GETI Director Louis Ross will give a talk ("Service Robotics: Applications & Opportunities") at the upcoming RoboBusiness 2006 conference to be held in Pittsburgh, PA.  The area of southwestern Pennsylvania is one of the leading robotics industry clusters in the United States. 

The conference will include site visits to Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) .  The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, the world’s largest robotics research and development organization, was established in 1979 to conduct basic and applied research in robotics technologies relevant to industrial and societal tasks. Seeking to combine the practical and the theoretical, the Robotics Institute has diversified its efforts and approaches to robotics science while retaining its original goal of realizing the potential of the robotics field.  The National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) is an operating unit within Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI).  NREC technical personnel include RI faculty and staff, as well as personnel dedicated to furthering robotics education in elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools. NREC maintains close ties with campus-based Robotics Institute faculty and staff through project collaborations, staff and graduate student exchange, and seminar participation. RI faculty often keep office space at both locations.

The NREC frequently adapts and refines technology developed at the Robotics Institute for industrial or government use. A typical NREC project includes a rapid proof-of-concept demonstration followed by an in-depth development and testing phase that produces a robust prototype with intellectual property for licensing and commercialization. All through the process, the NREC applies best practices for software development, system integration, and field testing.