IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom Meeting Minutes Washington, USA Thursday, May 16, 2002

PART 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Welcome and Approval of the Agenda

The meeting was called to order by President Paolo Dario at 1:00 pm.

A motion to accept the agenda and approve the minutes of the previous November 2, 2001 AdCom meeting without any changes was then passed by the AdCom.

1.2. Report on Status of Society

President Paolo Dario presented this report, providing a short summary on the status of the Society and on business conducted outside of meetings.

1.3 Division X Director's Report and Nanotechnology Council

Director Toshio Fu kuda reported on the Divison X activities and on the nanotechnology council.

PART 2 INTERNAL ACTIVITIES

2.1. TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES

2.1.1. VP for Technical Activities Report

VP Bruno Siciliano presented this report on the technical committees overall. He also presented this report on behalf of Sukhan Lee, chair of the Industrial Activities Committee. Finally, he shortly repor ted on the activities of the Standards Committee and of the technical liaisons in other IEEE Committees, Societies and Councils.

2.2. MEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES

2.2.1. VP for Member Activities Report

VP Aydan Erkmen briefly presented some data on IEEE general membership status. He also presented this report on possible new initiatives to increase membership.

2.2.2. Education Activities Committee Report

Paolo Fiorini, EdCom co-chair, presented this short report on the EdCom activities with special focus on the support provided to young students for educational activities and participation in scientific events.

2.2.3. International Activities Committee Report

Chair Kazuhiro Kosuge presented this report.

2.2.4. Awards Committee Report

Chair Toshio Fukuda, RAS Senior Past President, presented a short summary of the Awards already assigned at the ICRA 2002 cerimony. It is expected that during the year 2002 the new RAS Technical Field Award should be established.

2.2.4. Fellow Evaluation Committee Report

T.J. Tarn, chair of Fellow Evaluation Committee, briefly informed the AdCom on the ongoing evaluation process of the several qualified applications received from senior RAS members.

2.3. PUBLICATION ACTIVITIES

2.3.1. VP for Publications Report

VP Dick Volz presented this report on publications.

2.3.2. R&A Transactions Report

Editor in Chief Peter Luh presented this report on the Transactions on Robotics and Automation journal.

2.3.3. R&A Magazine Report

Editor in Chief Kimon Valavanis presented this report.

2.3.4. New Publications Planning Ad-Hoc Committee

Chair Ken Goldberg presented this report (PDF) summarizing the results of a feasibility study to establish a new Transactions on Automation Sciences and Engineering and, consequently, to change the current name of the transactions on Robotics and Automation into the new name transactions on Robotics.

One motion to approve this proposal was moved, seconded and passed.

2.4. CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

2.4.1. VP Conferences Report

VP Norman Caplan presided over the presentation of the numerous reports on conferences. One motion was moved and passed.

A written report on the final results of the ICRA 2001 (Seoul, Korea) has been distributed to AdCom members and filed into the Secretary's archive.

The following ICRA conference reports were presented:

ICRA2002 (Washington, DC, May 11-15) was presented by the General Chair Bill Hamel with preliminary data on the positive overall results of the Conference.
ICRA2003 (Taipei, Taiwan, May 12-17) was presented by the Program Chair Lichen Fu.
Shigeki Sugano presented this report on co-sponsored conferences. A motion to approve new co-sponsorship of Conferences was moved, discussed and passed.

In addition to these reports, Norman Caplan briefly reported on the results of the meeting of the RAS Task Force on Safety Systems and Rescue Robotics held in Washington on May 15. A decision to promote a Workshop on SSRR has been taken. Consequent actions will follow soon.

2.5. FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

2.5.1. VP for Finance Report

VP Dave Orin presented this report.

Six motions were moved, discussed and passed, namely:

To increase the annual budget of the EdCom Committee.
To increase the annual budget of the distinguished lecturer program
To increase the number of pages of the R&A Magazine
To financially support the start-up of the new Transactions on Automation Sciences and Engineering
To increase the prices of the R&A Transactions and of the R&A Magazine according to the IEEE guidelines for 2003.
To define a general guideline for introducing a limited flexibility on the budgets assigned to Standing Committees and specific societal programmes.

PART 3 OTHER ACTIVITIES

3.1. RAS Strategies

President Paolo Dario informed the AdCom that contacts with EMBS President, Henrietta Galiana, gave very positive results. A possible MOU for joint actions between RAS and EMBS is foreseen. He also reported that co-operation with the European Robotics Network (EURON) is proceeding with the aim of increasing RAS visibility toward the European robotics community, and that a joint RAS-IARP Workshop on technical Challenge for Dependable Robots will be held in Tolouse on October 7-8, just after the next IROS Conference.

Past President Steve Hsia informed the AdCom that the Advisory Committee, composed by the five immediate Past Presidents, has been activated and will be available to advise on strategic actions to promote for RAS development.

3.2. President-Elect Report and Long Range Planning Committee Report

President-Elect Kazuo Tanie presented this report.

3.3. New Initiatives

3.3.1. Ron Arkin, Adcom Member, presented this report on the Special AdCom meeting held on the morning of the same day just before the regular AdCom meeting.

3.3.2. Ken Goldberg announced a short written report on the feasibility study for the creation of RAS Regional Representatives. He informed the AdCom members that this study was terminated without making specific proposals to the AdCom.

PART 4 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES

4.1. Constitution and Bylaws Committee

President Paolo Dario announced that he decided to take over the responsibility to Chair this Committee in order to promote a revision of RAS Constitution & Bylaws. He will proceed to appoint two senior officers and two junior officers to this Committee before starting such revision process with the support of the RAS Secretary.

4.2. RAS Secretary Report

A written report was announced by the RAS Secretary Eugenio Guglielmelli.

PART 5 NEW BUSINESS

No new issues were discussed.

The dates of the next AdCom meeting were announced after IROS2002, Saturday, October 5, 2002.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 PM to convene next on October 5, 1PM, in Lausanne, Switzerland.