ICRA 2008 Conference and RAS Awards Finalists:

Below is the ICRA08 award finalist list. Some of you are assigned to read the papers and will lead discussions in the lab meetings. Of course all of you are encouraged to study these papers.

Best,

-Bob

Best Conference Paper Finalists:

• Employing Wave Variables for Coordinated Control of Robots with Distributed Control Architecture by Christian Ott and Yoshihiko Nakamura (Hero)
• Trajectory Generation for Dynamic Bipedal Walking through Qualitative Model Based Manifold Learning by Subramanian Ramamoorthy and Benjamin Kuipers (Stanley, Jim Yu)
  
• Consensus Learning for Distributed Coverage Control by Mac Schwager, Jean-Jacques E. Slotine and Daniela Rus (Hero Chen)
• Planning in Information Space for a Quadrotor Helicopter in a GPS-Denied Environment by Ruijie He, Sam Prentice and Nicholas Roy (Stanley, Jim Yu)

Best Student Paper Finalists (The name(s) of nominated student(s) are in bold font):

• Hybrid Simulation of a Dual-Arm Space Robot Colliding with a Floating Object by Ryohei Takahashi, Hiroto Ise, Daisuke Sato, Atsushi Konno and Masaru Uchiyama
• Partial barrier coverage: Using game theory to optimize probability of undetected intrusion in polygonal environments by Stephen Kloder and Seth Hutchinson (Der-Yeuan)
• Decentralized Feedback Controllers for Multi-Agent Teams in Environments with Obstacles by Nora Ayanian and Vijay Kumar (Hero, Jim Yu)
• Gecko-Inspired Climbing Behaviors on Vertical and Overhanging Surfaces by Daniel Santos, Barrett Heyneman, Sangbae Kim, Noe Esparza and Mark Cutkosky
• High Quality 3D LIDAR from Low Cost 2D Ranging Under General Vehicle Motion by Alastair Harrison and Paul Newman (Andi)

Best Automation Paper Finalists

• Dynamic Analysis of a High-Bandwidth, Large-Strain, PZT Cellular Muscle Actuator with Layered Strain Amplification by Thomas Secord, Jun Ueda and Harry Asada
• Event-Based Two Degree-Of-Freedom Control for Micro-/Nanoscale Systems Based on Differential Flatness by Ruoting Yang, T. J. Tarn and Mingjun Zhang
• On the Design of Traps for Feeding 3D Parts on Vibratory Tracks by Onno Goemans and Frank van der Stappen
• Fabrication of Functional Gel-Microbead for Local Environment Measurement in Microchip by Hisataka Maruyama, Fumihito Arai and Toshio Fukuda

Best Manipulation Paper (sponsored by Ben Wegbreit) Finalists:

• Skilled-Motion Plannings of Multi-Body Systems Based upon Riemannian Distance by Masahiro Sekimoto, Suguru Arimoto, Ji-Hun Bae and Sadao Kawamura
• Transportation of Hard Disk Media using Electrostatic Levitation and Tilt Control by Ewoud Frank van West, Akio Yamamoto and Toshiro Higuchi
• Adaptive Grasping by Multi Fingered Hand with Tactile Sensor Based on Robust Force and Position Control by Taro Takahashi, Toshimitsu Tsuboi, Takeo Kishida, Yasunori Kawanami, Satoru Shimizu, Masatsugu Iribe, Tetsuharu Fukushima and Masahiro Fujita
• Manipulating Articulated Objects With Interactive Perception by Dov Katz and Oliver Brock (Jim Yu)
• Synergistic Design of a Humanoid Hand with Hybrid DC Motor - SMA Array Actuators Embedded in the Palm by Josiah Rosmarin and Harry Asada
  

Best Vision Paper (sponsored by Ben Wegbreit) Finalists

• Accurate Calibration of Intrinsic Camera Parameters by Observing Parallel Light Pairs by Ryusuke Sagawa and Yasushi Yagi (54ways)
• Information-Optimal Selective Data Return for Autonomous Rover Traverse Science and Survey by David R. Thompson, Trey Smith and David Wettergreen (Yu-Hsiang)
• Image Moments-based Ultrasound Visual Servoing by Rafik Mebarki, Alexandre Krupa and Francois Chaumette (Jeff)
• Robust and Efficient Stereo Feature Tracking for Visual Odometry by Andrew E. Johnson, Steven B. Goldberg, Yang Cheng and Larry H. Matthies (Jeff, Yu-Hsiang)
• Accelerated Appearance-Only SLAM by Mark Cummins and Paul Newman (Jeff, Yu-Hsiang)

Best Video Finalists

• Magmites - Wireless Resonant Magnetic Microrobots by Dominic R. Frutiger, Bradley Kratochvil, Karl Vollmers and Bradley J. Nelson
• The OmniTread OT-4 Serpentine Robot by Johann Borenstein and Adam Borrell
• Preliminary Report: Rescue Robot at Crandall Canyon, Utah, Mine Disaster by Robin R. Murphy, Jeffery Kravitz, Ken Peligren, James Milward and Jeff Stanway

KUKA Service Robotics Best Paper Finalists

• Efficient Airport Snow Shoveling by Applying Autonomous Multi-Vehicle Formations by Martin Saska, Martin Hess and Klaus Schilling
• Hybrid Laser and Vision Based Object Search and Localization by Dorian Galvez Lopez, Kristoffer Sjo, Chandana Paul and Patric Jensfelt (Andi)
• Towards a Personal Robotics Development Platform: Rationale and Design of an Intrinsically Safe Personal Robot by Keenan A. Wyrobek, Eric H. Berger, H.F. Machiel Van der Loos, and J. Kenneth Salisbury (Jeff)
• VSA-II: A Novel Prototype of Variable Stiffness Actuator for Safe and Performing Robots Interacting with Humans by Riccardo Schiavi, Giorgio Grioli, Soumen Sen and Antonio Bicchi (Yu-Chun)