• Live demonstrations of personal, service and mobile robotics products including the Robo-Magellan Demonstration, Sony AIBO Wireless Demo, RoboNexus Emerging Technology Theater and the BotBall Competition Arena;

• Seminars on how to build and design next generation education robots and robotics toys, the history of robots, art with robots and more at the  RoboNexus Consumer Expo Educational Sessions;

• Robotic competitions including the RoboNexus "Hack-A-Sapien" Contest, and state-of-the-art robotics products in the Enabling Robotic Technology Theater;

• Sessions from leading consumer robotics vendors announcing new products and market direction;

• Movies, music, raffles, Robby the Robot's Birthday Bash, product give-always and more!

Saturday
October 8, 2005

11:00

Roomba Hacking 101 -  Phillip Torrone  -
Associate Editor, MAKE Magazine

The world’s most ubiquitous home robot, the Roomba, just got hackable.  Phillip Torrone from MAKE Magazine, will show how to turn the Roomba in to more than just a vacuum cleaner.  The session will showcase the hacks, mods, robot projects and detailed technical information on Roomba hacking.

Phillip Torrone has co- authored and contributed to numerous books on mobile devices, design and hardware hacking. Phillip is contributing Editor for Popular Science and currently resides in Seattle, WA. Phillip's latest work can be found on http://www.makezine.com or his personal site, filled with robots: http://www.flashenabled.com.
 

October 8, 2005 12:00

Robots Are Where You Find Them: Converting a Radio Shack "ZipZaps" into a Robot -  Myke Predko  -
Server and High Performance Systems, Celestica

One of the barriers for people coming up with their own mobile robots is the cost and effort to create a suitable chassis.  In this seminar, author Myke Predko will discuss the issues of using different toy and hobby remote control car chassis as the base for a robot.  To illustrate the concepts being discussed, the conversion of a Radio Shack “ZipZaps” remote control car into a mobile robot will be presented.  This robot can be assembled for as little as $10 over the cost of a ZipZaps over the course of an afternoon. 

Myke Predko is responsible for server and high performance system test at Celestica, Inc. He holds a BSEE from the University of Waterloo. Living in Toronto Canada, he is the author of 13 books, published by McGraw-Hill, on different topics in electronics and engineering.
 

October 8, 2005 1:00

Homebrewed Robots!
-  Camp Peavy -
Owner, Homebrewed Robots!, Program Chairperson, HomeBrew Robotics Club and Co-founder: TABLEBot Challenge

Come hear about the three levels of machine intelligence and discover the multi-disciplinary hobby that is homebrewed robots! For Camp Peavy it all started with a book by David L. Heiserman, “How to Build Your Own Self-Programming Robot”. After years of wrestling with this graduate level engineering course he eventually applied Heiserman’s Alpha level “machine intelligence” theory to a store-bought PC and is still working on “Beta” and “Gamma” level experiments with his Burning Man ARTBot, “Springy Thingy”.

Camp Peavy has been building amateur robots for over 20 years. Highlights of his work include creating the 1996 autonomous Robot Wars champion “Gladiator Rodney” and the award winning Burning Man ARTBot “Springy Thingy”. In 2003 Peavy and others founded the HomeBrew Robotics Club “TABLEBot Challenge” which is currently in its 3rd year of competition. Most recently he has produced an open-source Stamp-based educational robot named “PROTOBot” which will be featured in a future article of SERVO magazine
 

October 8, 2005 2:00

History of Robotics
-  Dave Grossman  -
 

Dave Grossman has a PhD in Physics from Harvard and taught at Princeton. He spent 25 years at IBM, in research and management in AI and robotics. A co-inventor of using software to calibrate robots, he pioneered robot assembly of electronic cards, 2-arm robots with collision avoidance, and 3D solid modeling. He also worked on RoboDoc hip surgery and laparoscopic robotics. After IBM, he worked at USC and co-founded a silicon valley startup. Lately he has worked at Stanford on modeling human anatomy, geometry, and physiology. He has published 60 technical papers and lectured frequently on the History of Robotics.
 

October 8, 2005 3:00

The Frankenstein Complex and Its Impact on Robotics
-  Joanne Pransky  -
World’s First Robotic Psychiatrist

What is the Frankenstein Complex and what impact has this science fiction phenomenon had on the evolution of robotics?  This informative and entertaining presentation will explore the Frankenstein Complex, a term derived from the famous science fiction works of Mary Shelley and Isaac Asimov, and both its positive and negative effects on the field of robotics.  This session will also address social issues such as mankind’s responsibilities for its robot ‘children’, society’s fear and acceptance of robots, and the human/robot relationship.

Dubbed by Isaac Asimov as the ‘real Susan Calvin’, Dr. Joanne Pransky, the World’s First Robotic Psychiatrist, has been a marketing pioneer in the robotics industry for nearly 20 years. She was the senior sales and marketing executive for a major industrial robot manufacturer, an official judge on Comedy Central’s BattleBots, and is currently an associate editor for Industrial Robot Journal and the marketing manager for the newly launched International Journal of Medical Robotics & Computer Assisted Surgery.
 

October 8, 2005 4:00

Networked Robot Art
-  Ken Goldberg  -
Artist and Professor, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, and
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California at Berkeley

Sunday
October 9, 2005

11:00

Calculation and Chance in Robotic Art
-  Max Chandler -
Artist

This lively, family friendly session features a multimedia presentation and exhibition, Bay Area artist Max Chandler will describe a novel use for robots and robotic technology – creating art! See how robots and the creative minds of humans can work together to create works of art neither could create alone.

Originally trained as an artist in the Far East, Max Chandler worked in Bay Area software companies for many years. In 2004, he began exhibiting art made with robots, with critical acclaim and press and television coverage.
 

October 9, 2005 12:00

Consumer, Hobby and Competition Robots: What’s Available, What’s Coming
-  David Calkins  -
President of the Robotics Society of America, Founder of ROBOlympics

What’s the latest development in the consumer, hobby, educational and competition robots market? In this lively session designed for both children and adults alike, attendees will be provided with an overview of what is currently available in stores on and the Web today, and what we can expect in the future. Hobbyist robots, educational robotics products, as well as kits for competition robots will be discussed. Join David Calkins for a sneak peek at what's in stores and what's in store for you.

David Calkins is a widely respected robot builder and expert. He teaches robotics and computer engineering at San Francisco State University, is the president of the Robotics Society of America, Founder of the international ROBOlympics competition, Program Chair of the RoboNexus Consumer and Entertainment Expo, and co-chair of the RoboSot competition for FIRA - the Federation of International Robosoccer Association.
 

October 9, 2005 1:00

Robotic Soccer as a Teaching Tool
-  Nanu Swamy  -
Founder and Director of Technology, RoboTech Center

Playing Tag, Hide and Seek, and soccer have entertained children for generations. Learning to program multiple robots to play these games provides youth with an engaging and entertaining challenge. In this session, attendees will learn how Cooperative Mobile Robots, groups of distributed autonomous agents that are capable of working cooperatively in complex environments, can be employed to transform traditional approaches of education – turning education into entertainment. Specific examples of programs introduced at RoboTech Center that have transformed participants into ardent robotic enthusiasts will be described.

Nanu Swamy is an educational Entrepreneur and the Founder/Director of Technology at RoboTech Center, a robotics based educational center whose mission is to find new tools and paradigms for learning.  His passion is to create and present fundamentally new approaches to portray technology in simple, easy to understand paradigms, which could be easily appropriated by the younger generation.  Prior to founding RoboTech Center, he held echnical and managerial positions at Micropolis Corporation, Singapore Airlines, Sybase, GiantLoop Networks, Information Resources (a division of Oracle) and OpenMarket (now Divine Systems).

October 9, 2005 2:00

Send in the Robots: What, Why, When and How?
-  Roger Gilbertson  -
Founder and Director of Technology, RoboTech Center

What is it about robots that fascinates us so? What motivates us to create them? Should we fear what we make? Join Roger G. Gilbertson, award winning designer, robot builder, founder of RobotStore.com, and past president of the Robotics Society of America for a fast-paced exploration of the possibilities and perils we may discover on the robotics frontier.

Roger Gilbertson is President of Mondo-tronics Inc., award winning designer, robot builder, founder of RobotStore.com, and past president of the Robotics Society of America.  His articles have appeared in Nuts & Volts, Servo, and others. He has also performed in theater, on television and given many public presentation on technology, creativity and the future.
 

October 9, 2005 3:00

Passion, Planning, Perseverance: Keys to Successful Robotics Competition
-  Alan Federman  -
NASA Education's "Dr. Robot", Senior E-Protocol Specialist, Stanford University

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