From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Jose=B4_Luis_Ferreira_=3Czeluis=40eden.dei.uc.pt=3E?=@dei.uc.pt Subject: CFP: Workshop on Outdoors Robotics Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 17:24:55 +0100 Call for Participation The Workshop on Outdoors Robotics OR'97 http://alma.uc.pt:80/~epia97/OR97.html Under the auspices of the Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence (EPIA'97) Coimbra, Portugal, October 6-9, 1997 October, 8 Coimbra University, Physics Building Workshop Objectives ------------------- Over the last two decades there has been a significant research effort in mobile robotics. This has resulted in that we today have technologies for construction of mobile delivery systems for constrained environments. Significant progress is still needed before these systems can be employed in more complex settings, the basis technology is however available. Based on this success more recent work has been directed towards use of robotics for outdoor applications. The application potential is much more vast, but the challenges are also much tougher. Typical applications range from semi-autonomous wheelchairs, and support for car-drivers all the way to autonomous operation in unstructed environments for tasks like mine clearance, etc. In an outdoor environment there is first of all a need for more general techniques for locomotion as the traditional wheeled vehicle only is suited for application in well structured environments. Another major area of research is perception, as the environment no longer can be engineered to suit the available technology. This implies that new sensory modalities must be employed like radar and GPS, or alternatively that well known sensory modalities for in-door application must be made much more adaptive to cope with the rich perceptual input. Finally the issue of planning and integration becomes much harder as the set of possible scenaria is much richer and the set of unexpected situations to be considered becomes much larger. An entirely new set of challenges must thus be addressed in the construction of robots for out-door applications. This workshop will feature presentations of a range of techniques that have been developed or are under development for this area of applications. OR'97 welcomes papers in English on the following topics: * Locomotion techniques * Perception * Planning and Integration * Sensors for outdoors navigation * Navigation * Representation Workshop Format and Attendance Requirements ------------------------------------------- The format of this one-day workshop will encourage interaction and discussion between researchers. Papers in English, with no more than 15 pages are welcome. There will be about 8 to 10 technical presentations (half an hour each), invited talks and a panel on Applications. Attendees should be registred to the main EPIA conference. Submit 3 copies of the full paper to the address below: Prof. Helder Araujo Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica - Dept. Engenharia Electrotecnica Polo II-Pinhal de Marrocos 3030 COIMBRA PORTUGAL English is the official language of the workshop. Important Dates: --------------- May, 31: submissions due July, 15: notifications sent September, 8: final versions due Workshop Chairs: Henrik I. Christensen Helder Araujo Center for Autonomous Systems, University of Coimbra/ ISR Stockholm Coimbra Organizing Committee: Jorge Dias Urbano Nunes Jorge Batista Paulo Peixoto