[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 110 (Monday, June 9, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Page 32999]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-13339]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Antitrust Division


Notice Pursuant to the National Cooperative Research and 
Production Act of 1993--Cooperative Research Group on Ros-Industrial 
Consortium-Americas

    Notice is hereby given that, on April 30, 2014, pursuant to Section 
6(a) of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, 
15 U.S.C. 4301 et seq. (``the Act''), Southwest Research Institute--
Cooperative Research Group on ROS-Industrial Consortium-Americas 
(``RIC-Americas'') has filed written notifications simultaneously with 
the Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission disclosing (1) 
the identities of the parties to the venture and (2) the nature and 
objectives of the venture. The notifications were filed for the purpose 
of invoking the Act's provisions limiting the recovery of antitrust 
plaintiffs to actual damages under specified circumstances.
    Pursuant to Section 6(b) of the Act, the identities of the parties 
to the venture are: ABB-US Corporation Research, Windsor, CT; BMW AG, 
Munich, Germany; The Boeing Company, Seal Beach, CA; Cessna Aircraft 
Company, a Textron Company, Wichita, KS; Deere & Company, Moline, IL; 
EWI, Columbus, OH; Ford Motor Company, Livonia, MI; HDT Robotics, Inc., 
Fredericksburg, VA; IDEXX Laboratories, Westbrook, ME; National 
Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD; National 
Research Council Canada, Montreal, Quebec, CANADA; OmnicO AGV, Inc., 
Sterling Heights, MI; Shanghai Shou-Elin Robot Technology Co., Ltd., 
Shanghai, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA; Spirit Aero Systems, Inc., 
Wichita, KS; University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX; The 
Department of Mechanical Engineering, UT Austin, Austin, TX; Willow 
Garage, Inc., Menlo Park, CA; and Yaskawa America, Inc., Motoman 
Robotics Division, Miamisburg, OH.
    The general area of RIC-America's planned activity is to develop an 
application roadmap for ROS-Industrial, set near-term technical goals, 
and participate in member-initiated Focused Technical Projects (FTP), 
further supporting the developer community through training, road 
mapping, events, and technical support. The Robot Operating System 
(ROS) is an open-source software project that provides a common 
framework for robotic applications. ROS is being used extensively by 
the research community for service robotics; its technology can now be 
applied to industrial/manufacturing robotics through ROS-Industrial 
(ROS-I). ROS-I is a repository of ROS drivers and algorithms for 
industrial robots, sensors, and automation hardware. It enables new 
applications like unstructured manipulation including advanced 
perception for identifying robot work pieces (reducing the need for 
costly hard tooling); dynamic path planning that adapts to the 
environment in real time and creates collision-free trajectories, 
mobile manipulation, which enables larger workspaces and more flexible 
operations. RIC-Americas will focus on the needs of industrial robot 
users and will accelerate the further development of ROS-Industrial.

Patricia A. Brink,
Director of Civil Enforcement Antitrust Division.
[FR Doc. 2014-13339 Filed 6-6-14; 8:45 am]
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