IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2011 - 128

RAS Awards
The RAS presents awards each year to
recognize the outstanding achievements,
128

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

contributions, and service of members of the community. The 2011
awards were presented in Shanghai
during the awards ceremony of the
ICRA.
Early Academic Career Awards
l Hisataka Maruyama, Nagoya University (academic)-for contributions to micronano robotic
manipulation and sensing technologies for cell analysis and biological applications
l Lianqing Liu, State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation (government/
industry), Chinese Academy of
Sciences-for contributions to the
development of high-efficiency
nanorobotics and nanomanipulation systems (Figure 2).
Pioneer in Robotics and
Automation Award
l Mark Spong, Erik
Jonsson School
of Engineering
and Computer
Science, University of TexasDallas-for fundamental contributions to the foundations of the
control of robots and teleoperators

SEPTEMBER 2011

SPONG

on robotics capabilities has provided
critical components of today's intelligent robots. In the 1970s, Dr. Inoue
showed that force feedback was the
key function for a robot to carry out
dexterous manipulation, such as precise machine assembly. During the
1980s, he explored the visual guidance
of robot motion with the development
of a real-time robot vision system that
enabled robots to interact with their
environment and perform intelligentlike behavior. Applied to early versions of humanoids, this work set the
standard for the use of vision in
human-robot interaction seen in
today's Japanese robots. During the
mid 1990s, Dr. Inoue and his students developed humanoid robots
that not only walked but could also
manipulate objects and act intelligently under visual guidance.
Inoue responded to the presentation with thanks and a statement that
he planned to combine the US$10,000
award with his own funds to make a
¥1,000,000 donation to the Japanese
Red Cross for assistance to victims of
the recent earthquake and tsunami
that ravaged northern Japan.

KATHY COLABAUGH, IEEE

Figure 2. Early Academic Career Awards presentation: (from left) Hisataka Maruyama,
RAS Awards Chair Tzyh-Jong Tarn, and Lianqing Liu.

IEEE Inaba Technical
Award for Innovation
Leading to Production
J. Kenneth Salisbury, Stanford
University and
Salisbury Robotics, received
the award for
commercialization
of products in
medical robotics, robotics, and
haptics.
RAS George Saridis
Leadership Award in
Robotics and Automation
Richard A. Volz,
emeritus professor, Texas A&M
University, past
president of RAS
and past director
of IEEE Division X, received
the award for
exceptional leadership in RAS governance, publications, and society
procedures.
RICHARD VOLZ

KATHY COLABAUGH, IEEE

LOZANO-PEREZ

and for contributions to robotics
education
l Tomas LozanoPerez, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology,
Computer Science Artificial
Intelligence Lab
(CSAIL)-for
pioneering work in configuration space motion planning,
robotics and automation algorithms, and computational structural biology.

RAS Distinguished
Service Award
l Ken Goldberg, University of California, Berkeley: for distinguished service and innovation as vice president
of Technical Activities and cofounder
of Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering
l Antonio Bicchi, University of Pisa:
for his work as RAS membership

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