Final Call for Papers
SPIE - the International Society for Optical Engineering
as part of

PHOTONICS EAST '96

International Symposium on Intelligent
Systems and Advanced Manufacturing (ISAM)

Hynes Convention Center
Boston, Massachussetts
November 18-22, 1996


        CONFERENCE ON SENSOR FUSION AND DISTRIBUTED ROBOTIC AGENTS

Chairs: Paul S. Schenker, Jet Propulsion Lab.
        Gerard T. McKee, Univ. of Reading (UK)


PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
Eric T. Baumgartner, Michigan Technological Univ.
Su-Shing Chen, Univ. of North Carolina/Charlotte
Toshio Fukuda, Nagoya Univ. (JP)
Gregory D. Hager, Yale Univ.
Raymond W. Harrigan, Sandia National Laboratories
Martin Herman, National Inst. of Standards and Technology
Terrance L. Huntsberger, Univ. of South Carolina
Ren C. Luo, North Carolina State Univ.
James M. Manyika, Oxford Univ. (UK)
Maja J. Mataric, Brandeis Univ.
Robin R. Murphy, Colorado School of Mines
Lynne E. Parker, Oak Ridge National Laboratories
Robert D. Palmquist, Sandia National Laboratories
W. Brent Seales, Univ. of Kentucky
Faina Shtern, MD, National Cancer Institute
Charles V. Stewart, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute
Matthew R. Stein, Wilkes College
Armin Sulzmann, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (CH)
Stelios C. A. Thomopoulos, The Pennsylvania State Univ.
 

Sensor Fusion, the robust integration of information from multiple,
distributed data sources, enables improved machine perception, recognition,
and decision in complex automation & robotics environments. Advances in
sensor fusion are important to autonomous navigation, intelligent highway
control, 3-D medical image analysis & image guided surgeries, remote
sensing, tactical surveillance & automatic target recognition, and many
other applications.

Distributed Robotic Agents, the parallel conference theme, also addresses
issues in multiple entity, distributed systems. However, the technology
emphasis broadens to include sensing, planning, and control functions.
One example is cooperation among multiple robots in a field or factory
automation setting. Advances in distributed robotic agents are important
to scheduling & control of advanced manufacturing and servicing systems,
cooperative workgroups & virtual factory prototyping environments, tele-
robotic & remote supervisory control systems, and design and computation
of collective, robotic behaviors.

We welcome papers on new algorithms, architectures, programming environments,
and applications for sensor fusion & distributed robotic agents. Topics of
interest include:

 * Modeling & calibration of multiple sensors
 * 3-D recognition from multiple views
 * Recovery of 3-D structure and motion
 * Fusion of passive and active sensors
 * Robotic data fusion for sensor-based control
 * Task-driven planning of robot sensor activities
 * Distributed detection & decision networks
 * Networked, modular robotic architectures
 * Group behaviors & self-organizing robotic systems
 * Collective and emergent intelligence of autonomous agents
 * Distributed planning and control systems
 * Cooperative control of multiple robots
 * Virtual collaborative environments & remote laboratories
 * Telerobotic & supervisory control strategies
 * Programming environments & network architectures

The submission dates for this SPIE conference, which is part of the larger
SPIE Symposium on Intelligent Systems and Advanced Manufacturing, SPIE
Photonics East '96, are:
        Abstracts Due (acceptance based on abstract review)
        08 April  1996 (on-site proceedings)

        Camera-Ready Manuscripts Due
        26 August 1996 (on-site proceedings)

Further meeting information for this conference -- and the ISAM/PE'96 event
at large -- can be viewed at the SPIE Web Site. Note in particular that the
Web site offers a convenient means for electronic abstract submission

        http://www.spie.org/web/meetings/calls/pe96_call.html

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT

 Send a 250 word abstract of your paper, by the
 appropriate deadline, in ONE of the following ways:

 1) SPIE Web Site
        http://www.spie.org/web/meetings/calls/pe96_call.html

 2) electronic mail in ASCII format to Internet abstracts@spie.org
        (Please send only one abstract submission per email message.)

 3) fax to SPIE at 360/647-1445 (*)
        (Please send only one abstract submission per fax.)

 4) mail (please mail 4 hard copies) to:
        Sensor Fusion and Distributed Robotic Agents/ Photonics East '96
        SPIE, P.O. Box 10, Bellingham, WA  98227-0010
        Shipping Address: 1000 20th Street, Bellingham, WA  98225
        Telephone: 360/676-3290 (*)

** Do not send the abstract submission direct to the conference Chairs **

 Be sure each abstract includes the following:

 1. CONFERENCE CHAIR and CONFERENCE TITLE (submit to ONLY ONE conference)
      
        Sensor Fusion and Distributed Robotic Agents
        P. S. Schenker and G. T. McKee
        
 2. ABSTRACT/PAPER TITLE
 
 3. AUTHOR LISTING (List principal author first)
        for each author: full name [first(given) last(family] and
        affiliation, mailing address, phone/fax numbers, email
 
 4. PRESENTATION
        indicate your preference of "Oral" or "Poster" presentation
        (placement is subject to Chair's discretion)
        
 4. ABSTRACT TEXT
        approximately 250 words typed on white paper

 5. KEYWORDS
        llst maximum of 5 keywords

 6. BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
        principal author only, approximately 50 words

 Please contact SPIE if you have any questions or require further
 information (Ms. Anne Noteboom, Technical Program Coordinator)