How to attend a robotics show robotically
RoboBusiness conference in Santa Clara, Calif. on Oct. 23-25 2013.
http://hackerboards.com/telepresence-bots-offer-remote-tours-of-robotics-show/
RoboBusiness is offering $50 rentals of the “Beam” mobile telepresence robot, so 50 robotics enthusiasts can remotely attend the RoboBusiness conference in Santa Clara, Calif. on Oct. 23-25. The Ubuntu- and ROS-based Beam will be available to the first 50 applicants, letting them explore the show at up to 1.5 meters/sec and interact with others via video conferencing.
The Beam is a good choice for remotely exploring conferences, saving users the cost and time of traveling to an event, says Suitable Tech. For example, RoboBusiness registration is $1,595, plus hotel and travel. The Beam might also help strike up conversations one might not otherwise engage in, although it’s likely to attract less attention at a robotics conference than at a typical tech event.
The bots will be allowed everywhere on the show floor as well as in conference rooms, and the show will be open late to accommodate remote users from distant time zones. Rentals for the duration of the show go for $50 for the whole conference for users who sign up by Oct. 21. Assuming some of the 50 bots are still available at that time, they will be available for $100 rentals starting Oct. 22. The RoboBusiness show itself starts the next day, and runs Oct.23-25. Some free press rentals are also said to be available.
Keynote speakers at the show include Dan Kara, Chief Research Officer at Myria RAS and Henrik Christensen, KUKA Chair of Robotics at Georgia Tech, speaking on robotics trends in general. Brendon Basso, a senior engineer at 3D Robotics, will discuss agricultural bots, and another keynote covers medical bots.
There are two keynotes on autonomous vehicles, one from Carnegie Mellon research professor Sanjiv Singh on autonomous aircraft, and another by Christ Urmson, Director of Google’s Self-Driving Cars project. Additional keynotes will be given by representatives of iRobot, CSIRO, Littler Mendelson, Nest Labs, and Aethon. Presentation tracks range from business issues, new markets and applications, robot design and development, and enabling technologies.