IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2013 - 12

number of members has more than doubled over the past five years.
To support our growing membership,
one of our major initiatives was a complete redesign of our Web site (www.ieeeras.org). The goals-to make the Web site
more user-friendly and to provide members and volunteers with additional
resources-have largely been met,
although improvements will continue to
be made with the help of professional
designers from D2 Creative Inc. The Web
site redesign has been accomplished with
complementary social media networking
through Facebook and LinkedIn. One
particularly important feature of our Web
site is the inclusion of pages for each of
our TCs, with a consistent format and
straightforward method for prospective
members to join the TC. We have teamed
with IEEE Spectrum to include links to
the latest news from their Automaton
robotics blog on the front page of our
Web site. We have also worked with IEEE
Spectrum to offer their Robots app for

iPad free to our members and public for
a week. The app provides interactive
animations of robots worldwide and
had more than 50,000 downloads during
this promotion.
In 2012, we formed the IEEE RAS
Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT). We were the
first IEEE Society to form a SIGHT. Its
focus is to organize activities in which
robotics and automation technologies
can make a significant difference in
raising the quality of life for humanity.
One of its first projects was to support
an educational activity with the African
Robotics Network (AFRON)-the
"10-Dollar Robot Design Challenge"-
and this activity is on-going.
Industrial Activities
Two working groups for standards have
been approved by the IEEE Standards
Association-Ontologies for Robotics
and Automation and Map Data Representation. The IEEE/International Fed-

Six-Axis
Force/Torque Sensors

Standard Features: Six Axes of Force/Torque Sensing (Fx
Fy Fz Tx Ty Tz) * High Overload Protection * Interfaces for
Ethernet, PCI, USB, EtherNet/IP, CAN, and more * Sizes
from 17 mm - 330 mm diameter * Custom sensors available
Applications: Product Testing * Biomedical Research *
Finger Force Research * Rehabilitation Research * Robotics

www.ati-ia.com/ras

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

DECEMBER 2013

eration of Robotics Joint Forum on
Invention and Entrepreneurship in
Robotics and Automation (IERA), and
the associated IERA award, has continued to be a very successful program.
Outstanding industrial forums have
been held at our ICRA and IROS conferences over the past two years. RAS also
sponsored a U.S. Congressional Robotics Caucus and raised the awareness of
the positive impact of robotics, and
automation in general, on job creation.
Finances
IEEE RAS financial health remained
strong in the past two years, allowing us
to support several new initiatives.
Strong performance in our conferences,
especially with the income generated
through the IEEE Electronic Library,
was a major contributor to our good
financial health.
All of the accomplishments that we
have made in RAS during my term as
president would not be possible without
the cooperative efforts of so many
volunteers and staff. I am deeply
humbled by their support. Credits go
to more persons than I can name in a
reasonable amount of space. I would,
though, like to thank all of the vice
presidents and their board members,
Executive Committee members,
Administrative Committee members,
EiCs and editors, conference organizers, and many volunteers for their
dedicated work and support for our
activities. And special thanks go to
our IEEE RAS staff Kathy Colabaugh
and Rachel O. Warnick for their very
professional work on behalf of the
Society. We simply could not have
accomplished so much without them.
This is my last column as the president of the Society. Chatila will begin
his term as RAS president on 1 January 2014. During my term as president, we have held to the core value of
globalization-welcoming membership and leadership from all of the
regions of the world. It is my sincere
hope that RAS will continue to uphold
this value as we move forward together
as a worldwide community. Thank
you again for all of your support and
contributions to the Society.

http://www.ieee http://www.ras.org http://www.ati-ia.com/ras

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2013