€ 0,6 Million for Fully Autonomous WheeL Loaders

Researchers at the AASS Learning Systems Lab at Örebro University collaborate with Swedish construction company NCC and truck builder Volvo CE to develope a generic, modularized system for autonomous wheel loaders that carries out all parts of the material handling cycle in the context of an asphalt production site.

This project is co-sponsored by the KK-foundation, Vinnova and Robodalen.

2 mill Euro for Danish Field Robot

Researchers from the Mobile Robotics Group at the Aalborg University have received a grant of 14.3 mill DKK (2 mill EUR) for the ASETA project from the Danish Strategic Research Council. The project is in cooperation with Life and Green Support Services at Copenhagen University and Nordic Beet Research. The goal is to develop a system based on autonomous helicopters and ground robots that can spot weed in field of sugar beets and apply appropriate treatment. The first field test is planned to summer 2011 with a larger demonstration of the entire concept in 2013.

$6 million for Robotic CarLab at Stanford

Volkswagen of America said Thursday that it will spend about $6 million to build and fund an automotive research lab on the Stanford University campus.

To be called the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab, the building will serve as a research center for vehicle-safety and environmental issues, as well as continuing work on autonomous driving. Since 2004, Stanford professors and students have collaborated with VW's Electronics Research Lab in Palo Alto to build a series of robotic vehicles that have finished first and second in Defense Department events in 2005 and 2007.

Chris Gerdes, a mechanical engineering professor, will direct research that will take place, which Stanford has dubbed as CarLab.

VW said it will donate $2 million for the building, and $750,000 a year for five years to fund research.

The 8,000-square-foot lab near Stock Farm Road and Campus Drive West will replace a dusty Quonset hut where the robotic vehicle team tested its vehicles. It will include auto bays with lifts, a machine shop, meeting rooms and an outdoor drive space.

Mining Robots Down Under

The Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) at the University of Sydney is a world-renown research group in field robotics and automation and consists of over 150 research staff and students. The ACFR has established a major new Centre for Mine Automation (CMA) to develop and implement the vision of a fully autonomous, remotely operated mine. Rio Tinto, a global mining company, has committed $21m of funding for an initial period of five years for this new Centre.

Since its launch, a world class research and technical team of more than 20 talented engineers have joined the Centre. These individuals, from locations spanning 6 continents, are involved in the research, development and deployment of technology for a fully autonomous, remotely operated mine.

3D maps för servicerobot navigation

3D maps have gained substantial interest in the robotics community as such maps provide better support for a wide variety of tasks including navigation, localization,and perception. For example, robots that know about the 3D-structure of the environment can better avoid obstacles, can more reliably localize themselves, and can more robustly detect objects. 3D-representations provide benefits in all applications in which robots are deployed in real-world scenarios. 3D-models of environments are envisioned to be useful in a wide area of applications, which goes far beyond robotics, like architecture, emergency planning, interaction, and visualization.
At the research center Roobotics, Automation and Process Control at Örebro university, Sweden, a group of researchers has developed a 3D navigation system for autonomous mining trucks. The first field tests have been conducted i Finland in 2007.

DARPA ANNOUNCES 36 SEMI-FINALISTS FOR URBAN CHALLENGE

Autonomous Vehicle Competition to be Held in Victorville, Calif. (Anaheim, Calif.) – Dr. Tony Tether, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), today announced the 36 teams (list attached) selected as semi-finalists for the Urban Challenge. The semi-finalists will next compete in the Urban Challenge National Qualification Event (NQE) scheduled for October 26-31, 2007. The top 20 teams from the NQE will move on to the Urban Challenge final event on November 3, and compete for cash prizes worth $2 million for first, $1 million for second, and $500,000 for third place.

Autonomous Navigation in Dynamic Environments

Series: Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics , Vol. 35
Laugier, Christian, Chatila, Raja
2007, Approx. 170 p., Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-540-73421-5
Not yet published. Available: October 4, 2007

Part I: Dynamic World Understanding and Modelling for Safe Navigation.- Mobile Robot Map Learning from Range Data in Dynamic Environments.- Optical Flow Approaches for Self-Supervised Learning in Autonomous Mobile Robot Navigation.- Steps Towards Safe Navigation in Open and Dynamic Environments.- Part II: Obstacle Avoidance and Motion Planning in Dynamic Environments.- Provably Safe Motions Strategies for Mobile Robots in Dynamic Domains.- Motion Planning in Dynamic Environments.- Recursive Agent Modeling with Probabilistic Velocity Obstacles for Mobile Robot Navigation among Humans.- Towards Real-Time Sensor-Based Path Planning in Highly Dynamic Environments.- Part III: Human-Robot Physical Interactions.- Tasking Everyday Interaction.

Global Robotic Visions