IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
			    Boston Chapter

			Tuesday, May 14, 2002
		     Informal Discussion: 6:00 PM
			   Program: 6:30 PM


			     Rescue Me!
   The Opportunities and Challenges Faced in Creating Rescue Robots

			     Laurel Riek
		   Artificial Intelligence Engineer
				MITRE

			       Abstract

One of the forefront goals of robotics and automation research is to
help humans avoid dangerous situations. Disaster areas are one example
of a place where both the victims of the disaster and the rescue
workers are in danger. This is an excellent area for the application
of mobile robots, for they can "scope out" the terrain before a human
rescue worker puts his life in danger.

RoboCup Rescue, a recent addition to the RoboCup family of annual
robotics competitions, presents a wonderful avenue for exploring this
area of research.

MITRE is researching Robot Platoon Command and Control. We have put
together a team to compete in this year's RoboCup Rescue
competition. Our approach to the problem has been creating
semi-autonomous robots that are controlled by a single operator (or
commander). This talk will discuss our approach in detail, followed by
a few demos of our search and rescue robots.

MITRE has been involved in robotics research since the late 1980's.
MITRE's initial efforts were on robot arm tele-operation for the NASA
Space Shuttle.  Following this, we collaborated with the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institute to develop an underwater robot that performed
autonomous search and retrieval.

MITRE then worked on a computer vision-based ground robot that
performed a search for a goal in an uncharted environment and returned
safely to its base.  This robot implemented 3T, a "three-layer
architecture," comprising reaction, action sequencing, and
deliberative planning.  This layered, parallel organization for robot
systems is now a widely used alternative to the old sense-plan-act
sequential paradigm.  Most recently, MITRE has applied the 3T
architecture to intelligent software agents.

BIOGRAPHY

Laurel Riek is an Artificial Intelligence Engineer at The MITRE
Corporation. She earned her BS in Logic and Computation from Carnegie
Mellon University and has done some graduate work at University of
Massachusetts Lowell. At MITRE she does machine learning and
behavioral robotics work. Her research interests also include robot
evolution, affective computing, and decentralized networks. She is
currently the Principal Investigator on a reconnaissance robotics
project and a major contributor to MITRE's research on Robot Platoon
Command and Control.

MEETING INFORMATION (GOVERNMENT ISSUED PICTURE ID WILL BE REQUIRED)

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society will meet on Tuesday, May 14,
2002, at MITRE two tenths of a mile east of the Intersection of
Highway 3 and Highway 62 in Bedford MA at 6:00 PM for informal
discussions and for the formal presentation between 6:30 and 7:30
PM. The group will have a no-host dinner afterwards at a local
restaurant, where more conversations can take place with the guest
speaker.

The meetings are open to CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH GOVERNMENT
ISSUED PICTURE ID AND TO FOREIGNERS WITH PICTURE ID AND DOCUMENTATION
OF LEGAL STATUS IN THIS COUNTRY. Picture ID can be a driver's license
or passport. All are welcome at the dinner afterwards, each paying
their own way.

For more information about this meeting contact Mike Brenner at
781-271-3806 or the Chapter email address:
info@robotics-boston.org. In particular, it will speed up the process
if all non-citizens intending to attend this Chapter meeting will
please let Mike know in advance either by email or by phone.

DIRECTIONS

From Route 128, take Route 3 North one exit (approximately 2 miles) to
the Bedford Highway 62 exit. Make a right turn for 0.2 miles to the
first traffic light. Go left into MITRE and immediately bear right for
a quarter of a mile to the large Building A parking lot. Register with
the guard in Building A.

For a web map showing MITRE, go to the Yahoo map site at
http://maps.yahoo.com/ and enter the following information in the
indicated locations:

    Address:            202 Burlington Road
    City, State or ZIP: Bedford MA 01730

The star marker is misplaced slightly, but it shows approximately
where you make the left turn into the MITRE lab (shown in grey), and
the road bearing right to the first large parking lot. Anyone at MITRE
will be able to give you directions to Building A.  For more
information about our Section and Chapter, visit our web site at our
registered domain URL

             http://www.robotics-boston.org/