IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom Meeting Minutes Beijing, China Saturday, October 14, 2006

Attendees

ExCom Members

Richard Volz, Bruno Siciliano, Antonio Bicchi, Ken Goldberg, William Hamel, Sukhan Lee,

T.J. Tarn, Ian Walker, Xiaoping Yun, Shigeki Sugano

AdCom Members

Raja Chatila, Rudiger Dillman, Toshio Fukuda, David Orin,

Stefano Staramigioli, George Bekey, Robin Murphy, Klas Nilsson, Kazuhiro Kosuge,

Aude Billard, Pierre DuPont, Katsu Ikeuchi, Seth Hutchinson, Hideki Hashimoto,

Surya Singh

Other Attendees

Kazuo Tanie, Paolo Dario,

Alessandro De Luca, John Hollerbach, Michael Yu Wang, Rosalyn Snyder

Number of voting members constituting a quorum: 20 voting

PART 1 - INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction

1.1 Welcome and introduction

President Richard Volz called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM.

1.2 Approval of the current and past minutes

The minutes of the May 20, 2006 were approved.

The agenda was approved.

1.3 Report on Status of Society

President Richard Volz gave a report and pointed out issues related to the society.

  • IEEE TAB Highlights
  • Society & Pubs Reviews
  • Transactions on Mechatronics

PART 2 - CONSTITUION AND BYLAWS, NOMINATION, VP ELECTION

2.1 Bylaws and Standing rules Amendments

Secretary Shigeki Sugano gave a report on Amendments of Bylaws and Standing Rules. The following three points are to be clarified:

  • The procedure of nominating, selecting, awarding nominees in RAS Bylaws and Standing rules should be changed.
    • Education Standing Committee should be included in RAS Bylaws.
    • All the Vice Presidents should be included in the Long Range Planning Committee.

MOTION (06-F-01): Amendment of RAS Bylaws

Amendment 1

Section 2: Notice to Members

On or before April 1 of each year, the Secretary shall notify all members of the Society, individually or through the Transactions/Magazine of the Society, that nomination for election to the AdCom may be made by petitions signed by two (2) % or more of the eligible voting members of the Society. These petitions must be received by the Nominations Committee by August 15.

Amendment 2

Section 3: Awards Committee

This Committee shall be chaired or co-chaired by the Senior Past-President, unless said person is unavailable, in which case the President shall appoint a replacement. This committee shall be responsible for: 1) appointing an award nomination committee for each society and IEEE level (within RAS fields of interest) award, 2) appointing one or more award selection committee(s) to review society level award nominations and select the winner(s), 3) appointing a Fellow Evaluation Committee, 4) reviewing all new award proposals to ensure that there is no conflict with existing awards and that an appropriate description suitable for submission to IEEE has been prepared, 5) submission of new/modified award proposals to IEEE, and 6) reviewing existing awards periodically to recommend whether or not they should be continued.

The Award Nomination Committee(s) shall be responsible securing a suitable number of nominations of deserving candidates for the award(s) for which they are responsible. The Award Selection Committee(s) shall be responsible for reviewing the nomination packets of the candidates for the award(s) for which they are responsible and selecting the winner(s), if any. The award selection committee(s) shall have no members who were members of the nomination committee of any award for which selection is to be made.

The Fellow Evaluation Committee shall be responsible for evaluating the qualifications of candidates for Fellow as requested by the IEEE Fellow Committee. This committee shall be chaired or co-chaired by the Senior Past President, unless said person is either unavailable or not a Fellow, in which case the President shall appoint a Fellow as chair. The Fellow Evaluation Committee will consist of the chair and at least 5 members. The committee shall have no members who either nominated or wrote a reference for any candidate to be considered.

Amendment 3

Section 7: Fellow Evaluation Committee

Delete

Amendment 4

Section 7: Education Committee

This Committee is in charge of coordinating and fostering educational initiatives in the Society. An important means toward this goal are specialized meetings, workshops and dedicated conference sessions on the education of students. Society-sponsored books and summer schools are also under the responsibility of this Committee. A concern of the society shall be to ensure that quality of the educational activities sponsored by the Society is constantly checked through feedback from students, and by emphasizing their interactive participation.

Amendment 5

Section 9: Long Range Planning Committee

This Committee shall be responsible to the AdCom for reviewing the trends of science and technology as they may concern the Society, the profession and the public, and for recommending changes in the objectives, organization, and operations of the Society as may be indicated by these trends. This Committee shall be chaired by the President-Elect and shall include the additional following members: the Junior Past-President, all the Vice Presidents, the Chair of the Student Activities Committee and additional members appointed by the Chair with approval of the President.

The Motion passed with 18 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

MOTION (06-F-02): Amendment of RAS Standing Rules

Amendment 1

Part.1 Standing Rules on Nominations and Awards for AdCom, President-Elect and Vice Presidents

1.1. General rules

By May 31 each year a Call For Nominations will be distributed to AdCom members, published in the Magazine and posted at the RAS website.

Nominations will be submitted to the Nominations Chair. The President-Elect will provide nominations for the Vice President positions by August 31 in the year of the elections of Vice Presidents-elect who will serve as Vice President during the President-Elect’s term as President. Nominators (or self nominations) should indicate the position for which the nominee is being considered and the nominee’s agreement to serve if elected.

Nominees will be considered by the Nominations Committee in consultation with the Advisory Committee. A slate of candidates will be announced prior to the elections. The Nomination Committee (co-)chair(s) is (are) responsible for communicating AdCom nominees to IEEE within the IEEE prescribed deadline.

Amendment 2

1.2. Specific rules for the Nominations and Election of AdCom members

Nominated candidates from the Nominations Committee and additional candidates nominated by petitions will appear on the ballot, provided that eligibility has been checked by the Nomination Chair, in consultation with the Secretary and IEEE Membership Services. A candidate that produces a nomination petition with signatures from 2% or more of the eligible voting membership shall be placed on the ballot as per the Bylaws. A candidate that produces a nomination petition with 25 or more signatures from the eligible voting membership may be added to the ballot, at the discretion of the Nominations Committee.

Amendment 3

Part 2. Standing Rules on Awards

The RAS Awards that may be given annually are the following:

  • Pioneer Award
  • Industrial and Academic Early Career Awards
  • Distinguished Service Awards
  • Chapter of the Year
  • Most Active Technical Committee
  • Inaba Technical Award for Innovation Leading to Production
  • Invention and Entrepreneurship Award
  • Most Active Distinguished Lecturer
  • IEEE RAS Technical Field Award. This Award is assigned directly by the IEEE.

According to the Bylaws, the Awards Committee will be chaired or co-chaired by the Senior Past President. The Committee will be composed of the (co-)Chair(s), the Vice President for Technical Activities, the Vice President for Membership Activities, and at least two more Society members appointed by the Society President usually from outside the AdCom membership.

By January 1st each year, a Call For Awards will be issued to AdCom members, and also posted at the RAS website.

The Awards Committee will organize Award Nomination Technical Sub-committees for each Award. Only Fellows may participate in discussion of Fellow nominees. Each Award Sub-committee will have appropriate expertise according to the Award category and will work in consultation with the TCs for selecting candidates. Members from outside the Society (e.g., from industry) will be encouraged to serve in these nomination Sub-committees.

The Award Nomination Sub-committees will set up their own internal procedures to proactively stimulate qualified nominations.

The Award Selection Committees will evaluate the candidates and select the winner for each Award.

The number of Awards given in any category shall be no more than one fewer than the number of nominees.

The winners will be awarded a plaque and a certificate in a ceremony at the Society annual meeting together with Society members who have been awarded the Fellow Grade by IEEE in the previous year, except that the Field Award winner may select an IEEE venue for presentation and the Invention and Entrepreneurship Award is presented by IFR in alternate years.

The Awards Committee (co-)chair(s) is (are) responsible for ensuring that the request for the award plaques, certificates and checks are submitted to IEEE and that the required tax are obtained from the winner(s) and submitted to IEEE.

In order to accomplish the above tasks in a timely manner, the following schedule should be followed:

  • Pioneer Award
  • Field Award Nominations Committee - to be appointed no later than August 31.
  • All other award nomination committees appointed by November 30.
  • All award evaluation committees, including Fellow Evaluation, appointed by December 31.
  • All nominations due March 1.
  • Society award evaluations done by March 21.
  • Certificates and checks requested from IEEE by 1 month before ICRA. Note that in order for checks to be available in time for ICRA, the required tax forms must be received by IEEE at least one month before ICRA as well.
  • Fellow evaluations performed in a meeting at ICRA and submitted to IEEE by June 15.

The Motion passed with 19 in favor, 1 opposed and 0 abstention.

2.2 Nomination Committee Report and VP Election

Chair of the Nomination Committee, Art Sanderson introduced the candidates for Administrative Committee and Vice Presidents:

VP Conference Activities: Toshio Fukuda

John Hollerbach

VP Financial Activities: Ian Walker

VP Industrial Activities: Alex Zelinsky

VP Membership Activities: Alicia Casals

Chris Koslowski

VP Publication Activities:Peter Luh

VP Technical Activities:Kenneth Goldberg

At the election of VP Conference Activities and VP Membership Activities, each of two candidates made presentation their statements except Chris Koslowski, who was absent from the AdCom meeting. Following the voting results, John Hollerbach and Alicia Casals were elected.

As the other VPs, there are candidates mentioned right for each VP, Ian Walker, Alex Zelinsky, Peter Luh and Kenneth Goldberg were approved unanimously.

PART 3 - INTERNAL ACTIVITIES (1)

3.0 Extra Reports

3.0.1 Conference Activities Report (1)

Honorary Chair of ICRA2008 George Bekey made a status report of ICRA08.

  • Organizing Committee Structure
  • Conference Venue and Accommodation, Pasadena
  • Budget
  • Program, WS, Technical Tour

3.0.2 Membership Activities Report (1)

Vice President for MAB Antonio Bicchi moved the financial support to assist authors of papers of ICRA.

MOTION (06-F-03): To approve financial support (a total of 10K$ per year) to assist authors of papers to be presented at ICRA.

The Motion passed with 20 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

3.1 FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

3.1.1, 3.2.2 Treasurer Reports, Vice President for Financial Activities Report

Vice President for FAB Ian Walker and Treasurer Xiaoping Yun gave a report on 2006 Year-to-Date Financial Status, 2007 Society Budget Update, RAS Income Trends, and Initiatives. Summary is as follows:

  • RAS currently in “time of plenty” – large reserves, surpluses
  • However, the near future is highly uncertain
  • Move to usage-based distributions problematic for RAS

Already lower ASPP income from publications

Likely significant drop in income in CP/IEL income when conferences move to usage-based distribution

  • RAS also running “controllable” part of budget closer to red
  • Likely larger dependence on investments for much of future surpluses/initiatives – probably not a stable situation
  • Still probably ok for new initiatives, but caution recommended - may need to “pick and choose”

MOTION(06-F-04): To approve $1000 for Local Chapter activities support (Italian Chapter) 

The Motion passed with 19 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

MOTION (06-F-05): To approve $2,500 for Women in Robotics and Automation lunch meeting at ICRA 2007

The Motion passed with 19 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

 MOTION (06-F-06): To approve $3,500 for RAS/IFRR Summer School student and faculty lunch meeting at ICRA 2007

There were lots of discussions on this motion. The discussions did not reach agreement. Therefore, it was suggested that the motion (06-F-06) was forwarded to MAB Committee for further discussion. After the discussion, MAB was requested to suggest a revised-motion by e-mail.

MOTION (06-F-07): The motion (06-F-06) will be forwarded to MAB Committee for further discussion. After the discussion, the revised motion will go to an electronic vote.

The motion passed with 17 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 abstention.

Vice President for MAB Antonio Bicchi proposed the new students program made by CAB and MAB. After discussion, the revised motion proceeded to the vote.

MOTION (06-F-08): It is required that future ICRA’s include the following in their budgets, beginning in 2007

  • Requirements:
  • RAS student member fee for each tutorials/workshops ($15, 15Euro).
  • RAS student member fee is to be no greater than 50% of the RAS regular member fee.
  • Student travel awards of $500 each and (RAS members, inc. reg. fee waived) totaling $15,000.
  • Podcasts of selected events such as plenaries, $1000.
  • Provide either of the two benefits:
  1. 1.Awards luncheon given free to students.
  2. 2.Students provided banquet tickets at cost of $25, (25 Euro) banquet.
  • Recommendation: Provide both benefits (1 & 2).

The motion passed with 16 in favor, 0 opposed and 3 abstention.

3.2 INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES

3.2.1 Vice President for Industrial Activities Report

3.2.2 Discussion, summary and working conclusions by the VP for IA

Vice President for IAB Sukhan Lee gave a recent progress report.

  • IEEE RAS Formal Cooperation Agreement with IFR
  • IEEE/IFR Industry Forum on “Invention and Entrepreneurship in Robotics and Automation”, IERA
  • A New Momentum for Standards Activity

3.3 CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

3.3.1 Vice President for Conference Activities Report

Vice President for CABT.J. Tarn gave a report on Conference Activities. The new rotation policy of ICRA conference venue was proposed and discussed.

MOTION (06-F-09): After 2012, the RAS annual conference (ICRA) should be held at three regions, America, Europe and Asia in rotation.

The Motion passed with 18 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

Program Co-Chair of ICRA2006 Katsushi Ikeuchi gave a report on ICRA2006 in Orlando, USA.

Editor in Chief of CEB Seth Hutchinson gave a report on CEB activities.

General Co-Chair of ICRA2007 Alessandro De Luca gave a report on ICRA2007 in Rome, Italy.

General Chair of CASE2006 Michael Yu Wang gave a report on CASE2007 in Scottsdale, USA.

Conference Board, Meetings Chair Kazuhiro Kosuge gave a report of Sole-Sponsorship, Co-Sponsorship, Technical Co-Sponsorship Conferences.

MOTION (06-F-10): To approve five Sole-Sponsorship, seven Co-Sponsorship, five Technical Co-Sponsorship and three G&A fee waivers.

The Motion passed with 15 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

3.4 IEEE Council

3.4.1 Report on systems Council

Alicia Casals gave a report on IEEE Systems Council.

MOTION (06-F-11): To present that the Systems Council shall consult with its Member Societies regarding the dates of their main meetings before organizing an activity that could involve sponsoring society members so as to avoid conflicts and thus facilitate sponsoring society participation.

The Motion passed with 17 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

3.5 Other Issues

3.5.1 RAS Meeting Policy

President Richard Volz gave a report on the RAS Meeting Policy.

Motion (06-F-12): To approve the policy on meetings to be held in conjunction with ICRA and IROS.

The meetings we hold at ICRA conferences can be divided into several categories that can be handled differently.

General

All audio/visual equipment expenses will be covered by the Society for all RAS meetings at ICRA. Space considerations may result in a prioritization and a limit to the number of meetings that can be held. The Treasurer and Conference General Chair work out how the payment is handled, i.e., by the Conference directly or by the Treasurer.

Category I

Meetings in this category do not require prior budget approval. This category consists of the following regularly scheduled meetings:

  • AdCom and ExCom meetings
  • Financial Activities Board
  • Conference Board
  • Steering Committee on Technical Programs
  • Publications Activities Board
  • Industrial Activities Board
  • Technical Activities Board
  • Membership Activities Board
  • Electronic Product and Services Board
  • Long Range Planning Committee
  • RAS Publication Advisory Committee, Editorial Board and Senior Editors meetings
  • Nominations and Award Nominations Committee
  • Award evaluation and selection committees
  • Town Hall Meeting (Open Forum Meeting)
  • Standing Committee meetings not otherwise identified above
  • SMALL ad hoc meetings organized by the President, President-Elect, or an RAS VP.

Requests from the meeting organizers are only needed for time and space so that we can fit their meeting into contracted rooms. The meeting organizer will be directed whom to contact regarding services such as projectors, screens and refreshments*.

Category II

Other meetings for which RAS is financially responsible should receive prior budget approval from the cognizant Executive Committee Member and the Treasurer.

Category III

Meetings for which RAS is not financially responsible, and other requests are to be reviewed on an individual basis by the Conference General Chair. ICRA may help with rooms, if available, and may, depending upon the nature of the A/V contract be able to help with A/V. For non-commercial requests (e.g., governmental agencies), the RAS Activities Coordinator will act as an intermediary with the General Chair if desired. There may be charges for facilities and services rendered. Once approved, the RAS activities coordinator will assist with the scheduling and schedule conflict resolution for ICRA and will do so for IROS if the IROS General Chair agrees. Food and beverage will not be covered unless approved by a member of the Executive Committee uninvolved in the meeting and the Treasurer.

It is expected that all will exercise fiscal responsibility in planning meals and refreshments.

The Treasurer regularly tracks all RAS funded meeting expenses. If any become excessive, adjustments may be made for future meetings.

The Motion passed with 15 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

PART 4 - INTERNAL ACTIVITIES (2)

4.1 TECHINICAL ACTIVITIES

4.1.1 Vice President for Technical Activities Report

Vice President for TAB Ken Goldberg gave a report on Technical Activities.

  • Review of Young Professionals Lunch
  • Review of Technical Committees
  • Establish New TC
  • New DL Candidates

MOTION (06-F-13): To approve the name change of Young Professionals Lunch to GOLD Lunch (Graduates of the Last Decade).

The Motion passed with 17 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

MOTION (06-F-14): To approve the name change of the TC on Semiconductor Factory Automation to the TC on Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation.

The Motion passed with 17 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

MOTION (06-F-15): To establish an RAS Technical Committee on Haptics (TCH).

The Motion passed with 16 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

4.2 MEMBERSHIP ACIVITIES (Part 2)

4.2.1 Vice President for Member Activities Report

4.2.2 Discussion, summary and working conclusions by the VP for MA

Vice President for MAB Antonio Bicchi gave a report on Membership Activities including membership data of the RAS.

PART 5 - INTERNAL ACTIVITIES (3)

5.1 PUBLICATIONS ACTIVITIES

5.1.1,?5.1.2 Vice President for Publications Activities Report Includes reports on T-RO, T-ASE, and RAM, Update on Transactions on Mechatronics

Vice President for PAB William Hamel gave a report the current situation on publication activities.

Editor-in-Chief, Alessandro De Luca gave a report on T-RO. He summarized that T-RO are in good shape, and we should expand on content and keep top quality and exploit electronic publication facilities.

Editor-in-Chief, Stefano Stramigioli gave a report on Magazine. He summarized that Magazine runs pretty smoothly, he gets nice feedback from readers especially tutorials.

William Hamel on behalf of Editor-in-Chief, Peter B. Luh gave a report on T-ASE.

William Hamel gave a report on the proposal for a new publication Transactions on Haptics.

MOTION (06-F-16): To authorize the development and promotion of a Phase I proposal to the IEEE for a new Transactions on Haptics. The proposal will be developed through the “haptics ad hoc group” with co-oversight from PAB and MAB team.

The Motion passed with 16 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

5.2 ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS & SERVICE BOARD

5.2.1 EPSB Report

The Chair of EPSB Stefano Stramigioli gave a report on Electronic Product and Services and showed a demonstration of the new RAS web page.

5.3 PRESIDENT-ELECT ACTIVITIES REPORT

5.3.1 Long-Range Planning Committee Report

Vice president Bruno Siciliano gave a report on the current situation and future plans of LRPC.

MOTION (06-F-17): To approve to start to consider re-organization of the RAS Meeting series at ICRA and IROS. ICRA2007 team should start it first.

The organizers of future ICRA and IROS conferences should run experiments to implement the proposed reorganized RAS Meeting series in respect of the local constraints imposed by the conference venue and program.

The RAS Meeting series would be organized in the three subsequent phases:

  1. AdCom Caucus - To be held either on the Tutorial/Workshop day preceding the conference, or on the first day of the conference, with a duration of half a day at most. The Caucus should feature the presentations by the President and the Vice-Presidents representing the various Boards, which should form a kernel of information to AdCom members and Standing Committee members for the subsequent meetings during the week, thus avoiding duplications of presentations during the various meetings. The Caucus should be open to all Society members and conference attendees in a spirit of transparency and visibility of the administration of the Society.
  2. Break-up Board and Committee Meetings - To be held during the conference days, with minimal conflicts against technical program. Such meetings should focus mainly on discussion, as there should be no need to go again through the presentations. The repository material from the Caucus should be made promptly available on the RAS web site, and WiFi access should be available in all meeting rooms.
  3. AdCom - To be held at the end of the conference, i.e. after the last Tutorials and Workshops. Only motions should be presented, discussed openly and voted. Periodic elections should be held according to the calendar. The duration should be at most four hours.

The Motion passed with 16 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

PART 6 NEW BUSINESS

6.1 6.2 New Issues, and Next AdCom meeting & adjourn

The next AdCom meeting will take place at ICRA conference in Rome, Italy on April 15, 2007.

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