Kick-off meeting, December 14, 2010 Robert Babuska Intelligent Control & Robotics Delft Center for Systems and Contr

1. Delft Robotics Institute Kick-off meeting, December 14, 2010 Robert Babuska Intelligent Control & Robotics Delft Center for Systems and Control Faculty 3mE r.babuska@tudelft.nl

2. Goals & Agenda • Goals of the meeting: • Introduce the members & their research areas • Start working as the robotics community at TU ______________________________________________________________ 1. A quick introduction round (all) 5 min 9:00 2. Mission of Delft Robotics Institute (Robert Babuska) 10 min 9:05 3. Presentation by Karel Luyben 15 min 9:15 4. Duwind (Gijs van Kuik) 10 min 9:30 5. Presentations of participating groups 60 min 10:30 6. Break - coffee, tea, refreshment 15 min 10:45 7. Valorization opportunities (Richard van der Linde) 10 min 10:55 8. Next steps (Robert Babuska) 5 min 11:00 9. Discussion (all) 15 min 11:15

3. Introduction Round

4. Robotics – State of the Art • high speed, accuracy, repeatability in structured environments • - fully preprogrammed robots, no collaboration with humans • some success in telerobotics / haptics • - Da Vinci surgical robot, training of medical personnel • so far, little impact in domestic and service applications • - cleaning, home assistance – so far simple, naïve solutions • Challenges • autonomy and shared autonomy (robots collaborate with humans) • adaptability to cope with unstructured environments • intrinsically safe human-machine interaction

5. Essential needs • adequate sensors, perception, actuators • dexterous hands and safe manipulators • advanced control and planning under uncertainty • skill learning and transfer, and more … • Robotics is highly interdisciplinary: • with strong interdependence between different areas • Substantial progress only possible if different areas are advanced in a coordinated fashion! • Important constraint: performance at reasonable price.

6. Outlook • In 10 years the technology will be ready to make a major step forward • in using robots outside the narrow range of today’s applications. • We need to invest now! • Positive short-term effects: • New high-tech companies • Job opportunities • Technological impact on other industries • Long term: robotics is an essential technology to address pressing issues • of the mankind • ageing society (lack of labor, quality of life) • depletion of resources in accessible locations • transportation and logistics • saving energy, costs, improving quality

7. Robotics @ TU Delft • Currently: • Strong research groups in many of the constituting areas, such as: • - bipedal locomotion • - advanced control • - human-machine interaction • - multi-agent systems • … • Impact of publications, prizes, Veni, Vidi grants, etc. • but, so far • collaboration on an ad hoc basis, the potential not fully used yet • limited impact on industry • international impact can be increased as well • - academic impact • - contribution to roadmaps, new research programs • - European and other international projects

8. Delft Robotics Institute • Tight scientific collaboration between different disciplines, common goal • Community with focus, complementary with other Dutch universities • Major academic impact • Coordinated approach to fund acquisition, incl. strategic funding by TU • Strong link to high-tech industry in the region • Joint contribution to education – BSc projects, robotics minor, MSc

9. Participating Groups • 3mE • Biomechanical Engineering • Precision and Microsystems Engineering • Delft Center for Systems and Control • EWI • Man-Machine Interaction • Embedded Software • Software Engineering • Pattern recognition • Electronics Research Lab • LR • Control & Simulation • TBM • Moral Philosophy and Technology • Systems Engineering • Section ICT • IO • Mechatronics • Physical Ergonomics • BK • Hyperbody 14 groups, 32 staff, about 30 PhD students (est.), more than 20 robotic platforms, software tools and demonstrators (incl. TUD Science Center), …

10. Suggested Thematic Clusters • Mechatronics and bio-inspired systems • – mechanics, sensors and actuators • Real-time perception • – vision and other sensory inputs, making sense of data • Cognition and human-machine interface • – high-level cognition, awareness, interaction • Intelligent control, adaptation and learning • – task planning, control, adaptation, self-improvement • Embedded systems, hardware and software • – software and hardware architecture • Multi-agent and distributed robotic systems • – communication, negotiation, swarms

11. Application Domains • Healthcare, rehabilitation and healthy life support • Home and office (services) • Agriculture and industry • Exploration, off-shore, deep see • Logistics and transport • Will not work on all simultaneously, need to select a common case to start with.

12. Common case • Industrial interest (potential) • Connects to some of the major TU themes and external events • Expertise available at TU • Fits interests of as many as possible participating groups • Fits in the long-term vision of the Institute • Join competitions (e.g., robocup@home) • Some possibilities: • - service robot, butler, caring assistant • - underwater robot (cleaning, welding, etc.) • - rehabilitation / exoskeleton • - exploration, search and rescue robot • - agriculture / greenhouse robot

13. Questions, comments?

14. Next steps • Work out the common case • Define the clusters in terms of content and participation • Establish a steering group for the Institute • one representative per faculty (full professor?) • Richard van der Linden • Robert Babuska • Short-term goal – define a plan of substantial volume to be presented to the university board.

15. To do list