SPECTRUM WEBCASTS

The Future of Robotics

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THE FUTURE OF ROBOTICS

This is the fourth and last webinar in 2009 Robotics Series Webinars. 

Recently, one of the most well-known roboticists in the world Dr. David Barrett, current director of the SCOPE program at Olin College, and former VP of iRobot and director of Disney Imagineering, summed up the three biggest challenges in robotics:

• Creating better (smaller, lighter, and more powerful) batteries
• Creating better (smaller, lighter, and more powerful) actuators
• Addressing the need for an industrial-grade, hardened, and richly supported software development system

The final webcast in this series addresses the biggest challenge: roboticists need powerful software to design their autonomous systems – software that is not unique to a particular robot or task, is open to incorporate existing algorithms, and is powerful enough to solve problems we do not even understand today.

The NI R&D and product development groups are working hard to address these challenges and provide an intuitive, I/O-integrated, open, flexible, and interactive software environment for building autonomous systems. NI has a talented team with decades of software design expertise working to design a version of LabVIEW to address these needs. This webcast will review the many areas that LabVIEW can deliver solutions to your needs through its ability “to deal with webs of sensors, multiple actuators, and complex dynamic control algorithms that can be easily implemented in real time.” The design team at NI is working to create new functionality including the integration of robot-specific sensors and actuators, obstacle avoidance, and search and kinematics algorithms, as well as new visualization capabilities. A doctorate in robotics might not be needed to build robots. You should be able to benefit from powerful design tools and develop sophisticated robots with elegant simplicity.  Attend this webcast to learn how.

Presenter:
Shelley Gretlein, Real-Time and Embedded Senior Group Manager for National Instruments.
Currently focused on robotics and autonomous system design, she is responsible for the development strategy and worldwide promotion of the LabVIEW Embedded Platform, including LabVIEW Real-Time, LabVIEW FPGA, and LabVIEW Microprocessor products, as well as system design partnerships and technology awareness. Actively involved in industry consortia on industrial control and embedded forums, Gretlein has been a graphical system and embedded design consultant for various publications. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Management Systems.

Moderator:
Bob Malone, IEEE is the logistics editor for Forbes.com and has written columns for Inbound Logistics Magazine and an online column for Managing Automation for 10 years.  He co-founded the Variflex Corp. where he helped design traffic flows and performed studies on interaction of people and traffic at various business activity centers.
Robotics Series:
Episode I: Robotics 101 (Apr 2009)
Episode II: Episode II: Sense, Think & Act (Jun 2009)
Episode III: Robotics in Academia (Sept 2009)
Episode IV: Future of Robotics (Nov 12th 2009)

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

• Robotics Engineers
• Product designers
• EDA and CAD specialists
• Mechanical design and automation engineers
• Engineering management
• Academia

Register now for this Webinar!
Click here to Register