IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2012 - 6

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Strategic Themes for RAS
By David E. Orin

his is my first column as
the president of the IEEE
Robotics and Automation
Society (RAS), and I want to
begin my tenure by thanking you for
entrusting me with this opportunity
to lead the Society in 2012 and
2013. It has been
30 years since
robotics and automation was first
organized as a
technical field
within the IEEE.
David E. Orin,
Later, it was
president of the
RAS.
organized as a
Council and then
a Society under the IEEE Technical
Activities Board (TAB), and I will serve
as the 18th president of the Society/
Council. The Society is flourishing
because of contributions of its past
presidents, volunteer leaders, and
members. During the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
Automation (ICRA) 2012 in St. Paul,
Minnesota, we will honor the dedicated service of our past leaders with a
Past Presidents Celebration. I hope
that you will join us in the celebration.
Because of the past work of many
dedicated volunteers, the Society has had,
and continues to have, many successes:
l flagship journals and conferences
in robotics and automation
l active, vibrant technical committees (TCs)
l increasing presence in industrial
activities through an industrial
forum and standards activities
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2011.2181782
Date of publication: 26 March 2012

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

fast growing membership and
attendance at major conferences
l strong financial reserves.
With your help, the Society can continue to contribute to the well being of
the robotics and automation field
worldwide.
One of the greatest strengths of the
Society, in addition to its technical
excellence, is its truly international
character. Most of our gatherings, as
well as our boards and committees,
involve a relatively diverse group of
individuals representing many regions of the world. I have many
friends worldwide because of my
involvement in the Society, and they
have enriched both my professional
and personal life. However, it is possible that we take this for granted at
times. One of the core values that I
would like to uphold during my term
as president is that of globalism,
through which we welcome members
and leaders from all regions of the
world. I hope that you will uphold this
value as well.
Let me give you a little of my background. My own international experience began with my attendance at one
of the first international conferences
in the field-the First CISM/IFToMM
Symposium on Theory and Practice
of Robots and Manipulators (RoManSy)
1973 in Udine, Italy-as a graduate
student. I have had the opportunity
to attend or publish a paper at each
of the ICRAs since its inception in
1984. My main technical interests
are in the dynamics and control
of legged locomotion, including
humanoid robots. I have also had an
opportunity to serve in several positions within the Society, including
l

MARCH 2012

secretary, vice president for finance
and treasurer, and Administrative
Committee (AdCom) member. Most
recently, as president-elect, I served
as chair of the Long Range Planning
Committee.
Figure 1, taken last fall at the IEEE/
Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ) International Conference on Intelligent
Robots and Systems (IROS) 2011 in
San Francisco, features seven of the
officers on our Executive Committee
and our parliamentarian. Our secretary (Frank Park), treasurer (Ron
Lumia), and president-elect (Raja
Chatila), who were not available for
the picture, are shown separately.
Nikos Papanikolopoulos and Stefano
Stramigioli are continuing to serve
after the previous term under Kazuhiro Kosuge, and Tony Maciejewski
and Xiaoping Yun will continue to
serve in different positions. I would
like to express my appreciation for the
work of the outgoing officers (Peter
Luh, John Hollerbach, Alex Zelinski,
Kevin Lynch, and Bill Hamel) in sharing their experience with the new officers (Alessandro De Luca, Satoshi
Tadokoro, Raj Madhavan, Frank
Park, and Ron Lumia). Our newly
elected President-Elect Raja Chatila
will serve on the Executive Committee
and chair the Long-Range Planning
Committee.
The committee, under my leadership over the past two years, has
developed four strategic themes to set
our direction for these next two years.
The strategic themes are
1) to increase the engagement of
Society members and volunteers,
and potential members, in Society
activities

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