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                         WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT
                         *********************

PRACTICAL MOTION PLANNING IN ROBOTICS: CURRENT APPROACHES AND FUTURE
DIRECTIONS

Workshop WT2 (Tuesday, April 23, 1996, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM) in conjunction
with the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
April 22-28, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Organizers:
Kamal K. Gupta, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Angel P. del Pobil, Jaume-I University, Spain

Aims and Scope:

Research on robot motion planning has been conducted for more 
than 15 years and many important contributions have been made. 
However, within the research community, it is felt that an 
impasse has been reached. At the same time, many on the outside 
feel that motion planning has failed in that it has not made any 
inroads into real industrial applications.

The workshop will aim at presenting a comprehensive "viewpoint" 
of the subject, including theory, practice and future 
directions. Among goals covered by the workshop are (i) to 
assess previous successes, together with the approaches that are 
particularly amenable for real-life industrial applications, 
(ii) to discuss main reasons that account for lack of inroads 
into industrial applications, and (iii) to discuss more recent 
and novel applications (ranging from virtual prototyping to 
ergonomics) that present novel challenges and new emerging 
issues to motion planning researchers. The workshop will also 
aim to identify critical and open substantive issues that would 
bring motion planning into the next growing phase.  The workshop 
is structured with a blend of individual presentations and panel 
discussions. Topics to be discussed include:

1.	A taxonomy and state of the art of motion planning based 
	on real applications. Theory and practice of motion planning.
2.	Recent research paradigms in "geometric" model-based and 
	"reactive" sensor-based approaches.
3.	Representation issues: the challenge of complex geometry and
	efficient collision detection in real applications. 
4. 	Successes and failures of motion planning.
5.	Novel applications and emerging issues: virtual prototyping, 
	ergonomics.

This workshop is intended for Robotics researchers active in 
motion planning, graduate students, engineers and other Robotics 
practitioners interested in applying these technologies to 
industry.  No in-depth knowledge of the subject will be assumed.

Speakers:

Stephen Cameron, Oxford University, U.K.
John Canny, University of California, Berkeley
Hsuan Chang, GE Corporate R&D Center
Maria Gini, University of Minnesota 
Roderic Grupen, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Kamal Gupta, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Seth Hutchinson, University of Illinois
Yong K. Hwang, Sandia National Laboratories
Lydia Kavraki, Stanford University
Vladimir Lumelsky, University of Wisconsin - Madison 
Angel P. del Pobil, Jaume-I University, Spain

Further information can be obtained from 

pobil@inf.uji.es    and 
kamal@cs.sfu.ca

or from the conference WWW site: 

http://www.acim.usl.edu/ICRA96/ICRA96.html

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