Technical Activities BoardCASE 2008, Washington, DCKen Goldberg, VP Technical Activities

tab.ieee-ras.org

RAS Technical Activities Board

• Ken Goldberg, VP Technical Activitiesgoldberg@berkeley.edu

• RAS Officers• 45 Technical Committee co-chairs• 24 Distinguished Lecturers• Eugenio Guglielmelli, Assoc. VPTA• Yasuhisa Hasegawa, Assoc. VPTA• “At-large” members: Frank van der

Stappen, Katsu Yamane, Henrik Christiansen, Matt Mason, Ruediger Dillman,Satoshi Tadukoro

RAS TAB Agenda, F08 Meeting

• Spring 2008 Adcomm Decisions• Review of DLs, Most Active Nominations• Review of TCs, Most Active Nominations• Triennial Reviews of TCs in 2009, 2010• GOLD events• Process for appointing new TC Co-

Chairs• Milestones (IEEE, RAS)

ICRA 2008: TAB Proposals

• Proposal: Increasing DL Transport budget – from $10K -> $15K/year

• Proposal: Initiate Annual GOLD event at CASE– $2K/year

• Proposal: Retire TC-Prototyping• Proposal: Retire TC-Underwater Robots• Proposal: Retire TC-Manufacturing

Automation• Proposal: Initiate TC-Robot Learning• Proposal: Initiate TC-Marine Robotics All Passed.

RAS Distinguished LecturersAsia/Pacific:Tatsuo Arai (Japan)Hugh Durrant-Whyte (Australia)Xiaohong Guan (China)Hideki Hashimoto (Japan)Katsu Ikeuchi (Japan)Frank Chongwoo Park (Korea)Michael Wang (Hong Kong) N. Vishu Viswanadham (India)

Europe:Alicia Casals (Spain)Dan Halperin (Israel)Jean Paul Laumond (France) Brad Nelson (Switzerland)Paul Newman (UK)Majid Nili (Iran)Klas Nilsson (Sweden)Gianmarco Veruggio (Italy)

Americas:Greg Dudek (Canada)Lydia Kavraki (US)Vijay Kumar (US)Deirdre Meldrum (US)Robin Murphy (US)Javier Ruiz-del-Solar (Chile)Sebastian Thrun (US)Alfredo Weitzenfeld (Mexico)

Technical Committees – Triennial Review 2008 Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Agricultural Robotics Algorithms for Planning and Control of Robot Motion Autonomous Ground Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems Bio Robotics Computer & Robot Vision Haptics Human-Robot Interaction & Coordination Humanoid Robotics Manufacturing Automation Micro/Nano Robotics and Automation Networked Robots Prototyping for Robotics and Automation Rehabilitation & Assistive Robotics Roboethics Safety Security and Rescue Robotics Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Service Robotics Software Engineering for Robotics and Automation Space Robotics Surgical Robotics Telerobotics Underwater Robotics

Technical Committees – Fall 2008

Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Agricultural Robotics Algorithms for Planning and Control of Robot Motion Autonomous Ground Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems Bio Robotics Computer & Robot Vision Haptics Human-Robot Interaction & Coordination Humanoid Robotics Marine Robots Micro/Nano Robotics and Automation Networked Robots Rehabilitation & Assistive Robotics Roboethics Robot Learning Safety Security and Rescue Robotics Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Service Robotics Software Engineering for Robotics and Automation Space Robotics Surgical Robotics Telerobotics

Technical Committees – Triennial Review 2009:

Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Agricultural Robotics Algorithms for Planning and Control of Robot Motion Autonomous Ground Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems Bio Robotics Computer & Robot Vision Haptics Human-Robot Interaction & Coordination Humanoid Robotics Marine Robots Micro/Nano Robotics and Automation Networked Robots Rehabilitation & Assistive Robotics Roboethics Robot Learning Safety Security and Rescue Robotics Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Service Robotics Software Engineering for Robotics and Automation Space Robotics Surgical Robotics Telerobotics

Technical Committees – Triennial Review 2010

Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Agricultural Robotics Algorithms for Planning and Control of Robot Motion Autonomous Ground Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems Bio Robotics Computer & Robot Vision Haptics Human-Robot Interaction & Coordination Humanoid Robotics Marine Robots Micro/Nano Robotics and Automation Networked Robots Rehabilitation & Assistive Robotics Roboethics Robot Learning Safety Security and Rescue Robotics Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Service Robotics Software Engineering for Robotics and Automation Space Robotics Surgical Robotics Telerobotics

Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial VehiclesFlying opens new opportunities to robotically perform field services and tasks like search and rescue, observation and mapping. Key areas to be addressed include autonomous missions, localization and multi-vehicle coordination.

Activities:•IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine Special Issue "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Enabling Technologies and Roadmap for Autonomy", Guest Editors: K.P. Valavanis (USF) and G.J. Vachtsevanos (Georgia Tech)

•Springer-Verlag Book on UAVs (to be published)

•2006 2nd Annual Indoor Aerial Robot Competition, May 7, 2006 - Philadelphia•ICRA 2006:

•Full day workshop, “UAVs: Missions and Payloads”•Full day tutorial, “Hands-on Lessons for UAV Construction”

•To Join, Contact Paul Oh: paul@coe.drexel.edu

Agricultural Robotics

AgGuide Pty Ltd Australia and theNational Centre for Engineering in Agriculturedevelop Vision/GPS/Inertial guidance systemsfor farm machinery >> more

University of Southern Queensland researchers and theNational Centre for Engineering in Agriculturedevelop image processing systems forlivestock recognition >> more

University of Georgia researchersdevelop networked autonomous GPS guidedfarm vehicles >> more

Committee Chairs: Jason Stone stonej@usq.edu.au (National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture)Professor John Billingsley billings@usq.edu.au (University of Southern Queensland)

Website: http://www.usq.edu.au/users/billings/ieee/

Algorithms for Planning and Control of Robot Motion

Contact Co-Chairs to Join: Oliver Brock (oli@cs.umass.edu)Tsutomu Hasegawa (hasegawa@irvs.is.kyushu-u-ac.jp); Steve LaValle (lavalle@uiuc.edu)Thierry Simeon (nic@laas.fr)

Funding:SToMP: $7.8 million DARPA program headed by UIUC to investigate sensor-based planning and associated mathematical and algorithmic challenges; others: Penn, U of Chicago, Rochester, Carnegie-Mellon, Melbourne University, Arizona State, and Bell Labs/Lucent

Applications in Molecular Biology:Protein folding kinetics (Texas A&M, Stanford); Simulating large-amplitude molecular motion (LAAS); Protein structure prediction (UMass Amherst); other results at CMU, Rice, …

Integration of Planning and Control:

Planning based on local feedback control policies (Connor, Choset,

Rizzi, CMU); others results at UIUC, UMass Amherst, …

Real-World Implementation:Motion planning algorithms are

being implemented on real-world humanoid

robots at U Tokyo, AIST, CMU, …

Contact email to join: •　 TC_contact@takanishi.mech.waseda.ac.jp

Recent Advances:

TC Co-Chairs:Atsuo Takanishi, Waseda UniversityBlake Hannaford, University of Washington

Bio　Robotics

A bipedal jumping and landing robot with artificial musculoskeletal system inspired on an animal has been presented. Experiments showed the abilities of the robot to realize vertical jumping. Reference: R. Niiyama, A. Nagakubo, Y. Kuniyoshi, “Mowgli: A bipedal jumping and landing robot with an artificial musculoskeletal system”, in Proc. of ICRA, pp. 2546-2551, 2007.

A new bio-inspired climbing robot designed to scale smooth vertical surfaces has been presented. The robot, called Stickybot, draws its inspiration from geckos and other climbing lizards and employs similar compliance and force control strategies to climb smooth vertical surfaces. M. Cutkosky, et al., “Whole body adhesion: hierarchical, directional and distributed control of adhesive forces for a climbing robot,” Proc. ICRA 2007, pp. 1268-1273.

A humanoid two-arm system developed as a research platform for studying dexterous two-handed manipulation. Two arms and hands are combined with a three degrees-of-freedom movable torso and a visual system to form a complete humanoid upper body. G.  Hirzinger, et al.,   “A humanoid upper body system for two-handed manipulation,” Proc. ICRA 2007, p. 2766-2767

Computer and Robot Vision

To join contact: Danica Kragic (dani@kth.se)

Vision Based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

Attention points

2D Attributes 3D Attributes

3D Segmentation

2D/3D Attributes

Grouping

Obj

ects

Thin

gs

Active humanoid head (University of

Karlsruhe)

Real-time, stereo based vision systems for scene modeling, segmentation, object and activity recognition

Object modeling for grasp planning and execution

Haptics

Visit our Web site and contact co-chairs to join:Visit our Web site and contact co-chairs to join: http://www.worldhaptics.org/ Matthias Harders mharders@vision.ee.ethz.ch Marcia O’Malley omalleym@rice.edu Yasuyoshi Yokokohji yokokohji@me.kyoto-u.ac.jp

International conferences on hapticsInternational conferences on haptics

Haptic ScienceHaptic Science Haptic TechnologyHaptic Technology Haptic ApplicationHaptic Application

Haptic device by Distributed Macro-Mini actuation (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford Univ.) and tactile pattern display using Piezoelectric Bending Element (Northwestern Univ.)

Tactile display to investigate longitudinal recall of meaningful tactile signals (haptic icons) (Univ. of British Columbia) and skin stretch device for virtual proprioception tasks (Stanford Univ.)

Graphics display by lateral skin deformation (McGill Univ.)

worldHaptics (every two years in Europe, Asia, and North America)Haptic Symposium and EuroHaptics (every other two years in the US and Europe)

A new transaction on Haptics will be published !A new transaction on Haptics will be published !Publication will commence in the fall of 2008, and issues will appear quarterly. Visit http://www.computer.org/toh for detail.

Human-Robot Interaction and Coordination Co-Chairs: Cecilia Laschi , Cynthia Breazeal, Yasushi Nakauchi

• Recent　Technical　Developments　in　HRI– Computational　models　of　core　human　socio-

cognitive　skills　(such　as　perspective taking　and　shared attention)　have　been　successfully　demonstrated　to　improve　the　quality　of　human-robot　teamwork　and　interaction

– HRI　frameworks　have　successfully　been　applied　to　traditional　machine　learning　methods　to　enable　humanoid　and　mobile　robots　to　learn　from　natural　human　interactions　via　imitation,　demonstration,　and　tutelage.　

– The　HRI　community　has　embarked　on　developing　evaluation　metrics　that　embrace　multi-disciplinary　perspectives　such　as　human　factors,　psychology,　robotics,　etc.　for　diverse　areas　of　HRI　such　as　Urban　Search　and　Rescue,　Social　Robotics,　H-R　teams　for　Space　Exploration,　and　more.

• TC　email　list:　tchric@hri.iit.tsukuba.ac.jpRobonaut (teleop)-astronaut teams at NASA JSC

DB learning by demonstration to play air-hockey at ATR

Leonardo sharing attention during collaborative tasks at MIT Media Lab

Recent Activities• 2006 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid

Robots– Organized by Giulio Sandini and Aude Billard– Dec. 4-6, Genova, Italy– 100 Presentation (161 submitted)– 240 Attendees

• Steering Committee Meeting of the TC on Humanoids (at Humanoids2006)– Humanoids Steering/Advisory Committee (TC) Members Structure– Conference Policy– Report of Humanoids Conference 2005, 2006, 2007– Future Humanoids Conference (2008, 2009, ...)– R&D Collaboration

Future Perspectives• Humanoids 2007

– Nov. 28-30– The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University– General Chair: James Kuffner

• Collaborative Development of Software Platform(Continuous Project from 2006)

Humanoid Robotics

The DARPA Grand Challenge

•The first race ever that saw 5 autonomous vehicles reach the finish line after 130+ miles of desert, rough terrain, and extreme conditions.

•The first time that unmanned vehicles succeed in this extremely complex task.

Some examples of recent technical developments in robotics technologies applied to ITSfor quality of life, efficiency, mobility, safety, challenge.

Co-chairs:Christian Laugier; Urbano Nunes; Alberto Broggi

Cybercars: a new approach for sustainable mobility

Emerging as an alternative to the private passenger car, cybercars try to offer the same flexibility and much less nuisances based on fully automated electrical vehicles with on-demand and door-to-door capability. Fleets of such vehicles are being deployed in several worldwide cities and are already operational in specific environments such as shuttle services for passenger transportation.

Major breakthrough in automobile

Combination of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS).

Join RAS TC on ITS:Contact: Urbano Nunes, urbano@isr.uc.pt

2005/06

Micro / Nano Robotics and Automation

Contact Co-Chairs to Join: Fumihito Arai arai@imech.mech.tohoku.ac.jpNicholas Chaillet nicolas.chaillet@femto-st.frAri Requicha requicha@usc.edu

Recent Advances:

Electron micrograph of a nanoactuator built from telescoping carbon nanotubes. Note the difference in length between top and bottom panels. Reference: L. Dong, B. J. Nelson, T. Fukuda and F. Arai, “Towards Linear Nano Servomotors”, IEEE Trans. on Automation Science & Engineering, 2006, pp. 228-235.

Fully automatic manipulation of nanoparticles with sizes ~ 10 nm. Planned sequence of operations on left AFM image result on the pattern on right. Reference: B. Mokaberi, J. Yun, M. Wang and A. A. G. Requicha, “Automated Nanomanipulation with Atomic Force Microscopes”, ICRA 07, Rome, Italy, 2007.

Fully automatic navigation of a ferromagnetic bead in the carotid artery of a living swine. Reference: J-B. Mathieu and S. Martel, “In Vivo Validation of a Propulsion Method for Untethered Microrobots Using a Clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging System”, IROS 07, San Diego, USA, 2007.

Networked Robots

Contact Co-Chairs to Join: Asia: Norihiro Hagita <hagita@atr.jp>Europe: Klaus Schilling <k_schi@t-online.de>USA: Dez Song <dzsong@cs.tamu.edu>

Recent Advances:Coordinating large heterogeneous mobile robot team. Reference: A. Howard, L.E. Parker, and G. S. Sukhatme “Experiments with Large Heterogeneous Mobile Robot Team: Exploration, Mapping, Deployment and Detection”, Internal Journal of Robotics Research, 5 2006; vol. 25: pp. 431 - 447

Surveillance, search, and rescue applications. Reference: B. Grochosky, J. Keller, V. Kumar, and G.J. Pappas, “Cooperative Air and Ground Surveillance ”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2006, pages 16-25.

.

Rehabilitation　&　Assistive　RoboticsCO-CHAIRS:CO-CHAIRS:

Michelle　J.　Johnson　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Eugenio　Guglielmelli　 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Takahori　Shibata　　Marquette　University,　USA　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Università　Campus　Bio-Medico,　Italy　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　AIST,　Japan(From　RAS　Area　1:　Americas)　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(From　RAS　Area　2:　Europe,　Middle　Est　&　Africa)　 　　　　　　　(From　RAS　Area　3:　Asia　&　Oceania)

To join the TC and receive most updated information in the field just e-mail: RehabRob@ieee.orgTo know more about these news access our website through the TAB link from the RAS Homepage

A sensorized rattle toy equipped with multiple inertial, magnetic and

tactile sensors for behavioral analysis of infants in ecological

settings

EMERGING TREND: REHAB & ASSISTIVE ROB FOCUS ON NEURODEVELOPMENT EXOSKELETON

FOR LOWER LIMB MOTOR THERAPYROBOTIC TOYS FOR TREATMENT OF

AUTISTIC CHILDRENMECHATRONIC TOYS AND WEARABLE DEVICES FOR EARLY

DIAGNOSIS OF NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

The Pediatric Lokomat (Hocoma Ltd) for intensive

locomotion therapy of children with neurological

disorders

Keepon, the robot developed in Japan by H. Kozima et al. as part of the Infanoid project to

investigate the underlying mechanisms of social

intelligence

Gianmarco Veruggio <gianmarco@veruggio.it> (Corresp. Co-chair)Ronald C. Arkin <arkin@cc.gatech.edu> (Co-chair)Atsuo Takanishi <takanisi@waseda.jp> (Co-chair)

Roboethics It is the human-centered ethics guiding the design,

construction and use of the robots.

info@roboethics.org http://www.roboethics.org/ieee_ras_tc/

MEMBERCOUNTER

80

RECENT DEVELOPEMENTS• International Symposium “Robotics: A New Science” @ Accademia

Nazionale dei Lincei, February 20, 2008 - Rome, Italy. (G.Veruggio: “Roboethics: Philosophical, Social and Ethical Implications of Robotics”)

• Table Ronde “Roboéthique” @ JNRR07 - Journées Nationales de la Recherche en Robotique. October 10, 2007 - Obernay, France. “Keynote by G.Veruggio and Rodolphe Gelin).

• Seventh International Computer Ethics Conference, July 14, 2007 - University of San Diego, USA. (Keynote by G.Veruggio on “Ethical and Societal issues in Robotics”).

• Track on “Philosophy and Ethics of Robotics” @ ECAP07 - European Computing and Philosophy Conference. June 23, 2007 - University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. Chair G.Veruggio.

Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics

Contact Co-Chairs to Join: Daniele Nardi (Daniele.Nardi@dis.uniroma1.it)Richard Voyles (rvoyles@du.edu); Fumitoshi Matsuno (matsuno@hi.mce.uec.ac.jp)Or contact ssrr-info@hi.mce.uec.ac.jp

Workshops:IROS 2007: Rescue Robotics - DDT Project on Urban Search and RescueSICE 2008 Organized Session: Safety, Security, and Rescue Robot Systems6th IEEE International Workshop on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2008) October 28-31, 2008 – Tohoku University, Sendai, JapanGeneral Chair: Satoshi Tadokoro

Research DirectionsMobility in collapsed structures remains a key area of research, worldwide. Human/Computer Interaction under stress is receiving increasing emphasis. The first systematic studies of Wilderness Search and Rescue are starting to appear.

Outreach to Response Organizations Emergency response organizations

around the world are being exposed to research and commercial robots at

training exercises and field demos in Japan, Italy, USA, ....

New Research Installations: $2M National Testbed for Safety Security Technologies broke ground this spring at

USF (USA). This testbed will house indoor collapsed structure simulation capabilities

including smoke and rain.

Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation

Service Robots

Contact Co-Chairs to Join: http://www.service-robots.orgHadi Moradi moradih@ut.ac.ir/ moradi@usc.eduGiovanni Muscato gmuscato@diees.unict.it

Recent Advances/inventions:Humanoid sales representative, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute, Japan, January 2008.

Tankpitstop, Winding Road, 2/5/08.

Software Engineering in Robotics & Automation

Pursuing the synergy between Robotics and Software Engineering• STAR book “Software Engineering for Experimental Robotics” 2007• SDIR-II Workshop at ICRA2007• SDIR-III Workshop at ICRA2008 (proposal)

Robotic software frameworks and tools• NASA / JPL CLARAty open source September 2007• “Robot Software” @ Wikipedia : several projects• ROSTA http://wiki.robot-standards.org/

Domain engineering• Software Abstraction for robot embodiment: The AnyMorphology project at UniBG• Measures and Procedures for the Evaluation of Robot Architectures The EU ROSTA

project

Davide Brugali, brugali@unibg.itGiuseppe Menga menga@polito.itFranco Guidi Polanco fguidi@ucv.cl

Current Number of Members: 24

Advances in Robot Software Development

Space Robotics

Contact Co-Chairs to Join: Rick Wagner (Rick.Wagner@NGC.com)

Dimi Apostolopoulos (da1v@cs.cmu.edu) Hobson Lane (Hobson.Lane@NGC.com)

Richard Volpe (volpe@jpl.nasa.gov)

Planetary Robotics:Mars rovers (JPL, ESA, LAAS-CNRS, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Tohoku University, CMU, Stanford University, Universität Bremen) …

Orbital Robotics:Inspection and Maintenance Robot (Northrop Grumman); Manipulation of

Flexible Space Structures (Georgia Tech); Form Based Control Algorithm (Cleveland State University); Coordinated Control of Space Robot Teams

(MIT); Space Manipulator Analysis (JAXA); Autonomous Spacecraft Proximity Maneuvers (Naval Postgraduate School) …

Space Robotics TC Web site: was expanded and maintained

http://teamster.usc.edu/~fixture/Robotics/SpaceRoboticsTC/SpaceRoboticsTC.html …

Organizational:Membership increased from 13 to 18 in 2007; continued cooperation with other organizations; ICRA workshops in ’07 and ’08, attendance at IROS ‘07 and ICRA ‘08RAS TAB meeting…

Surgical RoboticsTC Co-Chairs:

Jaydev　P.　Desai,　RAMS　Lab,　jaydev@umd.eduFrank　Tendick,　frank.tendick@ucsf.edu

Mamoru　Mitsuishi,　mamoru@nml.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Robot-Assisted Lung BrachytherapyA.L.　Trejos,　S.　Mohan,　H.　Bassan,　A.　Lin,　A.　Kashigar,R.V.　Patel,　R.　Malthaner

MRI Compatible Robotic Radiofrequency Ablation with Haptic FeedbackRebecca　Kokes,　Kevin　Lister,　Rao　Gullapalli,　Bao　Zhang,　Howard　Richard,　Jaydev　P.　Desai

In-Vivo Pan/Tilt Endoscope with Integrated Light Source　　　　　　　　　　　　Tie　Hu,　Peter　K.　Allen,　Dennis　L　.Fowler　

Telerobotics

Contact Co-Chairs to Join: Manuel Ferre(mferre@etsii.upm.es)Nikhil Chopra (nchopra@umd.edu); Angelika Peer (angelika.peer@tum.de)Cristian Secchi (cristian.secchi@unimore.it)

Multi-master/multi-slave teleoperation:Multiple robots for increasing telepresence and remote

functionalitiesTechnische Univ. München, Teleoperation of Mobile

Robots (UIUC),…Teleoperation of mobile robots:

Mobile haptic interface and mobile teleoperatorTechnische Univ. München, Univ. di Roma, Univ.

Politecnica de Madrid

Master Side

Slave Side

Comm.Channel

Advanced bilateral controlNew control strategies for improving

telepresencePort-Hamiltonian strategies (Univ. of Modena

and Reggio Emilia and Univ Twente), Synchronization (UMD and UIUC), Wave

variables (Stanford), …

Workshops:ICRA 2008: New Vistas and Challenges in Telerobotics

Technical Committees – Fall 2008

Aerial Robotics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Agricultural Robotics Algorithms for Planning and Control of Robot Motion Autonomous Ground Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems Bio Robotics Computer & Robot Vision Haptics Human-Robot Interaction & Coordination Humanoid Robotics Marine Robots Micro/Nano Robotics and Automation Networked Robots Rehabilitation & Assistive Robotics Roboethics Robot Learning Safety Security and Rescue Robotics Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Service Robotics Software Engineering for Robotics and Automation Space Robotics Surgical Robotics Telerobotics

Field of Interest StatementThe Society strives to advance innovation, education, and fundamental and applied research in Robotics and Automation. Robotics focuses on systems incorporating sensors and actuators that operate autonomously or semi-autonomously in cooperation with humans. Robotics research emphasizes intelligence and adaptability to cope with unstructured environments. Automation research emphasizes efficiency, productivity, quality, and reliability, focusing on systems that operate autonomously, often in structured environments over extended periods, and on the explicit structuring of such environments.