[robocup-worldwide] Advanced Call for Participation - The Response Robotics Summer School 2013

[Raymond Sheh]

=====================================
The Response Robotics Summer School 2013
9-13 September 2013
Perth, Western Australia
http://www.responserobotics.org/
=====================================


ADVANCED CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

The Response Robotics Summer School is a hands-on summer school for 
graduate students and early career researchers on the challenges and 
Best-in-Class solutions for Response Robotics, with a focus on the 
challenges posed by EOD and remote handling for response applications. 
This event is a collaboration between the Curtin University of 
Technology Department of Computing and the Western Australia Police Bomb 
Response Unit. It is run in conjunction with the Bomb Response 
Technology Seminar, an event for Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) 
responders and equipment manufacturers from around Australia, the 
region, and the world.

This intensive five-day educational and development summer school is the 
successor to the IEEE-RAS Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics Summer 
School, held in September 2012 in Alanya, Turkey, and is an outreach 
activity of the DHS-NIST-ASTM International Standard Test Methods for 
Response Robots program. It has been established by members of the SSRR 
research community, including members of the Organising Committee of the 
International RoboCupRescue Robot League, to better address the rapidly 
growing need for effective robotic solutions in emergency response 
scenarios.

This event is open to all researchers interested in a broad 
understanding of the SSRR field, coupled with in-depth knowledge of 
specific topics of great current relevance. We welcome participants from 
both within and outside the RoboCupRescue Robot League community, as 
well as participants from Australia and abroad. In particular, we 
encourage participants to bring their prototypical implementations of 
solutions to challenges within this domain. There will be opportunities 
to demonstrate these solutions both to other participants as well as to 
responders, and to evaluate and compare these solutions to those 
currently in deployment within the framework of the DHS-NIST-ASTM 
International Standard Test Methods for Response Robots.

This is an advanced call for participation and provides a summary of 
this event. Further details will be made available in the near future. 
Please visit the website at http://www.responserobotics.org/ and send 
email to info at responserobotics.org if you have any further questions or 
if you would like to be added to the low volume Response Robotics Summer 
School announcements mailing list.

In addition to academic researchers, responders and students, we also 
welcome representatives of industry and government, including 
manufacturers, research companies and other organisations that wish to 
participate within the framework of the academic and responder programs 
and/or who wish to share and demonstrate their capabilities during the 
exercises and take advantage of the DHS-NIST-ASTM International Standard 
Test Methods for Response Robots. Please contact us at 
info at responserobotics.org to discuss possible arrangements.


DATES and REGISTRATION:

The main summer school runs from Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th of 
September, 2013. Early discounted registration will open in July 2013 
with full price registration commencing in August. This event is 
capacity limited so we encourage participants to register early.


STRUCTURE:

The event will open on Monday and Tuesday with academic presentations 
focusing on the research challenges and current developments in response 
robotics. Participants will gain a comprehensive overview of the 
state-of-the-art in crucial areas of research and deployed capabilities, 
as well as the experiences and needs of the end users.

Participants of the Response Robotics Summer School will join attendees 
of the Bomb Response Technology Seminar on Wednesday for joint seminars 
on topics of common interest, followed by preparations for the practical 
sessions.

The event will close on Thursday and Friday with joint practical 
exercises. Participants of the Response Robotics Summer School will work 
alongside attendees of the Bomb Response Technology Seminar, deploying 
both commercial and prototypical robotic solutions within the 
DHS-NIST-ASTM International Standard Test Method for Response Robots 
apparatuses and operational scenarios at the Western Australia Police 
Bomb Response Unit's training and test facilities. Through these joint 
exercises, participants will be able to gain a deeper understanding of 
the challenges of the field, identify gaps for further research, test 
and refine their prototypical implementations, and share their 
developments with the wider research and responder community.


TOPICS:

The scope of the Response Robotics Summer School covers topics as 
diverse as locomotion, sensors, mapping, mobile dexterous manipulation, 
operator interfaces, autonomous behaviours, high fidelity simulators, 
end user experiences and requirements, and standard test methods. It 
will teach Best-in-Class robotic capabilities demonstrated in the 
international RoboCupRescue Robot League, and introduce researchers to 
other emerging technologies and approaches. In particular the event will 
focus on technologies that address clear needs of the responder 
community, using the framework of the DHS-NIST-ASTM International 
Standard Test Methods for Response Robots as the common language that 
allows researchers, responders, manufacturers, test administrators, and 
government agencies to communicate and advance the state of the art. 
Please consult the website closer to the registration date and/or 
subscribe to the mailing list for updated information.


VENUE:

This event will be held at a Western Australia Police Bomb Response Unit 
facility, close to Perth in Western Australia. It will be equipped with 
the DHS-NIST-ASTM International Standard Test Methods for Response 
Robots, on which the RoboCupRescue Robot League competition is based, 
and within which researchers, responders, and industry, are encouraged 
to test, demonstrate, and compare their capabilities. Further details 
will be made available shortly.


TRAVEL:

Perth International Airport may be easily reached with regular direct 
services from many hubs within Oceania, Asia and the Middle East, and 
via scheduled connecting flights from elsewhere. Further information 
about ground transportation and hotel arrangements will be made 
available shortly so please consult the website closer to the 
registration date and/or subscribe to the mailing list for updated 
information.

September is also a terrific time of year to visit and tour Western 
Australia, when the weather is pleasant and the wildflowers are in 
bloom. Visit http://www.westernaustralia.com/ for further details about 
travelling to, and touring within, Western Australia.


COST:

Participants will be charged a nominal registration fee; details will be 
made available in the near future. Early discounted registrations will 
open in July; full price registration will open in August.


ORGANISERS:

General Chair:
- Raymond Sheh, US National Institute of Standards and Technology 
(NIST), Robolit LLC, Department of Computing at Curtin University of 
Technology (Sep. 2013)

Co-Chairs:
- Bill Collidge, Western Australia Police Bomb Response Unit
- Haldun Komsuoglu, Robolit LLC
- Mihai Lazarescu, Department of Computing at Curtin University of 
Technology

Advisory Committee:
- Adam Jacoff, NIST


We look forward to seeing you in Perth!

-- 
Dr. Raymond Sheh

raymond.sheh at robolit.com

Associate
Intelligent Systems Division, Engineering Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230, USA

Research Scientist
Robolit LLC
1829 Pine Street, Suite 404, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA