It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2010) being held from May 3 – May 8, 2010, at the Anchorage Conference Center in Anchorage, Alaska, USA.
It has been 50 years since George Devol's initial work on programmable automation led to the development of Unimate, the world’s first industrial robot. Today robots are used to perform surgeries, discover new drugs, explore the deep seas and outer space, serve as security guards, vacuum clean our carpets and mow our lawns at home, in addition to being critical to high-quality manufacturing. This conference is a celebration of the accomplishments of the field in the last five decades and hence the theme of the conference: 50 Years of Robotics!
ICRA 2010 received 2062 submissions from 47 countries, including 2034 papers and 28 stand-alone videos. The Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Conference Editorial Board (CEB) obtained thorough reviews for all papers and videos, averaging around 2.5 reviews per paper. The Senior Program Committee accepted 856 papers for presentation with an acceptance rate of 42%. 18 videos were accepted for publication in the proceedings. The review process, for the first time, included a rebuttal process for 100 papers that had conflicting reviews and a second round of reviews for 11 conditionally accepted papers to ensure that authors made critical changes in response to reviewers’ comments.
The technical program of ICRA 2010 consists of 3 invited plenary talks, 8 keynote talks and 154 technical sessions. It includes 8 special sessions reflecting the 50 Years of Robotics conference theme, addressing the key technical areas underlying robotics research and application domains where robotics and automation have made and continue to make a significant impact. The four technical area sessions address control, perception, learning, and planning. The four application domains are: medical and life sciences; industrial robotics and automation; energy, environment and society; and field robotics. Each session includes a keynote speaker and three contributed papers that were selected by the Senior Program Committee. The conference also features 37 workshops and 6 tutorials, scheduled before and after the main technical program.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Senior Program Committee: Nancy Amato, Antonio Bicchi (CEB EiC), Peter Corke, Alessandro De Luca, Ken Goldberg, Katsuo Ikeuchi, Paul Oh, Allison Okamura, Daniela Rus (Awards Chair), Gaurav Sukhatme, Satoshi Tadokoro, Jing Xiao and Yuan Zheng. The high caliber of the technical program is a direct result of their wisdom and their hard work. I would be remiss in overlooking the very important role played by the members of the CEB and the reviewers. They produced over 5000 reviews in a short span period of six weeks – a new ICRA record. Finally, I want to thank you, the authors and participants, for your enthusiastic participation in the conference. The conference set new records in terms of the number of submissions for papers and workshops/tutorials. The success of the conference is directly linked to the technical quality of the submissions and your accomplishments, and I have no doubt that this will be the best ICRA ever! Welcome to Anchorage and enjoy ICRA 2010.
Vijay Kumar, Fellow of the IEEE
University of Pennsylvania