IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom Meeting Minutes Orlando, Florida Saturday, May 20, 2006

Attendees

ExCom Members

Dick Volz, Bruno Siciliano, T.J. Tarn, Antonio Bicchi, Ken Goldberg, Sukhan Lee, William Hamel, Xiaoping Yun, Shigeki Sugano

AdCom Members

Pierre DuPont, Katsu Ikeuchi, Kevin Lynch, Seth Hutchinson, Hideki Hashimoto
Raja Chatila, Rudiger Dillman, Polo Fiorini, Alex Zelinsky Robin Murphy,
Kazuhiro Kosuge, Stefano Staramigioli, David Orin, Toshio Fukuda, George Bekey

Other Attendees

Ian Walker, Norman Caplan, George Lee, Paolo Dario, Alessandro De Luca,
Alicia Casals, John Hollerbach, Nikos Papanikolopouls,?Peter Luh, Steve Hsia,
Vladimir Lumelsky, Wes Snyder, Krzysztof Kozlowsky, Roz Snyder Number of voting members constituting a quorum: 19 voting

PART 1 - INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction

1.1 Welcome and introduction

President Richard A. Volz called the meeting to order at 9:30 AM.

1.2 Approval of the current and past minutes

The minutes of the October 16, 2005 were approved.
The agenda was approved.

1.3 Report on Status of Society

1.3.1 Business conducted outside of meetings

President Richard Volz gave a summary of items and pointed out issues related to the society.

Adapted meeting policy for meetings held in conjunction with ICRA and IROS.
Approved revisions to INABA Technical Award for Innovation Leading to Production and invention and Entrepreneurship Award.
Membership Activities Board asked to consider creating plan for ICRA helping members from underdeveloped countries to attend ICRA.
Membership Activities Board asked to suggest policy on RAS support of robotics and automation contests.

MOTION(06-S-01): To approve MOU between the Robotics and Automation Society and the International Foundation of Robotics Research to jointly support a School of Robotics Science.

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

PART 2 - INTERNAL ACTIVITIES (1)

2.1 Nominations Committee Report

Past Vice President Steve Hsia gave a report on nominations for VP. This report included approval of Ian Walker as nominee for VP Finance. MOTION(06-S-02): To approve Ian Walker as VP for Finance.
The Motion passed with unanimously by acclamation.

2.2 CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

2.2.1 Vice President for Conference Activities Report

Vice President for CAB?T.J. Tarn gave a presentation on Conference Activities and ICRA 2008 Budget Approval. MOTION(06-S-03): ICRA 2008 Budget.
The motion passes with 19 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention.

2.2.2 Conference Editorial Board

Associate Vice President John Hollerbach gave a report on Conference Editorial Board. MOTION(06-S-04): To approve CEB Establishment
The motion passed with 15 in favor, 2 opposed, 0 abstention.

2.2.3 Conference Activity Report

Alicia Casals gave a report on ICRA 2005 in Barcelona, Spain.
Norman Caplan gave a report on ICRA 2006 in Orlando, America.
Paolo Dario gave a report on ICRA 2007 in Roma, Italy such as venue, cost and so on.
R.Dillmann gave a presentation on ICRA 2013. MOTION(06-S-05): To approve ICRA 2013 in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The motion passed with 18 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention. Kazuhiro Kosuge gave a report on Sponsor/Co-Sponsor Technical Co-Sponsor Conferences. MOTION(06-S06): Sponsor/Co-sponsor, Technical Co-Sponsor Conference (Item #06-23?#06-34, #07-03?#07-10).
The motion passed with 18 in favor, 0 opposed and 0 abstention. President Dick Volz gave a report on INABA Award. MOTION(06-S-07): To approve the Inaba Technical Award for innovation Leading to Production and Invention and Entrepreneurship Award. The approval is to take effect when the IEEE Foundation gift Agreement and the IFR MOU, respectively, have been signed.
The motion passed 18 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention.

COFEE BREAK

2.3 FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

2.3.1, 2.3.2 Treasurer Reports, Vice President for Financial Activities Report

Treasurer Xiaoping Yun gave a report on Review of 2005 Actual Financial Results, 2007 Society Budget, and Financial Impact of New Initiatives.

2005 Income increased and 2005 Expense decreased compared with 2005 budget, which means the balance in 2005 kept good.
Society budget must be break-even or better in 2007.
2007 publication Rate Principles.

MOTION(06-S-08): To approve all 2007 publication rates and page counts for Magazine, T-RO, T-ASE.
The motion passed with 18 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention. MOTION(06-S-09): To approve expansion of RAS budget to include a total of $1,500 ($500 addition to each publication budget) to cover the Xplore access costs for all active editors.
The motion passed with 18 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention. MOTION(06-S10): To approve $40K for Conference Editorial Board (CEB) in 2007, and 30K for future years.
The motion passed with 15 in favor, 2 opposed, 0 abstention. MOTION(06-S11): To approve $5K in 2006 and $10K/year in future years for a part-time assistant to help the treasurer.
The motion passed with 17 in favor, 1 opposed (Toshi Fukuda) and 0 abstention.

2.4 TECHINICAL ACTIVITIES

2.4.1 Vice President for Technical Activities Report

Vice President Ken Goldberg gave a report on review of new TAB website and database, review of TCs, TAB meeting, Young Professionals Lunch and so on.

RAS Technical Activities Website shows information on all Technical Committees, distinguished Lecturers information?and so on.
Young Professionals Lunch was held and successfully adjourned.

MOTION(06-S-12): Micro/Nano Robots changes its name to Micro / Nano Robotics and Automation.
The motion passed 16 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention. MOTION(06-S-13): To approve establishment of TC on Space Robotics.
The motion passed 16 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention. MOTION(06-S-14): To approve establishment of TC on Algorithms for Planning and control of Robot Motion.
The motion passed 16 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention. MOTION(06-S-15): To approve expansion of DLs (Distilling Lecture) from 5 per region to 8 per region.
The motion passed 16 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention. MOTION(06-S-16): To approve Additional $1K per year, allocated to most active DL award.
The motion passed 18 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention. MOTION(06-S-17): To approve expansion to $10,000/year for maintaining the YCRA YP Lunch at IROS.
The motion passed 18 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention. MOTION(06-S-18): To approve Charter, summarized the roles, objectives, duties, and procedures of the RAS Technical Activities Board, including its officers, Technical Committees, and Distinguished Lecturers.
The motion passed 18 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstention.

2.4.2 New proposal

George Bekey stated that it is important for the society to create network linkage between people in government such as NASA and in academia.

2.5 Awards and Fellow Evaluation / Selection Report

Past President Paolo Dario gave a report. A number of suggestions were made . There are as follows:

The change of name of the committee was changed to “Awards Committee”.
The guidelines should be reinforced to guarantee the same format for all awards nomination.
HARASHIMA Award: purpose of this award is to honor Professor Fumio HARASHIMA and to recognize an individual who has pioneered activities in robotics and intelligence.

The only one that was boted upon was "Harashima Award" and "1,000 USD per society per year". MOTION(06-S19): To support and co-sponsor the HARASHIMA Award together with IES, RSJ and SICE with a RAS contribution of 1000 USD per year. This contribution shall be covered from the surplus originated for RAS by the IROS Conference of the same year.
The motion passed unanimously.

Break for lunch

2.6 PUBLICATIONS ACTIVITIES

2.6.1,?2.6.2 Vice President for Publications Activities Report Includes reports on T-RO, T-ASE, and RAM, Update on Transactions on Mechatronics

Vice President William Hamel gave a report the current situation on publication reviews, and RAS membership survey highlights.

Web-based RAS Membership Survey was held (“How do you view your relationships/roles with the RAS?”and so on.)

Editor-in-Chief, Peter B. Luh gave a report on T-ASE.

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

Editor-in-Chief, Stefano Stramigioli gave a report on Magazine. He summarized that Magazine runs smoothly, and pages extension can be attained and so on. He also showed reconstruction of RAS homepage.

PART 3 IEEE ACTIVITIES

3.1 IEEE Council

3.1.1 Report on systems Council

Alicia Casals gave a report on IEEE System Council.

PART 4 INTERNAL ACTIVITIES (2)

4.1 INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES

4.1.1 Vice President for Industrial Activities Report

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

Vice President Sukhan Lee gave a summary status report 2005 and summary 2006 plan. He is also introducing National IAB in major countries around the World, e.g., Finland and Korea. MOTION(06-S-20): To approve to award influence Sony not to dismantle the TEAM the Qurio Team by recognizing their remarkable technical achievement by our Society.
For this motion, there were some discussion on the reason why SONY was only awarded although there are many companies worthy to be awarded.
As result of the discussion, the motion is failed 3 in favors, 8 opposed, 3 abstention. 8 opposition includes Toshio Fukuda’s opposition.

4.2 MEMBERSHIP ACIVITIES (Part 1)

4.2.1 Vice President for Member Activities Report

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

Vice President Antonio Bicchi gave a report on societies such as Chapter and International activities, Human rights and ethics, membership, retention and admissions, Education activities. According survey, 62% of RAS members are satisfied with their level of involvement in the society. On the other hand, 20% expressed dissatisfaction. MOTION(06-S-21): The Educational Committee of the Member Activity Board asks 6K$ to provide partial travel support to students whose papers are accepted to the special session on “Robotics Education” at ICRA2007.
The motion was passed with 10 in favor, 5 opposed, 0 abstentions. MOTION(06-S-22): To approve financial support (a total of 10K$ per year) to assist authors of papers to be presented at ICRA.
For this motion, there were discussions on definition of the words, e.g., Third World.
Accordingly, first, we took vote on the motion if we took vote on the above-mentioned MOTION here and now, or we did not. MOTION(06-S-23): To approve to take vote on the above-mentioned MOTION.
The motion passed with favor in 10, 5 opposed, 0 abstention. As a result of the vote, we took vote on the MOTION (To approve financial support (a total of 10K$ per year) to assist authors of papers to be presented at ICRA). . The motion failed with 4 in favor, 5 opposed, 6 abstention Robin Murphy proposed a motion for changing the order of agenda for keeping a quorum MOTION(06-S-24): For the purpose of forming a quorum, the order of agenda changes.
(Ras Secretary Report gave a presentation before MEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES and Long-Range Planning Committee Report (4.3)
The motion passed unanimously. As a result of this, MEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES was interrupted. Then, RAS Secretary Report (5.1) gave a presentation ahead of MEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES and Long-Range Planning Committee Report (4.3).

MOTION(06-S-25): To approve financial support (5K$) to develop a detailed design of RAS web-based courses in Robotics and Automation and a comparative analysis of educational material available on the Internet.
The motion passed 11 in favor, 0 opposed, 3 abstentions.

PART5 CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS

5.1 RAS Secretary Report

5.1.1 Bylaws and Standing rules Amendments

Secretary Shigeki Sugano gave a report on Amendments. The following three points are to be clarified:

The procedure of nominating, selecting, awarding nominees in RAS Bylaw should be changed.
Education Standing Committee should be included in RAS Bylaw.
The number of voting member for petition in RAS Standing Rules should be changed related to IEEE rule.

MOTION(06-S-26): Amendment RAS Standing Rules AMENDMENT Nominated candidates from the Nominations Committee and additional candidates nominated by petitions signed by two (2) % or more voting members of the Society shall appear on the ballot, provided that eligibility has been checked by the Nomination Chair, in consultation with the Secretary and IEEE Membership Services. In addition, the Nomination Committee shall consider candidates nominated by petitions signed by twenty five (25) or more voting members of the Society. The straw vote in favor of the motion passed with 14 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention. MOTION(06-S-27): Amendment RAS GENERAL Rules. AMENDMENT 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. The straw vote in favor of the motion passed with 14 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention. Amendments in Bylaws were just explained. the final vote on the motions will occur at Fall AdCom Meeting in IROS on October 14, 2006

5.2 MEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES (Part 2)

Vice President Antonio Bicchi recommenced a presentation.

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.

New ideas for LRPC are welcomed.

PART 6 NEW BUSINESS

6.1 6.2 New Issues, and Next AdCom meeting & adjourn

The next AdCom meeting will take place at IROS conference in Beijing, China on October 14, 2006.