13 Nov 2004 wildmage   » (Journeyer)  Robosphere 2004, Nov. 9-10
Eyewitness Account  Robosphere is a bi-annual robotics workshop
that focus on deploying robots into space for long-term
operations. This includes adding robustness to existing robot
platforms and making robots more and more self-sufficient such
as being able to self-repair, perform habitat construction,
utilize in-situ resources, and be more autonomous.  I wasn't
around for last year's workshop, but this year it was at NASA
Ames in Moffet Field, CA near San Jose. I live in Los Angeles,
so we had decided to drive up which takes about 5.5 hours.  So
three of my colleagues and I plus Prof. Wei-Min Shen gathered
together at 5:30am and took a rental van up to San Jose. We
stopped once to have some breakfast at some fast-food town, but
we spent a lot of the time napping for the sleep we didn't get
during the night. I'm not sure what we talked about, but I think
we mostly did some joking around.  Finally, we arrived at NASA
Ames at 11:15am. Only 3 hour