Page 16 - ASME IDETCCIE 2017 Program

Welcome Letters

IDETC/CIE

41ST MECHANISMS AND ROBOTICS CONFERENCE (MR)

The Mechanisms and Robotics Technical Committee of the ASME Design Engineering Division welcomes you to the 41st Mechanisms and
Robotics conference, the premier international forum for the exchange of technical and scientific information on the theory and application of
mechanical systems, mechanisms, and robotics. Since 1952, the ASME Mechanisms and Robotics conference has provided an international forum
for the exchange of technical and scientific information on the theory and practice of mechanical and robotic systems.

We have assembled an exciting conference program and slate of activities for the attendees, with more than 150 peer-reviewed technical papers
organized into 8 technical symposia, a keynote speech, and the Student Mechanisms and Robotics Design Competition. Paper topics range
throughout areas central to the design of mechanical, mechatronic, and robotic systems including kinematics, dynamics, design, analysis and
validation, reconfigurable mechanisms, novel mechanisms and robots, software systems, educational practices, and various applications. This
year, we launched two joint symposia: one on Micro/Nano-Scale Robotics & Manufacturing, and one on Motion Planning, Dynamics & Control
that are jointly organized with the MNS and MSNDC conferences, respectively.

On Monday, our Keynote Address will be given by Dr. Roger D. Quinn, the Arthur P. Armington Professor of Engineering at Case Western Reserve
University. Dr. Quinn has directed CWRU Biologically Inspired Robotics since its inception in 1990. His biology-engineering collaborative work
on behavior-based distributed control, robot autonomy, human-machine interfacing, soft robots, and neural control systems have each earned
awards.

Submitted papers were eligible for several awards, including the Mechanisms and Robotics Best Paper award, Freudenstein Young Investigator
award, the A.T Yang Memorial award, and Compliant Mechanisms award. The authors of the best papers of the Mechanisms and Robotics
Conference are invited to submit enhanced archival versions of their papers to an IDETC Special Issue of the Journal of Mechanisms and
Robotics. We would like to thank Drew Murray, Chair of the Awards Committee, for coordinating the selection of the awards. Please attend our
Tuesday award session for the presentation of these and the awards to the winners of the Student Mechanism and Robot Design Competition.

The conference and program chairs would like to extend special thanks to all the volunteers who participated in the peer-review process
to produce this high-quality program, especially the symposium organizers who coordinated the process:

• MR-1 Mechanism Synthesis & Analysis: Dave Myszka, Feng Gao

• MR-2 Theoretical & Computational Kinematics: Guimin Chen, Leila Notash

• MR-3 Compliant Mechanisms: Charles Kim, Girish Krishnan

• MR-4 Origami-Based Engineering Design: Mary Frecker, Zhong You, James Joo

• MR/MNS-5 Micro/Nano-Scale Robotics & Manufacturing: Dave Cappelleri, Gloria Wiens

• MR/MSNDC-6 Motion Planning, Dynamics & Control: Hao Wang, Phil Voglewede

• MR-7 Medical & Rehabilitation Robots: Jason Moore, Ketao Zhang

• MR-8 Novel Mechanisms, Robots & Applications: Nina Robson, Amos Winter

• MR-9 Student Mechanisms and Robotics Design Competition: Brian Trease, Joshua Bishop-Moser

Special thanks is owed to all the authors, reviewers, presenters, symposium organizers, session-chairs and all the other volunteers who have
contributed their efforts to the overall success of the conference. We hope that you enjoy the conference, and we look forward to your continued
support and participation in future Mechanisms and Robotics Conferences.

Chair Program Co-Chair Program Co-Chair
Andreas Mueller Jim Schmiedeler Phil Voglewede
16 Johannes Kepler University Linz University of Notre Dame Marquette University