Forty U.S. authors will attend and participate in the First Japan-USA Joint Symposium on Flexible Automation in Osaka, Japan, July 14-16, 1986. This meeting will focus on the control and design of robots, vehicles, flexible manufacturing systems and their key elements. This symposium provides an international forum for technical discussions on current research into flexible automation. The researchers will also have an opportunity to observe first hand advances in this field in Japan by attending the exhibition held concurrently with the symposium and the scheduled technical visits to industry and institutes in Japan.