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Call for Papers: T-CDS Special Issue on Continual Unsupervised Sensorimotor Learning
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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
2019 IEEE/IFR Invention & Entrepreneurship Award: Call for Applications
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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
RAM Special Issue on Wearable Robotics
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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
Call for Papers: T-ASE Special Issue on Intelligent Energy Solutions to Sustainable Production and Service Automation
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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
Announcement of Winners - IROS 2018 Scavenger Hunt
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Congratulations to all the winners of the IROS 2018 Scavenger Hunt!
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Final Winner
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Super MiROS
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| Tourist Award | Selfie Award | Staycation Award |
| Los3Robotorros | wfwolves | Socrates Gang |
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IROS 2018 Scavenger Hunt
1-5 October 2018
How to participate
- Register online
- Sign a photo release form
- Join a team
How to win
- Earn tons of points by using the appropriate hashtags below to post IROS 2018 photos on Twitter.
Conference Challenges (Up to 3 points can be earned per challenge)
- Check out the welcome reception: #iros2018welcome
- Shake hands with a keynote speaker: #iros2018keynote
- Get the RAS president's autograph: #iros2018president
- Say hi to a fellow student you've never met before: #iros2018newfriend
- Take a selfie with a member of the RAS staff: #iros2018rasstaff
- Buy someone a drink: #iros2018cheers
- Say goodbye at the farewell reception: #iros2018solong
- Take a food selfie of your plate of tapas: #iros2018tapas
- Try a breakfast, or coffee, or tea (or whatever!), at a sidewalk cafe: #iros2018cafe
- Having fun at a late-night party? Prove it! #iros2018nightlife
- Snap a selfie near the Puerta del Sol: #iros2018gateofthesun
- Check out the Plaza Mayor (it dates back to 1619!): #iros2018mayor
- Take a selfie with another team (both teams receive points, but be sure to include both teams' hash tags!): #iros2018twoteamsarebetterthanone
- Take a picture of someone on your team ordering food in Spanish: #iros2018spanish
- La Gran Vía is Madrid's most famous street. Can you find it? #iros2018granvia
- Do you know your robotics history? The Robotics Museum should be your next stop!#iros2018museum
- What’s Spain without a visit to a bull fighting ring!? Visit the Las Ventas Bullring! #iros2018bullfighting
- Visit Santiago Bernabeu, the home ground for Real-Madrid FC, with fellow students and take a selfie: #iros2018realmadrid
2019 IEEE RAS Fellow Class Announced
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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.
RAS announces newly elected 2019 Administrative Committee Members
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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
Fort Collins (CO), 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
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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 |
Welcome New IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Chapters
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Congratulations and welcome to the following new IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Chapters established in 2018 Q4.
Region 6
USA
- IEEE San Diego Section Robotics and Automation Society Chapter
Region 8
Jordan
- Jordan University of Science & Technology Robotics and Automation Society Student Branch Chapter in the Jordan Section
Turkey
- Istanbul Medipol University Robotics and Automation Society Student Branch Chapter in the Turkey Section
Region 9
Bolivia
- Universidad Catolica de Bolivia La Paz Robotics and Automation Society Student Branch Chapter in the Bolivia Section
Honduras
- IEEE Honduras Section Joint Chapter, RA24/COM19/C16
Region 10
India
- University College of Engineering - Osmania University in the Hyderabad Section
- Prathyusha Institute of Technology & Management College Robotics and Automation Society Student Branch Chapter in the Madras Section
- Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering Robotics and Automation Society Student Branch Chapter in the Bangalore Section
2019 IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Field Award recipients announced!
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Heartfelt congratulations to Zexiang Li and Frank Wang, selected recipient of the prestigious 2019 IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Field Award for "Contributions to the development and commercialization of civilian drones, aerial imaging technology, robotics engineering advancement, innovation, and entrepreneurship." They will receive this award during the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Montreal, Canada on 20-24 May 2019.
The aerial technology innovations of Zexiang Li and Frank Wang are fueling one of the most significant robotics developments of the past decade—the rise of the drone and its growing impact on society. Wang and Li were the first to dispel the stereotype that useful aerial robots were expensive and unwieldy, repositioning drones from luxurious toys to practical tools. They cofounded Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI), the world’s largest manufacturer and leader in consumer drones and aerial imaging technology. Their flight control systems have provided robotics researchers with platforms for research in visual navigation, collective robotics, simultaneous localization and mapping, and object detection and tracking. Among DJI’s many innovations are drones designed specifically for agricultural applications, autopilot drones for search and rescue, and camera stabilization technology that achieves movie-grade aerial footage for the motion-picture and film industry.
An IEEE Fellow, Zexiang Li is a professor with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clearwater Bay, Hong Kong, China.
An IEEE member, Frank Wang is founder and chief executive officer of SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China.
The IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Field Award was established in 2002 by the IEEE Board of Directors, and is presented for contributions in the field of robotics and automation. It includes but is not limited to: manufacturing automation; robotics and automation in unstructured environments; sensor design; integration and fusion; robot design; modeling; planning and control; methodologies for robotics and automation, and the quality of the nomination. This Award is sponsored by the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society.
Past Recipients can be found HERE
