IROS 2007, the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, took place from Monday, October 29 through Friday, November 2, 2007, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina. I was able to attend two days, November 1 and 2. The IROS '07 Web page is at
http://www.crim.ncsu.edu/iros2007/
The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) sponsors two annual international conferences, the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and IROS. Next year ICRA '08 will be held in Pasadena, CA, and a significant presence by robotics researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is anticipated. Therefore, it is fitting that the inaugural robotics competition for university teams is in space robotics. I am a member of the RAS Competitions Steering Committee. Prof. Bill Smart heads the Competitions Committee and I attended his competition planning meeting at IROS '07 on Thursday, November 1. I have been working with various contacts at NGST in an attempt to secure funding for the space robotics competition in Pasadena in May 2008.
Prof. Ken Goldberg is President of the RAS Technical Activities Board (TAB). It is the responsibility of RAS Technical Committee (TC) chairmen to attend the TAB meetings held at the ICRA and IROS annual events. As the founding Chairman of the Space Robotics TC, I attended the TAB at IROS '07 on Friday, November 2. The meeting was well attended. I arrived on time and took the last empty chair. Several TC chairmen arrived later and had to stand for the duration of the meeting.
I also attended paper presentation sessions on multi-robot coordination and other topics.