Background | Scope of the Workshop | Selection of contributions | Sponsoring | Organization |
Last update : September 12, 1998
The international collaborative project that is now designated as the "International Advanced Robotics Programme" (IARP) was initiated at the Versailles Economic Summit of 1982. Participating countries at present are Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and USA. China, the European Union and Russia are observer members. All of these countries have agreed to the general objective of the IARP: "to foster international cooperation aiming to develop robot systems able to dispense with human exposure to difficult activities in harsh, demanding or dangerous conditions or environments".
The range of application areas under consideration include space, underwater, nuclear, tunnelling, agriculture, medical and healthcare, civil engineering and construction, intelligent manufacturing, fire fighting and emergency rescue operations, services, domestic applications and personal robotics. To date, the international collaboration has primarily been achieved by means of information exchanges, study missions and international workshops.
The IARP assessment report of October 1996 "Future impact of robotics research technologies and practical utilization" pointed out 14 front-line areas of the highest technical, economical and societal impacts for Advanced Robotics. Among those, dangerous waste and artefacts handling appears to be one of the most technically challenging and socially demanding subjects. Many places around the world are plagued with highly dangerous waste depots, or worse and most regrettably, scattered around in not well identified areas, mines that would dangerously injure or kill, if nothing is done, hundreds of thousands of peaceful and hapless civilians.
In the last few years, land mines have emerged as one of the greatest threats to human development in many parts of the world.
In compliance with its objectives and its international role, IARP organizes its first WS Robotics for Humanitarian Demining to bring together leading experts covering the various aspects from robotics technology to operational constraints with the aim to assess the domain status and to foster future R&D developments in the framework of enhanced international cooperation.
To this aim, to contribute to the development of enabling technologies for humanitarian demining, the WS will be organized to comprise presentations structured in sessions, covering all the aspects from pure technical issues to system requirements and field evaluation.
All sessions will be set to allow for in-depth open discussion.
Two thematic panels will further provide room for discussion and assessment. A general round table will conclude the two workshop days. It will summarize the WS contributions and the recommendations that will be included in a written WS report.
The topics covered by the WS include but are not limited to:
List of Selected Contributions
Participation in IARP workshops is by invitation only. The IARP Contact Person in each country will coordinate the submission of 2-page extended abstracts of proposed contributions, from which a final selection of up to 30 will be made by the Programme Committee.
Extended abstracts should be sent by May 15, 1998 to:
Raja
Chatila
LAAS-CNRS
7, Avenue du Colonel Roche
31077 Toulouse cedex 4
France
email:
raja@laas.fr
Phone: +33 (0)5 61 33 63
44
Fax : +33 (0)5 61 33 64 55
Invited participants will be required to provide completed papers, as full proceedings will be published for distribution at the workshop.
A limited number of observers may also be invited.
The workshop is offered by France, co-sponsored by Canada, China, Germany, Italy and the USA.
The corresponding IARP representatives are:
International Programme Committee
Authorities of the Toulouse - Midi Pyrénées Region support the workshop and contribute to its organization.
Workshop Organization
The workshop is hosted by LAAS-CNRS who is also responsible for its organization. It is represented by:
TIME SCHEDULE:
Announcement: March 9, 1998
Paper proposal deadline (Extended): June
15, 1998
Final selection and invitation of
participants: July 10, 1998
Receipt of completed papers: August 17,
1998