LAAS (Laboratoire d'Analyse et d'Architecture des Systèmes) is a research
unit of the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) in the field
of Information and Communication Science and Technology -. It is
associated with three academic institutions in Toulouse: UPS (Paul
Sabatier University), INSA (National Institute of Applied Science) and
INP (Polytechnic National Institute). Autonomous Robotics is one its
research directions: the study and design of autonomous machines
integrating perception, action and reasoning capabilities.
Rackham the robot is one of its last results and has been developed with
the collaboration of the Institut de la Communication Parlée (INPG
Grenoble), the GRAVIR/IMAG laboratory (Grenoble), and the Institute of
Systems and Robotics (Coimbra, Portugal).
Rackham is an autonomous interactive mobile robot. It is equipped with
various sensors (cameras, a laser range finder, ultrasonic proximity
sensors) and is able to map its environment and to navigate autonomously
in presence of the public.. Rackham detects humans visually and interacts
with them. Visitors may ask it to guide them to a given demonstration
using menus on a tactile screen, and Rackham addresses humans with an
animated avatar and voice synthesis.
Sara Fleury
Last modified: Tue Mar 1 18:59:12 CET 2005