9 July 2010

SPEAKERS:
ENERGY: Edison Hudson, iRobot Maritime Systems - iRobot's Seaglider "Bluepoint" Mission: Deep Water Horizon Response

Mr. Hudson heads up business, alliance, and advanced product planning at iRobot's Maritime Systems in Durham, NC. He has been with iRobot for five years and has head roles in Research Program Management, Strategic Alliances, and lead acquisitions and investment teams. A veteran of robotics for more than 25 years, he holds more than 13 patents in machine design, control systems, and robotics. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Duke University, and studied Artificial Intelligence at Oxford University, UK.

MINING: Red Whittaker, Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute

William "Red" Whittaker is the Fredkin professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. He has developed dozens of robots, pioneering automation in field robotics, space exploration, mining and agriculture. He developed the robots that cleaned up the Three-Mile Island nuclear accident. His ground vehicles have driven thousands of autonomous miles. Whittaker won DARPA's $2 million Urban Challenge. He is competing for the $20-million Google Lunar X Prize for landing a robot on the moon. W hittaker is a world authority on robots that operate in underground mines, caves, sewers and tunnels. He conceived the application and created first-of-kind machines and technologies over 20 years ago. His technology addresses mechanism, sensing and operation for such environments. Whittaker is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, and served on the National Academy of Sciences Space Studies Board. Science Digest named Whittaker one of the top 100 U.S. innovators for his work in robotics. Whittaker’s Astrobotic Technology, Inc specializes in space robotics. His Workhorse Technologies, LLC performs exploratory modeling of subterranean voids. His RedZone Robotics specializes in robotic sewer services.

15 April 2010

The caucus held this briefing in conjunction with the AUVSI's event celebrating National Robotics Week on Capitol Hill.

SPEAKER:
Dr. Robin R. Murphy - Raytheon Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at
Texas A&M, director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue, and an IEEE Fellow - Dr. Murphy is the founder of the field of rescue robotics which help enable emergency responders to routinely save lives through physically situated artificial intelligence (robots, sensor networks, etc.).

Robin Murphy: After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Murphy used her robots and expertise to assist the search for bodies and survivors at ground zero. Here she is seen with her team of research and rescue robots at a test site in Florida

30 September 2010

PEAKERS:

Terry Fong,
Director, Intelligent Robotics Group, NASA, Ames, IA
Planetary Exploration Reinvented: New Ways of Exploring the Moon, Mars and Beyond Dr. Fong is the Director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at the NASA Ames Research Center. From 2002 to 2004, he was the deputy leader of the Virtual Reality and Active Interfaces Group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). From 1997 to 2000, he was Vice President of Development for Fourth Planet, a developer of real-time visualization software. Dr. Fong has published more than seventy papers in field robotics, human-robot interaction, and robot user interfaces. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.

David Gump,
Astrobotic Technology, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA
Accelerating Space Exploration With Private-Sector Resources Mr. Gump is the co-founder and president of Astrobotic Technology Inc., a spin off from Carnegie Mellon University offering commercial lunar robotic services to space agencies, contractors, media and marketers. Astrobotic's first project - Tranquility Trek - aims to win up to $24 million in the Google Lunar X Prize. Astrobotic has won three lunar research contracts from NASA and attracted sponsorships from Caterpillar Inc. and other firms.
Prior to Astrobotic, Gump co-founded Transformational Space Corp. t/Space captured one of the eight "Concept Exploration & Refinementz" (CE&R) assignments from NASA. After the initial $3 million study, only t/Space and one other entity won full $3 million extensions, which featured hardware demos in addition to analysis. The t/Space CE&R recommendation that NASA fund a "nontraditional" lunar initiative evolved to become the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. t/Space was selected as one of six COTS finalists.
As president of LunaCorp, Gump developed space exploration projects and created marketing opportunities that leveraged NASA programs through the addition of commercial funding and greater public interaction. Projects included the ceremonial First Pitch for the 2002 World Series, thrown on the Space Station in collaboration with Major League Baseball and FOX Television, as well as the first commercial shot on the Space Station, showing the crew receiving Father's Day gifts from RadioShack.

Ed Barker,
Program Director, Kell Robotics, Marietta, GA
Discussion of How FIRST Students Have Used the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities They Gained From the Program and Applied The to Real World Problem Solving Students wil include their team's "Mission to Planet Earth." The team is sponsored in part by NASA.

21 May 2009

Speakers:

Henrik Christensen, Ph.D., Director, Robotics and Intelligent Machines Center, and KUKA Chair of Robotics, Georgia Tech
Topic: CCC Robotics Roadmap: From Internet to Robotics

Rodney Brooks, Ph.D., Panasonic Professor of Robotics at MIT and Founder of Heartland Robotics,
Topic: Manufacturing

Eric Close, CEO, RedZone Robotics
Topic: Service Robotics

Dan Jones, Ph.D., Director of External Affairs, Intuitive Surgical
Topic: Medical Robotics

An aspiring robotics engineer interacts with Keepon,
a robot designed to study social development by interacting with children. Keepon was one of many robots displayed at the Caucus' May 21st briefing.

23 July 2009

Speakers:

Tandy Trower General Manager, Microsoft Robotics Group
Topic: Healthcare Challenges and Robotic Solutions

Maja Mataric, Ph.D. Director, Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems, USC
Topic: Socially Assistive Robotics: The promise and potential impact, with a focus on autism, elder care and stroke/traumatic brain injury

Charles Remsberg CEO, Hocoma, Inc.
Topic: Robot-Assisted Recovery & Rehabilitation

Howie Choset, Ph.D. CTO & Co-founder, Cardiorobotics
Topic: Surgical and interventional robotics Faster, Better, Cheaper: The Future of Medical Robotic Technology

15 October 2009

Speakers:

Mike Doyle, Phil Gingrey and Diane Watson, U.S. House of Representatives and Robotics Caucus members

Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST and DEKA Research & Development Corporation

Christyl Johnson, Executive Director, National Science and Technology Council, Office of Science and Technology Policy

David Ruppersberger, President & CEO The Technology Collaborative

Lauren Lyons, former FIRST student; and engineering graduate of Princeton University

Carla Salinas, former Foshay Learning Center student and robotics captain, now studying at the Univ. of Southern CA

The Congressional Robotics Caucus held it's kick-off luncheon on 26 February 2008.
HC8 The U.S. Capitol

Welcome & Special Remarks:

Congressman Mike Doyle (PA)
Congressman Zach Wamp (TN)

Speaker:

Ellen M. Purdy, Enterprise Director, Joint Ground Robotics OUSD(ATL)/PSA,LW&M

Ellen Purdy, Enterprise Director of the Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise, OUSD(ATL)/PSA/LW&M, was the keynote speaker and discussed how robots are saving lives and the importance of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) and Explosive Ordnance Devices (EODs) to the safety of soldiers. Several robots were on display, some of which are currently in theater.

18 June 2008

Speakers:

Richard Litt, Chairman, Robotic Industries Association
Topic: Industrial Robots and Productivity

Richard Seif, Sr. VP, Global Marketing, Lincoln Electric Company
Topic: Save our Factories, First

Jeffrey A. Burnstein, Executive Vice President, Robotic Industries Association
Topic: The Global Robotics Market

John Dulchinos, President & COO, Adept Technology
Topic: Robots Make America Safe & Strong

17 September 2008

Speaker Bios

Chris Urmson, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor
Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Topic: The Urban Challenge and Autonomous Vehicles

Bakhtiar Litkouhi, Ph.D., Manager, Vehicle Control Systems & Manager, Autonomous Driving
Electrical & Controls Integration Lab, General Motors R&D Center
Topic: Towards Autonomous Driving - Forging a New Revolution

Michael Fetsko, Vice President, Automated People Movers & James Spakauskas, Director of Sales and Business Development, Bombardier's Systems Division
Topic: Bombardier - Fully Automated Transportation Systems