Robot Lady from Germany

Credit: DFKI Bremen

The lastest version of German robot lady AILA, developed at the DFKI Bremen Robotics Innovation Center, will demonstrate at CEBIT 2011 human like object handling with two arms supported by digital product memory. AILA consists of a complete anthropomorphic upper body mounted on a wheeled mobile plat-form. The upper body consists of two arms, each of them with seven degrees of freedom, a torso with four joints, and a head with two degrees of freedom. The robot is equipped with a stereo camera in the head as well as a 3D-camera on the torso used for object and scene recognition, and pose estimation two computers for vision processing and motion control, one located in the head and one in the torso the “nervous system” consists of three independent CAN-lines for communicating with the arms and torso, GigaEthernet connection for the stereo camera, and RS-485 for the servos moving the pan-tilt unit on the head.

The mobile platform consists of six wheels with two degrees of freedom each, one for the steering axis and one for driving the wheel. These are controlled by two independent CAN-lines. The steering axis can be positioned in any direction, making the mobile platform extremely versatile – it can navigate autonomously in slightly rough indoor environment because each pair of wheels is connected with the platform through a non-actuated rotary axis. Two laser scanners monitor the environment, recognize the relevant working area and therefore support a precise approach towards the objects to be handled.


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The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI, with facilities in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Bremen, and a project office in Berlin, is the country's leading research center in the area of innovative software technology for commercial application.
CeBIT (Centrum der Büro- und Informationstechnik; German for "Centre of Office and Information technology") is the world's largest computer expo. It is held each spring on the world's largest fairground in Hanover, Germany.

European Research Council awards three outstanding robotics researchers with million Euros ERC Grants

Prof. Dr. Wolfram Burgard, Institute for Computer Science, Research Laboratory for Autonomous Intelligent Systems at the University of Freiburg, has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant totalling around 2.5 million euros for his project "LifeNav - Reliable Lifelong Navigation for Mobile Robots". The LifeNav project seeks to investigate how to construct mobile robots that are able to navigate fully autonomously and operate over long periods of time in complex and dynamic application scenarios.
Academic Profile 1983-2010 (1)

Wolfram Burgard: 321 publications, 7630 Citations, G-Index 82, H-Index: 45, collaborated with 230 co-authors from 1990-2010

Prof. Dr. Martin Buss, Institute of Automatic Control Engineering, TU Munich, has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant totalling around 2,5 million euros for his project "SHRINE - Seamless Human Robot Interaction in Dynamic Environment" to highlight and further promote the outstanding achievements by his team in the field of advanced Human-Robot-Interaction.

Academic Profile 1983-2010

Publications: 273 | Citations: 716 | G-Index: 17 | H-Index: 12, Collaborated with  259 co-authors, from 1983 to 2010

Prof. Dr. Brad Nelson, founder of the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zurich, where he leads the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab , has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his project "BOTMED - Microrobotics and Nanomedicine".  His current research is in microrobotics, biomicrorobotics, and nanorobotics, including efforts in robotic micromanipulation, microassembly, MEMS (sensors and actuators), mechanical manipulation of biological cells and tissue, nanofabrication and NanoElectroMechanical Systems (NEMS).
Academic Profile 1983-2010

Publications: 150 | Citations: 556 | G-Index: 18 | H-Index: 14, collaborated with  208 co-authors, from 1993 to 2010.
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The European Research Council (ERC) is the first European funding body set up to support investigator-driven frontier research. Its main aim is to stimulate scientific excellence by supporting and encouraging the very best, truly creative scientists, scholars and engineers to be adventurous and take risks in their research. The scientists are encouraged to go beyond established frontiers of knowledge and the boundaries of disciplines. The ERC complements other funding activities in Europe such as those of the national research funding agencies, and is a flagship component of the 'Ideas Programme' of the European Union's Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7).
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(1) Sources: ERC, Microsoft Academic Search (G-Index, H-Index)

Int. Symposium on Service Robotics 2011

The 4th international symposium on Service Robotics,  the SCHUNK Expert Days Service Robotics 2011, will be held February 23-24, 2011 at the SCHUNK automation plant in Brackenheim-Hausen, Germany.  Experts in service robotics from all over the world will meet to discuss research, development trends, and efficiency. It is considered to be the worldwide leading communication platform for applied service robotics.

Attending the event is the scientist and mastermind in service robotics, Prof. Paolo Dario from Italy, Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn from Great Britain, Prof. Danica Kragic from Sweden, as well as Prof. Dragomir Nenchev from Tokyo. Moreover, there will be numerous experts with a technical-industrial background, who will report on impressive practical applications of service robotics, such as Stefanie Angerer from Audi AG, Dr. Andreas Bley from Metralabs GmbH, and Reinhard Teutenberg from Polysius AG.

The Expert Days are an ideal platform for generating international networks and to discuss forthcoming projects. The two-day symposium will be presented by Professor Dr. Henrik I. Christensen, holder of the chair in robotics “KUKA Chair of Robotics” at the Georgia Institute of Technology, located in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Martin Hägele, Head of Department Robot Systems at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart, Germany.