Notes taken by Hong Tan
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IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
Technical Activities Board Meeting
Presidential Suite, School of Engineering, Rome, Italy
April 10, 2007, 4:30-6:15 pm
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1. Ken Goldberg (KG) showed cover page of Scientific American Jan 2007 issue
where Bill Gates spoke of "Dawn of the age of robots" and the launch of
Microsoft Robotics Studio.  Ken says this should be required reading for
all TAB members.

2. KG mentioned GOLD (Graduates Of the Last Decade) Lunch on Wed, 12:40-2:00
pm.
It is supposed to be a membership recruitment opportunity.
Gunter was asked, at the last minute, to attend on behalf of TC Haptics.

3. KG went over the 1-page powerpoint summary of each TC.
Typical slides included several pictures with short descriptions underneath.
KG says that the ppt slides should be submitted every 6 months, and at least
once a year.
KG particularly complimented the nice website of our TCH.

4. KG went over typical communications with TC members:
* email members every 2-3 months
  (Hong needs to draft a "welcome" message)
* email can be used to announce haptics sessions at upcoming conferences, 
  and solicit news from the community (such as images for the homepage,
  and contents for the 1-page summary powerpoint slide).

5. A new RAS field of interest statement was discussed and passed
unanimously.
   Note that the word "haptics" is now in it.  The statement now goes to
AdCom for aproval.

---- From Ken Goldberg ----------------------------------------------

Proposed New RAS Field of Interest (2007-)

The Society encourages fundamental and applied research in Robotics and 
Automation.  Robotics focuses on sensor and actuator systems that operate 
autonomously or semi-autonomously (in cooperation with humans) in 
unpredictable environments.  Robot systems emphasize intelligence and 
adaptability,  may be networked, and are being developed for many 
applications  such as service and personal assistants; surgery and 
rehabilitation; haptics; space, underwater, and remote exploration and 
teleoperation; education, entertainment; search  and rescue; defense; 
agriculture; and intelligent vehicles.  Automation focuses on systems that 
operate autonomously in predictable environments over extended periods. 
Automation emphasizes efficiency, productivity, quality, and reliability, 
with primary applications in manufacturing, including industrial robots. 
Today automation has many applications such as  agriculture, 
biotechnology, healthcare, home and laboratory automation, maintenance, 
packaging, retail, security, semiconductors, service, supply chains, and 
transportation.

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6. RAS President Dick Volz proposed new "Basic Principles for TCs".
   The exact wording should appear in IEEE RAS TAB meeting minutes, but
   enclosed below are Hong's notes (and possible typos).
   The TAB unanimously passed the motion to forward these principles for
   consideration at the AdCom meeting (check their minutes later).

------ Hong Tan's (incomplete) notes of Dick Volz's slides --------------

Slide 1: Basic principles for TCs
* Technical area development and growth:
  - it is a fundamental goal of the society to help technical areas develop
    and grow to their full potential, both technically and organizationally.

Slide 2: Basic principles for TCs
* Scientific autonomy:
 - Within the broader IEEE/Society polices and procedures and constraints,
   TCs shall have scientific autonomy in their technical acivities,
including
   such areas as conference and publication activities, e.g., selection of
   committees, editors, and reiewers.

Slide 3: Basic principles for TCs
* investment and re-invement in TC activities
 - The society shall encourage organized technical activities and be wiling
to
   invest financially to help the TCs create and maintain successful
activities
 - As TCs demonstrate success in their activities, the society shall
reinvest
   a portion of their gain back into the TC to engender continued success
and
   additional growth.

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7. Dick Volz then discussed the idea of IEEE Technical Communities, a
mechanism
   for the most active TCs to grow, with expanded privileges and
responsibilities.

------ Hong Tan's (incomplete) notes of Dick Volz's slides --------------

IEEE Technical communities
- as we grow, some TC become large, need more flexibility,

Concepts:
- Create a class of technical activitity groups that have greater
responsbility/
  autority than typical TCs.
- possible qualifications: size, e.g., > 200; significant level of technical
activity,
  measured in terms such as number of conferences, workshops, number of
attendees at 
  above events, dollar level of activities, publications, etc.
- have membership at society conference and/or publications board
- have annual budget
- have to follow conference rules, especially timely closing of conference
finance report
- have a mechanism to accmulate resources from year to year,

Issues:
- is this worth considering at all?
- what should be the specifics of membership?
- what should be the rights and responsibilities?
- what are the financial implications?
  *- in view of substantial decreases in income, can the society afford it?
- what additional administrative load would this result and do we have the
capacity to
  handle it, especially our financial team?
- should we establish a small sub-committee or working group to come up with
a concrete plan?

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