The Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) was founded to develop, demonstrate, evaluate, and provide quantitative performance analysis of methods, algorithms, and underlying theories necessary to design and build reliable sensor-based robots capable of executing sets of tasks in unstructured workspaces. Particular focus is on problems associated with the effective use of multiple cooperating agents, on problem areas associated with advanced manufacturing systems, and on enhancing collaborations with industry so as to support U.S. global competitiveness. We have investigated, and continue to investigate, a wide variety of such issues in the areas of cooperating agents, combined mobility and manipulation, intelligent multi-sensory systems, and empirical estimation and machine learning. Recently, contacts with industrial collaborators have increased and begun to result in cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs). Significant liaisons, transfer of research results, and interactions with applied programs within the DOE are in place, such as with the environmental restoration and waste management robotics program, the Oak Ridge Centers for Manufacturing Technologies, and with the Oak Ridge Transportation Research Initiative. CESAR collaborations with many academic institutions are underway. Our core research program is also being leveraged to provide research opportunities for minority students and faculty and to accelerate technology transfer with small businesses. The Office of Naval Research, through its historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) program, provides support for a Center for Neural Engineering. Tennessee State University (TSU) is the lead organization for this Center, which encompasses an effective teaming arrangement among TSU, ORNL/CESAR, Meharry Medical School, and Accurate Automation Technologies, a high-technology company in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Center is using the special CESAR facilities in robotics and intelligent systems in order to provide research and educational experiences to faculty and graduate students from the consortium participants. For more information, link to URL: http://www.epm.ornl.gov/is/cesar.html
