Archive-name: robotics-faq/part2
Last-modified: Mon Dec 12 12:00:54 1994

This is part 2 of 5 of the comp.robotics Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) list. This FAQ addresses commonly asked questions relating to
robotics.
____________________________________________________________________________
Copyright Notice

This FAQ was compiled and written by Kevin Dowling with numerous
contributions by readers of comp.robotics. Acknowledgements are listed
at the end of the FAQ.

This post, as a collection of information, is Copyright 1994 Kevin
Dowling. Distribution through any means other than regular Usenet
channels must be by permission. The removal of this notice is
forbidden.

This FAQ may be posted to any USENET newsgroup, on-line service, or
BBS as long as it is posted in its entirety and includes this
copyright statement. This FAQ may not be distributed for financial
gain. This FAQ may not be included in commercial collections or
compilations without express permission from the author.

Please send changes, additions, suggestions and questions to:
Kevin Dowling     			tel:	412.268.8830
Robotics Institute			fax:	412.268.5895
Carnegie Mellon University		net:	nivek@cmu.edu
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2/5

	[5] Conference and Competitions
		[5.1] Conferences
		[5.2] Competitions

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[5] Conferences and Competitions
	There are dozens of international conferences in the areas of
robotics, artificial intelligence, control and related areas. This is
a compilation of many of these.

------------------------------
[5.1] Conferences 

There are a wide variety and number of conferences related to robotics
and automation. Some are focused on industrial applications, many are
researchy in nature and most are a mixture of both. Proceedings should
be available in most good libraries or by interlibrary loan. The
conference announcements are listed chronologically. Most conferences
now also have ftp: and web locations from more information. Also see
news:news.announce.conferences for many postings on conferences.

A WWW page for Robotics, AI and Control related conferences,
is also at http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~acc/conf-list.html.

-----
Summary list of conferences:

MVA'94: IAPR Workshop on Machine Vision Applications
	Kawasaki, Japan
	December 13-15, 1994
ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems
	Monterey, California
	February 5-10, 1995
AAAI Spring Symposium
	Stanford, Ca
	March 27-29, 1995
CVRMed'95 First International Conference on
        Computer Vision, Virtual Reality and Robotics in Medicine,
	Nice, FRANCE
	April 3-5, 1995
Symposium on Autonomous Systems in Mine Countermeasures
        U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 
        April 4-7, 1995
1995 Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics
	University of Central Florida
	Arpil 26-27, 1995
IASTED International Conferencem, MODELLING AND SIMULATION
	Pittsburgh, PA, USA
        April 27-29, 1995
RTAS'94 IEEE Real-Time Technology and Application Symposium
        Chicago, Illinois
        May 15-17, 1995
ICRA 1995 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
	Nagoya, Japan
	May 21-27, 1995
6th  International  Scientific  and  Technical  Conference
        ROBOTICS  FOR  EXTRAORDINARY  CONDITIONS
	St.Petersburg.
	June  6-8, 1995
Third IASTED International Conference on ROBOTICS AND MANUFACTURING
	Sheraton Hotel, Cancun, Mexico
	June 14-17, 1995
ML95 Twelfth International Conference on Machine Learning
	Tahoe City, California
	July 9-12, 1995
SIRS'95, Third International Symposium on Intelligent Robotics Systems
        Pisa,  Italy
	10-14  July  1995
ISATP'95, 1995 IEEE International Symposium on Assembly and Task Planning
        To be held in conjunction with IROS'95
	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
        August 10-11, 1995, 
AI-ED 95, 7TH World Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education
        Washington DC, USA      
	August 16-19, 1995
IJCAI-95 
	Palais de Congres, Montreal
	August 20-25 1995.
10th IEEE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON INTELLIGENT CONTROL
	Monterey Marriot Hotel, Monterey, CA
	August 27 - 29, 1995
Workshop on Computational Kinematics
        INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, France
        September 4-6, 1995
DARS '95 Human-Oriented Design of Advanced Robotics Systems 
	Vienna, Austria
	September 19-20, 1995
ASI-AA-95 Practice and Future of Autonomous Agents
	ASI-AA-95, Centro Stefano Franscini Monte Verita, Ticino,
	Switzerland
	September 23 - October 1, 1995
EPIA'95 Applications of AI to Robotics and Vision Systems Workshop
	Seventh Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence
        Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal
        October 3-6, 1995
ISIR, 26th International Symposium on Industrial Robots
	Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center
	4-6 October 1995
ICRA 1996 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
	Minneapolis Hilton and Towers, Minneapolis, Minnesota
	April 22-28, 1996 
MFI'96: 1996 IEEE/SICE/RSJ International Conference on Multisensor
	Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems
        October 1996


Conference Descriptions
=-------------------------------------------------------------------------

         MVA'94: IAPR Workshop on Machine Vision Applications
                         December 13-15, 1994
                           Kawasaki, Japan

The International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) announces
the 4th IAPR International Workshop on Machine Vision Applications to
be held in Kawasaki on December 13-15, 1994.

The workshop is sponsored by the IAPR Technical Committees 6, 8, and
10.  The purpose of the workshop is to bring together researchers and
practitioners from both academia and industry, and to exchange their
knowledge and stimulate each other through intensive discussions on
the following research topics:

Main Topic: Machine Vision and its Applications
     Machine Vision Algorithms
          Feature extraction,  Range data / 3D shapes,  Motion / Image
          sequence analysis, Neural  network applications, Color image
          analysis,  AI-based vision,   Human  interface,  and related
          technologies.

     Special Purpose Architectures
          Intelligent  sensors,  VLSI image processor chips, Massively
          parallel  processing,  Architectures  for  3D  and/or motion
          processing,  Image  processing systems, Software environment
          for image processor, and related technologies.

     Industrial Applications
          Factory automation, Disaster prevention and rescue, Security
          control,  Navigation,  Mobile robots, Civil and construction
          engineering,       Agriculture/Forestry/Fishery,       Other
          applications, and related technologies.

     Document, Map and Line Drawing Processing
          Document  image  processing, Drawing recognition, Multimedia
          database,   Map   and   engineering  drawing  database,  Map
          processing  and  map-based  systems,  3D reconstruction from
          maps or drawings, and related technologies.

	The workshop will include several invited talks and about 100
papers for oral and poster presentations on the above topics.  All
presentations will be in English.  Those who wish to present a paper
are requested to submit four copies of a 500-1000 word extended
abstract with at least one main figure by June 15, 1994 to:
           Prof. Mikio Takagi
           Institute of Industrial Science
           University of Tokyo
           7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, Japan
           FAX: +81-3-3402-6226

	The abstract should contain the following in its first page.
           1) Title of the paper
           2) Author name(s) and his/her(their) affiliation(s)
           3) A person's name and address to be contacted,
              also, phone and fax numbers, Email address if available
           4) Answers to the following questions:
              a) What is the original contribution of this work?
              b) Why should this contribution be considered important?

Authors of papers that are accepted will be notified by August 1,
1994. Final camera-ready papers are due by October 1, 1994.

Notice: International Technical Exhibition on Image Technology and
Equipment will be held in Tokyo, near the workshop site, on December
7-9, 1994. All participants for the workshop are encouraged to visit
the exhibition.

For further information, please contact:
    Prof. Mikio Takagi
    Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo
    7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, JAPAN
    PHONE: +81-3-3479-0289  FAX: +81-3-3402-6226
    EMAIL: takagi@tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call for Abstracts & Call for Exhibitors
ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and 
Remote Systems

February 5-10, 1995
Monterey, California USA

Sponsored by:
AMERICAN NUCLEAR SOCIETY
Robotics and Remote Systems Division
and the Northern California Section

Cosponsored by
o Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory	
o Electric Power Research Institute
o The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers	
o British Nuclear Energy Society

You are invited to submit extended abstracts for review and
consideration for the ANS Sixth Topical Meeting on Robots and Remote
Systems.  The theme of this Topical is "Robots in the Environment,"
and emphasis will be placed on robot technology and applications in a
variety of remote environments, including nuclear, environmental
remediation, underwater and space.  Sessions are arranged in four
primary interest areas or "tracks" so that no two papers in a track
are presented concurrently.  The tracks and topics of interest for
this abstract solicitation are listed below.

APPLICATIONS	
	Nuclear power and fuel cycle	
	Environmental Restoration	
	Waste Management	
	Remote Manufacturing and Processing	
	Laboratory Automation	
	Manipulator Applications	
	Medical Application	

HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS
	Hardening and Survivability Technologies
	Undersea 
	Space 
	Law Enforcement
	Emergency Response and HazMat Handling
	Military

CONTROL SYSTEMS
	Control Systems and Architectures
	Virtual Reality Application to Remote Systems
	Sensors and Machine Vision
	Human Factors and the Human/Machine Interface
	Artificial Intelligence and Smart Systems
	Remote Viewing and Telepresence

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT	
	Autonomous Systems and Mobility	
	Mechanical Design and Special Tooling	
	Manipulator R&D	
	Remote Engineering	

The ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems Symposium,
sponsored by the American Nuclear Society, will be held at the Hyatt
Regency Monterey in Monterey, California, just minutes from the
beautiful California central coast.
 Updates in the various technology areas will be featured as well as
several new special interest sessions which have proven popular in
recent years.  Both oral and poster papers will be presented, and
submissions of your original work are requested.  We encourage
papers/presentations from European and Pacific Rim countries.

Technical Sessions
Both oral presentations and poster sessions will be featured for the four-day
conference

Send Abstracts on new and innovative work to:

Program Chairman
Scott A. Couture
ANS 6th Topical on Robotics and 
Remote Systems
P.O. Box 10333
Pleasanton, CA  94588
Phone: (510) 423-7970/FAX (510) 423-4606

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACT PREPARATION AND MAILING 
Abstracts of new and innovative work are solicited.  Submission format is an
extended typed abstract of at least 500-900 words.  Please send the original
and three copies to the program chairman.

ABSTRACT DEADLINE - APRIL 1, 1993 - SEND TO:
6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems
Attn:  Scott Couture, Technical Program Chair
P.O. Box 10333     Pleasanton, CA  94588

Acceptance Categories:
Papers may be accepted for:
1.	Oral presentations for a specified time (20-35 minutes, nominal)
2.	Poster presentation with the author expected to be in attendance to explain
his or her paper and to answer questions.
All papers accepted for the ANS 6th Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote
Systems are eligible for publication in the ANS Transactions issue for the
Symposium subject to formal review and acceptance procedures.


Return this information sheet 

Sixth Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems
February 5-10, 1995, Monterey, California
___  I am interest edin attending this Topical Meeting.  Please send additional
information as it becomes available.
___  I am interested in presenting a paper at this Topical Meeting.

Tentative title of paper:
___  I am interested in presenting a poster session	            
___  I am interested in Exhibit Space for this Topical Meeting.

Name:		
Affiliation:			
Address:	
City/State/Zip

=---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1995 AAAI Spring Symposium
Date: March 27-29, 1995
Place: Stanford, CA
Deadline for submission: October 28, 1994
URL: http://tommy.jsc.nasa.gov/er/er6/mrl/symposium.html

Lessons Learned from Implemented Software Architectures for Physical Agents
===========================================================================

We are interested in organizational concepts for artificial agents
that function in the everyday world of manufacturing floors, office
buildings, and houses or in the specialized worlds of space or nuclear
reactors. 

In recent years, a sufficient number of researchers have put forth
software frameworks for organizing intelligence in agents beyond the
original first few who began such investigations [e.g., SOAR and
NASREM] that a symposium to discuss the issues outlined below is
warranted. We are seeing architectures with as few as three and as 
many as five layers of cognition or control, for single agents or
multiple agents, designed to accommodate hard real-time constraints or
involved user interfaces, handling purely reactive or a combination of
deliberate and reactive control, which are subsumptive or
supervenient, and most of which are designed to function as part of a
physical agent. 

The goal of this workshop is to shed light into reasons for
architectural decisions in building artificial agents. Many important
questions affect architectural decisions. For this workshop, we ask
the following questions only with respect to architectural decisions.

Coordination-- How should the agent arbitrate/coordinate/cooperate its
behaviors and actions?  Is there a need for central behavior
coordination?

Interfaces-- How can human expertise be easily brought into an agent's
decisions?  Will the agent need to translate natural language
internally before it can interact with the world?  How should an agent
capture mission intentions or integrate various levels of autonomy or
shared control?  Can restricted vocabularies be learned and shared by
agents operating in the same environment?

Representation-- How much internal representation of knowledge and
skills is needed?  How should the agent organize and represent its
internal knowledge and skills?  Is more than one representational
formalism needed?

Structural-- How should the computational capabilities of an agent be
divided, structured, and interconnected?  What is the best
decomposition/granularity of architectural components?  What is gained
by using a monolithic architecture versus a multi-level, distributed,
or massively parallel architecture?  Are embodied semantics important
and how should they be implemented?  How much does each level/component
of an agent architecture have to know about the other
levels/components?

Performance-- What types of performance goals and metrics can
realistically be used for agents operating in dynamic, uncertain, and
even actively hostile environments?  How can an architecture make
guarantees about its performance with respect to the time-critical
aspect of the agent's physical environment?  What are the performance
criteria for deciding what activities take place in each
level/component of the architecture?

Psychology-- Why should we build agents that mimic anthropomorphic
functionalities?  How far can/should we draw metaphoric similarities
to human/animal psychology?  How much should memory organization
depend on human/animal psychology?

Simulation-- What, if any, role can advanced simulation technology
play in developing and verifying modules and/or systems?  Can we have
standard virtual components/test environments that everybody trusts
and can play a role in comparing systems to each other?  How far can
development of modules profitably proceed before they should be
grounded in a working system?  How is the architecture affected by its
expected environment and its actual embodiment?

Learning-- How can a given architecture support learning?  How can
knowledge and skills be moved between different layers of an agent
architecture?

We invite researchers in intelligent mobile robots, robot
manipulators, autonomous creatures (animats), and neuroscience as
applied to autonomous agents to join us in discussing these questions.

To allow for a more practical discussion of the issues, all
submissions should focus on an agent or agents performing a specific
task, such as keeping a house clean, maintaining the space station, or
delivering parts on a factory floor. Be very specific about how your
agent(s) organize(s) its knowledge and skills in order to perform this
task and what mechanisms your agent(s) use(s) to invoke the correct
knowledge or skill at the appropriate time. Please include the design
decisions you made in organizing your agent's architecture for the
task.  Then, through this specific example, show how your agent's
architecture addresses some of the questions listed above.

The symposium will consist of presentations, invited talks, and task
groups. Based on submissions, we will divide the workshop into
specific task groups and, after discussions, come together for
synthesis.  We are tentatively proposing that the group produce as a
minimum a set of answers for a portion of the discussion areas listed
above.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Potential attendees should submit either an extended abstract or a
full paper, neither of which should exceed 20 pages.  If you are
submitting a paper, we prefer that it not have been published
elsewhere.  If you are sending a paper that has already been
published, tell us where it appeared.  

We encourage everyone to submit their papers or abstracts
electronically, PostScript or ASCII only.  Submission can be made by
e-mailing the entire document, e-mailing an anonymous ftp address, or
placing the document in the ftp site we give below.  

E-mail submissions should be sent to:
	hexmoor@cs.buffalo.edu
Anonymous FTP submission: 
	ftp ftp.cs.buffalo.edu
        and put your submission in users/hexmoor directory

If e-mail submission is not possible, please send three copies of
the paper or abstract to:

	Henry Hexmoor             
	Co-chair, AAAI Spring Symposium
	226 Bell Hall
	Dept of Computer Science
	SUNY at Buffalo
	Buffalo, NY 14260

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Ron Arkin 		
Peter Bonasso 		
Henry Hexmoor (co-chair)
David Kortenkamp (co-chair)
David Musliner 			

GUEST SPEAKERS
James Albus	
George Bekey	
Mike Brady	

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1995 FLORIDA CONFERENCE ON
RECENT ADVANCES IN ROBOTICS

APRIL 26-27, 1995
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL  FLORIDA
CALL FOR PAPERS
CONFERENCE TOPICS

The Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering will host the 1995 Florida Conference
on Recent Advances in Robotics.  This conference will provide a forum for
State of Florida researchers and practitioners in robotics,  intelligent
machines, manufacturing and automation to present and exchange new ideas,
recommend research directions while enhancing their professional network
and helping them to establish collaborative ventures within the Sunshine
State.

Topics will include, but not be limited to:

 Intelligent Machines:  
   Autonomous vehicles, swarm robots,  robot learning.
 Robotic Applications:  
   In industry,  medicine, agriculture, construction, and hazardous
environments.
 Robot Sensing:  
   Vision, touch,  ranging,  multiple sensory perception, sensor fusion.
 Multi-chain Robot Structures:  
   Hands, legs, arms,  parallel manipulators.
 Automation and Manufacturing:  
   Scheduling, workcell design and control.
 Robot Theory:  Kinematics, dynamics, calibration, design.
 Telerobotics
 Micro-Mechanics
CONFERENCE FEES

There will be no conference registration fee for attendees, however, a $30
filing fee must accompany each submitted abstract.  Make checks payable to
University of Central Florida. The co-authors of each accepted paper will
receive one group copy of the proceedings. Additional copies of the
Proceedings may be purchased in advance for $30 or at the conference for
$50.

ABSTRACT

Acceptance to this conference will be based on a submitted abstract. The
abstract is limited to one page and only one copy is required. Abstracts
are due by January 27, 1995 and must be accompanied by the $30 filing fee
for consideration.  You will be notified of your acceptance by February
11, 1995.  The filing fee will be returned for abstracts not accepted.

All authors should furnish their name, paper title, address, phone and FAX
numbers, E-Mail address, and research interests, on a separate sheet of
paper. We plan to communicate mostly by E-Mail, so it is important that
you provide an E-Mail address.

SUBMISSIONS

All submissions should be sent to

Dr. Robert M. Byers
Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
University of Central Florida
Box 162450
Orlando,  FL  32816-2450
Phone:(407) 823-0135
Fax:(407) 823-0208
E-Mail: rmbyers@wizard.engr.ucf.edu
PAPER FORMAT

This flyer is in proper format, except for title fonts.  Two copies of
each paper should be submitted in final form with a 2-column format on 8.5
by 11 inch sheets.  Each column is limited to 3 1/4 inch in width and 8
7/8 inch in length with a 3/8 inch gutter between columns. The margins are
13/16 inch on the sides, 1 1/16 inch on the top and bottom. Text is to be
typed single-space in 10 point Times-Roman (or a face closely resembling
this type), with minimum 12 point interline spacing. The first page of the
paper, centered on the top below the top margin, should include the paper
title, the authors and the authors' affiliation. Eight pages are allowed
for each paper. Illustrations, photographs, appendices, references, in
short, all page occupancies are counted in the page count. Additional
pages will be permitted for a page charge of $10 for each additional page.

IMPORTANT DATES

Abstract Due Date:   January 27, 1995
Acceptance Date:     February 10, 1995
Paper Due Date:      March 17, 1995

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For more information contact

Dr. Robert M. Byers,  Co-Chair
Phone: (407) 823-0135
Fax:(407) 823-0135
email:rmbyers@wizard.engr.ucf.edu

Dr. Harley R. Myler, Co-Chair
Phone:(407) 823-5098
Fax:(407) 823-5835
email: hrm@engr.ucf.edu

Formatted versions of this announcement are
available at ftp://ftp.engr.ucf.edu/pub/RAR95

=----------------------------------------------------------------------------


                    IASTED International Conference
                       MODELLING AND SIMULATION
                          April 27-29, 1995

LOCATION: Sheraton Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

SPONSORS: The International Association of Science and Technology for
          Development (IASTED)
                - Technical Committee on Modelling and Simulation
          The International Society for Mini and Microcomputers (ISMM)

SCOPE:
* Modelling             * Animation             * Simulation
* Visualization         * Hardware              * Multimedia
* Languages             * Bond graphs           * Numerical methods
* Petri nets            * Analysis              * Stochastic processes
* Neural networks       * Parallel processing   * Design
* Distributed processing

APPLICATIONS:
* Aerospace             * Economics             * Biotechnology
* Control               * Reliability           * Nuclear reactors
* Computers             * Quality control       * VLSI
* Networks              * Robotics              * Heat transfer
* Biomedical systems    * Manufacturing         * Biomechanics
* Healthcare            * Circuits and systems  * Fluid flow
* Chemical engineering  * Signal processing     * Flight simulators
* Civil engineering     * Transportation        * Airports
* Energy systems        * Education             * Harbours
* Power systems         * Risk and decision     * Others
* Environmental systems * Operations research

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
M. Alam                 USA             C. Doumanidis           USA
R.W. Eyerly             USA             M.H. Hamza              Canada
C. Hou                  USA             J. Ishii                Japan
D.O. Koval              Canada          M. Lotfalian            USA
M.H. Mickle             USA             L.C. Monticone          USA
N.M. Namazi             USA             S. Popovich             Canada
K.R. Sliwa              Mexico          A. Sloley               USA
S. Szpakowicz           Canada          S. Vemuru               USA
D. Wang                 USA             T. Wu                   P.R. China
D. Yoon                 USA

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS:
Three copies of the full manuscripts, having a maximum of 12 pages, are to be
received by the IASTED Secretary Anaheim not later than November 15, 1994.
The papers that may be submitted should not have been previously published,
nor should they be presently under review for publication in a journal or for
a conference. Papers accepted by the International Program Committee will be
categorized as regular or short papers.

Please supply four keywords to indicate the area of the paper and provide
the name, address, affiliation, telephone and fax numbers of the main author
and of the author expected to present the paper.

Persons wishing to organize a session or to present half-day tutorials should
submit a proposal to the Secretary by November 15, 1994.

The preregistration fee is expected to be approximately $US 400. This covers
the registration, dinner on April 28, 1995, refreshments and one volume of
the proceedings.

Authors will be requested to preregister.

                ****** IMPORTANT DEADLINES ******

November 15, 1994 - Submission of papers
February 1, 1995  - Notification of acceptance
March 15, 1995    - Camera ready manuscripts due

ADDRESS:
        IASTED Secretariat - MS'95
        1811 West Katella Avenue, Suite 101
        Anaheim, California 92804
        USA
        Tel: 1-800-995-2161
        Fax: (714) 778-5463
        Email: iasted@orion.oac.uci.edu

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1995 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION

Co-sponsored by 
The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
Science Council of Japan 
The Robotics Society of Japan
The Society of Instrument and Control Engineers 
The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers       

May 21-27, 1995
Nagoya Congress Center
Nagoya, Japan


Advisory Chair: Fumio Harashima, University of Tokyo, Japan
Organizing Chair: Fumio Harashima, University of Tokyo, Japan
General Chair: Toshio Fukuda, Nagoya University, Japan
Program Chair: Suguru Arimoto, University of Tokyo, Japan                  
Program Vice Co-chairs: Shin'ichi Yuta, University of Tsukuba, Japan 
                                       Gerhard Hirzinger, German Aerospace
                                      Research Establishment,  Germany
                                        Thomas C. Henderson, University of
                                                             Utah, U.S.A 
                                                       
Local Arrangements Chair: Yoshikazu Suematsu, Nagoya University, Japan 
Treasurer  and Coordinator: Steve Hsia, University of California, Davis, U.S.A
                                             Koji Ito, Toyohashi University of
                                                       Technology, Japan 
     
CALL FOR PAPERS

The theme of the 1995 Conference is "Robotics and Automation in Exploring
New Engineering Disciplines."  This year, the Conference celebrates its
12th anniversary and  for the first time takes place in  the Orient.
Therefore, it will be a good time to look into the future with a  renewed
sense of purpose, enterpreunership, and dedication to the advancement of
science and technology.  A paradigm shift is emerging  in factories, from
mass production to customized manufacturing which is based firmly on using
flexible automation to manufacture a high variety of items.  It inevitably
generates a wide range of  challenging research problems that impact
productivity and quality control in manufacturing sectors.  Robotics
research is needed to Jprovide greater intelligence and higher versatility f
or robotic tasks under the ever-changing constraints of the environment. 
Applications of advanced robotics research and automation technology have
become a key competitive factor in the global economy.  The 1995 Conference
will bring together researchers and practitioners to present the latest
accomplishments, and explore future directions.  Special emphasis will be
placed on industrial case studies and their scientific background to help
identify new "driving forces" for research in the 21st century.  Technical
papers presented in oral and poster sessions will appear in the bound
proceedings.  Topics include but are not limited to:

      Robot sensing and sensor data fusion
       Reasoning and planning
      Multirobot coordination
      Dexterous and redundant manipulation
       Robot dynamics and control
       Telerobotics and shared control
       Autonomous systems
       Micro electromechanical and micro robotic systems
       Advanced actuators
       Mechatronic design issues
       Learning and adaptive systems
       Distributed intelligence and self-organizing systems
       Robot systems in unstructured and hazardous environments
       Dynamic vision
       Virtual reality and environments
       Industrial inspection
      Design automation and rapid prototyping
      Computer integrated and agile manufacturing
      Modeling and performance evaluation of discrete event systems
      Automated materials processing

For any general information about the conference, please contact to the
General Chair:

Prof. Toshio Fukuda
c/o Inter Group Corp.
4-2-7, Sakae, Naka-ku
Nagoya  460, Japan
Phone: +81-52-263-6261
Fax: +81-52-263-6298
E-mail: ra95@mein.nagoya-u.ac.jp

ORGANIZED SESSIONS
Organized sessions are intended to provide a cohesive focus for the
introduction of new research topics, or for the discussion of successful
applications and case studies.  Proposals for organized sessions should be
submitted by October 1, 1994 to the Program Chair.  Each organized session
consists of four papers, which will be reviewed through the normal process.
 The proposal should be submitted by the session organizer, and include a
brief statement of the purpose in addition to six copies of each paper. In
case  paper is not accepted, it will be replaced by a relevant contributed
paper.

POSTER SESSIONS
We are going to introduce poster sessions in this conference. The posters
of the selected papers should be prepared by their authors.  Papers will be
presented with posters prepared by their authors. In the poster sessions, 
(1)  the authors will be notified about the type of their presentation by
the Program Committee,
(2)  the authors and attendees may actively  exchange their ideas at the
session.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS
Panel discussions are intended to promote an active and informal discussion
of current issues that are of interest to the Robotics and Automation
community. Proposals should include a brief statement of purpose, the
general topic of discussion, specific issues to be addressed, and a list of
participants.  They should be sent to the ICRA'95 Secretary Office no later
than September 15, 1994.

TUTORIALS AND WORKSHOPS
Half day and full day tutorials and workshops will be held on  Monday, May
22, 1995.  Proposals should include:  (1) statement of objectives and
background expected of intended audience, (2) a complete list of speakers
and their affiliations, (3) a detailed list of topics. Two copies of each
proposal should be submitted by September 15, 1994 to the ICRA'95 Secretary
Office.
Organizers are strongly encouraged to write or send e-mail to the Secretary
office to obtain the exact proposal format. Proposals not in the proper
format may not be evaluated.

INDUSTRY FORUM
Industry forum will be held on Tuesday, May 23, 1995. Speakers will include
representatives from industry, government, and academia.  The aim of the
forum is to allow attendees to understand more fully possible industrial
applications of robotics and automation, discuss problems that have arisen
in industrial applications, and to delineate new areas of research and
development of robotics and automation applications.

PUBLIC LECTURE
Public lectures will be held on Saturday, May 27, 1995.  The aim of the
lectures is to help the public to understand the latest technologies in
robotics and automation. The topics of the lectures include Robotics
General, Brains for Robotics and Automation, Real World Robotics and
Automation, Human Friendly Interface etc. Simultaneous translation both in
English and Japanese is available.  

ANTON PHILIPS BEST STUDENT PAPER AWARD
A $1,000 Prize will be awarded for the best student paper. The student must
(1) be a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, (2) be the
first author and primary developer of the ideas, and (3) have done the work
as part of an academic degree program. The paper must be submitted no later
than one year after the award of the degree for which the work was done. 
Nine copies of the paper along with a nominating letter from the faculty
advisor should be sent by October 1, 1994 to the ICRA'95 Secretary Office.

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES FELLOWSHIPS
Travel assistance of up to $500 and a waiver of the registration fees will
be granted to a limited number of student applicants from developing
countries. Preference will be given to university students. Applications
should include:  (1) the name, postal address, telephone and fax numbers,
and e-mail address (if applicable), (2)professional affiliation, position
and nature of work, and (3)a brief statement about how attendance at the
conference will enhance the applicant's career. Applications should be
submitted by October 1, 1994 toJthe ICRA'95 Secretary Office.

BEST CONFERENCE PAPER AWARD
A $1,000 prize will be awarded to the best conference paper.

EXHIBITS
There will be exhibits of state-of-the-art hardware and software products
at the conference.  Reservations for the space and further information may
be obtained from the ICRA'95 Secretary Office.

LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS
The climate in Nagoya in late May is usually agreeable and stable, with 
average temperature of 16-23C (60-74 F). 
	With an abundance of urban sightseeing attractions such as
excellent urban planning and sightseeing routes, and industrial tours,
you can find many of the nation's outstanding sightseeing spots in the
city's environs. Nagoya castle, famed for its golden "dolphins", Ise
Shima, Mikawa Bay, the Hida region, the Kiso River, and the Chubu
mountain range are just a few examples.JAlso, Kyoto, the old capital
in Japan, is within one hour away by bullet train.  In addition, large
number of Karakuri dolls, created during the Edo period, can still be
found in Nagoya.  It was the technology of wooden automated puppets
which laid the foundation for the development of the clock industry,
the automated weaving machine, the automobile and robot industries in
Naogya.

Additional information may be obtained from the ICRA'95 Secretary Office.

GENERAL INFORMATION
For other general information about the conference, contact the ICRA'95
Secretary Office.

ICRA'95 Secretary Office
c/o Inter Group Corp.
4-2-7, Sakae, Naka-ku
Nagoya  460, Japan
Phone: +81-52-263-6261
Fax: +81-52-263-6298
E-mail: ra95@mein.nagoya-u.ac.jp

CALL FOR VIDEOS

As a  conference tradition , a video tape session on new and significant
experimental results and demonstrations including industrial case studies,
will be organized.  Accepted contributions will be included in the
conference video proceedings, which will be shown during the conference,
and also made available to the attendees. This program is intended to
enhance and complement the results presented in the regular proceedings. A
$1,000 prize will be awarded for the best video. 

REQUIREMENTS FOR VIDEOS

 A good video should be dynamic and contain information that cannot be easi
ly conveyed in  a paper.

 Length should not exceed 2 to 3 minutes.  Showing flow charts, block diagr
ams, circuit boards, computers, or motors is discouraged.  Operators are
fine if they are central element to the concept being illustrated (e.g. in
teleoperated systems).

 Narration is important.  Ideas should be expressed without jargon.  Music 
and background noise generally interfere with the presentation.  Music
should be avoided unless it is generated professionally.

 The purpose of the video proceedings is to disseminate technical informati
on, not for commercial promotion.  For example, the obvious display of
company logos must be avoided.

SUBMISSION
Submissions consist of a 2 to 3 minute video segment (preferred formats are
3/4", Betacam or super VHS) and an information sheet including: the title
of the presentation, the names, affiliations, and authors (please identify
the corresponding author), and a 200 word abstract.  They should be
submitted by October 1, 1994. Submit to Program Vice Co-chair:

Prof. Shin'ichi Yuta
Institute of Information Science and Electronics
University of Tsukuba
Tsukuba, Ibaraki  305, Japan
Phone: +81-298-53-5509
Fax: +81-298-53-5206
E-mail: yuta@is.tsukuba.ac.jp

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	IEEE Real-Time Technology and Application Symposium
	===================================================

			May 15-17, 1995
		       Chicago, Illinois


RTAS'94 is the successor to the 11th Workshop on Real-Time
Operating Systems and Software.

Since the early 80's, we have witnessed an increased interest in
real-time technology because of the need for scientific solutions
for time-constrained information processing in various
applications such as avionics, multimedia, robotics, automated
process control, and manufacturing.  Founded in 1983, the IEEE
Workshop on Real-Time Operating Systems and Software (RTOSS) has
been an important annual forum for exchanging information of
emerging principles and practices underlying real-time technology.
Consequently, we are seeing a substantial number of new
researchers tackling the many challenging problems that
remain. Due to the interest shown in, and the success of, the
RTOSS, the IEEE technical committee on real-time systems has
decided to convert RTOSS into a full symposium, the real-Time
Technology and Applications Symposium.

The purpose of this symposium is to bring together developers and
researchers from universities, industry, and government to advance
real-time technology and its applications. Papers on all aspects
of real-time computing are sought, including operating systems and
scheduling, fault-tolerance, databases, programming languages,
tools, communication networks, architectures, performance
modeling, formal methods, case studies, and applications. Of
particular interest are papers detailing experiments and
implementations. This year we are planning special sessions in the
areas such as Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems and
Multimedia. Papers on these topics are especially encouraged.

Manuscripts should be limited to 20 double spaced pages. Papers
submitted to the Symposium should not be submitted elsewhere. Six
copies of the paper should reach the program chair no later than
January 7, 1995. Authors will be notified of acceptance by Feb 28,
1995. Final camera-ready manuscripts will be due by March 31,
1995. Proposals for two-hour tutorials in technical areas of the
conference are also solicited.  Tutorial proposals should be
submitted to the program chair by January 7, 1995.

Important Dates
===============
Paper submission: 		Jan 7, 1995
Tutorial proposal submission: 	Jan 7, 1995
Acceptance notification:	Feb 28, 1995
Final camera-ready manuscript:	Mar 31, 1995

ORGANIZING AND PROGRAM COMMITTEES

General Chair:
Ted Baker
Department of Computer Science (4019)
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4019
phone: 904 644-5452
email: baker@cs.fsu.edu

Program Chair:
Wei Zhao
Department of Computer Science
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-3112
phone: 409 845-5098
email: zhao@cs.tamu.edu

Treasurer: 
Ted Giering, Florida State University

Publicity Chair:
Raj Rajkumar, Software Engineering Institute, CMU

Local Arrangements Co-Chairs:
Jeffrey Tsai, University of Illinois at Chicago
Chengwen Liu, DePaul University

Ex-Officio: (RTS-TC Chairs)
John Stankovic, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Al Mok, University of Texas at Austin

Program Committee:

Yahya Y. Al-Salqan	West Virginia University
Sadler Bridge		Texas Transportation Institute/TAMU
Alan Burns		University of York
Richard Gerber		University of Maryland
Prabha Gopinath		Honeywell Inc

Steve Howell		Navy Surface Warfare Center
Jiandong Huang		Honeywell Inc
Arkady Kanevsky		Mitre Corporation
Doug Locke		Loral Federal Systems
David Luginbuhl	 	AFOSR

Jane Liu		University of Illinois at Urbana
Steve Liu		Texas A&M University
Al Mok			University of Texas at Austin
Kelvin Nilsen		Iowa State University
Krithi Ramamritham	University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Lui Sha			Software Engineering Institute/CMU
Kang Shin		University of Michigan
John Stankovic		University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Alexander D. Stoyenko	NJ Institute of Technology
Lonnie R. Welch		NJ Institute of Technology

Victor Wolfe		University of Rhode Island
Hui Zhang		Carnegie Mellon University

RTAS'95 is sponsored by the IEEE Technical Committee on Real-Time
Systems, in cooperation with the Office of Naval Research.

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     6th  International  Scientific  and  Technical  Conference

            "ROBOTICS  FOR  EXTRAORDINARY  CONDITIONS"

 Ministry  of  Science  and  Technical  Policy  of  Russian  Federation
   State  Committee  of  Russian  Federation  for  Higher  Education
 State  Scientific  Center  of  Russia -   Central  R&D  Institute  of
            Robotics  and  Technical   Cybernetics

                  Information  and  invitation

Dear  colleagues!

Herewith we  inform  you  about  the holding  of  the  International
Scientific  and  Technical  Conference "ROBOTICS  FOR  EXTRAORDINARY
CONDITIONS".

The Conference will take place during June 6-8 ,1995 in St.Petersburg.

The  Conference  subjects  are  as  follows:

  -conceptual   problems  of  robotics  development  for  extraordinary
   conditions;

  -robotic  system  applications  in extraordinary  conditions  in  the
   national  economy, armed  forces,  outer  space,  underwater  and
   emergency  situations;

  -theory,  calculation  and  design  methods  of  robotic systems  for
   extraordinary  conditions;

  -control  of  robotic  systems  for extraordinary  conditions, software;

  -components  of  robots  for   extraordinary  conditions  (sensors,
   drives ,  mechanical  systems  of  manipualtors  and  vehicles).

   Chairman  of  the  Program  Committee  - E. Yurevich,  Professor ,
Doctor  of  Technical  Scieces  .

   Round-table discussions will be held at the Conference, concerning
the questions of coordination of research -and- development activities
preparation of proposals on the formation of projects and
scientific-and-research programs, on the educational questions in this
field.
   Participation at the Conference means establishment and development
of scientific and business contacts, extension of knowledge about the
results of new theoretical achievements and their practical
applications in the advanced foreign and domestic enterprises. It also
means that you will visit St.Petersburg during the best season -
period of White Nights.
   The Conference organizers invite you to take part in the formation
of the Conference program. Please, inform us about your participation
in the Conference and about the title of your paper before January 1,
1995.  Abstrasts up to 3 pages in volume ( A4 format, 1.5 line space )
should be submitted to the Oganizing Committee before March 1 , 1995.

Organizating  Committee  address :
Russia,  194064 , St. Petersburg , Tikhoretsky  pr. ,  21
Central  R&D  Institute  of  Robotics  and  Technical   Cybernetics
A.Kochkarev ,  Deputy  Director
Fax :(812) 552-46-72
E-mail : kocha@rtk.spb.su
Contact telephones : (812) 552-40-73
                     (812) 552-41-62.

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        CALL FOR PAPERS
              Third IASTED International Conference
                   ROBOTICS AND MANUFACTURING

DATE: June 14-17, 1995

LOCATION: Sheraton Hotel, Cancun, Mexico

SPONSORS: The International Association of Science and Technology for
          Development - IASTED
          In cooperation with: ITESM (Inst. Tech. y de Estudios Sup. de
          Monterrey, Mexico)

SCOPE: Topics to be covered include:
       * Adaptive Control               * Modelling
       * AI Techniques                  * Motion Planning
       * Architecture                   * Multirobot Systems
       * Autonomous Systems             * Neural Networks
       * Bionics/Biomechanics           * Process Control
       * Design Automation              * Reliability/Safety/Stability
       * Expert Systems                 * Robot Dynamics
       * Flexible Manufacturing Systems * Robot Control
       * Fuzzy Control                  * Robot Kinematics
       * Human/Machine Interface        * Robot Mechanisms
       * Industrial Automation          * Robust Control
       * Industrial Robots              * Scheduling
       * Intelligent Systems            * Sensors
       * Knowledge-Based Systems        * Sensor Data Fusion
       * Learning/Reasoning Systems     * Simulation
       * Manufacturing Systems          * Space Robotics
       * Mechatronics                   * Teleoperation
       * Microrobotics                  * Virtual Reality
       * Mobile Robots                  * Applications - All areas

General Chair: T.C. (Steve) Hsia, University of California, Davis, USA
Program Chair: Rene V. Mayorga, University of Waterloo, Canada
Regional Program Chairs: Francisco Cantu-Ortiz, ITESM, Monterrey
                         Juan Frausto-Solis, ITESM, Morelos

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE

S. Arimoto      Univ. of Tokyo, Japan
E. Bayo         Univ. of Calif., Santa Barbara, USA
P. Dario        Univ. of Pisa, Italy
C. Doumanidis   Tufts Univ., USA
A. Desrochers   Renselaer Polytechnic, USA
R.V. Dubey      Univ. of Tennessee, USA
W.H. ElMaraghy  Univ. of Windsor, Canada
B. Espiau       INRIA, France
T. Fukuda       Nagoya Univ., Japan
H. Furuta       Japan
A. Goldenberg   Univ. of Toronto, Canada
E. Gomes        EPUSP, Brazil
W.A. Gruver     Simon Fraser Univ., Canada
H. Inoue        Univ. of Tokyo, Japan
S. Kalaycioglu  Canada Space Agency, Canada
O. Khatib       Stanford University, USA
H.N. Koivo      Tampere Univ., Finland
K. Kosuge       Univ. of Nagoya, Japan
F. Lobo-Pereira Porto Univ., Portugal
A. Maciejewski  Purdue Univ., USA
H. Miura        Univ. of Tokyo, Japan
Y. Nakamura     Univ. of Tokyo, Japan
G. Saridis      Rensselaer Polytechnic, USA
H. Seraji       JPL, USA
Y. Shirai       Osaka Univ., Japan
J.E. Slotine    MIT, USA
A.C. Sanderson  Rensselaer Poly., USA
B. Siciliano    Univ. of Naples, Italy
P.M. Taylor     Univ. of Hull, UK
S. Tsuji        Osaka Univ., Japan
A.K.C. Wong     Univ. of Waterloo, Canada

REGIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE

J.L.  Gordillo  ITESM, Monterrey        F. Ramos        ITESM, Morelos
R. Kelly        CICESE, Ensenada        G. Rodriguez    IEE, Cuenavaca
J.M. Ibarra     CINESTAV                J.M. Sanchez    ITESM, Monterrey
H. Martinez     ITESM                   R. Soto         ITESM, Monterrey
A. Ramirez      CINESTAV                L.E. Sucar-Succar ITESM, Morelos
A. Pamanes      Laguna Tec., Torreon    M. Valenzuela   ITESM, Monterrey

Three copies of the papers (maximum 12 double-spaced pages, including figures,
for regular papers; and maximum six double spaced pages for short papers)
should be received by FEBRUARY 15, 1995 by Rene V. Mayorga, Dept. of Systems
Design Eng., University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1 Canada.  Please
include four keywords to indicate the area of the paper. Also, include a
statement in your cover letter confirming that if the paper is accepted, one of
the authors will attend the conference to present it.  Please give the full
name, affiliation, full address, telephone, and fax numbers, and email address
if available.

Notification of acceptance and author kits will be mailed by March 15, 1995.
The final manuscripts and registration payment are due prior to May 1, 1995.
Registration fees not received by that date may result in the paper being
excluded from the proceedings.

Expanded papers to be considered for publication in the International Journal
of Robotics and Automation are to be sent directly to the Editor: Dr. Richard
Colbaugh, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Box 30001 - Dept. 3450, New Mexico
State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003-0001 USA.

IMPORTANT DATES

FEBRUARY 15, 1995 - Three copies of the papers due.  Please send the papers
                    to:         Rene V. Mayorga
                                Dept. of Systems Design Eng.
                                Univ. of Waterloo
                                Waterloo, Ontario
                                Canada  N2L 3G1
                                Tel: 519-885-1211 ext: 2604
                                Fax: 519-746-4791
                                email: rmayorga@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca

MARCH 15, 1995 - Paper acceptance letters mailed to authors.

MAY 1, 1995 - Final manuscripts and registration payments due.

To be placed on the mailing list write to:
        IASTED Secretariat RM'95
        1811 W. Katella Avenue #101
        Anaheim, CA
        USA  90804
        Tel: 800-995-2161 or 714-778-3230
        Fax: 714-778-5463
        Email: iasted@orion.oac.uci.edu

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------

		     PRELIMINARY CALL FOR PAPERS
	 Twelfth International Conference on Machine Learning

Tahoe City, California
July 9-12, 1995

    The Twelfth International Conference on Machine Learning (ML95)
will be held at the Granlibakken Resort in Tahoe City, California
during July 9-12, 1995, with informal workshops on July 9. We invite
paper submissions from researchers in all areas of machine learning.
The conference will include presentations of refereed papers and
invited talks.


REVIEW CRITERIA

    Each submitted paper will be reviewed by at least two members of
the program committee and will be judged on significance, originality,
and clarity. Papers submitted simultaneously to other conferences must
clearly state so on the title page.


PAPER FORMAT

    Submissions must be clearly legible, with good quality print.
Papers are limited to a total of twelve (12) pages, EXCLUDING title
page and bibliography, but INCLUDING all tables and figures.  Papers
must be printed on 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper or A4 paper using 12 point
type (10 characters per inch) with no more than 38 lines per page and
75 characters per line (e.g., LaTeX 12 point article style).  The
title page must include an abstract and email and postal addresses of
all authors.  Papers without this format will not be reviewed. To save
paper and postage costs please use DOUBLE-SIDED printing.


REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSION

    Send four (4) copies of each submitted paper to one of the
conference co-chairs. Papers must be received by
			  FEBRUARY 7, 1995 .
Electronic or FAX submissions are not acceptable.  Notification of
acceptance or rejection will be mailed to the first (or designated)
author by March 22, 1995. Camera-ready accepted papers are due on
April 25, 1995.

INFORMAL WORKSHOPS
    Proposals for informal workshops are invited in all areas of
machine learning. Send a two (2) page description of the proposed
workshop, its objectives, organizer(s), and expected number of
attendees to the workshop chair. Proposals must be received by
DECEMBER 1, 1994.

Conference Co-Chairs
    Armand Prieditis
    Department of Computer Science
    University of California
    Davis, CA 95616
    priediti@cs.ucdavis.edu

    Stuart Russell
    Computer Science Division
    University of California
    Berkeley, CA 94720
    russell@cs.berkeley.edu

Program Committee
    (To Be Announced).

Workshop Chair
    Sridhar Mahadevan
    Department of Computer Science and Engineering
    University of Southern Florida
    4202 East Fowler Avenue, EBG 118
    Tampa, Florida 33620
    mahadeva@csee.usf.edu

Publicity Chair
    Jeff Schlimmer
    School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
    Washington State University
    Pullman, WA 99164-2752
    schlimme@eecs.wsu.edu
    http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~schlimme

Local Arrangements
    Debbie Chadwick
    Department of Computer Science
    University of California
    Davis, CA 95616
    chadwick@cs.ucdavis.edu


GENERAL INQUIRIES

    Please send general inquiries to ml95@cs.ucdavis.edu .

    To receive future conference announcements please send a note to
the publicity chair. Current conference information available online
on the World-Wide Web as http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~schlimme/ml95.html .

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	  THIRD  INTERNATIONAL  SYMPOSIUM
        	        on
	INTELLIGENT  ROBOTIC  SYSTEMS  '95

           Pisa,  Italy,  10-14  July  1995

                CALL   FOR   PAPERS

Advanced  Robotics Technology and Systems Laboratory,  
Scuola  Superiore  Sant'Anna,  Pisa,  Italy

Institute  of  Informatics  and  Applied  Mathematics
of  Grenoble, Grenoble, France

EC-DGXII Euroconferences

THEME   AND   TOPICS

The   theme   for   this   years   symposium   will   be   "architec-
tures   and   technologies   for   functioning   autonomous   sys-
tems."   The  workshop  will  combine  invited  lectures  by  es-
tablished  researchers  with  original  presentations  by  junior
scientists  about  research  in  progress.   Topics  included:

          o     Mobile  and  Autonomous  Robots,
          o     Intelligent  Control  Architectures,
          o     Active  and  Reactive  Computer  Vision,
          o     Technologies  for  Autonomous  Systems,
          o     Surveillance  Systems  and  Robots.

ORGANISERS

General  Chairman          James  L.  Crowley,  LIFIA  IMAG,  France,
                           46  av. Fe'lix  Viallet,  38031  Grenoble  Cedex,
                           Tel.:(33)  76574655  fax:(33)  76574602,
                           E-mail:  Jim.Crowley@imag.fr

Chairman                   Paolo  Dario,  ARTS  Lab,  Italy,
of  the  Programme         Via Carducci 40, 56127 Pisa
Committee                  Tel.:(39-50)  883207  fax:(39-50)  883215,
                           E-mail:  Dario@arts.sssup.it

SIRS'95                    Carlo  Colombo,  ARTS  Lab,  Italy,
Secretariat                Via Carducci 40, 56127 Pisa
                           Tel.:(39-50)  883207  fax:(39-50)  883215,
                           E-mail:  Columbus@shamash.sssup.it

                           Patrick  Reignier,  LIFIA  -  IMAG,  France,
                           46  av. Fe'lix  Viallet,  38031  Grenoble  Cedex,
                           Tel.:(33)  76574609  fax:(33)  76574602,
                           E-mail:  Patrick.Reignier@imag.fr

The  symposium  is  organised  in  cooperation  with  the  EC
Human  Capital  and  Mobility  Network  SMART.  SIRS'95
is   also   partially   sponsored   by   the   EC-DGXII   Eurocon-
ferences   programme.     A   limited   number   of   Euroconfer-
ence   travel   grants   are   available   for   young   (<36)   post-
graduate   researchers   who   are   citizens   of   the   European
Union.   To  apply  for  Euroconferences  support---travel  and
registration---please  contact  Prof.   J.L.  Crowley  (address
given  above).

LOCATION

The   event   will   take   place   in   Pisa,   one   of   the   most   en-
chanting  art  cities  of  Tuscany.   A  convenient  way  to  reach
Pisa   is   either   by   car   or   by   airplane_Pisa   airport   serves
both  national  and  international  connections.   Direct  train
connections  from  Rome  or  Turin  are  also  available.

PROGRAMME   COMMITTEE

A.  Borkowski                IPPT  PAN,  Poland
H.  Christensen              Institute  of  Electronic  Systems,  Denmark
P.  Cosoli                   Tecnopolis  Csata  Novus  Ortus,  Italy
J.L.  Crowley                LIFIA - IMAG,  France
P.  Dario                    Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna,  Italy
A.  Dubrawski                IPPT  PAN,  Poland
F.  Ferrari                  AITEK  Srl,  Italy
R.  Fisher                   University  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland
J.  Goncalves                CEC  Joint  Research  Center,  Italy
E.  Grant                    Turing  Institute,  Scotland
V.  Hlavac                   Czech  Technical  University,  Czech  Republic
D.  Hogg                     University  of  Leeds,  England
A.  Kasi'nski                Technical  University  of  Pozna'n,  Poland
A.  Maslowski                PIAP-ZUM,  Poland
G.  Sandini                  Universita'  di  Genova,  Italy
J.  Sentiero                 Instituto  de  Sistemas  e  Robotica,  Portugal
F.  Solina                   University  of  Ljubljana,  Slovenia
G.  Sullivan                 University  of  Reading,  England
F.  Wallner                  University  of  Karlsruhe,  Germany
A.  Wo'zniak                 Technical  University  of  Pozna'n,  Poland

SUBMISSION

An  extented  abstract  of  four  pages  should  be  sent  to  the
programme   chairman   (Prof. P. Dario, address  given above).

TIMETABLE

Extended   abstracts   must   be   received   by   the   programme
chairman  by  February   15   1995.

Notification  of  acceptance  will  be  sent  before April   15   1995.

Full papers (8 pages) must be received before May 15 1995. All
accepted papers will be published in the Proceedings of the Symposium.
Detailed information regarding programme, conference fee, accomodation
will be given in the second announcement issued in March 1995.

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       CALL FOR PAPERS
                       ===============


 1995 IEEE International Symposium on Assembly and Task Planning

                         (ISATP'95)

         - Towards Flexible and Agile Manufacturing -

         August 10-11, 1995, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

       Sponsored by the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society
             To be held in conjunction with IROS'95

Assembly and task planning plays a key role for integrating design and
manufacturing. This field has the potential to produce automated and
interactive tools which significantly impact the development of
advanced manufacturing as well as concurrent engineering environments.
The broad theme for this symposium is "Toward Flexible and
Agile Manufacturing", recognizing the need for developing
manufacturing environments geared to meet the future demands of the
industry. The symposium will provide an international forum which
draws together researchers working on different aspects of the problem
of assembly and task planning in the robotics and manufacturing
context. Papers are solicited for all aspect of theories,
applications, and case studies related to assembly and task planning
as applied to robotics and manufacturing.

Topics include but are not limited to:

- Design for Assembly                     - Assembly Representations
- Assembly Sequence Planning              - Tolerance Accumulation in Assembly
- Assembly Cost Evaluation                - Assembly Stability and Fixtures
- Part Feeding and Reorientation          - Workcell Planning
- Action Planning                         - Fine Motion Planning
- Gross Motion Planning                   - Sensor Planning
- Distributed Planning                    - Profuction Planning
- Manufacturing Process Planning          - Scheduling
- Planning under Uncertainty              - On-line Planning and Reaction
- Plan Monitoring                         - Error Detection and Recovery
- Applications


General Chair
-------------
Art Sanderson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Program Chair
-------------
Sukhan Lee, JPL/CalTech and University of Southern California

Organizing Committee
--------------------
Damian Lyons, Philips Laboratories (Chair)
Sukhan Lee, JPL/CalTech and University of Southern California
Carlos Ramos, ISEP-IPP and University of Porto, Portugal
Ulrich Borgolte, FernUniversitaet Hagen, Germany
Rajeev Sharma, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Local Arrangements
------------------
Yangsheng Xu, Carnegie Mellon University

International Liaisons
----------------------
Europe:
Ulrich Borgolte, FernUniversitaet Hagen, Germany
Carlos Ramos, ISEP-IPP and University of Porto, Portugal
Asia:
Takenori Shibata, MEL/MITI, Japan
Myung-Jin Chung}, KAIST, Korea


PAPER SUBMISSION
----------------

Submit by February 1, 1995 four copies of completed paper in
either single column or double column format to the address given
below for peer review. Upon acceptance, authors will be requested
to prepare a camera-ready manuscript in IEEE format (limited to
6 pages).

Submit papers to:

Prof. Sukhan Lee, Program Chair
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781
Phone: (213) 740-7230 / Fax: (213)740-7285
Email: shlee@pollux.usc.edu


For general information:
------------------------

Dr. Damian Lyons
Philips Laboratories
Philips Electronics N. America Corporation
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510
Phone: (914) 945-6444 / FAX: (914) 945-6141
Email: dml@philabs.philips.com

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A I - E D  9 5
7TH WORLD CONFERENCE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN EDUCATION             *
16th - 19th August 1995
Washington DC, USA

The 7th World Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education
(AI-ED 95) is one of a series of international conferences designed
to report the best research in the field of AI in Education and to
provide opportunities for the cross-fertilisation of information and
ideas on research and applications in this field.

The conference is sponsored by the AI-ED Society of the Association
for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) and supported
by the leading organizations in the field.

You are invited to submit proposals for papers, posters, tutorials,
workshops, and panels.  All proposals are reviewed for inclusion
in the technical program.

Scope
-----
The technical program focuses on research activities linking Artificial
Intelligence theories and techniques with Educational theory and practice.
Areas of interest include but are not limited to:

  Intelligent tutoring systems
  Learning environments and microworlds
  Visual and graphical interfaces
  Human factors and interface design
  Non-standard and innovative interfaces
  Intelligent multimedia systems
  Authoring systems and tutoring shells
  Collaboration tools
  Principles/tools for instructional design
  Natural language interfaces
  Knowledge representation for instruction
  Knowledge and skill acquisition
  Conceptual change/Metacognition
  Teaching higher-order thinking skills
  Social and cultural aspects of learning
  Cognitive development and errors
  Student modeling, cognitive diagnosis
  Theories of teaching/Motivation
  Reading and writing
  Educational robotics
  Computer-assisted language learning
  Evaluation of instructional systems
  Assessment of learning outcomes

Information for Presenters
--------------------------
Details of presentation formats are given below.
The general principles applying to all are:
o  All communication will be with the principal presenter who is
   responsible for communicating with co-presenters of that session.
o  The conference will attempt to secure all equipment needed for
   presenters.  However, where special equipment is needed, presenters may
   need to provide their own.
o  All presenters must pay the registration fee.

Proceedings
-----------
Accepted papers will be published by AACE in the AI-ED 95 Proceedings.
In addition, selected papers will be invited for publication
in the Journal of AI in Education.

Exhibition
----------
Exhibits are expected to be an integral part of the AI-ED 95 conference.
Companies or institutions offering to exhibit AI-ED products are
invited to complete and return the Request for Information form below.

Invited Speakers
----------------
There will be invited presentations from leading researchers in the field.

Conference Background
---------------------
The biennial AI-ED conference series is the major international forum
for AI-ED research and development.  AI-ED 95 is the 7th conference
in the series, previous conferences having been held in Exeter (1983, 1985),
Pittsburgh (1987), Amsterdam (1989), Chicago (1991) and Edinburgh (1993).
It is the second such conference to be organised by the AI-ED Society.

                             ----------------
                             AI-ED COMMITTEES
                             ----------------

AI-ED 95 Organizing Committee
-----------------------------
Sharon Derry (University of Wisconsin, USA)
Jim Greer (University of Saskatchewan, CANADA)
Alan Lesgold (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
Matthew Lewis (RAND Corporation, USA)
Gary Marks (AACE, USA)
John Self (Lancaster University, UK)
Valerie Shute (Brooks Air Force Base, USA)

Program Committee
-----------------
Chair: Jim Greer (University of Saskatchewan, CANADA)
Michael Baker (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, FRANCE)
Paul Brna (Lancaster University, UK)
Tak-Wai Chan (National Central University, TAIWAN)
Susanne Lajoie (McGill University, CANADA)
Alan Lesgold (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
Riichiro Mizoguchi (Osaka University, JAPAN)
Claus Moebus (University of Oldenburg, GERMANY)
Valery Petrushin (Glushgov Institute of Cybernetics, UKRAINE)
Jacobijn Sandberg (University of Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS)
Valerie Shute (Brooks Air Force Base, USA)
Elliot Soloway (University of Michigan, USA)

Local Organizing Committee
--------------------------
Chair: Christopher Dede (George Mason University)
Henry Hamburger (George Mason University)
Greg Kearsley (George Washington University)
Andrea Luddell (Research Development Corporation)
Karen McGraw (RWD Technology)

AI-ED Society Executive Committee
--------------------------------
Chair: John Self (Lancaster University, UK)
Joost Breuker (University of Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS)
Peter Brusilovsky, (Int'l. Ctr. of Scientific and Tech. Info., RUSSIA)
Alex Bykat (University of Tennessee, USA)
William Clancey (Institute for Research on Learning, USA)
Geoff Cumming (La Trobe University, AUSTRALIA)
Christopher Dede (George Mason University, USA)
Pierre Dillenbourg (Universite de Geneve, SWITZERLAND)
Peter Goodyear (Lancaster University, UK)
Monique Grandbastien (Universite de Nancy, FRANCE)
Jim Greer (University of Saskatchewan, CANADA)
Lewis Johnson (University of Southern California, USA)
Alan Lesgold (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
Zhongmin Li (Utah State University, USA)
Gordon McCalla (University of Saskatchewan, CANADA)
Susan Mengel (University of Arkansas, USA)
Vittorio Midoro (Istituto Tecnologie Didattiche, ITALY)
Riichiro Mizoguchi (Osaka University, JAPAN)
Claus Moebus (University of Oldenburg, GERMANY)
Jean-Francois Nicaud (Universite de Paris, FRANCE)
Rachel Or-Bach (Technion, ISRAEL)
Helen Pain (University of Edinburgh, SCOTLAND)
Julita Vassileva (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BULGARIA)
Martial Vivet (Universite du Maine, FRANCE)
Philip Winne (Simon Fraser University, CANADA)

                     -----------------
                     TECHNICAL PROGRAM
                     -----------------
Papers
------
Papers should describe original and unpublished results of research
work.  All accepted papers will be published in the AI-ED 95 Proceedings
and will be candidates for Best Paper Awards.  Awarded papers
will be invited for publication in the Journal of Artificial
Intelligence in Education, the official journal of the AI-ED Society.

Submissions: Submissions should be no longer than 8 pages, including
all tables, figures, and references but excluding the cover page.  Fonts
should be at no smaller than 10 point (12 point pica for typewriters).
Margins should be at least 1 inch all around.

Each submission must include 1 cover page and 6 paper copies of the
complete manuscript.  The cover page should include: the title of the
paper with an abstract of no more than 500 words; keywords giving a
clear indication of topic and subtopic; author names with affiliations,
addresses, and phone numbers; and the E-mail address of the principal
author.  Authors are also requested to send an electronic (text) copy
of this cover page to the program chair at aied@cs.usask.ca
Electronic or fax submissions of complete manuscripts WILL NOT be accepted.

Posters
-------
Authors are encouraged to submit reports on work in progress to the
poster sessions, which provide an informal forum for introducing work
in its early stages.  Poster sessions enable researchers to discuss
their latest results in order to gain feedback and to establish
contact with similar projects. Poster sessions do not involve a formal
presentation.

Submissions: Poster proposals should include an approximately 3-page
written description of the planned poster and should emphasize the
problem; what was done; and why the work is important. The cover page
should include the title of the session with presenter names,
affiliations, complete addresses, phone numbers, and E-mail address of
the principal presenter.

Panels
------
A panel offers an opportunity for 3-5 people to present their views or
results on a common theme, issue, or question. Panels should cover
timely topics related to the conference areas of interest. Panel
selection will be based on the importance, originality, focus, and
timeliness of the topic, as well as the potential for informative (and
even controversial) discussion.

Submissions: Panel proposals should include:
- A description of the panel topic, including why this topic is
  important to the AI-ED Conference attendees; no more than 1 page.
- A brief position statement of each panelist; no more than 1 page
  each.

A cover sheet should include the panel title, panelists' names and
affiliations, and the panel organizer's name, affiliation, address, E-
mail address and phone number.

Tutorials and Workshops
-----------------------
Tutorials are offered on basic and advanced topics.  Tutorials are
intended to provide an overview of a field; they should be based on
generally accepted and balanced information.  Workshops provide
participants the opportunity to meet and discuss selected technical
topics in an informal atmosphere which encourages the active exchange
of ideas among researchers and practitioners.  Tutorials/Workshops are
usually a half day in length.

Submissions: Proposals should include a clear description of the
tutorial/workshop objectives, the intended audience, the length in
hours, a 200-word abstract, a 1-page topical outline of the content,
and a description of the proposer's qualifications related to the
tutorial/workshop topic.

***** Submit all PAPERS, POSTERS and PROPOSALS  to: *****

        AI-ED 95
        AACE
        P.O. Box 2966
        Charlottesville, VA 22902 USA

          +-------------------------------------------------+
          |               AI-ED 95 Deadlines                |
          |                                                 |
          |  Submissions due:           6th January 1995    |
          |  Authors notified:          20th March 1995     |
          |  Camera Ready Copy due:     24th April 1995     |
          |  Pre-Registration deadline: 30th June 1995      |
          +-------------------------------------------------+

AI-ED Society
-------------
The overall aim of the Artificial Intelligence in Education (AI-ED)
Society is to advance knowledge and promote research and development
in the field of AI in Education.  It aims to help members keep
up-to-date in the field through supporting Journals, Newsletters,
Conferences, and other activities of interest to members.
The AI-ED Society is an international society (its 25 member Executive
Committee represents 13 countries), and it seeks to support AI in
Education developments throughout the international community.  The
AI-ED Society is a society of the AACE.

Benefits of AI-ED Society Membership:
- Conference discounts, e.g. for AI-ED 95
- Subscription to the quarterly Journal of AI in Education
- Discounts on other AACE journals/books
- Newsletters
- Opportunity to participate in the development of this important
  field, by initiating or supporting activities on topics of concern
  to members.

Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
----------------------------------------------------------------
AACE (established in 1981) is a non-profit, international organization
whose purpose is to advance the knowledge and quality of learning and
teaching at all levels through the encouragement of scholarly inquiry
related to information technology and education and the dissemination of
research results and their applications through publications and
conferences for its members.

AACE publishes five journals:
  Journal of:
  - Artificial Intelligence in Education
  - Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching
  - Computing in Childhood Education
  - Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia in Education
  - Technology and Teacher Education
  Plus beginning in 1995:
  - International Journal of Educational Telecommunications

AACE Conferences include:
  SITE--Society for Information Technology and Teacher Ed. 
    International Conference (San Antonio, TX, USA; March 22-25, 1995)
  ED-MEDIA--World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia
   (Graz, Austria; June 18-21, 1995)
  AI-ED--World Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education
   (Washington, DC, USA; August 16-19, 1995)
  ICCE--International Conference on Computers in Education
        (AACE Asia-Pacific Chapter) (Singapore; December 5-8, 1995)
  
International Headquarters for the AI-ED Society and AACE:
  AACE, P.O. Box 2966, Charlottesville, VA 22902 USA
  E-mail: AACE@virginia.edu, (804) 973-3987, FAX: (804) 978-7449

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                     CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: IJCAI-95

IJCAI-95 will take  place at the  Palais de Congres,  Montreal, August  20-25
1995.

The biennial IJCAI  conferences are  the major forums  for the  international
scientific exchange and presentation of AI research. The Conference Technical
Program will include workshops, tutorials, panels and invited talks, as  well
as tracks for paper and videotape presentations.

PAPER TRACK: SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES

Topics of Interest

Submissions are invited on substantial, original, and previously unpublished
research in all aspects of AI, including, but not limited to:

* Architectures and languages for AI (e.g. parallel hardware and software for
  building AI systems)
* Artistic, entertainment and multimedia applications.
* Automated   reasoning   (e.g.  theorem   proving,   abduction,   automatic
  programming, search,  context  management  and  truth  maintenance systems,
  constraint satisfaction, satisfiability checking)
* Cognitive modeling (e.g. user models, memory models)
* Connectionist and PDP models
* Distributed AI, autonomous agents, multi-agent systems and real-time
  issues.
* Intelligent teaching systems
* Knowledge Engineering and Principles of AI applications (e.g. for design,
  manufacturing control, grand challenge applications)
* Knowledge representation  (e.g. logics  for knowledge,  action, belief  and
  intention, nonmonotonic  formalisms,  complexity  analysis,  languages
  and systems for representing knowledge)
* Learning, knowledge acquisition and case-based reasoning
* Logic programming (e.g. semantics, deductive databases, relationships to
  AI knowledge representation)
* Natural language (e.g. syntax, semantics, discourse, speech recognition
  and understanding, natural language front ends, generation systems,
  information extraction and retrieval)
* Philosophical foundations
* Planning and reasoning about action (including the relation between
  planning and control)
* Qualitative reasoning and naive physics (e.g. temporal and spatial
  reasoning, model-based reasoning, diagnosis)
* Reasoning under uncertainty (including fuzzy logic and fuzzy control)
* Robotic and artificial life systems (e.g. unmanned vehicles,
  vision/manipulation systems)
* Social, economic and legal implications
* Vision (e.g. color, shape, stereo, motion, object recognition, active
  vision, model-based vision, vision architectures and hardware, biological
  modeling).

Timetable

Submissions must be received by 6th January 1995. Submissions received  after
that date will be returned unopened.  Authors should note that ordinary  mail
can sometimes be considerably delayed,  especially over the new year  period,
and should take this into account when timing their submissions. Notification
of receipt will  be mailed to  the first author  (or designated author)  soon
after receipt.

Notification of acceptance or rejection: successful authors will be  notified
on or before 20th March 1995.  Unsuccessful authors will be notified by  27th
March 1995. Notification  will be  sent to  the first  author (or  designated
author).

Camera ready copies of the final versions of accepted papers must be received
by the publisher in the USA by 24th April 1995.

Note that at least one  author of each accepted  paper is required to  attend
the conference to present the work.

General

Authors should submit six (6) copies of  their papers in hard copy form.  All
paper submissions  should be  to  the following  address. Electronic  or  fax
submissions cannot be accepted.

IJCAI-95 Paper Submissions,
American Association for Artificial Intelligence,
445, Burgess Drive,
Menlo Park, CA. 94025, USA.
(telephone (415) 328-3123, email ijcai@aaai.org).

Appearance and Length

Papers should be printed on  8.5'' x 11'' or A4  sized paper. They must  be a
maximum of 15 pages long, each page having no more than 43 lines, lines being
at most  140mm long  and with  12 point  type. Title,  abstract, figures  and
references must be included within  this length limit. Papers breaking  these
rules will not be considered for presentation at the conference.

Letter quality  print is  required. (Normally,  dot-matrix printout  will  be
unacceptable unless  truly of  letter quality.  Exceptions will  be made  for
submissions from  countries  where  high  quality  printers  are  not  widely
available.)

Title Page

Each copy of the paper must include  a title page, separate from the body  of
the paper. This should contain:

* Title of the paper
* Full names, postal addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers and email
  addresses (where these exist) of all authors. The first postal address
  should be one that is suitable for delivery of items by courier service
* An abstract of 100-200 words
* A set of keywords giving the area/subarea of the paper and describing the
  topic of the paper. This information, together with the title of the paper,
  will be the main information used in allocating reviewers.
* The following declaration:
   ``This paper has not already been accepted by and is not currently under
     review for a journal or another conference. Nor will it be submitted
     for such during IJCAI's review period.''

Policy on Multiple Submissions

IJCAI will not accept any paper which, at the time of submission, is
under review for a journal or another conference. Authors are also
expected not to submit their papers elsewhere during IJCAI's review
period.  These restrictions apply only to journals and conferences,
not to workshops and similar specialized presentations with a limited
audience.

Review Criteria

Papers will be subject to peer review, but this review will not be
``blind'' (that is, the reviewers will be aware of the names of the
authors). Selection criteria include accuracy and originality of
ideas, clarity and significance of results and the quality of the
presentation. The decision of the Program Committee, taking into
consideration the individual reviews, will be final and cannot be
appealed.  Papers selected will be scheduled for presentation and will
be printed in the proceedings. Authors of accepted papers, or their
representatives, are expected to present their papers at the
conference.

Distinguished Paper Awards

The Program  Committee will  distinguish one  or more  papers of  exceptional
quality for special awards.  This decision will in  no way depend on  whether
the authors choose to enhance their paper with a video presentation.

Other Calls

Calls for  tutorial  and  workshop  proposals  and  video  presentations  for
IJCAI-95 will be issued shortly.


=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      Call for Papers

  10th IEEE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON INTELLIGENT CONTROL

                    August 27 - 29, 1995
                   MONTEREY MARRIOTT HOTEL
                MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA 93940 USA


SCOPE

The central theme of the tenth IEEE / ISIC will be threefold:
Hybrid Systems, Integrated Control and Diagnostics, and,
Non-conventional Robotic Applications. Recent advances in
technology and the ever increasing system complexity requires
new innovative approaches to systems modeling, analysis,
synthesis, and control. Hybrid systems, containing both
continuous and discrete state systems interacting with each
other, are essential for designing autonomous control systems.
Integrated control and diagnostics is required for real-time,
on-line failure detection, identification and recovery of
complex systems, and requires information fusion from a
diverse set of sources, i.e., sensors, controllers, databases,
etc. Robotics and automation has matured to the point that
robotics based applications are expanding to non-conventional
fields including applications in the textiles / apparel
industry, composites and the medical field. Virtual Reality
and Multi-media are playing an increasing role in telerobotics
(telemanipulation, teleoperation), virtual manufacturing and
prototyping. Thus, the Symposium objectives are to discuss and
present the most recent advances in the field. This year,
emphasis will be given to enhance the European participation
and encourage scientists and researchers from Europe to submit
contributed papers and / or proposals for invited sessions and
tutorials.

TOPICS

Symposium topics include, but are not limited to:
adaptive control, applications / implementations (aircraft /
spacecraft, automotive systems / IVHS, composites, consumer
products, manufacturing systems, process control, robotics,
textiles / apparel industry, underwater / land vehicles),
architectures for intelligent control, autonomous control
systems, CIM and FMS systems, computer control, design
techniques for intelligent controllers, discrete event systems,
distributed intelligent control, failure detection and
identification, fuzzy systems / fuzzy control, hierarchical
intelligent control, hybrid systems, knowledge-based and expert
systems, linear and nonlinear systems, machine learning /
adaptive systems, man-machine systems, mathematical analysis of
intelligent systems, modeling of intelligent systems,
multi-sensor fusion / integration, neural networks / neural
control, numerical methods, planning and scheduling systems,
quality control, real-time software, reconfigurable control,
telerobotics, virtual prototyping, and virtual reality
applications.

INVITED SESSIONS / TUTORIALS

Four copies of proposals for: invited sessions including all
full papers and a cover letter indicating the scope of the
proposed session, or, tutorials including a detailed outline of
the proposed topic, must be submitted to the Invited Sessions /
Tutorials Chair by MARCH 15, 1995. Invited sessions may include
survey papers and possibly a panel discussion.

IMPORTANT DATES

March 15, 1995: Full Papers, Proposals, Due
April 30, 1995: Notification of Acceptance / Rejection
May 31, 1995: Final, Camera Ready Papers, Due

PAPER SUBMISSION

FIVE copies of the full paper in final form must be received
for peer review by the Program Chair or Program Co-chair by
MARCH 15, 1995. Papers should be submitted in final format with
a 2-column format on 8.5 by 11 inch sheets. Each column is
limited to 3 1/4 inch in width and 8 7/8 inch in length with a
3/8 inch gutter between columns. The margins are 13/16 inch on
the sides, 1 1/16 inch on the top and bottom. Text is to be
typed single spaced in 10 point Times Roman (or a font closely
resembling this type), with 12 point inter-line spacing. The
first page of the paper, centered on the top below the top
margin, should include the paper title, the authors' names, and
their affiliations. Six pages are allowed for each paper. Up to
two additional pages will be permitted for a charge of $100 for
each additional page. Illustrations are included in the page
count. Papers will be reviewed by the International Program
Committee. Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection
by APRIL 30, 1995. The final, camera ready papers must be
mailed no later than MAY 31, 1995.


General Chair:
  Kimon P. Valavanis
  Robotics and Automation Laboratory
  Apparel-CIM Center & The Center for Advanced Computer Studies
  The University of Southwestern Louisiana
  Lafayette, LA 70504, USA
  e-mail: kimon@cacs.usl.edu
  Fax: (318) 262-5401, Phone: (318) 482-5817

Program Chair:
  Frank L. Lewis
  Automation & Robotics Research Institute
  The University of Texas at Arlington
  7300 Jack Newell Blvd. S.
  Fort Worth, TX 76118, USA
  e-mail: flewis@arrirs03.uta.edu
  Fax: (817) 794-5952, Phone: (817) 794-5972

Program Co-Chair:
  Dr. K. Suzanne Barber
  Department of ECE, ENS 240
  The University of Texas at Austin
  Austin, TX 78712, USA
  e-mail: barber@emx.cc.utexas.edu
  Fax: (512) 471-5532, Phone: (512) 471-6152

Local Arrangements Chair:
  Dr. Michael J. Lee
  Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
  Pacific Grove, CA 93950, USA
  e-mail: lemi@mbari.org
  Fax: (408) 633-4580, Phone: (408) 633-7005

European Liaison:
  Dr. Kostas Kyriakopoulos
  Department of Mechanical Engineering
  National Technical University of Athens
  Athens, Greece
  e-mail: kkyria@leon.nrcps.ariadne-t.gr

Publications Chair:
  Dr. Chaouki Abdallah
  Department of ECE
  University of New Mexico
  Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
  e-mail: chaouki@jemez.eece.unm.edu
  Phone: (505) 277-0298

Publicity Chair:
  Dr. Denis Gracanin
  Apparel-CIM Center
  The University of Southwestern Louisiana
  Lafayette, LA 70504, USA
  e-mail: dg@acim.usl.edu
  Fax: (318) 262-5401, Phone: (318) 482-5817

Invited Sessions / Tutorials Chair
  Dr. Nick Papanikolopoulos
  Department of Computer Science
  The University of Minnesota
  200 Union St. SE
  Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
  e-mail: npapas@cs.umn.edu
  Fax: (612) 625-0572, Phone: (612) 625-0163

Registration / Finance Chair:
  Ms. Cathy Pomier, Administrative Assistant
  The Center for Advanced Computer Studies
  The University of Southwestern Louisiana
  Lafayette, LA 70504, USA
  e-mail: cathy@cacs.usl.edu
  Fax: (318) 482-5791, Phone: (318) 482-6147


INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE

L. Acar, NIST, USA
J. Albus, NIST, USA
P. Antsaklis, Notre Dame University, USA
H. Berenji, NASA Ames, USA
D. Bhanu, University of California, Riverside, USA
P. Bonissone, General Electric CR & D, USA
A. De Luca, Politecnico di Torino, I
T. Fukuda, Nagoya University, J
M. Gini, University of Minnesota, USA
G. Giralt, LAAS, F
A. Grammatikos, University of Patras, GR
M. Leahy, U.S. Air Force, USA
S. Lee, JPL, USA
A. Levis, George Mason University, USA
P. Lima, Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica, P
I. Lovrek, University of Zagreb, HR
A. Meystel, Drexel University, USA
K. Passino, Ohio State University, USA
F.L. Pereira, Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica, P
M. Polycarpou, University of Cincinnati, USA
S. Ramaswamy, University of Texas, Austin, USA
S. Smith, University of Southwestern Louisiana, USA
T. Sobh, University of Utah, USA
J. Sztipanovits, Vanderbilt University, USA
A. Tzes, Polytechnic University, USA
P. M. Taylor, University of Hull, UK
M. Vajta, University of Twente, NL
A. Villa, Politecnico di Torino, I
J. Wen, RPI, USA
T. Williams, University of Southwestern Louisiana, USA

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS

	Workshop on Computational Kinematics

	INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, France
	September 4-6, 1995

The aim of this workshop is to provide an account of the state of
the art in  Computational Kinematics. We understand here under this
term that branch of kinematics research involving intensive computation not
only of the numerical type, but also of a symbolic or geometric nature.
The purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers in the field
of kinematics, mathematical computation and computer science to discuss
research results and exchange ideas in this newly emerging field. 
This meeting will be held at INRIA, the french national research institute
on computer science which is located on the French Riviera, near Nice.
For people planning to attend the IFToMM World Congress  on the Theory of
Machine and Mechanisms (August 30-September 2) note that
Nice and Milan are close.  The organizers intend that there will be 
very reduced fee for this workshop. The maximum number of attendee will 
be around 70.

Scientific Committee

Chairs

J-P. Merlet   INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, France
B. Ravani   University of California at Davis, USA

Members

J. Angeles   McGill University, Canada 
J. Canny   Berkeley University, USA
C. Gosselin   Universit\'e Laval, Canada
C. Hofmann   Purdue University, USA
G. Hommel   Technische Universit\"at Berlin, Germany
M. Husty   Montanuniversit\"at Loeben, Austria 
C. Innocenti   Universit\`a di Bologna, Italy
D. Lazard   LITP, Institut Blaise Pascal, France
J. Lenarcic   Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
N. Maizi   Ecole des Mines de Paris, France
B. Roth   Stanford University, USA
M. Wagner   Technical University of Wienna, Austria

Deadline:

Three copies of the full paper (maximum 10 pages, preferably
written in LaTeX) should be submitted before
December 31, 1994 and should be sent to:

European papers:   
	J-P. Merlet   E-mail: merlet@cygnusx1.inria.fr
	INRIA, BP. 93   Fax: (33) 93 65 76 43
	06902 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex, France 
Non-European papers:
	B. Ravani  E-mail: bravani@ucdavis.edu
	Dpt. of Mechanical Engineering Fax: (916)752-4158
	University of California  
	Davis CA 95616-5294, USA  

Acceptance of the paper after review by the scientific committee
will be notified on March 1 and the final version of
the paper will have to reach the chairmen by April, 15.

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT and CALL FOR PAPERS

International Federation of Automatic Control
WORKSHOP

Human-Oriented Design of Advanced Robotics Systems
(DARS '95)

September 19-20, 1995
Vienna, Austria

Institute for Handling Devices and Robotics
Technical University of Vienna

SPONSORED BY
IFAC	- International Federation of Automatic Control
IFAC	- TC on Social Impact of Automation (HAC)

COSPONSORED BY
IFAC - TC on Manufacturing Modelling, Management and Control (MIM)
IFAC - TC on Robotics (MIR)
IFAC - TC on Components and Instruments (MIC)
IFAC - TC on Low Cost Automation (MIL)
IFAC - TC on Advanced Manufacturing Technology (MIT)
IFAC - TC on Man-Machine Systems (SMM)
IFAC - TC on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles (TVI)
IFAC - TC on Automation in Developing Countries (IDE)

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE (IPC)
Chairman:	T. Martin (D)
Members:
M. Armada (E)		O. Ladanyi (A)	T. Borangiu (RO)
H. van der Loos (USA)	D. Brandt (D)	L. Mårtensson (S)
C. Bühler (D)		M. Nakamura(J)	R. Carelli (ARG)
F. Nicolò (I)		P.J. Deasley (GB)	A. Ollero (E)
W. Düchting (D)		R. Probst (A)	F.Emspak (USA)
U. Rembold (D)		G. Fagerberg (S)	T.Sato (J)	
J. Forslin (S)		T. Sheridan (USA)	G.Giralt (F)
R. Schraft (D)		R. Goebl (A)	H.Stassen (NL)	
W. Gruver (CAN)		T. Tarn (USA)	A.Halme (SF)
C. Willems (NL)		P. Kopacek (A)	R. vander Vorst (GB)

NATIONAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (NOC)
Chairman:	P. Kopacek (A)
Members:	I. Nemetz (A)		
		W.Schachner (A)
Workshop Editor:	P.Kopacek (A)

SCOPE
	Novel approaches for advanced robotics systems will be applied
in the industrial production and in many other areas in the near
future. For the employees to be able to work with these systems, new
ergonomical, social and cultural aspects must be considered. At the
workshop, new aspects of design and case studies shall be overviewed
and discussed.All possible application areas and environments will be
focussed on, including those that can dispense with human work for
difficult activities in harsh, demanding or dangerous
environments. Assistance for the disabled or handicapped and new
applications in the services sector are particularly demanding.

The outlined design aspects should deal with

-) the system design, specifically of the man-machine interface, for 
autonomous, semi-autonomous and tele-operated mode and for tele-existence;
-)the organizational and social aspects with respect to the environment in 
which the system is embedded;
-) the cultural aspect due to different living and working traditions and 
conditions of the people involved;
-) the economic aspects.Practical solutions (e.g. demonstrated with video) are 
preferred to purely theoretical consideration.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Contributions to the topics mentioned are welcome. Five copies of the abstract 
(approximately 400 words in English) should be received not later  than April 
1st, 1995

DEADLINES
Submission of abstracts:	1st April, 1995
Notification of acceptance:	15th June, 1995
Submission of full papers:	15th August, 1995

FURTHER INFORMATION
More information will be available on the information server of Vienna 
Technical University via gopher. Point your client to: info.tuwien.ac.at
					"International Activities"

COPYRIGHT
	The material submitted for presentation at an IFAC meeting
(symposium, conferen ce, workshop) must be original, not published or
being considered elsewhere. Al l papers accepted for presentation will
appear in the Preprints of the meeting and will be distributed to the
participants. Papers duly presented will be arch ived and offered for
sale, in the form of Postprint volumes, by Elsevier Scienc e Ltd.,
Oxford, UK. The presented papers will be further screened for possible
publication in the IFAC journals Automatica and Control Engineering
Practice, o r in other, IFAC affiliated journals. The abstracts of all
presented papers wil l also appear in Control Engineering
Practice.Copyright in material presented a t an IFAC meeting is held
by IFAC. Authors will be sent a copyright transfer fo rm. Automatica,
Control Engineering Practice and, after these, IFAC affiliated
journals have priority access to all presented contributions. However,
if the a uthor is not contacted by an editor of these journals, within
three months afte r the meeting, he/she is free to re-submit the
material for publication elsewhe re. In this case, the paper must
carry a reference to the IFAC meeting wherit was originally
presented. Authors in any doubt should consult the detailed AC
Copyright conditions available from the IFAC Secretariat.

LANGUAGE
English will be the official language.

MAILING ADDRESS
Institute for Handling Devices and Robotics (E318)
Technical University of Vienna
Floragasse 7A
A-1040 Wien
Tel.: +43/1/ 504 18 35
Fax: +43/1/ 504 18 35 9
E-mail: dars@ihrt1.ihrt.tuwien.ac.at

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd announcement

	   Practice  and  Future  of  Autonomous  Agents:
			     ASI-AA-95

		   23 September - 1 October 1995
		      Centro Stefano Franscini
		 Monte Verit'a, Ticino, Switzerland


(Follow-up meeting of the NATO Advanced Study Institute "The Biology
and Technology of Intelligent Autonomous Agents", which took place
Spring 1993 in Trento, Italy).


Sponsored by:

  Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; Computer Science Department,
  University of Zurich; SGAICO (Swiss Group for Artificial Intelligence and
  Cognitive Science); Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT; Applied AI
  Systems, Ottawa, Canada; Nippon Signal, Japan; Uchidate, Japan.

Goal of the Advanced Study Institute "Practice and Future of Autonomous Agents"

  The goal of the Advanced Study Institute (ASI) is to bring together the
  world's leading experts in the field of autonomous agents (AA) for an
  extended period of time in order to bring the existing research community
  closer together and to extend it to younger researchers.  As a result we
  expect a state-of-the-art assessment of the field, including a research
  agenda for the near future.  We hope that many joint research endeavors
  will emerge from the close collaboration in the workshops.

Current Situation:  Autonomous Agents Research in 1995

  Because technical skills about robot building are now widely available,
  promoting these skills at an ASI is no longer the primary objective.
  However, from a conceptual point of view there are still many fundamental
  issues in AA design that we do not yet sufficiently understand.
  Moreover, there is less need to provide complete coverage of all aspects
  of the field since by now they are well-known in the research community.
  For this reason the meeting will be focused on a number of core aspects
  of real world autonomous agents.  When the study institute will take
  place, roughly 2 1/2 years will have passed since the one in Trento took
  place.  Therefore, it is important to evaluate what has been achieved in
  the meantime.

Main topics of the Advanced Study Institute

  The field of autonomous agents has significantly matured during the last
  few years.  We are beyond the stage where robots are designed mainly
  based on intuition.  It is therefore a good time to make an assessment of
  the current state of the theory of autonomous agents.

  Theory: What are the recent developments in the theory of autonomous
	  agents?

  Design: How can autonomous agents be designed which show sophisticated
	  kinds of behavior?

  Performance measures: How can the performance of the agents be
	  quantified?

Topic areas:

  The Cog project; behavioral economics approach; evolutionary approaches;
  "complete autonomous systems"; self-organization, learning, and
  grounding; dynamical systems; collective behavior; industrial session.

Confirmed speakers (list to be completed):

  Randy Beer, Case Western Reserve University, US;
  Ren'e te Boekhorst, University of Zurich, CH;
  Rodney Brooks, MIT, US;
  Dave Cliff, University of Sussex, UK;
  Daniel Dennett, Turfts University, USA;
  Rodney Douglas, Oxford University, UK;
  Philippe Gaussier, ENSEA ETIS, F;
  Inman Harvey, University of Sussex, UK;
  Charlotte Hemelrijk, University of Zurich, CH;
  Phil Husbands, University of Sussex, UK;
  Maja Mataric, MIT, US (Brandeis University, US);
  David McFarland, Oxford University, UK;
  Gregor Sch"oner, Marseille, F;
  Tim Smithers, University of the Basque Country, SP;
  Luc Steels, Free University of Brussels, B;
  Takashi Gomi, Ottawa, Canada.


Workshop organizers (list to be completed):

  Rodney Brooks,          Jean-Daniel Nicoud,          Marinus Maris,
  Lynn-Andreas Stein,     Luc Steels, Tim Smithers,    Christian Scheier,
  Matthew Marjanovic,     Ren'e Schaad,                Daniel Meier
  Francesco Mondada,      Dimitrios Lambrinos,         and others.

Format:

  The ASI consists of the following parts: lectures, workshops, background
  lectures, poster/demo session, special robot event, panel discussions.


  Lectures. The lectures will provide a state-of-the-art overview of the
	field including the currently hottest research topics.  They have
	a tutorial and a research aspect and should be attended by
	everyone.

  Workshops. The afternoons and some evenings are reserved for workshops.
	They are conducted in parallel and will consist of concrete case
	studies with active contributions of all the participants.  This
	can also include presentations.  The case studies will include all
	three aspects of AA, namely theory, design, and performance
	evaluation and will address questions like: How could the designs
	of particular agents be improved?  How would the agents look like
	if viewed from a different design perspective?  etc.  Because the
	participants already have experience in the field these workshops
	will be a main forum for exchanging ideas.  A list of the workshops
	will be announced early next year.

  Background lectures. To embed the topics of the workshop into a larger
	framework a number of background lectures will be held in the
	evenings.

  Poster/Demo Sessions. The poster and demonstration sessions will give all
	participants the opportunity to present their own work.  This is
	also a forum to facilitate communication during the ASI.

  Panel discussions. Panel discussions will be organized to work out the
	strengths, weaknesses, points of agreement and disagreement of the
	various approaches.

  Special event. A special event will be organized which should capture the
	"spirit" of the ASI.  Because the various workshop groups will have
	their own robots to work with, the goal is having some or all of
	them work together on a common task (heterogeneous collective
	robots).  This could not only be a lot of fun, but is also of great
	theoretical interest.  More details on this special event will be
	announced later.

Application Procedure

  Deadline for applications:   April 13, 1995
  Notification of acceptance:  May 15, 1995

  The application should include:

    1. Statement of contribution.  A two-page description of the
       contribution participants plan to make in terms of demos,
       contribution to workshops, etc.
    2. Poster/Demo.  Each participant is expected to contribute a poster
       presentation.  Demonstrations are also of great interest.  An
       abstract should be submitted with the application.
    3. Background information.  A short description of the research
       background (CV) should be submitted with the application.
    4. Robots and simulations.

  Participants are encouraged to bring along their own robots and/or
  simulation environments.  It would be great to have a large variety of
  different types of robots for the special event.  They should all think
  about the special event and prepare their own robots in a way that will
  make success on a common task/game more likely.  Please state if you can
  bring a robot (and if yes, what kind).  This is not a condition for
  participation.

Fees

  Registration:    academic CHF 400.00, industrial CHF 600.00
  Room and board:  academic CHF 800.00, industrial CHF 1400.00

  Note: This includes 8 nights at the hotel, 3 meals a day, and coffee
  during breaks. The calculation of the costs for room and board are based
  on the assumption that the participants reside in the conference hotel
  (double rooms with a superb view of the Lago Maggiore and the Swiss and
  Italian mountains).  If you prefer a single room, there are many local
  hotels available in Ascona, a nearby village which is a very popular
  tourist resort.

Organization

  Director:
  Rolf Pfeifer, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Program Committee:

  Rodney Brooks, MIT, Cambridge, Mass., USA
  Jean-Daniel Nicoud, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
  Tim Smithers, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain
  Luc Steels, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
      (organizer of the previous ASI in Trento)
  Takashi Gomi, Applied AI Systems, Ottawa, Canada

Local organization:

  Autonomous Agents Research Group,
  AI Lab, Department of Computer Science,
  University of Zurich, Switzerland

Further information:

  Rolf Pfeifer
  AI Lab, Computer Science Department
  University of Zurich                 E-mail:  pfeifer@ifi.unizh.ch
  Winterthurerstrasse 190              Fax:     + 41 - 1 - 363 00 35
  CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland          Phone:   + 41 - 1 - 257 43 20/31

  WWW information:
  Consult the following WWW page at URL: http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/asi-aa.html
  It will always contain the most recent program, additional
  information about the workshops, travel information, etc.
  See also ftp://ftp.ifi.unizh.ch/pub/monteverita/ASI-AA-95.txt

--
Nikolaus Almassy,       Department of Computer Science,
  University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich
  Tel: +41 1 257 43 47, Fax: +41 1 363 00 35, almassy@ifi.unizh.ch
  http://josef.ifi.unizh.ch/groups/ailab/people/almassy.html

For more information send empty E-mail to <info@ifi.unizh.ch> with
"monte verita" in the subject line.  It can also be accessed by World
Wide Web the the URL: http://josef.ifi.unizh.ch/asi-aa.html

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                 First International Conference on 
       Computer Vision, Virtual Reality and Robotics in Medicine
                         CVRMed'95
                      April 3-5, 1995
                        Nice, FRANCE

	                OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this first international conference is to present and 
publish the most innovative and promising research work in computer 
vision, virtual reality and robotics applied to medical problems:
   1) to help diagnosis from multidimensional and multimodal images and 
   2) to assist therapy, especially in video surgery, interventional 
      radiology, and radiotherapy.

This domain has undergone a tremendous increase over the past few 
years and will be a revolution for medicine in the coming decade.

This event follows a successful preliminary AAAI symposium 
organized in March 1994 at Stanford by N. Ayache (INRIA), 
E. Grimson (MIT), T. Kanade (CMU), R. Kikinis and S. Wells (chair) 
(both at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital).

The topics addressed by this conference will include:

Therapy planning, simulation and control:
-----------------------------------------
.virtual and augmented reality applied to therapy control
.virtual patients for surgical training
.telepresence in medicine, telesurgery
.image guided medical robotics
.image guided therapy
.using electronic anatomical atlases
.virtual reality for rehabilitation

Registration problems in medicine:
----------------------------------
.3D localization of patients or surgical tools
.on line tracking of patient or organ motion
.nonrigid matching in medical images
.registration of mono or multimodal medical images
.registration with electronic anatomical atlases

Medical image understanding:
-----------------------------
.differential geometry and multidimensional images
.motion, shape and texture analysis in medical images
.building and using physical deformable models
.segmentation of multidimensional medical images
.spectral analysis in medical images
.detecting measuring pathological evolution 
.building electronic anatomical atlases
.statistical analysis of anatomical features
.representation of pictorial anatomical knowledge

                    PAPER SUBMISSION
                   ------------------
Four copies of complete manuscript should be received by 
Friday September 23, 1994, at the address:

                  Dr. Nicholas AYACHE
                   CVRMed'95 - INRIA 
            2004 Route des Lucioles - B.P.93 
          06902 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex - France

Papers should include:
----------------------
a) A title page including the names and addresses of the authors 
   (with e-mail), an abstract  of up to 200 words, and one or 
   more categories as listed above or other keywords.

b) A single page clearly answering the following questions:
   1. What is the original contribution of this work?
   2. Why should this contribution be considered important?
   3. What is the most closely related work by others and how
      does this work differ?
   4. How can other researchers make use of the results of this work?
   5. If this work extends or relates closely to some other work you 
      have published, please state precisely how it differs from
      that work?
   6. If any part of this work has been submitted to other conferences 
      or workshops, please state where and how it is different?

c) a paper, limited to 18 double space pages (12 points) including 
   figures and references, with a maximum of 7000 words.

Language policy:
----------------
Papers will be written in English. The organization will provide a
French translation of the abstracts. Oral communications will be done
in English. However, follow-up questions and discussions may be held
in both languages.

                         CALENDAR
                        ----------

September 23, 1994:  Submission deadline for receiving papers at INRIA
November 1994:       Notification to authors
January  2, 1995:    Camera ready received at INRIA
April 2, 1995:       Pre-registration in Nice
April 3-5, 1995:     Conference in Nice
April 6, 1995:       Technical tour in Sophia Antipolis

                    PROGRAM COMMITTEE
                   -------------------
		    
Full length papers will be reviewed and selected by the program
committee of the conference:

Chairman:
---------
Nicholas AYACHE (INRIA, France)

Members:
--------
Fred BOOKSTEIN (University of Michigan, USA) 
Mike BRADY (Oxford University, UK)
Grigore BURDEA (Rutgers University, USA) 
Philippe CINQUIN (Grenoble Hospital, France)
Jean-Louis COATRIEUX (INSERM, Rennes, France)
Alan COLCHESTER (Guy's Hospital, London, UK)
James DUNCAN (Yale University, USA)
Henry FUCHS (University of North Carolina, USA)
Guido GERIG (ETH-Z, Zurich, Switzerland) 
Erik GRANUM (Aalborg University, Denmark)
Eric GRIMSON (MIT, USA)
Karl-Heinz HOEHNE (University Hospital Eppendorf, Germany)
Thomas HUANG (University of Illinois, USA)
Takeo KANADE (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Ron KIKINIS (Harvard Medical School, USA) 
Jean-Claude LATOMBE (Stanford University, USA)
Tomas LOZANO-PEREZ (MIT, USA)
Charles PELIZZARI (University of Chicago, USA)
Richard ROBB (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA)
Paul SUETENS (KULeuven, Belgium)
Richard SZELISKI (DEC, Cambridge, USA)
Russ TAYLOR (IBM, Yorktown Heights, USA)
Demetri TERZOPOULOS (University of Toronto, Canada) 
Jean-Philippe THIRION (INRIA, France) 
Jun-ichiro TORIWAKI (Nagoya University, Japan)
Alessandro VERRI (University of Genoa, Italy)
Max VIERGEVER (University Hospital Utrecht, The Netherlands) 
William WELLS (Harvard Medical School, USA)

                    SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION
                   -------------------------
G. MALANDAIN and Epidaure Group (INRIA, France)

                    PRACTICAL ORGANIZATION
                   ------------------------
The conference will take place at Hotel Meridien in Nice, France, at
a prestigious address: 1, Promenade des Anglais (the heart of the 
French Riviera, right in front of the mediterranean sea!) from April
3 to 5, 1995.

The conference will be followed, on April 6, by a technical tour in 
Sophia-Antipolis, to visit the computer vision, graphics and robotics 
laboratories of INRIA (120 scientists).

The meeting will be composed of a single track of oral presentations
(long and short) with a number of poster sessions. 

The proceedings of the conference will be published by Springer-
Verlag in the series "Lecture Notes in Computer Science".

We plan to have a selection of the best papers to appear in a dedicated 
book or a special issue of a journal.

                    LOCAL ORGANIZATION
                   --------------------
The organizing body for the conference will be INRIA (National
Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control) in Sophia
Antipolis, France.

                      INFORMATION
                     -------------

                         INRIA
          Unite de Recherche de Sophia Antipolis
                  Relations Exterieures
                   Bureau des colloques
            2004, route des lucioles - BP 93
              06902 SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS CEDEX
                         FRANCE
                Tel: + 33 - 93 65 78 64
                Fax: + 33 - 93 65 79 55

         E-mail: Monique.Simonetti@sophia.inria.fr

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS (ABSTRACTS)

          SYMPOSIUM ON AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS IN MINE COUNTERMEASURES

                          April 4-7, 1995

          U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California 

With sponsorship from the Office of Naval Research, and with cooperation from 
agencies including ARPA, the U.S. Army Counter-Mine Program, the U.S. Marine 
Corps Amphibious Warfare Technical Center, and the U.S. Navy Explosive 
Ordnance Disposal Technical Center, the Naval Postgraduate School announces a 
Technical Symposium to define and explore the present and potential future 
prospects for autonomous systems in mine countermeasures applications. Both 
military and environmental applications are considered.

This is  a major technical symposium on the state-of-the-art and potential for 
the use of robotics approaches to deal with the problem of mines, booby traps, 
and other obstacles, toxic waste disposal, environmental monitoring and 
remediation.

Intended Audience. This symposium is for mine warfare and hazardous materials 
disposal specialists in each of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, and 
Marine Corps plus the Coast Guard); the Service and DoD Acquisition Community; 
personnel from mission-oriented laboratories of each of the Services; 
technical specialists from the Department of Energy National Laboratories; the 
Environmental Protection Agency; the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the 
Intelligence, and the Academic Communities. The symposium draws upon the 
research and development activities of the government laboratories, academe, 
and industrial laboratories. The symposium should prove beneficial to 
industrial suppliers and manufacturers who seek application of dual-use 
technology and processes.  

General Plan and Format of Symposium. The symposium will be held at the Naval 
Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, over a 4-day period. The format 
includes a series plenary sessions on systems requirements and concepts 
presentations from distinguished speakers and technical sessions that address 
the technologies of the major systems elements. The symposium will be 
UNCLASSIFIED. A ÒProceedings of the SymposiumÓ will be prepared and furnished 
to attendees. A modest registration fee will cover the overhead costs of the 
symposium plus session meals and refreshments. The plan is to have a mix of 
invited and submitted papers,  and panel discussion sessions.

Contributions are requested and will be selected on the basis of a review of 
an abstract. ABSTRACTS SHOULD BE 500 WORDS IN LENGTH and should be mailed or 
faxed on or before November 1, 1994 to:

     Albert M. Bottoms
     Visiting Professor of Undersea Warfare (Mine Warfare)
     U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (Code UW)
     Monterey CA 93943. 
     Tel: (408) 656-2535 
     Fax: (408) 656-3679 
     E-mail: ambottom@nps.navy.mil

Prospective authors will be notified of acceptance by January 15,1994, and 
full papers will be due by March 15, 1995. 

Point papers or original contributions of technical subject material will be 
accepted on the following topics:

      A-VEHICLE SYSTEMS: Existing (tethered or semi-autonomous), Bottom 
crawlers, Swimming, Amphibious/Land, Air, Space;

      B-POWER PLANTS:  Off-board, Air Breathing, Electrical, Chemical, 
Computation of Energy Budgets; 

      C-SENSORS: Acoustic, Magnetic, UEP, Optical, Tactile, Nuclear, 
Biological, Sensor Fusion and Image Enhancement;

      D-MISSION PACKAGES: Destructive, Marking, Classification, Removal, 
Systems Integration ;

      E-CONTROL: Off- Board Group Navigation, Obstacle Avoidance and 
Reporting, Operator Interfaces;

      F-OPERATIONS RESEARCH  / TACTICS:  Campaign Analyses, Tactical Analysis, 
Simulation and Trade-Off Methodologyies, Operational Test and Evaluation;

      G-ENVIRONMENTS: Surf Zone, Estuarine and Riverine, Physical 
Characterization, Chemical Characterization, Biological, Geological; 

      H-MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY AND DUAL-USE POSSIBILITIES : Dual-Use and 
Production Economics, Sources of Manufacturing Technology, Evolutionary 
Acquisition.

      Product and Technology Displays. Display areas will be provided for 
organizations and industrial groups to show video or put up small static 
displays and provide literature, reprints of papers, etc. 

Planning Horizons:  Research Abstracts due in Monterey: November 1, 1994
                    Prospective Authors Notified: January 15, 1995
                    Camera Ready Copy due in Monterey: March 15, 1995

Symposium sponsors emphasize that we are deliberately looking beyond the 
individuals and organizations that are usually involved on military and Navy 
R&D.  We are convinced that there are many investigators who are following 
paths very relevant to Navy needs who do not know of those needs; nor do 
government project people know of all investigators. 

Users of Internet will find updated Symposium information in the comp.robotics 
newsgroup and on the World Wide Web NPS Symposium Homepage at the following 
URL:
                 ftp://ftp.nps.navy.mil/pub/usw/av_mcm.html  

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         EPIA'95 WORKSHOPS - CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

  APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO ROBOTICS AND
                  VISION SYSTEMS WORKSHOP

  Seventh Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence
              Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal
                     October 3-6, 1995

 (Under the auspices of the Portuguese Association for AI)

                        INTRODUCTION

The Seventh Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence
(EPIA'95) will be held at Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal,
between October 3-6, 1995.  As in previous cases  ('89, '91,
and '93),   EPIA'95   will   be  run  as  an   international
conference,   English   being  the  official  language.  The
scientific  program  includes  tutorials,  invited lectures,
demonstrations, and paper presentations. The Conference will
include three parallel workshops on  Expert  Systems,  Fuzzy
Logic and Neural  Networks,  and  Applications  of  A.I.  to
Robotics  and  Vision  Systems.  These  workshops  will  run
simultaneously (see below) and  consist  of  invited  talks,
panels,    paper    presentations   and   poster   sessions.
Applications  of  Artificial  Intelligence  to Robotics  and
Vision Systems Workshop  may last for either 1, 2 or 3 days,
depending on the quantity and quality of submissions.


  APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO ROBOTICS AND 
                   VISION SYSTEMS WORKSHOP

During  the  last   few   years,   Artificial   Intelligence
techniques  have been successfully applied to a large number
of problems in robotics and computer vision.
This   workshop  aims  to  provide  an  overview   of   such
applications specially featuring real prototypes and systems
(e.g., robotic insects, autonomous mobile robots, etc.).
The availability of demonstrations  (robots, vision systems,
videos and demonstration software) is highly appreciated and
will be taken into account in assessing submissions.
The  workshop  will  be  divided  into   two   areas:  paper
presentations   and  system  exhibitions,  where  prototypes
related to the presentations will be demonstrated.
The  organization invites you to participate in the workshop
via paper presentations and/or system demonstrations.


                         EXHIBITIONS

In  order  to  illustrate   and   to   support   theoretical
presentations   the  organization   will   provide  adequate
conditions (space and facilities) for  exhibitions regarding
the three workshops mentioned. These exhibitions can include
software running systems  (several platforms are available),
video  presentations  (PAL-G VHS system),  robotics  systems
(such  as  robotics  insects,  and autonomous  robots),  and
posters.  On  the  one  hand,  this  space  will  allow  the
presentation  of  results and real-world applications of the
research developed by our community and,  on  the  other  it
will  serve  as a source of motivation to students and young
researchers.


                   SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Authors are asked to submit five (5) copies of their  papers
to  the  submissions  address by May 2, 95.  Notification of
acceptance  or  rejection  will  be  mailed to the first (or
designated)  author  on  June 5, 95, and camera ready copies
for  inclusion  in  the  workshop proceedings will be due on
July 3, 95.  Each  copy of submitted papers should include a
separate  title  page  giving  the  names,  addresses, phone
numbers   and   email  addresses  (where available)  of  all
authors, and a list of keywords identifying the subject area
of the paper.  Papers should be a maximum of  16  pages  and
printed on A4 paper in 12 point type with  a  maximum  of 38
lines per page and 75 characters per line ( corresponding to
LaTeX article style, 12 pt).  Double sided  submissions  are
preferred.  Electronic  or  faxed  submissions  will  not be
accepted.  Further  inquiries  should  be  addressed  to the
inquiries address.


                         ATTENDANCE

Each  workshop  will be limited to at most fifty people.  In
addition to presenters of papers and posters,  there will be
space for a limited number of other  participants  chosen on
the  basis  of a  one- to two-page  research  summary  which
should  include a list of relevant publications,  along with
an electronic mail address if possible.  A  set  of  working
notes  will  be  available  prior to the commencement of the
workshops.  Registration  information  will  be available in
June 1995.  Please write for registration information to the
inquiries address.


                          DEADLINES
                          ~~~~~~~~~
    Papers submission: ................. May  2, 1995
    Notification of acceptance: ........ June 5, 1995
    Camera Ready Copies Due: ........... July 3, 1995


                        PROGRAM-CHAIR
                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
               Joao Paulo Costeira (CMU, USA)


                      ORGANIZING-CHAIR
                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
             Jose Santos-Victor (IST, Portugal)


              SUBMISSION AND INQUIRIES ADDRESS
              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EPIA'95
Aplic. of AI to Robotics & Vision Workshop
INESC, Apartado 13069
1000 Lisboa Portugal
Voice: +351 (1) 310-0325
Fax: +351 (1) 525843
Email: epia95-ARVWorkshop@inesc.pt


                     PLANNING TO ATTEND
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
People planning to submit  a  paper  or/and  to  attend  the
workshop are asked to complete and return the following form
(by fax or email) to the  inquiries  address  standing their
intention.  It  will help the workshop organizer to estimate
the  facilities needed and will enable all interested people
to receive updated information.

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|                   REGISTRATION OF INTEREST                     |
|      (Applications of AI to Robotics & Vision Workshop)        |
|                                                                |
| Title .  . . . .  Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| Institution  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| Address1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| Address2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| Country  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| Telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fax . . . . . . . . . . |
| Email address. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| I intend to submit a paper (yes/no). . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| I intend to participate only (yes/no). . . . . . . . . . . . . |
| I will travel with ... guests                                  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------



26th International Symposium on Industrial Robots
4-6 October 1995
Singapore Suntec City
Convention and Exhibition Centre

Please also note that 1995 is also the official 'Visit Singapore'
year, and the tourist promotion board has prepared many other 
entertaining programs for our foreign visitors and guest.

CALL FOR PAPERS
===============

26th International Symposium on Industrial Robots

4-6 October 1995
Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center
Singapore

In 1995, The 26th International Symposium on Industrial Robots (ISIR)
will take place, for the first time, in Southeast Asia. The ISIR, the
prestigious international symposium organised under the auspices of the
International Federation of Robotics (IFR) is held annually since 1970.
This symposium will focus on the economics of robotic applications as
well as present emerging technologies from leading researchers and
manufacturers. Hence the theme:

"Competitive Automation: New Frontiers, New Opportunities"

To this end, we invite papers from users on case studies of successful
applications of robotics in enhancing manufacturing competitiveness which
will encourage the diffusion of robotics in this part of the world.
Delegates to the 26th ISIR will thus be able to benefit both from the
knowledge and expertise of researchers and manufacturers, as well as
experience of users.

There are three general areas of interest for 26th ISIR:

Management/Business
-   National policies and programmes
-   Human resource aspects
-   Business strategies

Applications
-   Manufacuring
-   Quality Assurance
-   Services
-   Medical
-   Defence
-   Construction
-   Argriculture and mining

Technology
-   Robotic systems and design
-   Intelligence
-   Emerging technologies
-   Computer Integrated Manufacturing
-   Peripherals
-   Simulation
-   Robot Vision

You are invited to submit abstract(s) for consideration, which should
provide sufficient information to allow the assessment of the scope and
contents of the paper, and please include:

-   Title of the paper
-   Author's name / Biographical data
-   Speaker's name / Affiliation
-   Organisation / Company and address
-   Telephone / Fax and e-mail id (if available)

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 30 November 1994.
Abstracts and any enquiries can be directed to me at

    Dr. K.B. Lim
    Chairman, Local Technical Prgramme Committee
    c/o National University of Singapore
        Mechanical & Production Engineering Department
        10 Kent Ridge Crescent
        Singapore 0511
        Republic of Singapore
        Tel: (65)-772-2891    Fax: (65)-779-1459
    e-mail: mpelimkb@leonis.nus.sg   (internet)
            mpelimkb@nusvm.bitnet    (bitnet)

or at our conference secretariat

    The 26th ISIR Secretariat
    Expoconsult Pte Ltd
    100, Beach Road, #26-00
    Shaw Tower
    Singapore 0718
    Republic of Singapore
    Tel: (65)-299-9273     Fax: (65)-299-9782


Looking forward to your support and Do come and visit our island country.
An International Showcase of Solutions
======================================

The 26th ISIR is held with ROBOTICS'95, the Asian International
Exhibition on Robotic and Vision Technology. It represents an unparallel
opportunity for manufacturers of robots and vision systems to market
their products and expertise into the vast and rapidly developing
Asian Market. Products and services appearing in this exbibition are:
Industrial Robots, Machine Vision systems, Peripherals, Automation systems
and services.

Other related exhibitions held concurrently are:

FA'95           Factory Automation machinery, equipment, tools, materials
                and accessories.

MANUSOFT'95     Manufacturing solutions and process software.

TRANSFLUID'95   Power transmission pneumatics, hydraulics and fluid
                control technology.

LOGISMAT'95     Material handling, storage, transportation, warehousing
                and distribution.

Together with ROBOTICS'95 and the 26th ISIR, these events give a complete
platform serving as an "one-stop shop" for the industrial automation
industry.


Background of ISIR and IFR
==========================

The ISIR is organised by the International Fderation of Robotics (IFR), which,
with the membership of twenty-five member of twenty-five member countries, has
become recognised as the major representative of robotic interest throughout
the world. With its support, this symposium has made significant contributions
to the development and application of robotic technology since its inception
in 1970. The staging of this event in Singapore - the first Asian country
outside Japan to have the honour of hosting it - leads recognition to
Singapore role as the gateway to this vast and dynamic market.

SINGAPORE 1995 - "Meet in Singapore" year
=========================================

1995 is the 'Meet-in-Singapore" year and a host of exciting activities has been
planned by the government and private organisations to welcome visitors to our
garden city. We welcome all reseachers, practitioners and users of robotic
technology from all over the world to meet in Singapore for the 26th ISIR for
a fruitful exchange of ideas and enjoy the gracious hospitability and warmth
of exciting Asia.

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    1996 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
                                    ON
                          ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION

          (sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society)



The 1996 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation will take
place at Minneapolis Hilton and Towers, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 22 -
28, 1996.

The General Chair is Norman Caplan from the National Science Foundation, and
the Program Chair is C. S. George Lee from Purdue University.

The Deadline for paper submission is September 15, 1995. Six copies of each
paper must be sent to:


                             C. S. George Lee 
                      1285 Electrical Engineering Building
                        School of Electrical Engineering
                               Purdue University
                      West Lafayette, IN 47907-1285, U.S.A.
                              Fax: (317) 494-6951
                             Phone: (317) 494-1384
                         E-mail: csglee@ecn.purdue.edu


The official Call for Papers with the Program Committee members and all
conference details is forthcoming soon.

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MFI'96: 1996 IEEE/SICE/RSJ International conference on
        Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems
        (Maybe held in Oct 1996)
Main topics: - Algorithms for sensor fusion and integration
             - Sensing Architectures
             - Implementation
             - Applications
Further info.: Masatoshi Ishikawa
               Department of Mathematical Engineering and Information Physics
               University of Tokyo
               Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113, Japan
               TEL: 81-3-5800-6569
               FAX: 81-3-5800-6969
               Email: ishikawa@k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

=------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to those listed above many other annual conferences are
held. Here are a few of them:

Annual International Conference of IEEE on Robotics and Automation
(ICARA)

Annual Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems

Annual Symposium on Industrial Robots

International Symposium of Robotics Research

Autonomous Intelligent Systems

International Conference on Computer Vision

British Machine Vision Conference

IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Conference

IMAC/SICE International Symposium on Robotics, Mechatronics and
	Manufacturing Systems.

American Association for Artificial Intellignece (AAAI)
	Probably the largest and most prestigious conference
  on AI. Now sponsoring a robot competition at the annual AAAI
  conference.

------------------------------
[5.2] Competitions

There are a number of robot gatherings where robot builders can bring
their creations to show and compete with others.

Competition List
	AAAI Robot Competitions
	AUVS International Aerial Robotics Competition
	AUVS Ground Robotics Competition
	BEAM Robot Olympics
	Hong-Kong Robot Ping Pong Competition
	IEEE Micromouse Competitions
	IJCAI Robot Competition
	International Festival of Science and Technology
	International Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest
	SAE Walking Machine Decathalon
	Sumo Robot Competition
	Western Candian Robot Games

Steve Rainwater also maintains a robot contests and competitions list
that is posted regularly to comp.robotics
	Internet   srainwater@ncc.com
	Fax        214-650-1929
	BBS        214-258-1832

------------------------------
AAAI Robot Competitions:
	Each year, starting in 1990, at the annual meeting of the
	American Association of Artificial Intelligence a robotics
	competition is sponsored. Rules and locations vary from year
	to year.  See conference announcements for details.

------------------------------
AUVS International Aerial Robotics Competition:

 The AUVS International Aerial Robotics Competitiont is a competition
sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (See above)
to encourage aspiring engineers and scientists to pursue careers in
fields allied to unmanned system technology, particularily in the more
difficult realm of unmanned aerial vehicles.  It is a yearly
competition held on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology
in Atlanta, GA.

The general goal of the competition is to create autonomous flying
vehicles capable of carrying out a set of predefined tasks. The
vehicles must compete based on their ability to sense the structured
enviroment of the Competition Arena. They may be intelligent or
preprogrammed, but they must not be flown by a remote human operator.

The vehicles must start from a designated starting area within the
arena, locate a pick-up ring containing six randomly placed disks, and
transfer each disk one at a time to a drop-off ring. A three-foot high
central barrier separates the rings that are six feet in diameter and
80 feet apart. The entire arena is 60' x 120'.

	The FAQ is available at:
	ftp://usc.edu/pub/nn_robotics/other/auvsarc/auvsarc.FAQ.Z
	or at:
	http://www.usc.edu/dept/robotics/other/auvsarc/auvsarc.html
	or email to auvsarc-request@robotics.usc.edu

------------------------------
AUVS Ground Robotics Competition:

The objective of this competition is to build a completely autonomous
vehicle capable of navigating itself around a grass track outlined
with white lines.  There are also obstacles on the track to avoid (so
far red and white hay bales, and a sand pit last year).

Below is a copy of LAST YEAR's rules:

AUVS Competition Rules and Regulations

                     1994 International
                 Ground Robotics Competition

OBJECTIVE:  To autonomously navigate around an outdoor
obstacle course in the shortest time.

PRIZE:  Student team with the winning entry will receive a
$10,000 prize.

TIME & LOCATION:    20-22 May 1994
                    Oakland University
                    Rochester, Michigan 48309

General Rules:
1.  Vehicles must be unmanned and autonomous.  They must
compete based on their ability to sense the course
environment independent of any human operator.

2.  Competition is intended for university
(graduate/undergraduate) student teams.  Only student teams
can be awarded prize money.

3.  Each vehicle must be equipped with both a manual and
remote emergency stop button.  The Emergency stop button
must engage the vehicle brakes and stop the engine.
Vehicles judged to be unsafe will not be allowed to compete.

4.  A RF data link will be provided for emergency stop only.
All other sensing and control equipment must be carried on
board the vehicle.

5.  Judges will be assigned to determine compliance with all
rules.  In the event of any conflict, the judges decision
will be final.  Judges will stop or disqualify any vehicle
which appears to be a safety hazard.

Vehicle Entries:
The competition is designed for a small rugged outdoor
vehicle, such as an All Terrain Vehicle.  Vehicle chassis
can be fabricated or commercially bought.  Entries must
conform to the following measurements:

Length:  Minimum length 3 feet; Maximum length 9 ft.

Width:  Not to exceed 5 feet.

Height:  Not to exceed 6 feet (excluding emergency stop
antenna)

------------------------------
BEAM Robot Olympics:
	Contact:	Mark Tilden <mwtilden@math.uwaterloo.ca>

 BEAM stands for Biology, Electronics, Art and Mechanics -- which were
the original concepts behind BEAM.  Draw from biology into electronics
and mechanics and make it artful.  Tilden advocates using the parts
from discarded electronics items such as Walkmans, disk drives, etc.,
to make machines that moved.  He avoids the use of computers and
microcontrollers in his machines.  The original SolarRunner consisted
of parts from a Walkman, a solar cell from a solar calculator, some
brass tubing, part of a printer roller, a couple of transistors, a
zener diode, a capacitor and a resistor.  Most, if not all, of
Tilden's machines are solar powered and autonomous.

	Articles on the BEAM Olympics:

	Dewdney, A.K. Photovores: Intelligent Robots are Constructed
	From Castoffs. Scientific American Sept 1992, v267, n3, p42(1)

	Maylon, John.  At the Robot Olympics.  Whole Earth Review.
	Spring 1992, pp 80-84.

	Smit, Michael C., and Mark Tilden, Beam Robotics. Algorithm,
	Vol. 2, No. 2, March 1991, Pg 15-19

------------------------------
Hong-Kong Robot Ping Pong Competition:
	Contact:	Robin Bradbeer <EERTBRAD@hk.cphk.cphkvx>

------------------------------
IEEE Micromouse Competitions:
	In 1979 the IEEE Spectrum ran the first micromouse competition
and many hundreds of these contests are run every year. Some are
still under the auspices of the IEEE but many more are not.

	Official IEEE/ABEC Rules and much more are located here:

	http://www.ceas.rochester.edu:8080/ee/users/weisberg/mouse.html
        ftp://ftp.ee.rochester.edu/pub/weisberg/Micro-Mouse/*

	IEEE Robot Olympics and MicroMouse Competition Committee 
	BEAM/IEEE Robot Olympics and MicroMouse Competition Committee 
	BEAM/IEEE Robot Games 
	       micro-mouse@ieee.org   or   mouse@sunee.uwaterloo.ca 
	c/o Edward Spike 
	E & CE Dept. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, 
	Canada, N2L3G1.   (519)888-4567, X-3716, fax:(519)888-6197 
	spike@eestaff.watstar.uwaterloo.ca 

	This year's Australian Micromouse Championship, OZ Mouse '94,
	is to be held in Sydney on Sunday 27 November, hosted by the
	Universities of Queensland and Wollongong in conjunction with
	the IEE and IEEE. For more details contact:
	Gordon Wyeth < wyeth@elec.uq.oz.au>

	A copy of rules (a bit old) may be found at 
		ftp://ftp.ece.ucdavis.edu/pub/umouse/admin/rules.txt. 

	Micromouse mazes are available at:
		ftp://ftp.ece.ucdavis.edu/pub/umouse/mazes.

------------------------------
The Second annual Picnic Day Micromouse Contest at UC Davis.
Saturday, April 22, 1995
	URL: http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/  under misc.

Last year for this event, we packed a 450 person lecture hall to the
bursting point.  We had closed circuit TV set up so that even the
people in the back could see at least reasonably well.  It was a real
blast last year, so don't miss out on the fun this year!  This contest
helps provide a trial run for new mice, so that they will be well
prepared to enter officially sanctioned IEEE contests.  In our case,
the local contest will take place two weeks following Picnic Day.

This is an open contest, and anyone may participate.  Last year, we
had about 8 participants, one from as far away as UC San Diego (~600
miles).  The mazes, as last year, will be created by a neutral third
party, and will not be revealed until shortly before the start of the
contest.

If anyone thinks they may be interested in participating, I would
appreciate a quick reply, so that I may add you to my mailing list.
If anyone has contacts (pref. e-mail) with any school active in
micromouse, I would very much appreciate a quick note.

Last year, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) sponsored this contest and
provided a trophy for the winner.  (Last year, that was University of
Nevada, Reno.)  I am hopeful they will do likewise this year.

More information will be forthcoming as the time approaches.  This
will include an online copy of the rules under which the contest will
be run.

Jeff Collins <jwcollin@engr.ucdavis.edu>

--
	For more information on Micromousing (rules, past mazes and
	times, etc.), contact the North American Micromouse
	Association (NAMA) at:
        MicroMom
        aka. Sue Rosenbaum
        1086 Central Ave.
        Plainfield, NJ 07061
	tel: 908.757.6749 

------------------------------
IJCAI-95 Robot Competition

Raja Chatila (raja@laas.fr) and Dave Miller (dmiller@azrael.mitre.org)
are robotic events co-organizers for IJCAI-95 in Montreal next August.
If you think you might be interested in participating in any of the
events described below, or would like some additional information,
please feel free to drop Raja or Dave a line. To get on the mailing
list for these events send email to Dave Miller,
dmiller@azrael.mitre.org

1) Robot Competition 95:
	This event will be similar to the robot competition held at
AAAI-94.  Research robots will compete in a set of generalized
navigation and navigation/manipulation tasks.  As in the 94 contest,
the bulk of the trials will be done offline, and the finals and an
exhibition will be held during a public session for the conference.
David Kortenkamp (korten@mickey.jsc.nasa.gov) is the point of contact
for more details on this event.

2) Intelligent Wheelchair Competition:
	This is another robot contest, but this time the focus is on a
particular application: robotic mobility assistants for the severly
disabled. The competition tasks will include things such as room to
room navigation, speed trials down crowded hallways and through
doorways, and docking with desks and tables.  Each robot must be able
to carry a human user, and all communications with the robot must be
done by the user (no radios, etc).  The contest goals are to see who
can make the most capable chair with the best user interface (if a
user could type well, or operate a joystick competently, than an
ordinary wheelchair would do!). Contact:
ijcai-wheelchair@azrael.mitre.org


	To encourage participation in this new event, especially in
institutions that have not yet dealt with assistive robotics, KISS
Institute for Practical Robotics (kipr@src.umd.edu) has assembled a
low-cost intelligent wheelchair starter system and is selling it, at
cost, to schools interested in this IJCAI event. Send them some mail
for more info.

3) Robot exhibition (not-so-stupid robot tricks)
	This will be a time and place for some unique robot systems to
show off their stuff. The participants in this event should have a
demonstration that is dynamic and of wide appeal. Examples might
include: bi-pedal walking robots; robot teams playing soccer
(football); robot interpretive (non-random) dance. This is not meant
to be an industrial robot show, and product demonstrations will not be
strongly discouraged. This is meant to be an intelligent and
innovative robot show.

More information on all of these events will be forthcoming, but his to get
everyone started thinking. Hope to see you all in Montral,

contact:
David P. Miller                         7525 Colshire Drive
Principal Scientist                     MS Z421
MITRE Corporation                       McLean, VA 22102, USA
voice: (703) 883-7667                   FAX: (703) 883-6435

------------------------------
International Festival of Science and Technology
LA FERTE BERNARD 
FRANCE
ROBOT WORLD CONTEST
Introduction:
	The object of the challenge is to build a robot which is
capable of carrying out a series of different movements within a
minimum amount of time. The challenge will take place from 22 to 28
May, 1995 at la Ferte Bernard, as part of the "International
Festival of Science and Technology", with the Minister for Higher
Education and Research, Mr Francois Fillon, presiding.
	The challenge is restricted to students and, in order to
participate, teams must be nominated by their colleges or
universities. Teams - which will be made up of five members - will
arrive with their robots already assembled.  These must then be
adapted to the circuit which will be revealed at the start of the
challenge. The challenge will take place non-stop over 24 hours in
front of an audience.  The atmosphere will be very exciting and
competitive. The challenge will take place non-stop over 24 hours in
front of an audience. The atmosphere will be very exciting and
competitive.

General Specifications:

	The teams will be made up of five people.  Each team may
include one teacher and one past-pupil of the school or institute
which it is representing.
	To ensure that the robot's design is original, there must be
evidence of a partnership agreement with either an art college or the
design department of a specialist school. The robot must be able to
move independently and recognise five red French billiards balls
placed along the course.  The balls must be brought back to the
finishing area. The robot must be able to move independently and
recognise five red French billiards balls placed along the course.
The balls must be brought back to the finishing area.
	The track will be laid out in a 10 x 10 m square.
	The outermost axis of the track will be 66 cm from the edge of
the circuit.
	The minimum radius of curvature on the track will be 100 cm,
including the walls and edges of the stage.
	The track will be painted either black or white and will be
made of 3 mm thick plywood fixed to the ground.
 	   Different prizes will be awarded for different skills.  It
is planned to have a number of categories, as follows: * speed
category * design and innovation category * audience and spectator
category * industry category

We hope to see you at the next Science and Technology Festival which
will take place from 22 to 28 May 1995.

More information: uguen@world-net.sct.fr <Maurice Uguen>

------------------------------
International Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest

The Connecticut Robotics Society and Trinity College are again
sponsoring the international Fire-Fighting Home Robot contest on
Sunday, April 23, 1995 at the Trinity College campus in Hartford,
Ct. The contest is open to everyone and has different categories which
will enable anyone of any age, ability or experience level to compete
and possibly win.

The challenge will be to build a computer controlled Robotic device
(not radio-controlled) that can move through a model of a single floor
of a house, look for fire (a lit candle), and then extinguish it. The
model house will be eight feet by eight feet with walls, hallways and
rooms. Contestants will be given the exact layout of the house with
the official rules. The Robot that searches the house, finds the
candle, and extinguishes it in the shortest time will win. The Robots
must be less than one foot on a side and can be tethered to a personal
computer or controlled by a self-contained microprocessor. There will
be different judging criteria so that any Robot can be a winner
regardless of its simplicity, complexity or sophistication.

This all-day international event will be the culmination of months of
work and effort by Robotists of all ages and from all over. Last
year's contest generated inquiries and participants from 41 states and
27 foreign countries.  The entrants ranged from MIT professors to
fourth graders.

There will be two divisions in this yearÕs contest. A Junior division for those
in High School and younger and a Senior division for everyone else. There will
be a prize of $1,000 awarded to the top winner in each division with additional
prizes to other winners in those divisions. All entrants will receive an award
and there will be separate special prizes for the winners in each category.

For a copy of the rules and to be put on the official mailing list, please send
$3 (cash, check or money order) to Jake Mendelssohn, 190 Mohegan Drive, West
Hartford, CT 06117

For more information contact: jake.mendelssohn@circellar.com

------------------------------
SAE Walking Machine Decathalon

The Ninth Annual SAE National Robotic Walking Machine Decathlon
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado April 6-9, 1995

Registration deadline is December 31, 1994.

Colorado State University
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National Walking Machine Decathlon
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO  80523
tel: 303.491.6559
fax: 303.491.1055
net: walk@LANCE.ColoState.Edu

	http://www.lance.colostate.edu/~chriso/walking.html
or	ftp://bill.lance.colostate.edu:/pub/walking

If you do not have access to the WWW and you would like a text copy of
the brochure, send email and I'll mail you a copy. Chris Olson
<chriso@lance.colostate.edu>

Registration deadline:  December 31, 1994

Decathalon: The decathlon is a national competition sponsored by SAE to involve
undergraduate engineers in the creative design of machines that walk.
The competition includes preparation and presentation of a paper,
judging of over-all design merits, and the ten walking events.  Judges
are representatives >from the robotics industry.  Social events, a
keynote speaker, and tours are also provided.  A detailed rules and
registration packet is available.

Team Spirit: This competition emphasizes collaboration of engineering
disciplines in a teamwork environment.  It encourages students to be
organized, to cooperate, and to share knowledge from their respective
fields, resulting in an experience that closely models the real-world
workplace.

What is a walking machine?  A walking machine is a mobile machine
propelled by articulated mechanisms, or "legs."  Each leg must have
one or more joints or hinges by which it moves relative to all other
legs or the frame, supporting the machine discontinuously.  A leg may
pivot, slip, or slide on the supporting surface during walking motion,
but it cannot roll.  Wheeled or tracked vehicles are excluded.
Walking machines have potential applications in space exploration,
undersea missions, mining, radioactive and other dangerous
environments, the military, and mobility for the handicapped.

Judging and Awards Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three teams
based on total points accumulated.  All teams will receive recognition
awards.

History: The National Robotic Walking Machine Decathlon was initiated
in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Colorado State University
in 1986.  The idea was to create a student design competition at the
cutting edge of technology with an emphasis on design.  In eight years
it has gone from a competition in which none of the four machines
present were able to complete the first event, to one where there are
some very capable machines completing all ten events, and in which
there is close competition.  The events themselves continue to evolve
to reflect relevant applications of robotics technology.  The events
traditionally have included such tasks as stair climbing, maneuvering
through obstacles, and autonomous sensor guidance.

------------------------------
Sumo Robot Competition:
	Sumo is a traditional Japanese sport in which two very large
half-naked men try to push each other out of a circle called the
Dohyou. The winner of the game is the guy who has not touched the
ground with his hand or hasn't stepped out of the circle before the
other guy did.

There is a Robot Sumo Tournament in Japan, that is held in December
every year in Tokyo. The rule of the Tournament is same as the real
Sumo except two robots fight rather than naked guys. The task of the
game is quite simple: push the opponent out of the circle.

The regulations are as follows:
1. The area of the base cannot exceed 20cmX20cm before game starts,
   It is unlimited in height and can expand after the game starts.
2. The weight cannot exceed 3kg.
3. Use of internal/external combustion engine is prohibited.
4. Intention to harm the opponent or the Dohyou (playground which
   includes the circle) is not allowed.
5. Contestants are free to choose control techniques, but they are
   divided into 2 categories:

	Radio Controlled: Contestants can use ordinary commercial R/C
	equipment and remotely guide their robots.

	Stand-alone: Robots cannot be controlled externally by
	contestants with the exception of pushing a start button when
	the contest begins.

To avoid interference with the humans who set the robots on the
Dohyou, the Stand Alone category has a special rule which says that
the game will starts exactly 5 seconds after the official signals the
start.  It means that the contestant will push a start button (or
some- thing else) for the robot the same time as the offical's
signal. The robot must keep the start position for 5 seconds, and the
person who pushed the button must leave the Dohyou in that time.
Therefore, the robots in the Stand Alone category must have at a start
button and a means of timing the five seconds.

Progression in the competition consists of three game matches between
randomly selected robots. Last year [1992] 150 robots were in the
Radio Controlled category and 190 were in the Stand Alone category. If
you beat six or seven opponents, you can win the first prize of
1,000,000Yen or US$7,700. The second prize is 500,000Yen or
US$3,850. [edited from a message by Mato Hattori]

A video called "Mostly Sumo" is available from Media Magic at
415-662-2426. Their FAX is 415-662-2225.
[As of Dec 1994, the video was sold out - check again in mid-Jan 1995]

------------------------------
Western Canadian Robot Games
Fourth Annual!

New this year is the addition of 4 BEAM events (Solaroller, Photovore,
Walkers, and Aesthetics).  More details will be available as soon as
the rulebook is available.

In the interest of promoting science and technology to the public
and foster enthusiasm and creativity amongst students, the
Western Canadian Robot Games committee holds an annual robotic
contest in a centralized western Canadian location.
 
This email message is sent to you in the hopes you may pass it on
to suitable instructors, professors, staff and students to invite
them to our next contest!
 
If you would like to be included on our mailing list or receive
our brochure,  please provide me with an email or postal address.
 
                  ***     SAIT          IEEE       ***
                  *** WESTERN CANADIAN ROBOT GAMES ***
                  ***   Fourth Annual Competition  ***
                  ***       and Exhibition         ***
                  ***         April 8, 1995        ***
 
The IEEE student branch at SAIT challenge all SUMO alumni, students,
instructors, and inventive individuals to design and enter your robots
in one or more of our contests:
                 ROBOTIC SUMO WRESTLING / ATOMIC HOCKEY
                               BEAM Events
 
ROBOTIC SUMO WRESTLING: 
The Tradition Continues
 
This contest matches your own creation with another robot in the
field of combat where brute strength and cat-like reflexes
combine to create the ultimate battle!  The challenge is to
create a robot whose sole purpose is to push, throw, flip, drag,
or otherwise move your opponent out of a five foot diameter
circular ring within 3 minutes.
 
In the tradition of an ancient Japanese contest of similar name,
SUMO wrestling robots can use any trick the creator conceives to
get the job done, within the following limits:
 
     *  No robot may be used which is a physical threat to other
        contestants or the audience. (i.e., Explosions, fire,
        bullets, mace etc...)
     *  Robots must fit within a 9" x 9" square when the
        competition begins, but may expand to a larger size
        after battle starts. Height is unrestricted at all
        times.
     *  Robots must be 11 pounds or less in weight.
     *  After the battle is over, contestants are responsible
        for cleaning up any debris in the ring to the

There are two separate classes to SUMO robotic wrestling: 
Autonomous and Remote-Control.
 
Remote Control  robots may be a radio or wired-remote control and 
may be operated by a biological (human, usually).
 
Autonomous Robots must carry on-board all power and intelligence
required to seek and conquer the enemy.  
 
Each robot class will be awarded its own prize!
(Prizes will also be awarded for the most humorous entry)
 
                              ATOMIC HOCKEY
 
You have never seen the NHL like this before!  A head-to-head
game of robot mayhem played out on an atomic scale as each
competitor fights for the opportunity to gather more protons than
his opponent while avoiding the ever present electrons!
 
Played out in a 5 foot diameter circular ring lined with a 2 inch
high wall, the robots must locate and gather Ping-Pong balls
(protons) and deposit them in their own goal (the nucleus) within
a three minute period while their opponents do the same.  Each
proton carries a score of +1 point.  
 
Unfortunately, the ring also contains an equal number of small
metal balls (electrons) worth -1 point each.  Each electron in
your nucleus reduces your score by one point, so be careful to
avoid them (or at least put them in your opponent's nucleus)!
 
     *  Robots are to be a maximum of 9" x 9" square with
        unlimited height and have no weight restriction.
     *   Robots must not pose any physical threat to biologicals
        (see SUMO rules).
     *  Autonomous robots may put any signaling device they wish
        in their nucleus to help the robot locate the goal.
     *  Aggressive and devious play between robots is
        encouraged, so long as no damage occurs to the ring or
        room.
 
As with Robotic SUMO Wrestling, there are two categories: Autonomous
and Remote Controlled ( Radio or Tethered ) New for 1994 is the
introduction of the BEAM Solaroller, Photovore, Walker and
BEAM-Aesthetics events - more details to follow!
 
For a complete rule set for both competitions and application
information, please email, phone, fax, or (gasp) write to me at:
 
Craig Maynard
Instructor, Electrical/Electronics Department,
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
1301-16th Ave NW
Calgary, Alberta
T2M-0L4
Phone (403) 284-8401  Fax (403) 284-8184
Email: maynard@trantor.el.sait.ab.ca
or
Dave Hrynkiw
BEAM Coordinator
email: hrynkiwd@cuug.ab.ca


[Please send updated information and I will update these competitions.
Thanks, nivek]

___________________________________________________________________________
End of part 2


-- 

aka: Kevin Dowling			Carnegie Mellon University
tel: (412) 268-8830			The Robotics Institute
adr: nivek@ri.cmu.edu			Pittsburgh, PA 15213
-- 

aka: Kevin Dowling			Carnegie Mellon University
tel: (412) 268-8830			The Robotics Institute
adr: nivek@ri.cmu.edu			Pittsburgh, PA 15213