Tutorials and Workshops will be held on afternnon of August 23, 2008, one day before the main technical sessions. It is very important that attendees schedule travel and lodging with this advance planning in mind. A Tutorial provides state-of-the-art descriptions of an established field of research by recognized researchers in the field. A Workshop focuses on a topic of currently active research, and is intended to allow participants to exchange ideas and recent research results.

Workshop on Algorithmic Automation

Date: Saturday, August 23, 2008
Time: 1 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Location: Monroe Room

(Please see the conference program for venue details)

Ken Goldberg: Workshop Chair
Professor of Industrial Engr. and Operations Research
Departments of Electrical Engr. and Computer Science
University of California, Berkeley, USA

Jean-Paul Laumond: Workshop Co-Chair
Director of Research
Gepetto Project Group
Laboratory for the Analysis of Architectures and Systems
(Laboratoire d'Analyse et d'Architectures des Sytèmes)
Toulouse, France

Vijay Kumar: Workshop Co-Chair
UPS Foundation Professor and Chairman of Mechancial Engineering and Applied Mechanics
University of Pennsylvania, USA

Todd Murphey: Workshop Co-Chair
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

Bhubaneswar (Bud) Mishra: Workshop Co-Chair
Professor of Computer Science, Mathematics, Human Genetics, & Cell Biology
Courant Institute, NYU School of Medicine, & Mt. Sinai School of Medicine

Mark Holl: Workshop Co-Chair
Research Scientist/Senior Engineer
Center for Ecogenomics, The Biodesign Institute
Arizona State University

Abstract: Automation for manufacturing today is where computer technology was in the early 1960's, a patchwork of ad-hoc solutions lacking a rigorous scientific methodology. CAD has progressed a long way toward elegant modeling of mechanical parts and behavior. What's missing is a framework for the systematic design of automated manufacturing systems that handle (e.g. assemble, inspect, sort, feed) these parts. To be reliable and inexpensive, automation systems often use simple physical actions (such as pushing, squeezing, toppling, and vibrating) performed by hardware components that require modest sensing capabilities. These characteristics make automation amenable to formal specification, analysis, and synthesis.

An algorithmic approach to automation can provide mathematical abstractions for these basic operations. Abstractions allow functionality to be specified independent of hardware and software implementations, which in turn provides the foundation for formal specification and analysis, algorithmic design, consistency checking and optimization. Abstraction thus facilitates integrity, reliability, interoperability, and maintainability and upgrading of automation.

Our goal is to bring together top researchers and students to present new algorithmic approaches to automation and discuss open research questions and directions that can benefit the quality and productivity of manufacturing worldwide. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Grasping, Fixturing, Caging
• Feeding, Sorting, Singulating
• Casting, Molding
• Assembly and Disassembly
• Part Behavior Modeling (Friction, Dynamics, Deformation, Tolerancing)
• Machining and Tool Path Generation
• Rapid prototyping
• Part Design for Feeding/Casting/etc.
• Modular Hardware Devices and Systems
• Foundations
  • computational geometry
  • data structures
  • controllability
  • complexity and completenes

Workshop Schedule:

Presentations will be 15 minutes – followed by a 5 minute question and answer period.  Discussions will be moderated by the session chair and co-chairs, with notes taken as appropriate.

Biographies:

Ken Goldberg is Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, with an appointment in ElectricalEngineering and Computer Science. He received his PhD in Computer Science from CMU in 1990 and studied at the University of Pennsylvania, Edinburgh University, and the Technion. From 1991-95 he taught at the University of Southern California, and in Fall 2000 was visiting faculty at MIT Media Lab.
Goldberg and his students work in two areas: Geometric Algorithms for Automation, and Networked Robots. In the first category, he develops algorithms for feeding, sorting, and fixturing industrial parts, with an emphasis on mathematically rigorous solutions that require a minimum of sensing and actuation so as to reduce costs and increase reliability. In the area of Networked Robots, Goldberg and colleagues developed the first robot publicly operable via the Internet (in 1994). He has published over 100 research papers and edited four books.
In 2004, Goldberg co-founded the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering and is Founding Chair of its Advisory Board. Goldberg was named National Science Foundation Young Investigator in 1994 and NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow in 1995. He is the recipient of the Joseph Engelberger Award (2000), the IEEE Major Educational Innovation Award (2001) and was elected IEEE Fellow in 2005.

Jean-Paul Laumond is Directeur de Recherche at LAAS-CNRS (group Gepetto) in Toulouse, France. He received the M.S. degree in Mathematics, the Ph.D. in Robotics and the Habilitation from the University Paul Sabatier atToulouse in 1976, 1984 and 1989 respectively. From 1976 to 1983 he was teacher in Mathematics. He joined CNRS in 1985. In Fall 1990 he has been invited senior scientist from Stanford University. He has been a member of the French Comité National de la Recherche Scientifique from 1991 to 1995. He is currently co-director of JRL-France.

From 1992 to 1995 he has been coordinator of two the European Esprit projects PROMotion (Planning RObot Motion, 1992-1995) and MOLOG (Motion for Logistics, 1999 - 2002), both dedicated to robot motion planning technology. In 2001 and 2002 he created and managed Kineo CAM, a spin-off company from LAAS-CNRS devoted to develop and market motion planning technology. Kineo CAM was awarded the French Research Ministery prize for innovation and enterprise in 2000 and the IEEE-IFR prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation in 2005.

His current research is devoted to human motion studies along three perspectives: artificial motion for humanoid robots, virtual motion for digital actors and mannequins, and natural motions of human beings.

He teaches Robotics at ENSTA and Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. He has edited three books. He has published more than 100 papers in international journals and conferences in Computer Science, Automatic Control and Robotics. He is 2006-7 IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Fellow and member of the IEEE RAS AdCom.

Vijay Kumar received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 1985 and 1987 respectively. He has been on the Faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics with a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania since 1987. He is currently the UPS Foundation Professor and the Chairman of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics.

Dr. Kumar served as the Deputy Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 2000-2004. He directed the GRASP Laboratory, a multidisciplinary robotics and perception laboratory, from 1998-2004. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He has served on the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering and the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. He is the recipient of the 1991National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator award, the 1996 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the 1997 Freudenstein Award for significant accomplishments in mechanisms and robotics and the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation Kawamori Best Paper Award. He is also a Distinguished Lecturer in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and an elected member of the Robotics and Automation Society Administrative Committee.

In addition to his academic adminstrative and professional service Dr. Kumar has successfully completed many DoD projects for ARO, ONR, AFOSR and DARPA. He was the lead on a MARS 2020 multi-university program and a ARO MURI on Algorithmics of Motion, and is currently the lead on the ARO Swarms MURI.

Todd D. Murphey received a Ph.D. in Control and Dynamical Systems from the California Institute of Technology in 2002. He has been an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder since 2004 and is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award. His research interests include simulation of mechanical systems, the role of uncertainty in robotic systems, and planning for friction-dominated mechanical systems.

Bhubaneswar (Bud) Mishra is a professor of computer science and mathematics at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, professor of human genetics at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and a professor of cell biology at NYU School of Medicine. He founded the NYU/Courant Bioinformatics Group, a multi-disciplinary group working on research at the interface of computer science, applied mathematics, biology, biomedicine and bio/nano-technologies. Prof. Mishra has a degree in Physics from Utkal University, in Electronics and Communication Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur, and MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University. He has industrial experience in Computer Science (Tartan Laboratories, and ATTAP), Finance (Tudor Investment and PRF, LLC), Robotics and Bio- and Nanotechnologies (OpGen, MMC, and Bioarrays/Immucor). He is editor of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, AMRX (Applied Mathematics Research Exchange), Nanotechnology, Science and Applications, and Transactions on Systems Biology, and author of a textbook on algorithmic algebra and more than two hundred archived publications. He has advised and mentored more than 35 graduate students and post-docs in the areas of computer science, robotics and control engineering, applied mathematics, finance, biology and medicine. He is an inventor of Optical Mapping and Sequencing (SMASH), Array Mapping, Copy-Number Variation Mapping, Model Checker for circuit verification, Robot Grasping and Fixturing devices and algorithms, Reactive Robotics, and Nanotechnology for DNA profiling. He has been keynote and distinguished speakers at many symposia and colloquia and has chaired workshop and conference program committees: most recently, Algebraic Biology 2008 and Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control 2008. He is an ACM fellow and a NYSTAR Distinguished Professor (2001). He also holds adjunct professorship at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India.
From 2001-04, he was a professor at the Watson School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Lab.

Mark Holl received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Washington State University, Pullman, WA in 1986, the M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, in 1990, and the Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington in 1995. During his undergraduate student years he worked as an instrument maker in the engineering machine shops at Washington State University.  Prior to graduate research he worked for 2 years at Boeing Commercial Aircraft in Manufacturing, Research and Development in factory support and integrated automated system functional test development.  Graduate studies were performed with Prof. Garbini and Kumar at the University of Washington in the field of systems modeling and manufacturing automation.  Upon completion of graduate studies Dr. Holl engaged a 5 year relationship with Prof. Yager in Bioengineering to assist in the development and commercialization of micro total analysis system technologies.  Dr. Holl was a principal inventor with Yager of a laminate based microfluidic technology and a founding member of a startup company born in part of this work, Micronics, Inc.    He guided initial integrated system and microfluidic cassette development for Micronics thru 1998 and then returned to academic research and development work with Yager from 1998-1999.  In 2000 he joined in a 6 year collaborative development effort with Prof. Deirdre to develop microfluidic technologies for biomedical and genome science applications.  During this time Dr. Holl maintained research development engineering, laboratory management, and Research Asssistant Professor responsibilities in support of laboratory objectives.  In 2007 Dr. Holl moved with the laboratory of Prof. Deirdre Meldrum to contribute to the launch effort of a new Center for Ecogenomics in The Biodesign Institute on the Arizona State University, Tempe campus. Dr. Holl is currently a Research Scientist/Senior Engineer in the Center for Ecogenomics, within The Biodesign Institute on the Arizona State University, Tempe Campus. His research interests include microfabrication technologies, systems integration for total analysis systems, integration fo micro and nanotechnology components in robust and usable formats, microscale systems for biological applications, bioprocess automation, process sensors, and process characterization and control with emphasis on biomedical, genomic, and, proteomic science applications. Dr. Holl is a member of IEEE, AAAS, ASME, SPIE, and an investigator in the NIH Center of Excellence in Genomic Sciences, the Microscale Life Sciences Center (MLSC) at Arizona State University.