Conference Booklet August 16-19, 2006 the Hilton Inn at Penn University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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Conference Booklet August 16-19, 2006 The Hilton Inn at Penn University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA www.roboticsconference.org TABLE OF CONTENTS CONFERENCE INFORMATION page 4 TECHNICAL PROGRAM AT-A-GLANCE page 11 DETAILED TECHNICAL PROGRAM page 15 PAPER ABSTRACTS page 27 WORKSHOPS page 53 CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS page 65 AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS page 71 ROBOTICS SCIENCE AND SYSTEMS 2007 page 77 1 Conference Information After a successful start, the Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) conference is now headed into its second year. The first conference took place at MIT in June 2005, and drew over 220 attendants. Judging from the preliminary registration figures, RSS 2006 will be larger. As in 2005, RSS 2006 is a single track, highly selective conference that seeks to showcase the very best research in robotics today. RSS seeks to include all branches of robotics, and to provide a forum at which robotics researchers can exchange some of the most exciting ideas. Since robotics is a fast-moving field, so is RSS. Everyone in the field is encouraged to play an active role in RSS, and to help make RSS a better conference. Location All technical sessions, including oral and poster presentations, workshops, and exhibits will take place at the Hilton Inn at Penn, located at 3600 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Located in the heart of Penn’s campus, The Hilton Inn at Penn is a recipient of the AAA Four Diamond rating, and is a 20-minute walk from Philadelphia’s downtown Center City district. A map of all conference facilities is shown below. On Thursday, August 17, from 5:45 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania welcomes you to a series of demonstrations illustrating an array of projects that are currently under develop- ment at GRASP. The demonstrations will take place in the Melvin and Claire Levine Hall, a very short walk from the Hilton Inn at Penn. More information about the demonstrations can be found in your registration packet. The exact location can be found in the map below. 3 Registration The Conference Desk will be will be staffed for registration and information services in the pre-function area outside the Woodlands Ballroom on the following schedule: ² Tuesday, August 15 5:00PM to 8:00PM (next to hotel reception) ² Wednesday, August 16 8:00AM to 5:00PM ² Thursday, August 17 8:00AM to 5:00PM ² Friday, August 18 8:00AM to 5:00PM ² Saturday, August 19 8:00AM to 5:00PM The conference registration fees are Early (before July 15) Regular (after July 15) Student $100 $200 Regular $300 $400 Both regular and student registration includes attendance to the main conference oral and poster sessions, as well as one half day workshop on Friday, August 18, and one full workshop on Saturday August 19. In addition, it includes one hardcopy of the conference proceedings, and one ticket for the conference banquet at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Sponsors The organizers of Robotics Science and Systems gratefully acknowledge the following conference sponsors ² National Science Foundation ² Naval Research Laboratory ² Microsoft Research ² Boeing Company We would like to thank all conference sponsors as their support has allowed us to keep registration and workshop fees to a minimum, particularly for graduate students. In addition, the GRASP lab would like to acknowledge partial support from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences for subsidizing the registration fees of graduate students in the GRASP lab. 4 Exhibits Throughout Wednesday, August 16, and Thursday, August 17, the Regent and St. Marks Rooms will host an array of exhibitors. The current list of exhibitors includes: ² Microsoft Research ² Boeing Company ² MIT Press ² Barret Technology ² Evolution Robotics ² Mobile Robots ² Segway LLC ² University of Zaragoza ² Sage Publications ² Kiva Systems Poster Session and Reception The poster session will take place on Wednesday, August 16 from 7:00 to 10:00PM. It will take place in the pre-function areas outside the Woodlands Ballroom as well as outside the Regent and St. Mark’s room. We encourage all conference attendees to complete their dinner by 7:00PM and skip dessert and coffee since there will be a poster reception including mini dessert pastries, coffee as well as a bar serving wine, beer, and soft drinks. If you are presenting a poster, please make sure the poster is ready by the time the poster session starts. The poster easels will be available after 12 noon on Wednesday. Please take down your poster at the end of the evening. If you are presenting a spotlight, your two Powerpoint slides will be pre-loaded on our conference laptop. We will unable to switch laptops in this session—no exceptions. The spotlight Czars are Wolfram Burgard (collecting spotlight slides) and Vijay Kumar (chairing the spotlight session). If you did not send your slides to Wolfram yet, but would still like to present, please get in touch with him immediately. GRASP Demonstration Tour During the RoboticsScience and Systems conference, the GRASP Laboratory at the University of Penn- sylvania would like to welcome you to a series of demonstrations illustrating some of the projects that are currently under development at GRASP. The demonstrations will take place on Thursday, August 17, 5:45PM - 7:00PM and will be held in the Melvin and Claire Levine Hall, home of the GRASP Lab, and a very short walk from the Hilton Inn at Penn. The demonstrations will take place in two distinct locations in Levine Hall. Some demonstrations will be held in the Main Lobby of the Levine Hall as you enter the building, and others will be held on the 4th floor of Levine Hall, where the GRASP Lab is located. A list of demonstrations with can be found in your registration packet. There will also be a light reception, sponsored by the GRASP Lab. At the conclusion of the demonstrations, from 7:00-7:30PM buses will depart from the GRASP Lab trans- ferring you to the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and site of the RSS banquet. 5 Banquet On Thursday, August 17, there will be a conference banquet at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, located at the corner of Spruce and Broad Streets in downtown Philadelphia. The buffet style banquet is included in the registration fee for all registrants. Your badge will serve as your banquet ticket, so please ensure that you have your badge when boarding the bus. The performance during the banquet will be performed by Dan Paul, Jazz Piano Fellow, University of Pennsylvania (www.danpaulmusic.com). If you would like to bring additional guests to the banquet, please contact the Conference Desk. There is a charge of $100 per person. Transportation to the banquet will be provided, and buses will depart from the GRASP lab at 7:00PM. At the end of the evening, around 10:00PM, buses will depart from the Kimmel Center and drop you off at either the Hilton Inn at Penn as well as the Rodin College House. Dormitory Housing In addition to the conference hotel, we are pleased to offer high rise apartment style accommodations within walking distance of the conference hotel at a rate of $60.00 per person per night for a private bedroom in a multi occupancy apartment. There is minimum 3 night stay requirement and rates are subject to Philadelphia County and City occupancy tax of 14%. These accommodations are located at the Rodin College House, 3901 Locust Walk, a short walk from the Hilton Inn at Penn. Upon arrival and check-in, guests will receive guest passes at the residence for building access. If you have any questions about dormitory housing, please see the staff at the Conference Desk. Internet Access Wireless internet access will be available at the main conference room (Woodlands Ballroom) for no charge. In addition, conference attendees staying at the Hilton Inn at Penn will have internet access in their rooms for a fee. Lunch and Dinner Breaks During all conference and workshop days, there will be no breakfast, lunch, or dinner (except for the ban- quet) provided by the conference. The conference will provide coffee and tea service at the beginning of every day as well as one morning and one afternoon coffee break. In addition, the afternoon coffee break will include an afternoon snack. We therefore encourage all attendees to plan accordingly taking into consideration the technical schedule of events. Philadelphia has a culturally rich palette of restaurants. Popular dining areas include the Old City neighborhood (especially on Friday night), and the Restaurant Row along Walnut Street from Rittenhouse Square to Broad Street. District. South Philadelphia is home to Philadelphia’s Italian population, has great Italian restaurants, and is the birthplace of the Philly cheese steak. The Chinatown area is five blocks away and is packed with Asian restaurants. Another good location for restaurants is around the University of Pennsylvania where you will find good, inexpensive Indian, Thai, Mexican, Japanese and other restaurants. For dinner, we include the following list of restaurants recommended by the local organizers. 6 UNIVERSITY CITY (AROUND PENN) ² Pod (215-387-1803, Hilton Inn at Penn.) $$$ Cutting edge Japanese/Asian cuisine. Cool lighting and cool food. ² White Dog Cafe (215-386-9224, 3420 Sansom Street) $$$ A classic restaurant on campus blending award-winning cuisine and social activism . ² Nan (215-382-0818, 4000 Chestnut Street) $$ Thai cuisine. A bring your own bottle (BYOB) restaurant. ² Penne (215-823-6222, Hilton Inn at Penn) $$ Italian cuisine with very reasonable wine list. ² Lemon Grass (215-222-8042, 3626 Lancaster Avenue) $$ Thai restaurant.