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Archive-name: robotics-faq/part1
Last-modified: Sun Feb 14 23:26:39 1993

This is part 1 of 2 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) list. This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to
robotics.

____________________________________________________________________________
This FAQ was compiled and written by Kevin Dowling with numerous
contributions by readers of comp.robotics. Acknowledgements are listed
at end of part2 of this FAQ.

This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1993 Kevin
Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet
channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is
forbidden.

Changes, additions, comments, suggestions and questions to:
Kevin Dowling                phone:    [phone]
Robotics Institute            fax:    [phone]
Carnegie Mellon University        email:    [e-mail]
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

___________________________________________________________________________
Contents:

Part 1
    +++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives

    +++What is Robotics?
    +++Professional organizations
    +++Conferences
    +++Publications

    +++Mobile robot companies
    +++Manipulator companies
    +++Small Inexpensive Robots

    +++Organizations doing robotics
    +++Graduate programs in robotics

Part 2
    +++Sensors
    +++Wireless communication
    +++Suppliers and sources for parts
    +++Hero Robots
    +++Puma Manipulators
    +++Simulators
    +++Real-Time Operating Systems
    +++Robot Controller Survey
    +++What is the miniboard?
    +++Books

    +++Acknowledgements

_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Where to find this FAQ and comp.robotics archives:

If you haven't done so, new users on the net should read
news.announce.newusers. In particular, the following posts are a good
idea:
    A Primer on How to Work With The Usenet Community
    Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Usenet
    Hints on Writing Style for Usenet

This FAQ is currently posted to news.answers and comp.robotics.  All
posts to news.answers are archived and are available via anonymous
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FTP:
    FTP is a way of copying file between networked computers. If
    you need help in using or getting started with FTP, send
    e-mail to [e-mail] with
        send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq
    as the body of the message.

    location:  pit-manager.mit.edu [18.72.1.58]
    directory: /pub/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq
    filenames: part1, part2

    location:  ftp.uu.net [137.39.1.9]
    directory: /archive/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq
    filenames: part1.Z, part2.Z [use uncompress]

    location:  nic.switch.ch [130.59.1.40]
    directory: info_service/Usenet/periodic-postings
    filenames: [Check info_service/Usenet/00index]

    location:  ftp.cs.cmu.edu [128.2.206.173]
    directory: /user/nivek/ftp/robotics-faq
    filenames: part1, part2

UUCP:
    location:  uunet!/archive/usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/
    filenames: part1.Z, part2.Z

E-mail:
    Send email to [e-mail] containing these lines:
    send usenet/news.answers/robotics-faq/part1
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comp.robotics archives

You can find a dozen or more sites in the US, Europe and Japan that
store the FAQ and archives for comp.robotics by using the Internet
search programs, Archie or Wais.

One location is:
    location:  wilma.cs.brown.edu:
    filenames:  pub/comp.robotics/

____________________________________________________________________________
+++What is Robotics?

There is a lengthy, committee-written definition from one of the
robotics organizations that defines robotics as preprogrammable,
electro-mechanical devices perform a variety of functions. It's rather
dry and, in the end, uninspiring.

Better ones might include:
    Force through intelligence.
    Where AI meet the real world.
    I know it when I see it.

Webster says:
    An automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed
    to humans or a machine in the form of a human.

The word 'robot' was coined by the Czechloslovakian playwright Karel
Capek (pronounced "chop'ek") from the Czech word for worker or serf.
Capek was reportedly several times a candidate for the Nobel prize for
his works and very influential and prolific as a writer and
playwright. Mercifully, he died before the Gestapo got to him for his
anti-Nazi sympathies in 1938.

The use of the word Robot was introduced into his play R.U.R.
(Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in Prague in Jan of 1921.
The play was an enormous success and productions soon opened
throughout Europe and the US. R.U.R's theme, in part, was the
dehumanization of man in a technological civilization.

There is some evidence that the word robot was actually coined by
Karl's brother Josef, a writer in his own right. But I cannot find
the article I once read on this subject. [I believe it was in SigART].

____________________________________________________________________________
+++Robotics Related Organizations:

IEEE
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Service Center
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854-4150
[phone]
A large organization with hundreds of publications including journals,
transactions, Spectrum, sponsoring conferences, workshops and meetings.

Society of Manufacturing Engineers, (SME)
One SME Drive
PO Box 930
Dearborn, MI  48121
[phone]

American Society of Mechanical Engineers, (ASME)
345 E. 47th Street
New York, NY 10017
Mechanical Engineering magazine, like the IEEE's Spectrum, is an
excellent general publication on aspects of mechanical engineering.
There are often publications on robotics and the ASME sponsors a
number of other publications and conferences that are relevant to
robotics.

National Service Robots Association (NSRA)
900 Victors Way
PO Box 3724
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
[phone]
An organization devoted to robots other than on the factory floor.

Robotics Industry Association (RIA)
(same address as NSRA)

SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering)
P.O.Box 10
Bellingham, Washington 98227-0010.
SPIE has publications, meetings and conferences in the
field of intelligent robots, mobile robots, teleoperation,
machine vision, etc.

Utility/Manufacturer Robot Users group (UMRUG)
Contact:
Harry T. Roman
Principal Engineer - Research
MC: 16-H
Public Service Electric and Gas Company
80 Park Plaza
PO Box 570
Newark, NJ 07101
[phone]

Advanced Robot Technology Research Association (Japan)
Kikai-shinko Bldg
3-5-8 Shiba-Kohen, Minato-ku, Tokyo
[phone]
fax [phone]
Has joint research programs with member companies.
Members are 20 or so Japanese companies including:
Ishikawajima-Harima, Oki Electric, Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Kobe
Steel, Komatsu, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Toshiba, JGC, NEC,
Hitachi, Fanuc, Fujitsu, Fuji, Matshushita Research Institute, Mitsui,
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Yaskawa

Center for Autonomous and Man-controlled Robotic and Sensing Systems
Charles Jacobus, CAMRSS director
ERIM
PO Box 8618
Ann Arbor, MI 48107
[phone] X2457
Member companies include: Ball Aerospace, Coulter Electronics, ERIM,
Fairchild, Ford Aerospace, Geospectra, Grumman, Industrial Technology
Institute, KMS Fusion, Michigan State, UofM.

AIAA
American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW
Washington, DC 20024
[phone]
Technical Information Service [phone]
Conferences and publications, several cover automation technologies
for servicing on the ground and in space as well as exploration.

__________________________________________________________________________
+++Conferences

There are a wide variety and number of conferences related to robotics
and automation. Some are focused on industrial applications, many are
researchy in nature and most are a mixture of both. Proceedings
should be available in most good libraries or by interlibrary loan.

Annual Conference of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
    Automation (ICARA)
    May 2-7, 1993 at the Atlanta Hilton and Towers, Atlanta, Georgia

Second International BEAM Robot Olympics Competition:
Ontario Science Center, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
April 22-25, 1993

"The BEAM Robot Olympics is not so much a series of technological
competitions as a chance for robot enthusiasts to present their
designs to each other, the press, and the public.  It is also a open
forum for anyone who wants to get started in the field to compete and
compare.  Any and every robot will be considered so long as it does
not come from a kit or store.  Robots of similar ability will be
pitted against each other in simple competitions, but generally robots
will be judged on sophistication of behavior, novelty of design,
efficiency of power source, and quality of hardware."

Details will soon be posted.  On-line rules soon available.  There are
also two Robot Olympic Trial Games scheduled for this fall (in
Canada), but details will have to wait until September.
Contact: [e-mail]

Annual Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems

Annual Symposium on Industrial Robots

Biannual Symposium International Symposium of Robotics Research

Biannual Autonomous Intelligent Systems

International Conference on Computer Vision

British Machine Vision Conference

IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Conference

IMAC/SICE International Symposium on Robotics, Mechatronics and
    Manufacturing Systems.

American Association for Artificial Intellignece (AAAI)
    Probably the largest and most prestigious conference
on AI. Is now sponsoring a  robot competition at the annual
AAAI conference.

There are also specific conferences in application areas:

Mining:

Int. Symposium on Mine Mechanization and Automation
(organized by the Colorado School of Mines)

Canadian Symposium on Mining Automation

Canadian Conference on Computer Applications in the Mineral Industry

___________________________________________________________________________
+++Robotics Publications:

There are a number of academic journals and trade magazines devoted to
robotics.  There are no magazines currently devoted to the hobbyist or
designer of robotic mechanisms. In the 1980's Robotics Engineering
(nee Robotics Age) lasted for 7-8 years but folded. The one difficulty
I noted as a subscriber was the problem of addressing the hobbyist,
the curious and those whose work was devoted to robotics.

This list of periodical covers the academic journals, the trade
magazines devoted to both robotics and relevant sub-areas, and the
lone newsletter for hobbyists.

    The IEEE has a formidable array of journals, transactions and
magazines. Here are a few that are relevant to robotics work:

    IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation
    IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
    IEEE Control Systems Magazine
    IEEE Computer Magazine
    IEEN Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
    IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
    Cost: Have to join IEEE and then subscribe. Student rates are
    much less expensive than non-student rates.

    International Journal of Robotics & Automation
    Published by:
    ACTA Press
    P.O. Box 2481
    Anaheim, CA 92814
    U. S. A.
    Editor-in-chief: Professor T. C. Hsia
    Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
    University of California
    Davis, CA 95616

    International Journal of Robotics Research
    MIT Press
    28 Carleton Street
    Cambridge, MA 02142
    Cost: $50/year to individuals

    Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems
    Three issues per volume, $58.50 per volume (individual)
    Kluwer Academic Publishers Group
    PO Box 322,
    3300 AH Dordrecht,
    The Netherlands
    --in the US:
    PO Box 358
    Accord Station,
    Hingham, MA 02018-0358

    Journal of Robotic Systems
    G. Beni and S. Hackwood, editors
    College of Engineering
    University of California, Riverside
    Riverside, CA 92521-0425
    Publisher:
    Interscience Division
    Professional, Reference, and Trade Group
    John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
    605 Third Ave.
    New York, NY 10158

    Robotics Today
    Published by:
    Society of Manufacturing Engineers
    One SME Drive
    PO Box 930
    Dearborn, MI 48121
    [phone]

    Robotics World
    "The end-user's magazine of flexible automation"
    Published quarterly
    Communication Channels
    6255 Barfield Road
    Atlanta, GA 30328
    [phone]
    They also publish the Robotics World Directory $49.95

    Robot (Japanese)
    Industrial Robots and Application Systems
    published bimonthly
    Japan Industrial Robot Association (JIRA)
    Kikai-Shinko Building
    3-5-8, Shiba-Kohen,
    Mina To-ku
    Tokyo, Japan
    Tokyo [phone], fax [phone]

    Robotica
    International Journal of Information, Education and Research
    in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
    Quarterly publication, US $179 per year!
    Cambridge University Press
    The Edinburgh Building
    Shaftesbury Road,
    Cambridge CB2 2RU (UK)
    in the US:
    Cambridge University Press
    Journals Department
    40 West 20th Street
    New York, NY 10011-4211

    Industrial Robot
    Quarterly, $145/year
    MCB University Press Ltd.
    62 Toller Lane
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    England, BD8 9BY
    (44) 274 499821, fax [phone]
    --in the US
    MCB University Press Ltd.
    PO Box 10812
    Birmingham, AL 35201-0812
    [phone] (toll free US and Canada)

    Automation in Construction
    Publisher: Elsevier Science Publisher B. V., Amsterdam.
    Desk Editor: Erik de Vries
    The Editor of the journal is
    Dr. T. Michael Knasel
    10324 Lake Avenue
    Cleveland, OH 441102-1239.
    Fax. [phone].

Don't have addresses for:
    Advanced Robotics (in english)
    published by
    International Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan

    Mechatronics

    Robotics and Autonomous Systems

    Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing

Useful and relevant trade magazines:

    Usually free, mostly ads or industry news. Many articles written by
    advertisers. Great sources of product information. Our lab at
    CMU receives 50-60 trade magazines and journals per month and while no
    one reads all of the articles and pointers are passed
    on to people around the lab. This keeps the group abreast of
    new products and developments.

    Sensors
    Helmers Publishing
    174 Concord Street
    PO Box 874
    Peterborough, NH 03458-0874
    [phone]
    Trade magazine devoted to sensing devices. Publishes annual directory.
    Cost: Free to qualified subscribers, $55/yr otherwise

    Advanced Imaging
    445 Broad Hollow Rd.
    Melville, NY 11747
    [phone] voice
    [phone] FAX
    Subscription free to qualified professionals, $50/yr otherwise.

    Machine Design
    Design News
    Motion Control
    GPS World
    RF Design
    Sea Technology
    Laser Focus
    POB (surveying profession)
    Broadcast Engineering (TV and radio engineering)
    Embedded Systems
    EE Times (news of the electronics industry)

Other extremely useful resources that every laboratory or company
should have are the Thomas Register and the EEM. The Thomas Register
is $250 for a complete set and they issue new ones every year. A cheap
investment for finding companies and parts.
_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Mobile robot companies:

There are a small number of companies targeting the research community
for the mobile robot market. TRC, RWI, Cybermotion and Denning have
all sold and are selling mobile devices for research and real
applications. A number of Automatic Guided Vehicle companies sell
their machines but their primary applications are factory operations.

Bell and Howell
Mailmobile Company
81 Hartwell Avenue
Lexington, MA 02173-3127
[phone]
  Mailmobiles were developed by Lear-Siegler in the mid-70's for the
  industrial cleaning market. They left this market and
  Bell & Howell, the audio-visual company,  was refocusing on office
  automation products and picked
  up this product from Lear-Siegler. There are three models of
  Mailmobile, the Packmobile, the Sprint and the Trailmobile. About 3000
  systems sold and about 2000 probably in operation. They use a chemical
  trail that floureseces under UV light. Payloads up to a couple of
  hundred kg.  Some systems have been operating for over 15 years.

Cybermotion
5457 Jae Valley Road
Roanoke, VA 24014
[phone]
  John Holland's company. Mobile K2 bases making use of ingenious
  torque-tube synchronous drive system. Security markets and research
  platforms, manipulators for base as well. Map building software too.

Denning Mobile Robotics Inc.
21 Concord Street
Wilmington, MA 01887
[phone]
  Mobile robots - synchronous drive bases for research platforms.
  Building automated camera platforms for newsrooms, working on
  floor cleaning machines with an industrial partner.
  Denning also has a number of products including a position scanner,
  and IR beacons.  A Denning floor scrubber is working in a post
  office in Pittsburgh, Denver and Washington, and at a UPS site.

IS Robotics
4353 Park Terrace Drive
Westlake Village, CA 91361 USA
email:  [e-mail]
phone:  [phone]
  Associated with ISX Robotics of Cambridge.
  T-1: tracked robot approx 50cm x 36cm. $5k
  R-2: Wheeled machine. Gripper with 7.5cm opening, 18cm lift, 1kg
       lift force. $7K
  Ghengis II: Six-legged machine with whisker bump sensors and force
        detection on legs. About $2k.
  Use the ubiquitous MC68HC11E2 microcontrollers. Robots include IR
  and bump sensing for obstacle detection. Pyro sensors and color
  camera with pan-tilt are optional.

mecos Robotics AG
Gutstrasse 38
8400 Winterthur
Switzerland
tel: int (0)52 29 58 28
fax: int (0)52 29 96 53
email: [e-mail]
Contact: S. J. Vestli
  Company formed as a spin off of
  the Institute of Robotics, ETH (Swiss Federal Institute
  of Technology). "mecos Robotics" specialises in modular
  and adaptive robot manipulators and robot vehicles (mobile
  robots). All "mecos Robotics" systems uses the same type
  of controller, a VME based computer. This system comes
  with high level development tools, and for research
  institutions the systems have the advantage of being
  open. The overall goals of all "mecos Robotics" systems
  are flexility and modularity.
    The mobile robot program from "mecos Robotics" follows this
  principle. The physical size and the mechanical configuration
  can be altered. The standard configuration has three wheels
  with air tyres and independant suspension. One wheel is
  used for steering and propulsion (imagine a kids tricycle).
  The overall size is 0.7 m (W) * 1.0 m (L) * 0.5 m (H). The
  price depends on configuration and starts around the 70.000,-
  Swiss Franks mark.

Nomadic Technologies
858 La Para Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
[phone]
fax [phone]
  Mobile base and sensors (IR, Laser ranging, touch, GUI software
  development) $10K range.

Real World Interface (RWI)
P.O. Box 270
Dublin, NH 03444
[phone]
  Small synchronous drive bases, primarily for research purposes. Approx $6K

Remotec
114 Union Valley Road
Oak Ridge, TN 37830
tel: [phone]
fax: [phone]
The ANDROS line of teleoperated mobile robots. These were designed
to be useful in the nuclear industry and in other hazardous applications,
and are very rugged. You can hose them down. Available in a range of sizes,
with a variety of optional attachments, such as video cameras, arms, etc.

TRC
15 Great Pasture Road
Danbury, CT 06810
[phone]
  Labmate research platform - $7500, plus additional optional sensors
  etc. Other prodcuts for hospital markets and floor cleaning machines.
  (Helpmate and RoboKent respectively)

Yamazaki Construction Company, Tokyo Japan.
Intelligent Robot Lab
Kaika Building
2-7-1 Sotokanda
Chiyoda-ku 101 Tokyo
Japan
phone:  [phone]
  LR1 robot - small research robot, basically a VME cage on wheels with
  some ultrasonic sensors and a nice constant force suspension. Has
  shown up at IEEE R&A conferences $30K.

Robosoft, Asnieres, France

Odetics,
Anaheim, CA
  Six-legged, (pantograph) Walking machine.

_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Robot manipulator companies:

Adept Technology
150 Rose Orchard Way
San Jose, CA 95134
[phone]
fax [phone]
  High speed direct-drive and harmonic-drive SCARA style arms. 0.001"
  (.025mm) repeatabiliy. Payloads from 4-25kg Can be used in clean room
  and food applications as well. Adept sells vision systems and
  controllers also.

Antenen Research
PO Box 95
Hamilton, OH 45012
[phone]
[phone]
fax [phone]
  New and used robots for manufacturing, research and training.
  Used at savings of 40% - 70%. Also lots of parts and accessories.

CRS Plus,
POox 163, Station A
830 Harrington Court
Burlington, Ontario
Canada L7R 3Y2
[phone]
fax [phone]
  Sells several manipulators. 5-DOF around $25K, 6DOF around $33K.
  Sell end-effectors as well (electric, vacuum and penumatic)
  Wrist can be bought separately. Controllers use RAPL, a VAL-like
  language. Fairly open architecture. 3Kg payloads +/- 0.05mm
  repeatability.

Kraft Telerobotics
11667 W. 90th Street
Overland Park, KS 66214
tel: [phone]
fax: [phone]
Some nice telerobotic arms for underwater work.

Microbot was bought out by the British company UMI two years ago. In May, 1991
they moved from Silicon Valley to Detroit, MI
    UMI Microbot
    12665 Richfield Ct.
    Livonia, MI  48150
    Phone [phone], -3276 (fax)

Motoman [Hobart/Yaskawa]
3160 MacArthur Boulevard
Northbrook, IL 60062-1917
[phone], fax [phone]
  Large industrial manipulators for welding, painting, palletizing,
  dispensing, etc. Can be floor, ceiling or wall mount units. Payloads
  for the 8 robots in the K-series range from 3kg to 100kg and
  repeatability of 0.1 to 0.5 mm over that same range. They are vertical
  jointed-arm type manipulators. (i.e. 4 bar linkage to reduce arm
  intertias). 3 S-series robots are SCARA-type manipulators with
  payloads of 50-60kg and varying workspace sizes

  Yaskawa also has bought the rights to RobotWorld, Vic Schienman's unique
  gantry design robot system. This system allow a number of mobile
  modules in the same workspace to zip around at speeds up 80"/sec (3G
  accel). RAIL and C can be used in a multilevel programming
  environment. 0.002" Accuracy, 0.0005" repeatability. Neat stuff.

Salisbury Robotics, Inc.
20 Pemberton St.
Cambridge, MA 02140
[phone]
  Sell the three-fingered Salisbury hand and force sensing fingertips.
  Contact: Ken Salisbury, email: <[e-mail]>

Schilling

Sony Corporation of America
Factory Automation Division
542 Route 303
Orangeburg, NY 10962
[phone]
fax [phone]
Several SCARA type manipulators including a double armed manipulator.
This model is used for the assembly of 8mm camcorders!

Sarcos Research Corporation
261 East 300 South Suite 150
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
 Manufacturing is done by:
Animate Systems Inc.
1780 West 2300 South
Salt Lake City, Utah 84119
  Spinoff of University of Utah's Center for Engineering Design (CED).
  Teleoperated systems,  manipulators. Audio-animatronic work as well.
  Beautiful force reflecting work and systems. High performance and
  small hydraulic valves and actuators.

Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), Vesteraas, Sweden
ABB Robotics
2487 South Commerce Drive
New Berlin, WI 53151
[phone]
Now own Cinncinatti Milacron robotics group, Graco and Trallfa.

mecos Robotics AG
Gutstrasse 38
8400 Winterthur
Switzerland
tel: int (0)52 29 58 28
fax: int (0)52 29 96 53
E-mail: [e-mail]
Contact: E. Nielsen

Spin-off of the Institute of Robotics, ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology). modular and adaptive robot manipulators and robot
vehicles (mobile robots). All "mecos Robotics" systems use a VME based
computer as controller.  The system comes with high level development
tools, and are open systems.  The manipulator's mechanical
configuration can be changed at will (number and type of joints,
length of links, etc.)  Manipulators use linear aluminum extrusions
with integral motions for joints. The controller accounts for
configuration changes. With this principle of modularity and
flexibilty hybrid force / position controllers have been realised on
"mecos Robotics" arms. Price depending on configuration (50.000,-
Swiss Franks and upwards).

Robotics Research Corp.
P.O. Box 206
Amelia, OH  45102
phone: [phone]
fax  : [phone]

RRC offers a variety of dexterous manipulators which can be operated
individually or in dual-arm mode.  Their second generation, denoted
the "i-Series", is lighter and provides great dexterity.  They are
currently building "spaceflight-qualified" manipulators for NASA
(GSFC) using this new generation of their product.  They have also
been doing some work developing sensor-based automatic obstacle
detection and avoidance technology which uses a patented algorithm
with arm-mounted sensors. They have also built two massively-redundant
17-DOF Anthropomorphic systems for Grumman and JPL to serve as
testbeds for researching "man-equivalent" robots for space
applications.

USA Robot
PO Box 4018
Portland, ME 04101
tel: [phone]

Maxym production robots for business. Simple accurate 3D linear
motions coupled with power tooling. Workspaces up to 2x4x.5 feet.
IBMPC software for designing parts and production paths. 2 mil/foot
accuracy. Units come with 3.25HP Porter- Cable router and vacuum foot.
This is not a machine like the giant production turning and routing
machines used by large furniture makers but is a nice small machine
for small production shops.

Zebra Robotics
Jeff Kerr
Menlo Park
[phone]
  Small manipulators with integral force control.

Zymark Corp
Hopkinton, MA
Robots for laboratory automation.

Western Space and Marine (WSM)
International Submarine Engineering (ISE)
Robotic Systems International (RSI)
Furukawa
Sumitomo
Chubu

_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Small Inexpensive Robots

Lego Dacta
555 Taylor Road
PO Box 1600
Enfield, CT 06083-1600
tel: [phone]
fax: [phone]
LEGO Dacta is the educational branch of the LEGO company. Dacta sells
the LEGO Technic product line. These are the geared and motorized
versions fo the LEGO system. Kits recommended for robotics include:

1038 Technical Universal Buggy - dual drive vehicle. $60
1032 Technic II w/ motorized transmission - $76
9605 Technic Resource Set - general parts kits - $200

Other places for Lego-to-Mac software:
Paradigm Software [phone]
Bots [phone]

MIT has papers on LEGO projects available via FTP from:
kame.media.mit.edu. Look in pub/el-memos for a number of files.
memo8.* is "LEGO/LOGO: Learning Through and About Design"

Stiquito
A small nitinol-based mobile robot is available from Indiana
Univeristy in a technical report and as a kit. Send your request for
the report with payment to:

    Computer Science Department
    215 Lindley Hall
    Indiana University
    Bloomington, IN  47405

To receive the technical report only send $5.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN:
TR363A to the address To receive the technical report and a kit
containing all materials needed to construct Stiquito and its manual
controller send US$15.00 PRE-PAID and add ATTN: TR 363a Squito Kit

Mondotronics
524 San Anselmo Ave.,
#107
San Anselmo, CA 94960
tel: [phone]
     [phone]
fax: [phone]
net: <[e-mail]>
A number of muscle wire (nitinol) projects including a small walking
machine.  Book and sample kit with 1m each of 50,100 and 150 um wire -
enough to build all 14 projects in book.

OWI (Movit robots)
tel: [phone]
fax: [phone]
Available from:
    Kelvin Electronics [phone]
    Pitsco [phone]
    Edmund Scientific (See +++Robot Parts section for address)
 These are small toy-like robots that reflexively respond to
obstacles, sounds or light depending on the model. They're cute and
show what can be done with a relatively small amount of hardware.

Angelus Research
6344 Sugar Pine Circle
Angelus Oaks, CA
tel: [phone]
A small differentially-steered mechanism (no casters!) utilizing a
68HC11 controller w/ 32K RAM and RS-232 interface. Four visible
collision sensors (range 3-12 inches depending on ambient light) and
two whiskers. On-board battery (Pb- acid and built in charger)
monitors current as well for stall current. Software included with
easy-to-use command set. A lot of features for a very affordable
device. $395, controller board available separately and basic kit
available for $325

FischerTechik
 Like Lego a european-developed construction kit but much more
comprehensive in scope. Electro-mechanical parts galore including a
wide variety of switches, relays, slip rings, contacts, etc. Many
types of building block units as well. More expensive than Lego though.

_____________________________________________________________________________
+++Other organizations doing robotics:

Most large aerospace companies have groups working in or looking
into robotics. Martin Marietta (Denver), Rockwell International
(Downey, CA), Boeing (Seattle) to name a few. Mitre Corporation of
McLean VA and Houston TX, is also doing quite a bit in robotics.

Redzone Robotics
2425 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-4639
[phone]
  A spin-off of CMU, Redzone has focused on hazwaste and nuke
manipulator applications but is branching out into mobile
applications. Primarily protoypes and not multiple unit manufacturing.

Advanced Robotics Research Centre
Salford, UK.
  The Advanced.  Robotics Research Ltd (incorporating the National
Advanced Robotics Research Centre, UK) is a joint UK Government and UK
Industries funded research organisation involved in the research of
enabling technologies for the advanced robotics systems.

Vision Applications
NY, NY
  Small, low cost fovial camera systems. Development stages. Unique
  integrated, super small camera/pan/tilt device. Miniature active
  vision systems, video telephones.

Mechanical Engineering Lab (MEL)
Tsukuba City
  Kazuo Tanie: Robotics and cybernetics

--NASA Centers
NASA Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL)
Pasadena, CA
  Hazardous-environment robots, teloperation, control, space and
  planetary missions.
  Tony Bejczy, Chuck Weisbin, Brian Wilcox, Larry Mathies,
  Henry Stone, David Miller

NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)
Moffett Field, CA
Telepresence and virtual user interfaces, vision (optical and parallel
processing), free-flyers, task planning, agents.
Contact: Butler Hine III <[e-mail]>
    Terry Fong <[e-mail]>

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Contact: Stepehn Leake <[e-mail]>
  Since the cancellation of the Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS), the Robotics
  Lab has been concentrating on work in the area of automated space craft
  servicing.  The goal is to replace or supplement Extra Vehicular Activity
  (EVA) with teleoperated or semiautonomous robotic systems for external
  vehicle maintenance. Current project includes a robot to assist in
  second Hubble servicing mission.

NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Houston, TX
Contact: Charles Price
  More of an operations house but lots of shuttle RMS work. Becoming
central site for Artemis (lunar explorer) work.

NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Robotics Group
Contact: Bill Jones
  Like JSC, KSC is an operations house with responsibility to keep
  shuttles flying and integrate payloads. There is a small but
  growing robotics group that is emplacing ground support robotics
  applications. Recent work includes filter inspector for launch pad
  payload areas, shuttle radiator inspector and a mobile system for
  thermal protection system tasks.

NASA Langley Research Center, (LaRC)
VA
Contact: Jack Pennington - vision, inspection, 3-D sensors

Southwest Research Institute
San Antonio, TX
Robotics and Automation Department
Some large systems for servicing aircraft (painting, spraying,
deriveting etc)

Oak Ridge National Lab
ORNL/CESAR
PO Box 2008, MS-6364
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6364
[phone]
Contact: Alex L. Bangs <[e-mail]>
   Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR)

   Research in mobile and manipulator robotics, including redundant
   and multiple manipulators, cooperating mobile robots, parallel
   vision systems, sensor fusion, real-time quantitative reasoning
   and behavior based control, and machine learning. Current
   applications include robots for nuclear power stations,
   environmental restoration and waste management, material
   handling, and space exploration.
   Researchers: Alex Bangs, Marty Beckerman, Judd Jones, Reinhold Mann,
     Ed Oblow, Francois Pin, Michael Unseren

______________________________________________________________________________
+++Graduate Program in Robotics:

Any good four-year school undoubtedly offers robotics courses within
engineering programs. Departments of mechanical and electrical
engineering and computer srcience are all good candidates for
coursework in Robotics. However, a number of schools have established
track records and a focus on robotics and those are listed here.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science both have strong
  robotics efforts. Asada, Slotine, Brooks, Raibert and others
  are known and respected for their work in direct-drive arm, control
  techniques, architectures, running machines etc.

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
  The Robotics Institute is a 150 person organization that offers
  a PhD in Robotics but students from other programs (engineering and
  computer science mostly) do research in the Institute as well. Lots
  of mobile robot work, computer integrated manufacturing, rapid
  prototyping, sensors, vision, navigation, learning and architectures.
  Program is taking taking qualifiers and a program of research leading to
  a thesis and the degree.

  Facilities include about 10 mobile systems with more under design and
  construction. Many manipulator systems and lots of compute
  cycles/person.
  The Institute will be starting an MS program as well.
    Takeo Kanade - Vision and Autonomous Systems Center
    Pradeep Khosla - Advanced Manipulator Laboartory
    Matt Mason - Manipulation Laboratory
    Tom Mitchell - Learning Robots Lab
    Hans Moravec - Mobile Robots Lab
    Mel Seigel - Sensors Laboratory (non vision)
    Steve Shafer - Calibrated Imaging Laboratory
    Red Whittaker - Field Robotics Center
    and many others.....
  Graduate program contact:
  Graduate Admissions Coordinator
  The Robotics Institute
  Carnegie Mellon University
  Pittsburgh, PA 15213

University of Pennsylvania.
  UPenn offers Masters and PhD programs in Robotics and Robotics related
  fields of study. These programs are offered through the Departments of
  Computer and Information Science, Systems Engineering, and Mechanical
  Engineering and Applied Mechanics. The bulk of the robotics research
  is conducted in the inter-disciplinary General Robotics and Active
  Sensory Perception (GRASP) laboratory. Active areas of research are
  Telerobotics, Multiple Arm Control, Robotic Vision, Leanring Control,
  Multi-agent Robotics and Mechanical Design. Leding Faculty members
  are Drs. R. Bajcsy and R.P. Paul.

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
  Artificial Intelligence Lab (Elec. Eng. and CS) relevant to robotics
  includes machine vision, systems and control, multiple cooperating
  agents (arms and mobile), and application of SOAR to robots (arms and
  mobile). (in conjunction with SOAR groups at CMU and elsewhere)

North Carolina State Univerisity
Raleigh, NC
  Professor Ren Luo
  [phone]

Stanford University
  Palo Alto, CA
  Mechanical Engineering:
    Bernard Roth (kinematics of manipulators)
    Mark Cutkosky: destrous manipulation and concurrent manufacturing
    Larry Liefer (rehabilitation, user interfaces)
  CS Department:
    Nils Nilsson
    Mike Genesereth
    Jean-Claude Latombe (path planning and geometric reasoning)
    Leo Guibas (geometric reasoning)
    Tom Binford (vision)
    Yoav Shoham (agents)
    Oussama Khatib
  Aerospace Robotics Laboratory:
    Bob Cannon (teleoperation, free flyers, space robotics,
    flexible manipulators)

University of Southern California (USC)
 USC has a new MS Program called: Master of Science in Computer
Science with specialization in Robotics & Automation

Beginning in Fall, 1993, this new MS program seeks to prepare students
for a career in the application of Computer Science to design,
manufacturing, and robotics. It also serves as an introduction to this
area for students who wish to pursue advanced studies and research
leading to a Ph.D.  A major goal is to produce a steady stream of
graduates who are qualified to tackle challenging problems in the
development of software for CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design and
Manufacturing) and robotics.

There is a strong focus on designing and building within the program
Exposure to the practical aspects (and difficulties) of robotics and
automation is strongly encouraged through laboratory work, and an
optional thesis, conducted in collaboration with industry and research
laboratories.

For additional information, a complete set of degree requirements, and
application materials, contact our Student Coordinator:
         Ms. Amy Yung
        Computer Science Department
        University of Southern California
        Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781
        Telephone: [phone]
        Internet: [e-mail]
Faculty include:
 George Bekey : Assembly planning, design for assembly,
        neural nets for robot control, autonomous robots.
 Ken Goldberg : Motion planning, grasping, machine learning.
 Sukhan Lee : Assembly planning, sensor-based manipulation.
 Gerard Medioni: Computer vision.
 Ramakant Nevatia: Computer vision.
 Keith Price: Computer vision.
 Aristides Requicha: Geometric modeling, geometric uncertainty,
            planning for manufacture and inspection

  About twenty other faculty member associated with the Institute for
  Robotics and Intelligent Systems and many others associated with
  USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI).
  Brochure can be obtained from:
    Ken Goldberg, Asst Professor
    IRIS, Dept of Computer Science
    Powell Hall Room 204
    University of Southern California
    Los Angeles, CA 90089-0273
    Internet: [e-mail]

University of Maryland
  Space Systems Laboratory. Large Neutral Bouyancy Tank,
  teleoperations research,
    Dave Akin - director
  Dave has flown shuttle experiments.

New York University (NYU)
  Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
    Richard Wallace - vision

Yale University - Vision and Robotics Group
  There is a broad spectrum of research activities in vision and robotics at
  Yale.  The members of this group include faculty from Computer Science,
  Electrical Engineering, Psychology, Neuroscience, and the Yale Medical
  School. Active areas of research include machine vision, human and computer
  object recognition, geometric reasoning, mobile robotics, sensor-based
  manipulation, control of highly dynamic nonlinear systems, planning, and
  learning.  There is also a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary work
  integrating robotics and machine vision.
Faculty:
  James S. Duncan: Geometric/physical models for analysing biomedical images.
  Gregory D. Hager: Sensor-based/task-directed decision-making and planning.
  David J. Kriegman: Model-based object recognition, mobile robot navigation.
  Drew McDermott: Planning and scheduling reactive behavior, knowledge
    representation, cognitive mapping.
  Eric Mjolsness: Neural network approaches to vision and visual memory.
  Dan Koditschek: Application of dynamical systems theory to machine dexterity.
  Pat Sharpe: Computational models of hippocampal spatial learning.
  Michael J. Tarr: Behavioral and computational approaches to visual cognition.
  Kenneth Yip: Automated reasoning about complex dynamical systems.

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Mechanical Engineering & Electrical Engineering:
   Roland Chin         - machine vision, pattern recognition
   Neil Duffie         - teleoperation, autonomous systems, sensors
   Robert Lorenz       - actuators and sensors, robot control algorithms
   Vladimir Lumelsky   - motion planning, real-time sensing and navigation
Computer Science:
   Charles Dyer        - machine vision
Wisconsin Center for Space Robotics and Automation (WCSAR) -
   Interdepartmental NASA center: work is done on various applications
   of robotic systems for space.

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
  Pasadena, CA
    Joel Burdick - serpentine manipulation, control

Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute (RPI)-?
  Center for Intelligent Robotic Systems for Space Exploration (CIRSSE)
    George Saridis
    Arthur Sanderson
    Jon Wenn
  Appro. 20 PhD and 30 MS students working in the center. Path
  planning and multi-arm control are current focus.

McGill University
Department of Biomedical Engineering
3775 University Street
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H3A 2B4
Ian Hunter and John Hollerbach
Interests include: Master-slave manipulators for precise surgery

University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
Steve Jacobsen
Center for Engineering Design
3176 MEB
Hands, manipulators, biomedical applications, teleoperation
Micro electro-mechanical systems design.

Purdue
 Avi Kak: Vision and mobile robots
 Antti Koivo: Manipulation
 Mirek Skibiniewski: Construction Robotics

University of Kentucky
Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems
(founded 1990)

University of Alberta
Center for Machine Intelligence and Robotics

University of Wisconsin
Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR)

University of Kansas
Space Technology Center (Telerobotics)

University of Paris
  INRIA (Nice) just started a Phd program in Robotics.

University of California at Berkeley
Faculty in Robotics at UC Berkeley
Dept. of EE&CS:
Prof. J. Canny: motion planning
Prof. R. Fearing: tactile sensing, dextrous manipulation
Prof. J. Malik: computer vision
Prof. S. Sastry: multi-fingered hands, control

Dept. of Optometry/EE&CS:
Prof. L. Stark: telerobotics

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering:
Prof. R. Horowitz: control of robotic manipulators
Prof. H. Kazerooni: man-robotic systems
Prof. M. Tomizuka: control of robotic manipulators
Richard Muller - micro mechanisms

Harvard
    Roger Brockett

University of Oxford
Robotics Research Group
    The Robotics Group currently comprises about seventy
academics, postdoctoral research staff, overseas visitors, and
graduate students.  A broad range of topics in advanced robotics is
studied in collaboration with industry and government establishments
throughout Europe.
    Robot Design and Control
    A number of projects are concerned with the design and control of
compliant robot arms.
    Parallel Architectures
    Real-time sensor-based control of systems such as robot vehicles is a
topic of increasing interest.  For low bandwidth sensors such as
sonar, the emphasis is on Transputer architectures.  For high
bandwidth sensors such as vision, hybrid SIMD/MIMD architectures are
being developed.  A rapidly growing effort is concerned with the
design, implementation, and application of neural networks.  Digital
and hybrid digital/analog chips have been designed and are being
fabricated.  Algorithms and TTL circuits have been constructed for
text-to-speech synthesis.
    Vision and Active Vision
The theory and applications of vision accounts for approximately
one-third of the laboratory's effort.  Current projects include edge
detection and texture segmentation and the computation of visual
motion by a parallel algorithm that estimates the optic flow field.
    Sensors and Sensor Integration
Includes laser rangefinder development in addition to analog
and digital sonar sensors, as well as infrared rangers, have been
developed for the AGV project (below).
    Autonomous Guided Vehicles
Work on a research prototype of a fielded industrial AGV cuts across
many of the separate themes of the laboratory's work.  The goal of the
initial project is to equip the AGV with sonar, infrared, laser
ranging, trinocular stereo, and model-based vision sensors to enable
it to avoid unexpected obstacles and to locate pallets.

Salford University, UK
Advanced Robotics Research Centre
  Ultrasonic wrist sensor for collision avoidance
  Controller design
  Stereo Vision
Dr Francis Nagy
  Speech Control of a Puma-560
  Control of an 'Inverted Pendulum'
  Miniature tactile sensors

Reading University, UK
  Prof Kevin Warwick
  Using Neural Nets in Robotics
  Novel control algorithms

Bristol Polytechnic, UK
 Mr Khodlebandelhoo
  Bi arm research
  Path planning for redundant robots
  Wall climbing robots

Hull University, UK
  Prof Alan Pugh
  Garment Manufacturing
  Arm/controller design

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
  The Institute of Robotics
  Postgrad diploma in Mechatronics
The Institute of Robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH) constitutes about 40 members of staff (including
Ph.D. students). The main research theme is Intelligent
Interactive Mechines. That is to say developing intelligent
robots that in cooperation with man solves difficult tasks.
The institute takes its students from the departments of
Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer
Science. Robotics lectures and project work is offered to
undergraduate students. In addition there is the "Nachdiplom"
in mechatronics (somewhere near a M.Sc.) where robotics is
a central theme. For further details on the "Nachdiplom" see
below. Finally there are about 30 Ph.D. students curently
registered working on a variety of themes and projects.
Institute facilities include: several different robot arms
including the in house developed modular robot arm (MODRO),
mobile vehicles including the in house developed modular
mobile robot, walking machines, supercomputing facilities,
dedicated vision and signal processing hardware, etc.

The head of the group is Professor G. Schweitzer.
Address:
  Institute of Robotics
  ETH-Center, LEO,
  8092 Zurich
  Switzerland
  telephone: [phone] (secretary)
  telefax: (01) 252 02 76.

The "Nachdiplom" in mechatronics runs over two semesters plus
three months project/thesis work. The lectures covers:
robotics, mobile robotics, micro robots, computer based
kinematics and dynamics of multibody systems, control
theory, magnetic bearings, real time software techniques,
information processing with neural networks, computer
vision, and artificial intelligence. The fees are 2400,-
Swiss Franks, founding is available. Contact:
  H.-K. Scherrer
  Mechatronics postgraduate course
  ETH-Centre, LEO B3
  8092 Zurich
  Switzerland
  email: [e-mail]

Cornell
  Ithaca, NY
  Mechanical Engineering
    Sam Landsberger
    Jeff Koechling
    Bruce Donald

___________________________________________________________________________
End of part1
--

aka: Kevin Dowling            Carnegie Mellon University
tel: [phone]            The Robotics Institute
adr: [e-mail]            Pittsburgh, PA 15213
--

aka: Kevin Dowling            Carnegie Mellon University
tel: [phone]            The Robotics Institute
adr: [e-mail]            Pittsburgh, PA 15213