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The following paper is a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned successful innovator and leader, regarding the challenges of bringing technological discoveries to fruition. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

The interviewee is Martin Haegele, a renowned expert in industrial and service robot applications, technologies and markets. He is Division Director “Intelligent Automation and Clean Manufacturing” and Head of the department “Robot and Assistive Systems” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (Fraunhofer IPA). In this interview, Haegele details some of the robotics projects he led and provides his outlook on the European robotics industry.

Haegele received a Dipl.-Ing. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart in 1989 and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from George Washington University, Washington DC in 1989. Haegele has led the Robot Systems Department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart, Germany since 1993, and is a member of the Fraunhofer IPA Board.

Inspired by the book Robotics in Service written by Joseph Engelberger in 1989, Haegele spearheaded ground-breaking applications in the service robot industry. He led a German study on the market potentials and challenges of service robots. He was the project leader and supervisor of numerous service robot developments including a fuel-refilling robot resulting in a fully operational gas station and several generations of mobile robots developed for museums, shopping centers and home applications. Haegele coordinated many publicly funded research projects to develop robot technologies for industrial and service applications. He was coordinator of two large-scale European initiatives (SMErobot and SMErobotics) for the creation of technologies and a new family of robots suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises. He has published more than 80 papers and book chapters and holds four patents. He is a 2007 recipient of the prestigious Joseph Engelberger Award. Furthermore, Haegele is active in the International Federation of Robotics and the euRobotics association.

This paper is a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned successful innovator and leader regarding the challenges of bringing technological discoveries to fruition. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

The interviewee is Dr Robin R. Murphy, Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University; Co-lead, Emergency Informatics EDGE Innovation Network Center, Texas A&M, Director of the Humanitarian Robotics and AI Laboratory and Vice President of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) http://crasar.org. In this interview, Dr Murphy provides answers to questions regarding her pioneering experiences in rescue robotics.

As a child, Dr Murphy knew she wanted to be a mechanical engineer and obtained her BME degree from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). While working in industry after her BME, she fell in love with computer science and received an MS and PhD in Computer Science at Georgia Tech where she was a Rockwell International Doctoral Fellow. In the mid-1990s, while teaching at the Colorado School of Mines, she pioneered rescue robots after one of her graduate students returned from the Oklahoma City bombing and suggested that small rescue robots should be developed for future disasters. The National Science Foundation awarded Murphy and her students the first grant for search-and-rescue robots. She has since assisted in responses at more than 20 worldwide disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse, the Tohoku Tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.

The response to the World Trade Center attacks after September 11, 2001 by Dr Murphy’s team from the University of South Florida (the only academic institution), along with four other teams brought together by CRASAR, marked the first recorded use of a rescue robot at a disaster site. In addition to being a founder in the field of rescue robots, she is also a founder in the field of human–robot interaction and the Roboticists Without Borders. She has written over 100 publications and three books: the best-selling textbook, Introduction to AI Robotics, Disaster Robotics and Robotics-Through-Science-Fiction: Artificial Intelligence Explained Six Classic Robot Short Stories. Dr Murphy has received approximately 20 national awards and honors including: the AUVSI’s Al Aube Outstanding Contributor Award, the Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics, CMU Field Robotics Institute “Pioneer in Field Robotics” and TIME Magazine, Innovators in Artificial Intelligence. She is an IEEE Fellow.

The following article is a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned-entrepreneur regarding the evolution, commercialization and challenges of bringing a technological invention to market. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The interviewee is Jacob Rosen, a Professor of Medical Robotics at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he directs the Bionics Lab. Professor Rosen is also the Director of Surgical Robotics Engineering at the UCLA School of Medicine’s Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology and has joint appointments at UCLA’s Department of Surgery and UCLA’s Department of Bioengineering. Professor Rosen is the co-founder of the companies Applied Dexterity, ExoSense and SPI. As a pioneer in medical robotics devices and technologies, Professor Rosen describes his unique approaches and philosophies.

Dr Rosen received his BSc degree in Mechanical Engineering, MSc and PhD degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Tel-Aviv University in 1987, 1993 and 1997, respectively. From 1987 to 1992, he served as an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces studying human–machine interfaces. From 1993 to 1997, he was a research associate at Tel-Aviv University, as well as held a position at a startup company developing innovative orthopedic spine/pelvis implants. From 2001-2013, he held faculty positions at the University of Washington and at University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dr Rosen developed several key systems in the field of medical robotics, such as the Blue and the Red Dragon, for minimally invasive surgical skill evaluation; RAVEN, a surgical robotic system for telesurgery; and several generations of upper and lower limb exoskeletons including the Exo-UL7 – a dual arm wearable robotic system. He is a co-author of 100 manuscripts in the field of medical robotics and a co-author and co-editor of two books entitled “Surgical Robotics – Systems, Applications, and Visions” and “Redundancy in Robot Manipulators and Multi-robot systems” published by Springer. Professor Rosen has filed eight different patent applications and also works as an expert witness and consultant on design, patent protection & litigation and malpractice regarding surgical robotics.

We have long been obsessed with the dream of creating intelligent machines. This vision can be traced back to Greek civilization, and the notion that mortals somehow can create machines that think has persisted throughout history. Until this decade these illusions have borne no substance. The birth of the computer in the 1940s did cause a resurgence of the cybernaut idea, but the computer's role was primarily one of number‐crunching and realists soon came to respect the enormous difficulties in crafting machines that could accomplish even the simplest of human tasks.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore how robots are being used in the library to transform library services and what are the future possibilities of application of robots in libraries.

Analyzing various library websites and consulting literature relating to the use of robots in libraries, the current application of robots in libraries has been enumerated.

With the practical examples of libraries using different types of robots, this study summarizes diverse activities of artificial intelligence-mediated robots: managing the shelf, controlling circulation workflow, assisting in document retrieval, transporting articles, acting as subject guides, attending reference queries, etc.

This paper highlights how the introduction of robots in libraries improves the service productivity and creates a more engaging environment with the user group. The benefits and challenges of using robots in the library and the future possibilities are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot Journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned-entrepreneur regarding the evolution, commercialization and challenges of bringing a technological invention to market.

The interviewee is Mitchell Weiss, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Seegrid Corporation, a manufacturer of stereo vision-guided robots and vehicle control systems. As an accomplished executive of automation and robotics companies, Weiss shares his experiences and industry knowledge, including his first full-time job out of college at Unimation, the world’s first robot company.

Weiss received a Bachelor of Science from MIT and a Graduate Certificate in Intellectual Property (IP) from Northeastern University, has taught at Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania and has lectured at MIT. He has served as the Chief Operating Officer at Seegrid Corp.; CTO at Brooks Automation; CTO and Vice President of PRI Automation; President of ProgramMation, Inc.; and Chief Engineer and Co-Founder at United States Robots, Inc.

Weiss holds 24 patents, is an expert witness in IP litigation, is Vice Chair of ASTM F45 Driverless Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles and is a member of ANSI/ITSDF B56.5 Safety Standard for Driverless, Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles and Automated Functions of Manned Industrial Vehicles. He is also one of the co-authors of the 1986 McGraw-Hill book Industrial Robotics: Technology, Programming, and Applications. Weiss has led his high-technology robotic and automation companies to be successful in the installation of worldwide automation systems in semiconductor manufacturing, electronics manufacturing, automotive and warehousing and distribution. His technical achievements in product design, development and production combined with his business expertise in fund-raising, initial public offering and mergers & acquisitions provide companies with a unique, forward-thinking technology roadmap.

Using robotics in manufacturing THIS BOOK is one of a series being published by the Open University Press Robotics Series. The aim of the series is to give undergraduate, postgraduate and practising engineers an understanding of the essential of robotic systems for CIM and FMS.