Mr. Alexey Kochkarev (CRDI RTC, St. Petersburg), Executive secretary of the International organizing committe of the “M&R-2007” has a meeting with Risto Kuivanen, Vice President; Timo Maatta, Chief Research Scientist; Kaj Helin, Team Leader, Human-Machine Systems; Harri Kuusela, Team Leader, Remote Operations and Virtual Reality; Boris Krassi, Research Scientist, Human-Machine Systems, representatives of the VVT and has met also with Petteri Multanen, Professor; Jouni Mattila, Senior Researcher, representatives of the Tampere University of Technology in Tampere on August 16, 2007.
Questions of possible VVT participation in the International scientific-and-technological forum "Mechatronics and Robotics (M&R-2007)" were discussed during this meeting.

The International Competition Eurobot "Northern Star" has been announced during the Third All-Russian Educational Forum "Seliger" on July 21, 2007.It is planned to hold this Cup in the frames of the International Scientific-and- Technological Congress "Mechatronics and Robotics (M&R-2007)" in St. Petersburg on October 2-5, 2007. First Deputy Prime Ministers of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev during their visit to the Forum "Seliger" have noted an urgency of the youth involvement into scientific-and-technological sphere via such kind of competitions.

The enlarged meeting of Organizing and Programming Committees of the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” has taken place on June 26, 2007 in the Branch of Energetics, Machine-building, Mechanics, and Control Processes of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Academician-Secretary Vladimir FORTOV).
Members of Presidium of RAS, representatives of Federal Agency of Science and Innovations, specialists from institutes of RAS, leading technical universities of Federal Agency of Education and state scientific centers of the Russian Federation have taken part in this meeting.
The intermediate results of preparation for the Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” have been discussed during this meeting, and the main parts of this scientific-and-technological forum have been specified:

• Exhibition: demonstration of innovation developments;
• Congress: seminars, round-tables on topics;
• Competition: “Eurobot”, “Android Robots Fights”, “Mobile Robots” Festival;
• Creative work of young people: Youth School-Seminar on mechatronics and robotics, contest of developments made by young scientists, post-graduate students and students.

The concept “Mechatronic technologies and microrobot-building” has been discussed. Academician Konstantin FROLOV has mentioned that robotics is a priority.

Dr. B.A. Spassky, Head of the International Contacts Department, CRDI RTC has met with Dr. Alexey Ushakov, Chief of the Scientific Office, General Motors CIS (GM) in St. Petersburg on June 14, 2007. Questions of possible GM participation in the Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” have been discussed during this meeting.

XI International St. Petersburg Economic Forum has been held in St. Petersburg in the largest exhibition complex “Lenexpo” on June 8-11, 2007. Several thousands representatives of business and political elite from all over the world have been participants and guests of this Forum.
A performance of domestic android robots AR-100 “Dobrynja” controlled by the hardware-software complex “Andromeda” has taken place in the frames of Forum during one of the exhibitions. In contrast to primordially game-playing foreign analogues, the models of this series have been designed as low-cost mini-prototypes of full-scale android robots. These “Russian androids” have been developed by “Androidnye roboty” company (Moscow, Russia). Mr. A.F.Permyakov, leader of the company and its other leading specialists are proceeding with a preparation to participation in the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”.

The negotiations with Mr. Lionel Mercou, General Manager, FANUC Robotics CZ have been held in Moscow on May 30, 2007 on the International Specialized Exhibition “Technoforum”.
Mr. A.A. Kochkarev and Dr. V.A. Pavlov, CRDI RTC, representatives of the organizing and program committees of the Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” have discussed with Mr. Lionel Mercou a possible participation of FANUC Robotics in the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”.

The Festival of Robots has been held in the Exhibition Park, Mont-la-Zholi, France on May 23-27, 2007. The French stage of the International Youth Scientific-and-Technological Festival “Mobile Robots – 2007” Prof. E.A.Devianin by name has been organized in the frames of that Festival.
Teams from Russia, France, Mexico, Korea, and Tunisia have taken part in this stage. Russia was presented by the teams of Institute of Mechanics of MSU, Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics RAS, and MGUPI. The representatives of Moscow Energy Institute (TU), Taganrog Radiotechnical University, Central R&D Institute of Robotics and Technical Cybernetics, and Moscow company “Movicom” were among the members of the Russian delegation.
The following events have been organized in the frames of the Festival:

• Open Cup on the prize of Il-de-France region on Eurobot;
• Seminar “Applications of Mechatronics in Transport”
• Conference “Role of Mechatronics in Development and Everyday Life”.

The Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” planned on October will be the next step for a further development of international youth collaboration and cooperation in the fields of mechatronic technologies and robot-building.

The first session of Russian-Chinese working group on high technologies and innovations has been held in CRDI RTC on May 22, 2007.
Prof. A.V.Suvorinov, Head of Department on Innovation development and Infrastructure of the Federal Agency on Science and Innovations, Member of the Exhibition-Congress "M&R-2007" Organizing Committee has headed the Russian delegation; Mr. Dai Gotsjan, Deputy Head of Department on Development of Industry of New and High Technologies of the Ministry of Science and Technologies of Chinese People’s Republic has headed the Chinese delegation. Mr. Chzen Shimin, Consul on Science of the Consulate General of PRC in St. Petersburg has taken part in this session.
The vital problems of bilateral cooperation in the fields of high technologies and innovation activity for the nearest future have been considered during this session.
The Chinese delegation has confirmed an intention of the Ministry of Science and Technologies of PRC to take part in the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”.

The next International Industrial Hannover Messe has taken place in Germany on April 16-20, 2007.
Leading European companies, research institutes and universities has demonstrated their developments in the field of robotics. The Swiss company “CP Automation” has presented a robotized line for microchip assembly. Volkswagen company has presented a part of real automobile assembling line, consisting of a conveyer and 4 KUKA robots. Romanian Institutes of Mechanics have presented developments of actuators with a lot of degrees of freedom intended for medical applications.
Among others the questions of possible participation in the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” have been discussed. The representatives from some companies and universities such as Rainer Worst, Institute of Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (Germany), Henry Schrobbach, Volkswagen AG (Germany), Wolfgang Gunther, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences (Germany), Jorg Niemann, University of Stuttgart (Germany), Michael Rose, Deutches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (Germany), Thomas Lens, Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), Tudor Stefan Craciuniou, Mechanical Engineering and Research Institute (Romania), Georghe I. Georghe, National Institute for Research and Development in Precision Mechanics (Romania), Alain Codourey, CP Automation (Switzerland) have expressed their interest to participate in this event.

The Scientific-and-Technological Conference “Extreme Robotics” has been held in CRDI RTC on April 10-11, 2007. Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Extra-Ordinary Situations of the Russian Federation and Scientific Council of RAS on Robotics and Mechatronics have been the organizers of this event.
About 200 specialists from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk and other Russian cities as well as guests from CIS countries and Europe have taken part in the Conference. The problems of a development and exploitation of robots intended for operations in real and extra-ordinary conditions have been considered.
The first St. Petersburg Contest of students’ developments on robotics “Home-Made Robot” has been organized in the frames of the Conference. Students from leading technical universities of St. Petersburg became the participants of this Contest. One of the most exciting projects at the competition became Robot-Snake designed by Oleg Shmakov (CRDI RTC). The feature of this robot consists in its ability to crawl with as direct as lateral motion. Besides, the audience has seen plantigrade four-legged robot, robot-manipulator based on servo-drives, funny robot with a body made of the floppy-disk drive.
Prof. E.I.Jurevich, Chairman of Jury has indicated interesting ideas of all participants: “…in the future they will become real specialists, and they will be able to demonstrate their developments on such international scientific-and-technological exhibitions as forthcoming Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”.

The Russian delegation has visited Great Britain on March 21-23, 2007 in the frames of the Seminar of Global Observing Mission carried out by the British Ministry of Science and Industry and on an invitation of the Research center on Mechatronics of De Monfort University and Dusan Babkock Energy Ltd. The members of Russian delegation: Mr. V.N. Minaev, Deputy Director of Department of Minpromenergo of the Russian federation, Member of the Organizing Committee of the Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”; Prof. Yu.V.Poduraev, MSTU “Stankin”, Member of the Program Committee of the Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”; Dr. A.S.Kondratiev, First Deputy Director-Chief Designer of SRDI RTC; Dr. B.A.Spassky, Head of CRDI RTC Foreign Relations Department.
The Russian delegation has taken part in seminar “Mechatronics in Russia: History up to Now” with a lecture “Mechatronic Technologies in Robotics”. Besides it has conducted a set of important negotiations.
Participants of the seminar and working meetings have been informed with the plan of preparation for the forthcoming International Scientific-and-Technological Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”.

Round-table “Mechatronics: science, education, production” has been held in the frames of St. Petersburg Technical Fair-2007 on March 13, 2007. Among the speakers on this round-table were: prof. E.I.Jurevich (SPbSPU), prof. B.B.Mikhailov (Bauman MSTU), prof. A.V.Timofeev (SPbII RAS), prof. M.B.Ignatiev (SUAIM), prof. A.G.Mikerov (SPbETU), Ms. T.V.Philippova, General Director of ELMA-PRO company.
One of the questions discussed by participants was a preparation for the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”.

The British delegation has visited CRDI RTC on November 15, 2006 in the frames of the Technological Mision on Mechatrinics conducted by the British Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Research Center on Mechatronics of De Monfort University under the support of Minpromenergo of the Russian Federation. Among the members of the British delegation were Prof. Philip Moore, Head of Department of Scientific and Commercial Developments of De Monfort University, Head of Delegation; Mr. James Thomson, Director of Department of Technological Business of Mitsui Babkock Ltd.; Mr. Jeffrey Pegman, Managing Director of RU Robots Ltd.; Ms. Juan Mathews, Promoter of British-Russian and Ukrainian Technological Business; Mr. Bob Chesterfield, Head of New Systems Group; Mr. Peter Loftus, Head of Measuring Systems Department of Rolls Royce Corporation.
During this visit the latest developments in the fields of robotics, instrument-making and mechatronic technologies have been demonstrated to guests.
During negotiations the parties has expressed mutual interest in carrying out joint projects. A good beginning for the future cooperation is an intention of the British party to take part in the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”.

The delegation of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences headed by Academician Eric Sandeval has visited CRDI RTC on November 7, 2006.
Questions of possible cooperation in the field of software and technical vision developments for autonomous mobile robots have been discussed during negotiations. The Swedish party has paid special attention to problems concerned subjects of the planned International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007”.

The First Festival of Science has been held in Lomonosov Moscow State University on October 27-29, 2006. Academician of RAS V.A.Sadovnichy has opened the Festival.
The mobile robot for extra-ordinary conditions RTC-05, which is one of the latest developments of CRDI RTC, has been presented in the frames of exhibition “Amusing Technologies”. The CRDI RTC team has taken part in the competition of mobile robots.
Organizational problems of the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” have been discussed during one of sessions of the Conference “Mobile Robots and Mechatronic Systems”. Prof. V.E.Pavlovsky (Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics RAS) and prof. Yu.G.Martynenko (Mechanics Research Institute of MSU) has participated in the discussion.

The negotiations on a possible participation of Swedish companies in the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” have been held at the Scandinavian Technological Fair on October 5, 2006. The participants of these negotiations were Mr. Urban Mansson and Mr. Bo Liljeberg, representatives of Motoman company, members of the Swedish Association on Industrial Robotics and Mr. A.A.Kochkarev (CRDI RTC, St. Petersburg) and Mr. S.A.Gadalov (Kvadrat SG, Ltd., St. Petersburg), representatives of the International Organizing Committee of “M&R-2007”.
The Russian party has noted good prepared exposition on robotics “Valley of Robots”.

The negotiations with Mr. Burghardt Endrulat, representative of the International Scientific-and-Technological Center (ISTC), Chief Curator of Projects have taken place in CRDI RTC on September 14, 2006.
The question of holding of the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” has been considered with the aims to consolidate the international innovation cooperation. Mr. Endrulat has supported this suggestion and has expressed his readiness to take part in the actions on its preparation.

The Fourth Session of the Russian-Chinese Group on cooperation between State Scientific Centers of Russia and leading State Research Institutes of China has been held in Chunzin (China) on April 19-23, 2006.
The Russian delegation has been headed by Mr. V.M.Kuprikhin, Deputy Chief of the Administration of Federal Property in Scientific Sphere of the Federal Agency on Science and Innovations of the Russian Federation and the Chinese delegation has been headed by Mr. Shen Maosian, Deputy Director of the Department on Development Planning of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science and Technologies of the Chinese People’s Republic.
The parties have noted that the most perspective domains for cooperation between two countries are robotics, information technologies, new materials, and energy saving technologies.
The question of including of the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” into the Plan of Actions on carrying out of the Year of China in Russia in 2007.

Russian-Germany Student School has been held on April 2-12, 2006. One of the school courses has taken place in CRDI RTC and it has been devoted to the topic “Mechatronics – bases and applications”. Prof. H.Ulbrich (Munich Technical University) and Corresponding Member of RAS V.A.Lopota (CRDI RTC, St. Petersburg) have been the headers of this course.
The students of Munich Technical University and St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have presented their papers. Besides the organizational problems of the International Exhibition-Congress “M&R-2007” planned for 2007 have been discussed.