Title: Historical and Futuristic Perspectives of Robotics

　　Speaker: Shuzhi Sam Ge FIEEE, FIFAC, FIET, PhD, DIC, BSc, Peng Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Director, Social Robotics Lab, Smart Systems Institute The National University of Singapore

　　Time: 14:00 pm June 22 (Friday), 2018

　　Venue: Room 334, Building 5, State Key Laboratory of Computer Science, Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences

　　Abstract: Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are the buzzwords of today in research, industry and funding agencies as they are revolutionizing our works and daily lives. In this lecture, I will first give a brief introduction of industrial robots which has reduced the need for manual labour, then go through the works of mobile robots which have much wider outreach and larger operating space in comparison with industrial robots, and welcome the era of social robots which are becoming parts of the daily lives in education, healthcare, finance, entertainment, etc. I would like to conclude my lecture by the discussion on the fusion of AI and Robotics. For each of the sub topics, I will begin with an overview for a broader perspective, before delving into certain fundamental technical details and actual development examples. After a brief history of industrial and mobile robotics, I will focus more on the recent research works of social robotics which call for much higher demands in robot designs with artistic appeal, intelligent control with safety, scene understanding for better interaction and companionship, and among others. At this point of the time, the fusion of AI and robotics is apparent, and open for us to work together to make social robots as an integral part of our social fabric.

　　Biography: Shuzhi Sam Ge is the founding Director of Social Robotics Lab, Smart Systems Institute, and Professor of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the National University of Singapore, the founding Director of Centre for Robotics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu (on leave with). He received his BSc degree from Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics in 1986, and PhD degree and DIC from the Imperial College, London in 1993. He has (co)-authored 7 books and over 400 international journal and conference papers. He has been playing a leading role in fundamental research in robotics, intelligent control and translational research.

　　He serves as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Social Robotics, Springer, and served/serves as an Associate Editor for a number of flagship journals including IEEE Transactions on SMC: Systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, and Automatica, Book Editor for Taylor & Francis Automation and Control Engineering Series. He serves/served as Vice President for Membership Activities, 2011-2012, Vice President of Technical Activities, 2009-2010, Member of Board of Governors, 2007-2009, and Chairman of the Technical Committee of Intelligent Control, 2005-2008, IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS). He is a Fellow of IEEE, IFAC, and IET, and Singapore Academy of Engineering.