Note that this meeting is being held at U. Mass Lowell, not
at Wellesley High School. Directions to the venue, including
GPS waypoints and a URL for a map, are included below.


            IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
                Central New England Chapter

                  Tuesday, April 12, 2005
                Informal Discussion: 6:00 PM
                      Program: 6:30 PM


             IMPROVING HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION
                            FOR
                  URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE

                       Holly A. Yanco
                    Assistant Professor
                Computer Science Department
             University of Massachusetts Lowell
             One University Avenue, Olsen Hall
                      Lowell, MA 01854
                      holly@cs.uml.edu


                          ABSTRACT

Past attempts at using multiple sensor modalities in urban
search and rescue (USAR) activities have resulted in missed
detection of victims and operator disorientation. Professor
Yanco and her graduate students have performed studies of
over a dozen USAR robot systems at the AAAI and RoboCup
Robot Rescue competitions and have conducted usability
testing with domain experts at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology. These studies have shown that the
interfaces do not provide adequate situation awareness to
the human operator.

Using their findings, Professor Yanco and her students have
developed design guidelines for interacting with a remote
robot. They have confirmed these guidelines by creating and
testing a new interface that fuses multiple sensor
modalities into a single display and suggests appropriate
actions to its user.

Professor Yanco will present the research she and her
students have been performing along with a demo using an
iRobot ATRv JR.


                     SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Holly Yanco is an assistant professor in the Computer
Science Department at the University of Massachusetts
Lowell. She earned her MS and PhD degrees from MIT in 1994
and 2000. She has taught at Wellesley College, Boston
College, and ArsDigita University. Her research interests
include adjustable autonomy, assistive technology, multiple
robot teams, and human-robot interaction. She is a co-editor
of the book "Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence:
Assistive Technology and Artificial Intelligence." Dr. Yanco
has been the co-chair of the AAAI Robot Competition and
Exhibition (2001 and 2002) and is the chair of the special
interest group on Assistive Robotics and Mechatronics of the
Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America. Dr.
Yanco is also a member of the IEEE.


                    MEETING INFORMATION

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society will meet on
Tuesday, April 12, 2005, at Olsen Hall, Room 212A,
University of Massachusetts Lowell 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 the
Brewery Exchange at the Wannalanncit Mills, where more
conversations can take place with the guest speaker. For
information about the restaurant, see

  http://www.thebreweryexchange.com

The meetings are open to the general public, and all are
welcome at the dinner afterwards. For more information,
contact the chapter chairperson at

  chair@robotics-boston.org.


                         DIRECTIONS

Olsen Hall is in North Campus at One University Avenue,
Lowell, MA 01854. Directions are available at

  http://www.uml.edu/maps/directions.htm

Based on those directions, we produced a map that can be
viewed at the following URL (if the link splits across
lines, you will have to reassemble it):


http://www.robotics-boston.org/abstracts/2005/0504/UMass_Lowell.gif

An alternate URL via our registered domain is the following
(but it may take a few days to become effective):

  http://UMassLowell.Robotics-Boston.org/


Some GPS coordinates for the route are listed below:

  Lowell Connector at Route 495
	N 42 36.503'	W 71 19.209'

  Exit 3 from Lowell Connector onto Industrial Ave
	N 42 36.847'	W 71 19.206'

  Industrial Ave becomes Stevens St
	N 42 37.015'	W 71 19.523'

  Right turn from Stevens St onto Middlesex St
	N 42 38.304'	W 71 20.085'

  Left turn from Middlesex St onto Wilder St
	N 42 38.315'	W 71 19.953'

  Right turn from Wilder St onto Pawtucket St
	N 42 38.707'	W 71 20.064'

  Left turn from Pawtucket St onto bridge
	N 42 39.070'	W 71 19.398'

  Destination: One University Ave
	N 42 39.130'	W 71 19.481'


For more information about our Section and Chapter, visit
our web site at our registered domain URL

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