IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom Meeting Minutes Lausanne, Switzerland Saturday, October 5, 2002

List of attendees showing a quorum

PART 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Welcome and introduction to the meeting

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

1.2 Approval of the Agenda and Minutes of May 16, 2002 Mtg

A motion to accept the agenda and approve the minutes of the previous May 16, 2002 AdCom meeting without any changes was then passed by the AdCom.

1.3 Division X Director's Report

Director Toshio Fukuda reported on the Division X activities.

1.4. Report on Status of Society

President Paolo Dario presented this report, providing a short summary on the status of the Society.

1.4.1 Reports on business conducted outside of meetings

No major businesses were conducted outside of the meetings by the President and/or the ExCom.

PART 2 INTERNAL ACTIVITIES

2.1. TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES

VP Bruno Siciliano presented this report on the technical committees overall, including brief reports on the new technology directions committee and on other RAS liaisons

Sukhan Lee, Industrial Activities Standing Committee Chair announced his willing to give a joint report with the President Elect later in the meeting agenda (LRPC see 3.2.1).

2.1.5. Int. Transp. Systems Council RAS Representative Report

Stefano Stramigioli, RAS representative in the Intelligent Transportation Systems Council, presented this report, informing the AdCom on the main items discussed in the most recent ITS Council meeting.

The Technical Activities Board moved the following motions:

  1. to establish a new societal Award for the Most Active Technical Committee. This Award will be assigned yearly, and it will consist of a certificate and of a $1000 check.
  2. to recommend to the President to appoint a new societal Ad-Hoc Committee to analyze the Awards & Nominations process, and report @ next Spring Mtg. It is recommended that this new Committee shall include representatives from Standing Awards & Nomination Committees.

Both the two motions were carried by the AdCom.

2.2. MEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES

2.2.1. VP for Membership Activities Report

On behalf of VP Aydan Erkmen, Paolo Fiorini, member of the Membership Activties Board, briefly presented this report on the IEEE general membership status and on the initiatives promoted by the Membership Activities Board to consolidate and extend RAS membership.

The Membership Activities Board moved a motion to promote a new joint initiative with the International Foundation of Robotics Research: a new post-graduate School on Robotics to be held yearly in Volterra (Italy).

The motion was carried by the AdCom.

2.2.2. Education Activities Committee Report

Paolo Fiorini, EdCom co-chair, presented an update EdCom activities.

2.2.3. International Activities Committee Report

Chair Kazuhiro Kosuge presented this report.

2.2.5. Awards Committee Report

Chair Toshio Fukuda, RAS Senior Past President, presented a short summary of the Awards already assigned at the ICRA 2002 ceremony. It is expected that during the year 2002 the new RAS Technical Field Award should be established. Steve Hsia briefly reported on the status of development of IEEE RAS Technical Field Award .

2.2.7. 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. These applications were in most cases solicited and submitted thanks to the effort specifically developed by the Ad Hoc Committee.

2.2.8. Discussion, summary and working conclusions by the VP for MA

President Paolo Dario presented this proposal for of a process for analyzing Awards and Nominations procedures , which was accepted by the AdCom.

2.3. PUBLICATION ACTIVITIES

2.3.1. VP for Publications Report

Dick Volz presented this report on publications activities. He reported in detail about ongoing negotiations with IES to solve a potential dispute on the distribution of reserves related to the Transactions of Mechatronics. In order to strengthen the position of RAS representatives in the T-Mech management committee during this negotiation, Dick Volz the PAB moved the following motion:

Whereas the Management Committee of the Transactions on Mechatronics, acting in good faith, approved modified agreements in 1997 and 1999 allocating a portion of the net income to ASME, as shown in the notes below, and adding the Design Division of ASME as a co-sponsor, the RAS AdCom hereby retroactively ratifies these agreements and reconfirms its confidence in the actions of the committee.? Further, the AdCom expects that the Agreement will be revised and brought to the AdCom as expediently as reasonably feasible to clarify the agreement and resolve outstanding issues.

The motion was carried by the AdCom.

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.

2.4. CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

2.4.1. VP Conferences Report

VP Norman Caplan gave a short introduction and presided over the presentations of the reports on different conferences and Conference Board activities.

2.4.2. 2002 ICRA Conference

ICRA2003 (Washington, DC, May 11-15) General Chair Bill Hamel presented this report. The report included data on the positive overall results of the Conference. Record submission, attendance and surplus were achieved by the Conference organization committee. The AdCom congratulated the General Chair, the Program Chair and all the Conference Committee for this excellent result.

2.4.3. 2003 ICRA Conference

A report on the current status of preparation of ICRA2003 (Taipei, Taiwan, May 12-17) was presented by the Program Chair Li-Chen Fu. A hard copy of the report was filed by the Secretary.

2.4.5. Other conference reports

Shigeki Sugano, member of the Conference Activities Board, presented this report on sponsored, co-sponsored and technically co-sponsored conferences.

2.4.7. RAS-EMBS MOU

Norman Caplan and Paolo Dario briefly reported on the status of development of the RAS-EMBS initiative to promote a new conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics. The Conference Board approved to equally sponsor this new conference with the EMB society. The Conference will be hosted in Pisa in 2004, probably in February. The Presidents of the two societies shall appoint three representatives each to the joint Advisory Board. Final schedule and budget should be submitted to the VP for Conferences and approved by the Conference Board, possibly one year before the conference date.

2.4.8. Report on the activity of the SSRR Taskforce

Norman Caplan presented a short report on the outcome of the First Workshop on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR). A CD copy of the Workshop proceedings has been filed by the Secretary.

2.5. FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

2.5.1. VP for Finance Report

VP Dave Orin presented this report.

The Financial Activities Board moved a motion to sponsor with USD 4,500 the first edition of the RAS-IFRR School on Robotics to be held in Volterra (Italy).

The main motion was amended by the AdCom as follows:

The AdCom conditionally approves the sponsorship with USD 4,500 of the first edition of the RAS-IFRR School on Robotics to be held in Volterra (Italy), provided that IFRR will deliberate to sponsor the same initiative with an equal contribution.

The amended motion was carried by the AdCom.

PART 3 OTHER ACTIVITIES

3.1 RASStrategies

3.1.1 Nominations Committee Report

3.1.1.1 New AdCom Members

Steve Hsia, RAS Past-President, presented this report on the 2002 AdCom election.

3.1.1.2 Procedure for nomination of new President-Elect

Steve Hsia, chair of the Nominations Standing Committee and of the Advisory Committee, presented a report on the proposed procedure for nomination of the new President-Elect.

3.2 President-Elect Report

3.2.1 President-Elect activities Report & LRPC Report

President-Elect Kazuo Tanie and the Industrial Committee Standing Committee Chair jointly presented their strategy for strengthening involvement of industry in RAS activities. They envisaged a number of actions which will require financial support to be carried out. Sukhan Lee will submit specific requests for funding to the FAB and AdCom in the near future, and he will work in co-operation with the Conference Chairs to organize events of potential interest of industry within RAS conferences.

PART 4 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES

4.1. Constitution and Bylaws Committee

President Paolo Dario presented this report on the meeting of the Constitution & Bylaws Committee.

4.2. RAS Secretary Report

RAS Secretary Eugenio Guglielmelli presented this report.

PART 5 NEW BUSINESS

No new issues were requested to be discussed.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 PM to convene next on May 18, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, in Taipei, Taiwan in conjunction with ICRA2003.

Easy Links