The NTU Robotics Research Center, hosted by Dr. Ren-Chyuan Luo, will begin its operations soon. Besides cooperating with Willow Garage, the Center will interconnect with world-renowned research centers, famous international schools, the National Science Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the staff and resources at Industrial Technology Research Institute, with a view toward creating a new paradigm of innovation, and becoming a world class robotic technology R & D Center within the next five years. At present, the intelligent robot industry in Taiwan is still in a phase of growth. Compared with other advanced nations, Taiwan has a strong competitive advantage in this area. If we could invest more resources, strengthen the development of cutting edge technologies, optimize the industry development environment, and reinforce the training of technical personnel, we would be able to lay the foundations for a growing business, and find the initiatives for the next trillion dollar industry of Taiwan, thus occupying a leading place on the international stage.

Just over last week, the annual grand event of IEEE -“The 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2010)” and the “Taiwan International Robot Week” were held at the Taipei International Convention Center from October 18th to 22th, while an exhibition was held from October 19th to 22th at the Taipei World Trade Center, to which many internationally renowned companies participated, including the German Science and Technology Publishing Group Springer-Verlag, the French Aldebaran Robotic Company (which produced the first humanoid robot in the world), the American Willow Garage (which specializes in robotic softwares) and the American National Instruments. Altogether more than one thousand professionals attended the Conference.

The 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (referred to as IROS 2010) was co-organized by IEEE and the Japan Robot Association. It is without a doubt the largest and the most reputable flagship-type academic conference on intelligent robots, each year attracting more than one thousand participants from more than fifty countries to discuss the current market trends and technological developments.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, wrote an article entitled “Dawn of the Age of Robots” in the 2007 January issue of Scientific American, in which he boldly predicted that robotics would become the hottest industry of this century, and that in the not too far future, every family would possess an intelligent mobile equipment much in the same way as every family has a computer. In order to augment the channel for international communication so as to enhance our intelligent robot industrial capability and our international status, and to accelerate the development of intelligent robot industry, Distinguished Professor with tenure Dr. Ren-Chyuan Luo of the Department of Electrical Engineering has been eager to host relevant large-scale international conferences. Finally, he was able to obtain the hosting rights for the 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems for Taiwan, an act which gives Taiwan an opportunity to show its research achievements and its industrial power to the international society. All the world’s famous robot-makers and the NSF heads congregate in Taiwan.

Those who were invited to speak at the Industrial Forum of IROS 2010 were dignitaries who wielded tremendous influence either academically or in the industry. Such a galaxy of stars is rarely seen. The list of guests included Dr. Steve Cousins, who was the President of Willow Garage, Mr. Henry A. Schunk, President of Schunk GmbH & Co., which is the largest production company for precision and automatic grabbing instruments and systems in Germany, Dr. Shinsuke Sakakibara, who is the General Manager of Japan’s FANUC Robotics, Mr. Bernt Liepert, who is the head of the robotics division of KUKA, a robot-making company, Professor Thomas C. Henderson, who is a project leader for National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering; Dr. Erastos Filos, who is the head of the Information Society and Media Directorate General for European Union, and Mr. Ming-Ji Wu, Director General for the Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic Affairs. All the above-mentioned people delivered talks in the industrial forum held on October 20th. Senior Vice President for the Lego Group, Mr. Jens Maibom, and Mr.Ray Almgren , Marketing Vice president for National Instruments, delivered talks in the education forum in which they divulged their views on the system design for robots, the integration technology for software and issues related to robotics education. These talks were delivered to encourage the new generation of youngsters to engage themselves in robotics so as to express their talents.