Travel Support for U.S. Researchers to Attend The 2006 International Symposium on Flexible Automation; held in Osaka, Japan; July 10-12, 2006

这项SGER拨款的目的是为2006年7月10日至12日在日本大阪举行的柔性自动化国际研讨会（以前称为日美柔性自动化研讨会）的选定美国大学参与者提供部分旅行支持。研讨会将包括为期三天的技术介绍、小组讨论和主题演讲，随后参观日本的主要大学研究实验室和工业生产设施。选择旅行资助接受者的方法将基于以下标准：1)美国大学的研究生或教师，2)接受学生和/或教师在2006年柔性自动化国际研讨会上发表的论文，以及3)出席会议并发表论文。这项NSF旅行资助将发挥关键作用，使来自美国大学柔性自动化领域的许多研究人员（教师和研究生）能够参加会议，了解日本和世界其他地区柔性自动化技术的研究、开发和实施。随着自动化技术对提高制造灵活性和降低生产成本的重要性日益增加，本次会议将成为美国研究人员在自动化领域交流和基准新思想的重要教育论坛。它还将提高研讨会组织者吸引美国顶尖大学研究人员为研讨会做出贡献的能力。

The objective of this SGER grant is to provide partial travel support for selected U.S. university participants of the 2006 International Symposium on Flexible Automation (formerly known as the Japan-USA Symposium on Flexible Automation), which will be held in Osaka, Japan from July 10-12, 2006. The Symposium will consist of three days of technical presentations, panel discussions, and keynote speeches, followed by tours to major university research laboratories and industry production facilities in Japan. The approach for selecting the recipients of the travel support will be based on the following criteria: 1) Graduate student or faculty at a university in the United States, 2) Acceptance of the student and/or faculty member's paper for presentation at the 2006 International Symposium on Flexible Automation, and 3) Attendance and presentation of paper at the conference. This NSF travel grant will play a critical role in enabling many researchers (faculty and graduate students) from U.S. universities working in the flexible automation field to attend the conference and learn about research, development, and implementation of flexible automation technologies in Japan and other parts of the world. With the growing importance of automation technologies to greater manufacturing flexibility and lower production costs, this conference will serve as an important educational forum for U.S. based researchers to exchange and benchmark new ideas in the automation field. It will also enhance the ability of the symposium organizers to attract top U.S. university-based researchers to contribute to the Symposium.