1. Auburn IEEE Robotics Committee (AIRC) 17 Mar 2006 A S Hodel hodelas@auburn.edu

2. AIRC: Auburn IEEE Robotics Committee What is AIRC? Auburn University IEEE Robotics Committee is an umbrella organization for a variety of robotics projects. Formed in response to student requests: Projects/competitions Undergraduate research Many of our students want to strengthen their expertise! Participation not limited to undergraduates.

3. AIRC: Auburn IEEE Robotics Committee Organization

4. Student Goals Student organizations HKN: top academic students in dept. IEEE: active (motivated) students in the dept Combine: get enthusiastic, capable participants Robotics competitions and projects: Long term teamwork Undergraduate research Get experience not available in “normal” coursework.

5. AIRC: Auburn IEEE Robotics Committee Faculty Goals Increase research funding Integrate and strengthen existing research programs at AU: MEMS, autonomous vehicles, signal processing, embedded processors, control, navigation, image processing and vision, sensor fusion, cooperative robotics, etc. Develop research labor force Identify potential graduate students Undergraduate research opportunities

6. AIRC: Auburn IEEE Robotics Committee Funding plan: Need funds for equipment (development workstations, processor cards, sensors, power, batteries, etc.) and competition travel. Elizabeth Hammonds: AIRC fundraising/PR officer. Will establish AU gift account for contributions. Undergraduates: “will work for academic credit.” Graduate level competition: requires significantly larger funding base (GRA).

7. AIRC: Auburn IEEE Robotics Committee Infrastructure plan Current location plan: senior design lab Cooperative Robotics lab (Roppel) Important to have “gathering point” for team cohesion.

8. AIRC: Auburn IEEE Robotics Committee “Danger ahead:” “It will kill your research program.” Peter Jones, AU-ME mini-Baja/Formula SAE advisor ME competitions expensive, high admin overhead SoutheastCon: slightly more than a senior design. Emphasis of AIRC: Visibility, success, and funding of AU ECE research develop ugrad skill base, enthusiasm, available ugrad research labor, recruit to graduate program.

9. AIRC: Auburn IEEE Robotics Committee Schedule [Spring/summer 2006] “tinker” and evaluate available technologies. Start fundraising. [Fall 2006] Start formal team meetings and work.