Message to Jarvis family Dear Irene and family, I wrote this because ...

Ray Jarvis Tribute, from Chris Cook, University of Wollongong, 7th Oct 2013In the early 1980’s seemingly only a few moments ago when the robotics community inAustralia was very small, a bit way out and therefore very exotic, Ray led the way in thisexciting field, then and for the rest of his life. My first meeting with him was at a conferencein 1982 with the small number of Australian academics then working in the area. Ray, muchmore senior than me and already with an international reputation for excellence in researchwas kind, helpful and approachable. Students, junior academics and senior researchers wereall equally welcomed by his inclusiveness and thoughtfulness.His own lab., especially at Monash, was full of a vast array of vehicles: wheeled, tracked, allterrain,quads, trikes, indoor and outdoor vehicles of every description -truly a boy’s owndream of the ultimate playground heaven. These machines were all somewhat modifiedaccording to Ray’s inventiveness; he had designed and attached an enormous array of ‘stuff’to enhance their autonomy: aerials, grippers, sensors, lasers, ultrasonics, GPS, gyros,switches, lights, computers, cameras and much more. The unique thing about Ray’sexperiments was that they mostly worked-he did after all start life as an engineer and washence able to demonstrate computer science innovations in the real world-one of thehallmarks of his life-long research.Ray was also a great supporter of the development of a robot community in Australia,contributing to the earning of credibility for robotics as a respectable and worthwhile researchfield. He helped set up and then run the Australian Robot Association by unselfishly servingon the executive, and being closely involved in organising Australia’s first ever internationalrobotics conference held in the Hilton, Sydney, a truly risky and courageous undertaking, butone which was most successful, contributing to putting Australia on the world’s roboticsmap.I shall never forget a wonderful time we had in Paris when my wife and I met up fortuitouslywith Ray as he and I were both dealing with an emerging French company called Robosoftand their manager Vincent Duporque, then one of the few commercial suppliers of a mobilerobot that worked. But the most significant memory for me is of Ray’s discussions aboutParis, and about art and music and literature. For me his enduring legacies will be not onlyhis research, but more importantly his knowledge of, interest in, and enthusiasm for, all oflife, expressed through an engaging, helpful and positive personality.