Spectial Joint Meeting of the Central New England Chapters of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and IEEE Communications Society Thursday, September 9, 2004 Dinner: 5:30 PM Program: 7:00 PM Ad hoc Networks for Robots Jason Redi, Ph.D. BBN Technologies ABSTRACT Robots are quickly becoming common for replacing humans in situations where tasks are mundane (e.g. Roomba vacuuming), or dangerous (Packbots in Afghanistan caves). The next steps in robot deployments will be those based on groups of robots acting as teams. However for teams to function most successfully, they will need a communication method that is dynamically auto-configuring, flexible for a variety of situations, and not reliant on any particular existing infrastructure. Luckily such networks exist in the form of wireless multi-hop or "ad hoc" networks. These networks have been under development by the military for over 30 years, and are now also the basis for a variety of new start-up companies and commercial products. In this talk, we will discuss the design and use of ad hoc networks for robot teams. In particular we will point out how robots are unique in variety of ways from other types of ad hoc networking nodes due to their tight integration of movement, mission, and networking mechanisms. We will overview a variety of existing work and projects on ad hoc networks for robots including energy conservation for small robots, specialized behaviors that take communications into account, and automated improvement of network properties via robotic movement. Bio -- Jason Redi received a B.S. in computer engineering from Lehigh University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in computer engineering from Boston University. He is presently a Division Scientist of Mobile Networking at BBN Technologies. Dr. Redi has lead numerous projects involved in the design and implementation of mobile ad hoc wireless networks, including the first operational ad hoc network using directional antennas, networks for robotic teams, and ad hoc networks using MIMO and low-energy technologies. Dr. Redi is author of over thirty papers and patents in the area of mobile computing and communications, including the best-classified paper at MILCOM 2002. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the SIGMOBILE Mobile Computing and Communications Review (MC2R), and is on the editorial board of Wiley's Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Journal. He has been on dozens of technical program and conference organizing committees. He's a senior member of the IEEE, and a member of ACM, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi. -- The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Verizon Labs, 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham. All are welcome. The meeting will be preceded by dinner with the speaker at Bertucci's, Winter St, Waltham, at 5:30 p.m. Please send email to jmollenauer@TechnicalStrategy.com if you are planning on attending the dinner. Directions are given below. For further information, please contact Jim Mollenauer, phone:617-244-0077. email:jmollenauer@TechnicalStrategy.com Directions to Bertucci's restaurant in Waltham are as follows: 1. Take Exit 27B (Winter Street) on I95/128 2. On exit, Stay all the way to the right. 3. Bertucci's is on right in the Plaza. Directions to Verizon Labs, 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham are as follows: 1. Take Exit 27B (Winter Street) on I95/128 2. On exit, Stay all the way to the right. 3. Verizon Labs is 1/2 mile ahead. After 2nd light, turn left onto SYLVAN RD. towards the Verizon Campus. 4. After entering the Verizon Campus, take the second right into the courtyard parking lot (go under the pedestrian overpass between buildings and take left for parking). Move diagonally on the walkway to enter building #1 in the N.E corner of the courtyard, at the end of the walkway. 5. The talks are normally held in Auditorium B, which is in building #1. Entering building #1 from the courtyard entrance, go past the guard's desk on the right, and past the cafeteria entrance on the left, then turn left down a corridor behind the cafeteria. Go past Auditorium A, on the right, to Auditorium B, also on the right.