1. STATUS AND CURRENT ACTIVITY OVERVIEW
1. STATUS AND CURRENT ACTIVITY OVERVIEW
1.1. IARP Directions
The current IARP charter with new features such as the creation of Working Groups and cooperation agreements with international Technical Societies emphasizes our role and capacity "to foster international cooperation toward the development of advanced robotic systems able to dispense with human exposure to difficult activities in harsh, demanding or dangerous conditions or environments".
Indeed, front-line novel application domains and scientific and technical issues challenge both robotics researchers as well as social, economical, and political decision makers.
Two synergic work avenues are of paramount importance and call for action.
First, at the level of basic research, we should foster a number of technologies ranging from the design of very novel mechanical devices to the most advanced techniques in machine communication and intelligence.
Second, a broad host of new real-world applications are to be considered and developed. They will provide a technical integrative frame for the emergence of Human Centered Robotics as well as to open an exceptional perspective with a very positive economical and societal impact.
- Humankind frontier domains: encompasses applications of intervention robots for hostile and/or remote sites such as planet exploration; sub-sea operation; Earth difficult environments such as Antarctica, volcanoes;
- Field-based applications such as mining, tunneling, dangerous waste and artifacts handling, forestry, agriculture, ...
- Drones, cars, public-safety machines, professional cleaning, construction and civil work robots, surveillance, sewer inspection and maintenance, warehousing and inter-modal transportation, professional servicing and catering.
- Remote task execution by users and expert monitoring and assistance: plant maintenance, servicing, medical assistance, health care...
- Entertainment: toys, artificial pets, games, educational robots, ...
- Public oriented services: public places servicing (airports, museums), hospitals delivery, surveillance/safeguarding, ...
- Assistive and Personal Robots: Medicine, Rehabilitation, Household (cleaning, surveillance...), Assistance to the impaired or elderly (companion robots, effective servicing, personal care).
1.2. Current activity and report overview
France research activity in the field of Robotics, in the general context of the domain covered by IARP, is carried on, as in other developed countries, in every University, Engineering School, Public R&D Institution, and in many corporate organizations. In this framework, the overall activity encompasses the major research programmes and actions which are pursued both at the national level and via international programmes by National Research organizations such as CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique), INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Robotique) and University laboratories together with domain-oriented organizations such as CEA (Commissariat à l"Energie Atomique), EDF (Electricité de France), CNES (Centre National d"Etudes Spatiales), IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l"Exploitation de la Mer).
This major characteristic was clearly apparent in the large projects, national and international programs, and general activities, included in extensive reports until 1998. Pursuing with this pattern, we have chosen since then to focus the report on a few relected activities (past reports can be accessed on http://www.laas.fr/iarp-france).
In 1999, we choose to highlight four selected domains: Nuclear applications, Underwater, Medical robotics, Field robotics.
For the year 2000, the partial activity report comprised five sections encompassing a large spectrum of activities (see the report in IARP France homepage). The projects presented, led by three laboratories from CNRS, three from INRIA and one from IFREMER illustrated in multiple ways the network of cooperative actions, which are at the core of the French Robotics research activity.
At the general level it was first mentioned the perspectives open by the Ministry of Science and Technology with two new programs: Incentive Cooperative Actions (ACI: Action Concertée Incitative) and the Health-Technology National Network which includes the theme of Medical Robotics.
Five sections presented on going activities and important events in the following selected domains:
In keeping with this pattern, the choice has been made for the current report to focus on the first announcement of a National large scale Programme, on activities that directly concern events in this yearly period, and on some of the main directions where IARP is engaged today.
Accordingly this partial activity report comprises four sections:
Section (i) describes Robea a major national programme on Machine Intelligence oriented Robotics, lunched this year at the initiative of CNRS.
Section (ii) briefly reports on France contribution to bring to the research forefront one of the most important technical and economical challenges rooted at the very core of Human Friendly Robotics: Robot Dependability.
Section (iii) covers current developments and important recent results on Underwater Robotics that are being in part reported in the IARP WS co-organized with Brazil (Rio, October 1 to 3).
Section (iv) is devoted to Medical Robotics, one of the major fields considered by IARP and, certainly, one of the fastest growing research efforts in France, as well.
This section comprises four sub-sections:
This last sub-section presents a large scale National Project led by an industrial company.