, social, economic, organizational impact assessment, of novel robotics and/or bionic solutions for medical and health care applications.
We are looking for high-quality, original research papers from all areas of research and development in medical robotics and bionics. We are also looking for comprehensive reviews of the state of the art, and to provide snapshots of research for a wider audience.
Publication of the inaugural issue: planned in February 2019.
The following issues will be published in May 2019, August 2019 and November 2019.
Editor-in–Chief: Paolo Dario, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Email: paolo.dario@santannapisa.it
Website: http://www.ieee-ras.org/publications/t-mrb
SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN
Submit your paper here: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tmrb-ieee
The JST-CREST / IEEE-RAS sponsored school "Social and Artificial Intelligence for User-Friendly Robots" will be held from 17-24 March 2019 in Shonan Village, Japan after the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) conference that will be held in nearby South Korea.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
I. Aim and Scope
Autonomous and intelligent systems are progressively moving into spaces, which have previously been predominantly shaped by human agency. Unlike in the past where machines obediently served their human operators, machines now increasingly act without the intervention of a human. Artificial intelligence is meeting new challenges in the world, though human-like intelligence may still be a distant goal. Robots in factories are coming out of their cages. Autonomous cars are being tested on streets with regular human-driven cars. The private household is changing with the appearance of not only robotic vacuum cleaners, but also with the first-generation of social robots and smart devices. The challenges that face both the robotics and artificial intelligence communities are how the necessary intelligence for such new environments can be created as well as how to make artificial agents capable of not only solving tasks at hand but also considering social environments around them during interaction with human users so as to behave appropriately. Within the school, we plan to address the tension created by the balance between task-specific artificial intelligence and the demands of sociability required to function effectively in human-centered environments.
** Who should apply? We invite Masters and PhD students as well as post-doctoral candidates and researchers from industry with relevant research background to apply for this spring school. Additional support could be available based on eligibility.
** This spring school is a Technical Education Program (TEP) endorsed and supported by JST-CREST / IEEE-RAS.
** The school aims at bridging the gap between social and cognitive Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Autonomous Vehicles (AV) through high level talks, tutorials, and hands-on workshops (the program will be announced soon).
II. Keynote Speakers:
1. Takayuki Nagai, Osaka University, Japan
2. Jun Tani – Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan
3. Daniele Magazzeni – King's College London, UK
4. Yukie Nagai – National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan
5. Tetsuya Ogata – Waseda University, Japan
6. Mohamed Chetouani – University of Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC), France
7. Silvia Rossi – University of Naples, Italy
8. Agnieszka Wykowska – Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy
9. Tetsunari Inamura – National Institute of Informatics (NII), Japan
10. Amit Kumar Pandey – SoftBank (Aldebaran) Robotics, France
11. Mehul Bhatt – Orebro University, Sweden (Tutorial)
12. Mohsen Kaboli – Bavarian Motor Works (BMW), Germany (Tutorial)
13. Francesco Maurelli – Jacobs University, Germany (Preparing Marie Curie funding proposal)
14. Atsuko Nakatsuka – Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan (Preparing JSPS funding proposal)
III. Submission
The applications must include the following files (combined into one file). No other documents would be necessary (More information is available on the school's webpage).
1. Curriculum vitae: A CV detailing relevant aspects of the candidate's academic career that demonstrates her/his relevance to the school theme. Please consider including the list of publications.
2. Research abstract: A 200-word research abstract that the candidate intends to present during the school.
3. Letter of recommendation: A brief letter from the academic advisor or the employer of the candidate supporting her/his application. Please also indicate if additional support would be required to attend the school.
Application submission: Please use the following EasyChair web link: Application Submission.
IV. Important Dates
1. Application submission: 10-January, 2019
2. Notification of acceptance: 14-January, 2019
3. Spring School: 17-24 March, 2019
V. Organizers
1. Amir Aly – Ritsumeikan University – Japan
2. Franziska Kirstein – Blue Ocean Robotics, Denmark
3. Shashank Pathak – Visteon Corporation, Germany
For more information see: https://inic8.bitbucket.io/SoAIR19/index.html
A Special Issue in the IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems is planned for 2019. Topic: "Continual Unsupervised Sensorimotor Learning," with the submission deadline of 28 February 2019.
Aim and Scope
Although machine learning algorithms continue to improve at a rapid pace enabling technologies and products such as autonomous driving cars and sophisticated image and speech recognition, it is often forgotten that these applications represent tailored solutions to specific tasks. Thus it is not clear if or how these autonomous systems can pave the road to general purpose machines envisioned by many.
The pursuit for higher levels of autonomy and versatility in robotics is arguably lead by two main factors. Firstly, as we push robots out of the labs and productions lines, it becomes increasingly difficult to design for all possible scenarios that a particular robot might encounter.
Secondly, the cost of designing, manufacturing, and maintaining such systems becomes prohibitive.
As the algorithms for learning single tasks in restricted environments are improving, new challenges have gained relevance in order to get more autonomous artificial systems. These challenges include multi-task learning, multimodal sensorimotor learning and lifelong adaptation to injury, growth and ageing. Addressing these challenges promise higher levels of autonomy and versatility of future robots.
This special issue on Continual Unsupervised Sensorimotor Learning is primarily concerned with the developmental processes involved in unsupervised sensorimotor learning in a life-long perspective, and in particular the emergence of representations of action and perception in humans and artificial agents in continual learning. These processes include action-perception cycle, active perception, continual sensory-motor learning, environmental-driven scaffolding, and intrinsic motivation.
The special issue will highlight behavioral and neural data, and cognitive and developmental approaches to research in the areas of robotics, computer science, psychology, neuroscience, etc. Contributions might focus on mathematical and computational models to improve robot
performance and/or attempt to unveil the underlying mechanisms that lead to continual adaptation to changing environment or embodiment and continual learning in open-ended environments.
Contributions from multiple disciplines including cognitive systems, cognitive robotics, developmental and epigenetic robotics, autonomous and evolutionary robotics, social structures, multi-agent and artificial life systems, computational neuroscience, and developmental psychology, on theoretical, computational, application-oriented, and experimental studies as well as reviews in these areas are welcome.
Topics
This special issue aims to report state-of-the-art approaches and recent advances on Continual Unsupervised Sensorimotor Learning with a cross-disciplinary perspective. Topics relevant to this special issue include but are not limited to:
- Emergence of representations via continual interaction
- Continual sensory-motor learning
- Action-perception cycle
- Active perception
- Environmental-driven scaffolding
- Intrinsic motivation
- Neural substrates, neural circuits and neural plasticity
- Human and animal behaviour experiments and models
- Reinforcement learning and deep reinforcement learning for life-long learning
- Multisensory robot learning
- Multimodal sensorimotor learning
- Affordance learning
- Prediction learning
Submission
- Manuscripts should be prepared according to the “Information for Authors” of the journal
- Submissions must be done through the IEEE TCDS Manuscript center. Please select the category “SI: Continual Unsupervised Sensorimotor Learning”.
Important Dates
28 February 2019 – Paper submission deadline
15 April 2019 – Notification for authors
16 June 2019 – Deadline revised papers submission
16 July 2019 – Final notification for authors
18 August 2019 – Deadline for camera-ready versions
September 2019 – Expected publication date
Guest Editors
Nantes, France
Aarhus, Denmark
Istanbul, Turkey
Tokyo, Japan
Submit your application today! Application Deadline is 28 February 2019
The purpose of this award is to highlight and honor the achievements of the inventors with value creating ideas and entrepreneurs who propel those ideas into world-class products. This is a key element to the continuing success of robotics and automation today. Active infusion of innovation and entrepreneurship into technological advancement is regarded critical at this juncture to strengthen a healthy balance between research and practice as well as a healthy growth of industrial and commercial sectors in robotics and automation.
These achievements will be recognized in a specially organized IEEE/IFR Joint Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation, which will be held on 21 May 2019 in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2019) in Montreal, Canada. The selected finalists will have the opportunity to present their story of the genesis of a successful innovative product in robotics and automation from its very inception to the final state of commercialization in a series of plenary lectures. The ultimate winner will be chosen by an evaluation board consisting of distinguished individuals from industry and academia. A prestigious plaque will be awarded to each finalist and a US$ 2,000 prize will be awarded to the winner.
Applications should describe the original work that has been translated into a commercial success. The application must include statements regarding:
- description of the innovation/product/application
- stages of the product genesis
- novelty/uniqueness of the product
- market analysis, economic viability and pathway for commercialization
- sustained competitive advantage
- current and future impact on and relevance to industry
DON'T MISS THE DEADLINE! Applications for the IERA Award must be submitted no later than 28 February 2019.
See more here: https://ifr.org/news/iera-award-2019-apply-now
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Applications should not exceed a maximum length of 5 pages. Product descriptions and public relation material will not be accepted as an application. References and links to online material are permitted.
SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS
Please send as PDF document (< 6 MB) no later than 28 February 2019 (any time zone) to either secretariat@ifr.org or to boesl@ieee.org.
For additional information see: Call for Applications
This special issue aims to bring wearable robots closer to broad real-world adoption by highlighting the latest innovations in the development of robust, intelligent wearable robots and their evaluations in real-world scenarios. It will focus on papers about working systems that are ideally evaluated with human subjects in order to determine the technology’s practical potential and impact on people with disabilities, workers, sportsmen, and others. Papers on stationary wearable robots will not be considered, though papers may be accepted if they describe the transfer of knowledge from stationary to wearable robotic technologies.
Papers should follow the standard RAM guidelines. A full peer-review process will be utilized to select papers for the special issue. Submissions should be made through the RAM submission website by 1 May 2019.This special issue aims to bring wearable robots closer to broad real-world adoption by highlighting the latest innovations in the development of robust, intelligent wearable robots and their evaluations in real-world scenarios. It will focus on papers about working systems that are ideally evaluated with human subjects in order to determine the technology’s practical potential and impact on people with disabilities, workers, sportsmen, and others. Papers on stationary wearable robots will not be considered, though papers may be accepted if they describe the transfer of knowledge from stationary to wearable robotic technologies.
Wearable robots have the potential to improve our lives in countless ways. People with weakened limbs can use exoskeletons to augment their strength or to retrain lost motor abilities, thus allowing them to nonetheless successfully perform activities of daily living. Similarly, workers of the future could use wearable robots to manipulate bigger and heavier loads, avoid injuries, and receive augmented feedback to enhance performance. Finally, wearable robots could even be used in sports, allowing wearers to move faster and farther.
Unfortunately, despite extensive research in this area, most wearable robots remain limited to controlled laboratory conditions. This is due to several reasons: insufficiently robust mechanical design and control, excessive weight or power consumption, insufficient evaluations with human subjects, unclear cost-effectiveness and other issues. However, these barriers are not insurmountable, and there are many opportunities for innovative solutions from research groups worldwide.
***The above photos are from the GEs’ wearable robotics work that can be used as part of the call for papers. One is from the An.Dy project (http://andy-project.eu/) while the other is from the SPEXOR project (http://www.spexor.eu/).
Topics of Interest
- Mechanical design of robust wearable robots
- Collaborative control strategies for such wearable robots
- Reducing power consumption in wearable robots
- Human subjects evaluations of existing wearable robots in lab and real-world settings
- Human factors issues in real-world scenarios
- Impact of wearable robots on human productivity and quality of life
- Lessons learned when transferring wearable robots to different applications
- Cost-benefit analyses of wearable robots
Important Dates
March 2019 - Call for papers
1 May 2019 - Submission deadline
1 August 2019 - First decisions on manuscripts
November 2019 - Final decisions on manuscripts
December 2019 - Final manuscripts uploaded
March 2020 - Publication
Guest Editors
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Laramie (WY), USA
Brussels, Belgium
A new scale of urbanization, digitization, and industrialization has been driving the change of our world more profoundly than ever before. The question of energy — and the way we use it — is at the center of these rapid changes. Going “energy-efficient” then becomes a major component of the missions for manufacturers and service providers to stay globally competitive. With the recent advancement of sensor informatics, the Internet-of-Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI), this mission can be better achieved through modeling, analysis, real-time monitoring and control of production service systems. The idea of “intelligent sustainable energy solutions” applies to many application areas, including but not limited to manufacturing, transportation, building management, and networking, etc. The goal of this special issue is to explore scientific models, methods and technologies with both solid theoretical development and practical importance to reshape industries, transform cities and enrich lives. The central theme of the proposed special issue is on Intelligent Energy Solutions to Sustainable Production and Service Automation, where information technology based modeling, analysis, control and optimization are the focus areas, and broad aspects and issues will be well discussed. Topics to be covered include, but are not limited to the following:
- Energy-aware product design
- Modeling/analysis of manufacturing power consumption
- Sensor based monitoring, data analytics, and control and optimization for energy efficient manufacturing processes and systems
- Sustainable energy management of production and service: planning, scheduling and control
- Applications of artificial intelligence, big data and IoT for sustainable manufacturing and service
- Energy solutions to green supply chain
- Real-time energy resource management
- Smart control in smart grid and energy management in industries
- Energy strategies for building management
- Big data enabled intelligent operation for sustainable building
- Sustainable buildings for urban sustainability
- Operations of alternative energy products
- Energy solutions to intelligent transportation systems
- Energy-efficient cloud computing systems and data centers
- Energy-efficient fog computing devices and systems for product and service automation
- Blockchain for Sustainability
Important Dates
30 June 2019 - Paper submission deadline30 September 2019 - Completion of the first round review
31 December 2019 - Completion of the second round review
28 February 2020 - Final submission due
30 April 2020 - Tentative publication date
Guest Editors
Charlottesville (VA), USA
Chongqing, China
Shanghai, China
Glassboro (NJ), USA
Paper Submission
All papers are to be submitted through the IEEE’s Manuscript Central for Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/t-ase. Please select “Special Issue” under Manuscript Category of your submission. All manuscripts must be prepared according to the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering publication guidelines http://www.ieee-ras.org/publications/t-ase. Please address inquiries to tang@rowan.edu
Congratulations to the following RAS Members - elevated to IEEE Fellow grade, effective 1 January 2019!
2019 RAS Fellows evaluated by the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society
Hyouk Ryeol Choi - Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea
“For contributions to robotic interactive sensing”
Kerstin Dautenhahn - University of Waterloo, Canada
“For contributions to social robotics and human-robot interaction"
Emilio Frazzoli - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
“For contributions to motion planning and control of autonomous vehicles"
Anibal Ollero Baturone - University of Seville, Spain
“For contributions to the development and deployment of aerial robots"
Evangelos Papadopoulos - National Technical University of Athens, Greece
“For contributions to space and field robotics"
Jan Peters - Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Germany
“For contributions to robot learning of dexterous motor skills"
Hong Qiao - Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
“For contributions to robotic manipulation and biologically inspired robotic cognition"
Carme Torras - Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (CSIC-UPC), Spain
“For contributions to learning algorithms for robot perception, planning and manipulation"
Robert Wood - Harvard University, USA
“For contributions to small-scale and soft robotics"
Eiichi Yoshida - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
“For leadership in the development of modular reconfigurable robotic systems"
2019 RAS Fellows evaluated by other IEEE Societies
Evaluated by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society:
Zeng-Guang Hou - Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
“For contributions to neural network optimization and control for rehabilitation”
Evaluated by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society:
Fuchun Sun - Tsinghua University, China
“For contributions to neural network control of nonlinear systems with applications to robotic manipulators”
Evaluated by the IEEE Communications Society:
Robert Fish – NETovations, USA
“For application of visual communications and networking"
Evaluated by the IEEE Control Systems Society:
Santosh Devasia - University of Washington, USA
“For contributions to feedforward control of nonminimum-phase systems"
Evaluated by the IEEE Control Systems Society:
Keum-Shik Hong - Pusan National University, South Korea
“For contributions to adaptive estimation and brain-computer interface techniques"
Evaluated by the IEEE Control Systems Society:
Min Wu - University of Maryland, USA
“For contribution to control and automation for complex systems"
Evaluated by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society:
Jose Luis Contreras – University of Houston, USA
“For contributions to brain-machine interfaces and wearable exoskeletons"
Evaluated by the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society:
Xiaoping Peter Liu - Carleton University, Canada
“For contributions to system identification and networked teleoperation”
Evaluated by the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society:
Naiqi Wu - Guangdong University of Technology, China
“For contributions to discrete-event production systems”
IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members. The honor is conferred by the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.
If you know of an IEEE colleague who is a Senior Member or Life Senior Member in good standing, has completed five years of service in any grade of IEEE Membership and who has made an outstanding contribution to the electronic or electrical engineering profession, you can nominate this person in one of four categories:
- Application Engineer/Practitioner
- Educator
- Research Engineer/Scientist
- Technical Leader
Additional information about the IEEE Fellow program, and a list of RAS Fellows is available HERE.
Congratulations to the six RAS members elected by the membership to serve a three-year term beginning 1 January 2019. We wish the newly elected members of the Administrative Committee success and thank all candidates for their willingness to serve and for permitting their names to be included on the ballot.
AdCom Members Elected at Large
Albuquerque (NM), USA
AdCom Member from RAS Geographic Area 1 (the Americas):
AdCom Members from RAS Geographical Area 2 (Europe, Africa, Middle East--IEEE Region 8):
London, UK
Rome, Italy
AdCom Member from RAS Geographical Area 3 (Asia, Australia, Pacific Rim):
IEEE - RAS Congratulates Recently Elevated Senior Members
Congratulations to the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society members recently elevated in October 2018 to Senior Member status by the IEEE Admission and Advancement (A&A) Senior Member Review Panel.
- To be eligible for application or nomination, candidates must:
- Be engineers, scientists, educators, technical executives, or originators in IEEE-designated fields
- Have experience reflecting professional maturity
- Have been in professional practice for at least ten years (with some credit for certain degrees)
- Show significant performance over a period of at least five of their years in professional practice
Nominees for IEEE Fellow must hold the grade of Senior Member or Life Senior Member in order to qualify for elevation to Fellow status.
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Marcelo Ang |
Thomas Bak |
Richard Byrne |
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Nevin Darwish |
Marcio De Queiroz |
Thomas Doney |
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David Elata |
Ponciano Escamilla-Ambrosio |
Peng Fang |
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Aleksandra Faust |
Sami Hajjaj |
Marco Huber |
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Jan-Erik Kallhammer |
Jens Kober |
Kolja Kuehnlenz |
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Dong Soo Kwon |
Mihai Micea |
Rajesh Panakala |
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Md Mozasser Rahman |
David Reinkensmeyer |
Daniel Roesler |
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Muhammad Salehuddin |
Hitesh Shrimali |
Asgeir Sorensen |
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Jun Ueda |
Gentiane Venture Tokyo Section Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Campus |
Matthew Walter Chicago Section Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago |
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Xiufen Ye |
