Summary of Chapter Survey

1. Summary of Chapter Survey Paolo Fiorini Computer Science Department University of Verona

2. Existing Chapters • EUROPE • Croatia Chapter • Denmark Chapter • France Chapter (vacant) • Germany • Hungary • Italy • Poland • Turkey • United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland • LATIN AMERICA • Argentina • Chile • AFRICA • Nigeria • AUSTRALIA • Queensland USA • Eastern North Carolina Chapter • Galveston Bay Texas • Princeton-Central Jersey Chapter (vacant) • New Jersey (???) • Binghamton NY • Central New England Chapter (CNEC) • Pittsburgh Chapter • Orlando Chapter (vacant) CANADA • Ottawa Chapter • Southern Alberta ASIA/ • Korea • Singapore • Hong Kong • Taipei • Japan

3. Alive Chapters USA • Pittsburgh: chair Guy Nicoletti • Orlando: chair waiting Alex Leonessa CANADA • Canada (Ontario ???): chair Jurek Z. Sasiadek EUROPE • Hungary: joint RAS-IES new chair Joseph Tar • Italy: chair Paolo Fiorini ASIA • Japan: new chair Satoshi Tadokoro • Singapore: new chair Prof Sam Ge • Korea: chair Beom H. Lee • Taiwan: new chair Fan-Tien Cheng AFRICA • Nigeria: contact Giandomenico Massari

4. Silent Chapters • Great Britain: Wrong e-mail of chair • Germany: no response from chair • Australia: no response, wrong e-mail? • Argentina no response, wrong e-mail? • Chile no response, wrong e-mail?

5. Responses from Chapters

6. Japan Chapter • Organization Chair in 2004: Satoshi Tadokoro Vice-Chair in 2004:Hajime Asama Secretary in 2004: Atsushi Konno Treasurer in 2004: Kensuke Harada 2. Major Activities of RAS Japan Chapter: 1) IEEE RAS Japan Chapter Young Award (corresponding to ICRA) This is a novel trial started in 2003 in order to activate, promote and attract young outstanding students. Its overview is described below. 2) Organization of Technical Meetings (2-3 times a year) Technical meetings (mainly lectures by distinguished researchers) are held 2-3 times a year when appropriate researchers visit Japan. Two meetings were held in 2003 as described below. 3) Administrative Meetings (3 times a year) Administrative meetings are held at major international/domestic conferences.

7. Singapore Chapter • The Singapore R&A Chapter is sponsoring the Singapore Robotic Games Competition to reach out to the juniors. • Currently, the Chapter is organizing the IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics, 1-3 December 2004 to serve the community better.

8. Canada Chapter • Look at the form on file at IEEE HQ

9. Italy Chapter • Organized Robotics conferences • Sponsored doctoral schools • Promoted technical meetings and seminars

10. Korea Chapter 1) The 22nd All Korean Microrobot Competition     Date: Aug. 27, 2004     Place: Seoul National University     Expected Number of Audience: 600     Expected Number of Participants : 130 Teams     Cosponsored by RA Korea Chapter & ASRI, SNU 2) Annual Technical Workshop     Date: October in 2004     Place: Seoul National University     Lecturer: Prof. B.H.Lee     Topic: Analysis of Collision Characteristics for Robot Manipulators     Expected Number of Audience: 100     Cosponsored by RA Korea Chapter & ASRI, SNU 3) Special Lecture     Date: December in 2004     Place: Seoul National University     Lecturer: Invited Scholar from USA or Japan     Topic: Multi-Agent Coordination and Control     Expected Number of Audience: 200     Sponsored by RA Korea Chapter

11. Orlando Chapter Current robotics activities not sponsored by RAS: • robotics club, • Two robotics competitions • robotics conference

12. Nigeria Chapter • Constituted in the earlier month of 2003 and chartered in May 2003. • The chapter is composed of twenty – six (26) members. OBJECTIVES • To create awareness of the subject into Nigerian Universities, Professional Bodies and Industrial Environment. • Introduce Robotics and Automation into subject to be lecturer at Faculty of Engineering. • To present papers on seminars and workshops. • To coordinate a project in Tele-medicine in collaboration with Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineering (IEEE) Nigerian Section, Nigeria Society of Engineers, The Nigerian Medical Association, The Internet Society Nigeria Chapter, University of Verona (Italy) and General Hospital Verona (Italy). The project, which is sponsored by some Nigerian private corporation, will be established at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).

13. Taiwan Chapter • We have organized three technical speeches: “Intelligent Control of a Quadruped Gallop” by Dr. David E. Orin, Prof. of EE Dept., The Ohio State University on September 10, 2003; “Automation Technology of Factory Integration for Future 300mm FABs” by Mr. Y. C. Lee, Manager of Automation Dept., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) on November 19, 2003; and “Predictive Infotronics Technologies for e-Manufacturing and e-Maintenance” by Dr. Jay Lee, Prof. of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Dept., Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on December 24, 2003. The speeches were hold in National Cheng Kung University, and were well received. • We have participated in co-organization of two international conferences: “2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2003)” and “Automation 2003”. The Chapter Chairman, Prof. Fan-Tien Cheng was invited to serve as the Finance Chair for ICRA 2003 and the conference was held at Grand Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. on September 14-19, 2003. The event attracted record number 1176 papers submitted from 48 countries. Automation 2003 was hold in National Chung Cheng University, Chia-yi, Taiwan, R.O.C. on September 12-14, 2003. Again, the Chapter Chairman, Prof. Fan-Tien Cheng was invited to serve as the Award Chair for Automation 2003. • In order to link up our members and the technical organizations in related fields, we publish monthly e-papers. We not only deliver the latest news of R&A to our members, but also share information with other organizations. Via these monthly e-papers, we attempt to increase the interaction between our members and other technical organizations and attract potential members.

14. Australia Chapter BACKGROUND • 1999 was the inaugural year of the Joint CSS/R&A Chapter, effective from 12 March 1999. nt, the Chapter was the first and, is still, the only R&A Chapter formed in Australia. SERVICE TO THE MEMBERS • The increased number of technical seminars that become available to IEEE members. To achieve that, the Chapter was committed to bringing internationally distinguished speakers, many of them being brought for the first time to Queensland and Australia. • The Chapter has contributed to promotion of the discipline of robotics, not just within the IEEE community but also, among professionals that are members of other learned societies (such as the Institution of Engineers Australia). To achieve that, the Chapter has established very successful collaboration with local chapters of the Australian Institution of Engineers. This partnership has provided the Chapter with an opportunity to raise the profile of IEEE since the lecture announcements are also distributed through distribution channels of Engineers Australia. • Finally, a number of the Chapter members have been involved in promotion and raising profile of the robotics among high school students. Thus, the Chapter Foundation Chair visited 22 high schools delivering his speech on intelligent robotics.

15. Chile Chapter HISTORY The IEEE Chilean Chapter on Robotics, Control and Cybernetics (Joint Chapter) was created in 1989. The Chapter had organized International Conferences in Chile in 1989, 1992, 1994, 1998, and 2003 (the name is changed to Latinamerican Conferences). We had several Distinguished Lecturers: Dr. George Bekey (1992, 1995), Dr. Arthur Sanderson (1991, 1993), Dr. Ren Luo (1994), Dr. Juan Pimentel (1989, 1994), Dr. Mongi Abidi (2003), Dr. Jesus Savage (1997,2003), Dr. Ferreira from Brasil (2001), Dr. Roman Osorio (1998, 2003). The Chapter has been co-organised and co.sposorship of the following Congress in Chile: Chilean Congress of Electrical Engineering (1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001) and ACCA Congress (Congress of Automatic Control Chilean Asociation): 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002. Normally the Chapter has almost 60 members and some students. The student membership is increased during the last 3 years because of National Competition on mobile robots. DETAILS OF MEETINGS April Valparaiso Control of robotics manipulators. Juan L. Hernandez, Universidad Federico Santa Maria May Santiago Discrete and Hybrid Nonlinear Analysis and models: Aplication on robotics Ingeborg Mahla: University of Santiago June Santiago Robotics futbol competition show Javier Ruiz-del-Solar and team of Univeristy of Chile June Santiago and Calama in different dates Robotis and computer vision applied to minery Danilo Bassi, Codelco, Chile July Concepcion Application of Computer vision in problems of wood Mario Ramos, Universidad of Bio-Bio. Sept. Valparaiso Flexible Manufacturing Systems Gaston Lefranc: Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso Oct. Santiago 3rd Student competition on mobil robots Organizer: Javier Ruiz-del-Solar (university of Chile), 12 groups in two categories Nov. Santiago LCRA$B!-(J2003 Latinamerican Conference on Robotics and Automation      30 papers, two tutorials, and Dr. Mongi Abidi from University of Tennesee. Audience 108 people. Dec. Santiago and Valparaiso Mobile robots applied in Mexico Jesus Savage, Full Professor of UNAM, Mexico Dec. Santiago and Valparaiso Computer vision and virtual reality Roman Osorio, IIMAS, UNAM, Mexico.

16. Chapter Issues • Differences in size: regional v/s national v/s continental (only one chapter per section) • Procedure for revitalizing/closing chapters • Imposing requirements to chapters • Procedure for choosing chairs • Interaction with members • Services and resources • Interaction with student branches • Chapter Chair meeting at next ICRA, with 50% support from Region 8 (7-8K matching funds)