The CRIM (Center of Research In Microengineering) is the new name of MiTech Lab (Microfabrication Technology Laboratory), which was established at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in 1991. At present the CRIM has about 25 full time researchers possessing interdisciplinary expertise. The mission of CRIM is to investigate, design and develop microcomponents, microsystems and micromachines for medical and biochemical applications using innovative microfabrication technologies.

Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems (CRES) was established in fall 2002. It is an interdisciplinary organized research unit (ORU) in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering that focuses on the science and technology of effective, robust, and scalable robotic systems, with broad and far-reaching applications. CRES facilitates interdisciplinary interactions and collaboration through its robotics faculty and its large team of interdisciplinary affiliates and serves as a linch pin for strategic research areas at USC. CRES projects span the areas of service, humanoid, distributed, reconfigurable, space, and nano robotics and impact a broad spectrum of applications, including assistance, training and rehabilitation, education, environmental monitoring and cleanup, emergency response, homeland security, and entertainment. The Center provides a tight-knit foundation for collaboration and opportunities for education and outreach.

The Haptic Exploration Laboratory works with both robotic haptics and human-machine haptic interfaces. In the area of robotic haptics, we enable robots to explore the world through touch, using specialized robotic fingers and sensors and the appropriate planning and control. We are developing new finger designs and algorithms for autonomous and teleoperated haptic exploration. In the area of human-machine haptic interfaces, haptic interfaces are used to add the sense of touch to virtual and teleoperated environments. By creating physically-based mathematical models of interactions in real environments, we can enhance the realism of virtual environments. In addition, haptic feedback and active augmentation modes can improve the performance of robotic assistants in tele- and cooperative manipulation. These systems are evaluated using control theoretic and experimental approaches. This research has applications in many areas, including computer-assisted and simulated surgery, autonomous exploration of hazardous or remote environments, undersea salvage, enabling technologies, and manufacturing and design. Sponsors of our work include NSF, NIH and the Whitaker Foundation. The lab director is Dr. Allison Okamura.

The Applied Computer Science Group at Bielefeld University is carrying out inter-disciplinary research in different fields of pattern recognition and analysis. The research areas investigated are computer vision, speech recognition and understanding, cognitive systems, human-machine interaction, and bioinformatics. The group consists of more than 30 researchers, who are mainly supported by external funds.

Takanishi Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Waseda University

The Distributed Intelligence Laboratory was founded in August of 2002 by Prof. Lynne E. Parker and is engaged in research in cooperative robotics and distributed artificial intelligence. Our research is focused on the computational issues of distributed intelligent systems -- particularly embodied intelligent systems that have a physical instantiation in the world, such as multi-robot teams, sensor networks, or software agents. We characterize distributed intelligent systems as multiple entities that integrate perception, reasoning, and action to perform cooperative tasks under circumstances that are insufficiently known in advance, and dynamically changing during task execution.

The Science Integration Program was established in April 2005 under the direction of University of Tokyo President Hiroshi Komiyama. The Science Integration Program - Human, started as the first activity in the overall program, will target integration of knowledge within the field of life science relating in particular to scientific knowledge of the human organism from genome to organism level phenomena.

Research topic of the laboratory includes humanoid robots, dynamics-based information processing, human figures, and medical robotics.

TechBridgeWorld innovates and implements technology solutions to meet sustainable development needs around the world. Through strong collaborations with partners in developing communities, we explore and enhance the role of technology in the globe, focusing on two main principles: sharing expertise to create innovative and locally suitable solutions, and empowerment of indigenous populations to create sustainable solutions. Through these efforts TechBridgeWorld creates technology accessible and relevant to all.

The Human-Machine Teaming laboratory was established in September 2003 by Julie A. Adams. The purpose of the laboratory is to investigate and advance issues in Complex Man-Machine Systems interaction with a primary focus on human-robotic interaction. Research focuses on developing interaction for multiple robotic systems and developing distributed artificially intelligent algorithms to support human-robotic interaction.