The CCC-sponsored initiative in robotics, led by Henrik Christensen, has made great progress and provided a model example of a CCC initiative.  Having finished their series of workshops and developed a roadmap, they are now bringing targeted portions of that roadmap to NSF, NIST, DARPA, NIH and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.  They are also organizing a U.S. Congressional caucus on robotics to take place in March.  Additionally several companies have expressed an interest in engaging in a broader effort on robotics across United States. Back in early 2008, they began organizing four workshops, one each in four topical areas of robotics: manufacturing and logistics, healthcare and medical robotics, […]

The CCC-sponsored robotics initiative kicks off next week with the first of four workshops covering the impact, applications and emerging technologies of robotics. Robotics research and development have already transformed our lives in many ways: they perform nearly all the welding and painting on the cars we drive; they enable telerobotic surgery resulting in more reliable outcomes and faster recovery times; they perform millions of scientific experiments and observations in chemistry, biology and medical labs.  Increasingly robotics is also providing improved control and functionality in people’s daily lives: some new model cars can park themselves or provide advanced distance-keeping cruise control and collision warnings; millions of autonomous vacuum cleaners are […]