From
the
12th till the 15th of September 2005 there was in London the Congress of
Climbing and Walking Robots
CLAWAR 2005. Between the
activities of the event they were 120 lectures from scientists of 30
countries, a robotics workshop, a climbing robots competition, visits to
the climbing robots laboratory and several robotics exhibitions.
See video of CLAWAR 2005 [AVI/10Mb]:
HERE*
*In case your computer is not able to reproduce the video, please
download for free the last DivX codecs (DivX Play Bundle)
HERE
The lectures covered areas of such interest as:
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Sensing and Sensor fusion
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Bioengineering and Biological Inspired systems
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Flexible manipulators
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Humanoid robots
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Control of Climbing and Walking robots
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Locomotion
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Space applications
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Modular, Reconfigurable Robots, Modularity
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Design methodology
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Software environments
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Climbing, Navigation & path planning, Gait generation, Manipulation
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Power, actuation, efficiency
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Hopping & Legged robots, Analysis, Teleoperation
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Personal assistance & Industrial applications
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Security and Surveillance
Between the 14 Spanish participants they were members of IAI (Robotics Automation Institute of Madrid [CSIC]), Robotics Lab (University Carlos III of Madrid), IRI (Instituto de Robotica e Informática Industrial de Cataluña [UPC/CSIC]), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Quark Robotics among others, with a total of 20 papers presented.
The three Spanish robots presented during the exhibitions where Cube Revolutions and Multicube from Juan González (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and Melanie-III from Alejandro Alonso Puig (Quark Robotics)
PhD. Enric Celaya (IRI)
and Alejandro Alonso (Quark Robotics)
watching the splendid hexapod Lauron-IV (FZI)
Between the other robots showed it was the hexapod Lauron-IV, last creation of FZI Karlsruhe, from Germany. One of this units was bought by Spain for a research project. There is also one unit of the former version Lauron-III at Barcelona, at the IRI (UPC-CSIC), where PhD. Enric Celaya and his team work in advanced research projects.
Other interesting robot was the quadruped "AIMEE" from the University of Bremen, Germany, built with high efficiency valued in 500€ each (2005). The robot is able to walk, turn and creep when it has to overcome difficult areas or high ramps. The University of Bremen works in other interesting robotics projects in cooperation with so well known organizations as ESA, NASA or DARPA.
PhD. Man-Wook Han from the Vienna University of Technology showed his robot for space applications. Part of a project he is doing with ESA (European Space Agency). His robot could walk through a "spider net" in weightlessness.
The Shadow Robot Company showed their dexterous hand. It is a so realistic design that it has nails. The different joints are activated by artificial pneumatic muscles, composed by elastic structures with muscle shape that compress when they are inflated with air.
Also they were very interesting robots in the climbing robots competition, were robots had to climb a vertical wall avoiding obstacles in the path. Some used magnetic methods with other used suction systems.
Mr. M. Osman Tokhi, General Chair of the congress in the official
opening of the event.
.
Alejandro Alonso (Quark Robotics) doing a demonstration of Melanie-III.
.
Juan González (IEArobotics/UAM) trying the visual control system of the
robot Lauron-IV . Over the virtual reality glasses there is an inertial
unit which identifies the movements of the head of Juan González. At his
side is PhD. Enric Celaya (IRI)
.
Quadruped
AIMEE of the University of Bremen (Germany)
.
PhD. Man-Wook Han (TU Vienna)
with his robot for space applications. An his side is Alejandro Alonso
(Quark Robotics)
.
Juan González (IEARobotics/UAM) shanking hands with the robotics arm
while
Armando De La Rosa (The Shadow Robot Company) look with attention. The
strength of the hand is really impressive, although adequately
controlled.
.
Juan González (IEARobotics/UAM) during his lecture about modular
robotics
.
An undergraduate with his climbing robot
.
Other climbing robots that competed in the contest
.
As part of the event there was also a visit to the Climbing Robots Design Laboratory of the South Bank University, were they were different kind of robots, since the first climbing robot developed at Russia, to complex systems for verification of vertical pipes or liquid tanks.
From left to right. Alejandro Alonso (Quark Robotics),
PhD. Anton Vitko (Slovak
University of Technology) and Juan González (IEARobotics/UAM)
.
From left to right. Alejandro Alonso (Quark Robotics), Juan González (IEARobotics/UAM),
PhD. Antonio Giménez (Robotics Lab UC3M), PhD. Ramón Barber (Robotics Lab
UC3M) and Mario R. Arbulú (Robotics Lab UC3M)
.
Juan González (IEARobotics/UAM) and Alejandro Alonso (Quark Robotics)
with
Dirk Spenneberg (white shirt) from the University of Bremen and his team.
.
From left to right. Juan González (IEARobotics/UAM),
PhD. Elena García
Armada (IAI-CSIC), Samir Nabulsi (IAI-CSIC), PhD. Manuel Armada (IAI-CSIC)
and Alejandro Alonso (Quark Robotics) during the conference banquet at
the Royal Automobile Club.
.
From left to right. Alejandro Alonso (Quark Robotics),
PhD. Roger D. Quinn
(Case Western Reserve University - OH. USA) and Armando De La Rosa (The
Shadow Robot Company)
.
From left to right. William A. Lewinger
and Kathryn Daltorio (Case Western
Reserve University - OH. USA) and Juan González (IEARobotics/UAM).
.
From left to right. Alejandro Alonso (Quark Robotics),
PhD. Domenico Longo
(University of Catania. Italy) and Juan González (IEARobotics/UAM)
.