February 20, 2017

Humans and Industrial Robots: The Best of Two Worlds

Abstract: Robots play significant roles in modern factory automation. While researchers strive to make robots more intelligent and autonomous, there are also significant developments in recent years to allow humans and robots to work together to make the manufacturing process more efficient, effective, flexible and intelligent. There are advantages and disadvantages to humans and robots, and we will investigate some of these as we explore cases where we enjoy the best of two worlds -- humans and robots -- in factory automation. We also address the fundamental issue of safety when robots and humans share the same work space on the factory floor.

Bio: Masayoshi Tomizuka received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Keio University, Tokyo, Japan and his Ph. D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in February 1974. In 1974, he joined the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, where he currently holds the Cheryl and John Neerhout, Jr., Distinguished Professorship Chair. His research interests are optimal and adaptive control, digital control, motion control, and control problems related to robotics and rehabilitation, vehicles and mechatronic systems. He served as Program Director of the Dynamic Systems and Control Program of the National Science Foundation (2002-2004). He has supervised more than 110 PhD students to completion. He served as President of the American Automatic Control Council (AACC) (1998-99), and he chaired the IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Technical Committee on Mechatronic Systems. He is a Fellow of the ASME, the Institute of Electric and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IFAC and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. He is the recipient of the J-DSMC Best Paper Award (1995, 2010), the DSCD Outstanding Investigator Award (1996), the Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award (ASME, 1997), the Rufus Oldenburger Medal (ASME, 2002) and the John R. Ragazzini Award (AACC, 2006).