1. 1 RAS Publication Activities Bill Hamel Vice President RAS AdCom Meeting IROS 2004, Sendai, Japan October 3, 2004

2. 2 Outline  Status of current publications TRO RAM Joint Publications TASE  Publications income trends  Proposal for new publication  Status of TMech

3. 3 ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE Kimon P. Valavanis and Rosalyn G. Snyder

4. 4 Editorial Board Stefano Stramigioli (12/31/2005) Alex Zelinski (12/31/2005) Lydia Kavraki(12/31/2006) Howie Choset(12/31/2006) Kathryn Jablokow (Penn State) (12/31/2007) Herbert Tanner (U of New Mexico) (12/31/2007) Ian Walker (RAM / TRA Liaison) Kostas KyriakopoulosEURON Representative

5. 5 Comparative Rankings of RAS Pubs 2003 (Source: Thompson ISI Journal Citation Report)

6. 6 JCR™ Impact Factor Ranking (Source: Thomson ISI Journal Citation Report)  RAM ranked 4th among 11 “Robotics” publications in 2003, and 12th among 47 “Automation and Control publications in 2003  RAM ranked 3rd among “Robotics” publications in 2000, 2001, 2002.

7. 7 Impact Factor Trends for RAS Pubs (Source: Thompson ISI Journal Citation Report)

8. 8 2004 Issues Recent Advances in SemiconductorMarch 2004 Factory Automation --Part 2 Dependability in Human-Centered June 2004 Robotics Recent Advances in Semiconductor September 2004 Factory Automation – Part 2 Panoramic RobotsDecember 2004 AdCom allocated an extra 100 pages to clear backlog of 14 individual submissions articles in September / December 2004. Will start 2005 “clean”. 2005 RAM page budget - 320 pages (includes ads, covers, departments)

9. 9 Issues in the Pipeline Ready for publication Intelligent Transportation Systems March 2005 R&A in European Union June 2005 Industrial Robotics Applications & Sept 2005 Industry-University Cooperation in Europe Individual SubmissionsDec 2005 In Review Climbing Robots Sub. Deadline July 1, 2004 Software Packages for Vision-Sub. Deadline July 7, 2005 Based Control of Motion

10. 10 RAM Editor-In-Chief  Kimon’s term ends 12/05.  Overlap with successor is important.  Four excellent candidates have been considered.  President Tanie will announce next RAM EIC soon.

11. 11 Joint Publications  Intelligent Transportation Systems  Mechatronics ~ ??%  Micro Electro Mechanical Systems ~9%  Mobile Computing  Nano-Bioscience ~ 10%  Nano Technology ~ 5%  Sensors ~ 4%

12. 12 Outline  Status of current publications TRO RAM Joint Publications TASE  Publications income trends  Proposal for new publication  Status of TMech

13. 13  Projection = ($125K)  Electronic hits to “library” packages:  Members encourage students to use institutional IEL packages to obtain papers.  PAB efforts to enhance IEEEXplore “linking” mechanics: Verify all objects represent hits. Subcommittee to establish master keyword lists; search efficiency Subcommittee to review and update bibliography standards/requirements–paper references will include active links; increase number of references; author’s database tool to assist with bibliography creation. Assure cross-linking between TRA, TRO, TASE, RAM ASPP/IEL Publications Income Trend…Countermeasures

14. 14 Proposal for a new publication: IEEE Transactions on Virtual and Augmented Reality (TVAR)  Advocates & Interested Parties  Rationale & Content  Issues & Discussion  Planned Action

15. 15 Advocates & Interested Parties  Advocates Professor Greg Burdea, Rutgers Professor Susumi Tachi, The University of Tokyo  Players? Computer Society–?? Working Group (visualization, immersion) RAS (haptics, visualization)

16. 16 TVAR Rationale  Virtual reality/visual simulation industry has grown to $43B in 2003.  200 universities worldwide now offering VR/AR type courses  Only VR journal presently is PRESENCE–Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, MIT Press, 400 subscribers, started in 1992, IF = 0.744.  IEEE publication can galvanize and vitalize the field.  Numerous sources of papers exist.

17. 17 TVAR Scope  Interdisciplinary  Theory aspects, hardware design, modeling, real-time programming, human factors issues and practical applications  Virtual and augmented reality

18. 18 Issues/Questions  50/50 co-sponsorship with CS in a clear option.  Finanical: Investment: $300K/2 over three years. Profitability–particularly under new IEL  Magnitude of member interest?  Impact on TRO–presently publishes haptics-related papers ~ 4 papers/year.  Tactical situation

19. 19 Case for a new journal on VR/AR is valid. Our members are primarily involved in haptics, telemanipulation aspects. Most publish in TRO, but feel somewhat lost in the crowd. To achieve the quality that happens with TRO would be difficult. Readership would be less appropriate because of the computer graphics domination. Bottom line: questions that it would be a big hit with those who participate in RAS. Inputs: Technical Committee on VR, Ed Colgate

20. 20 PAB Discussion  Technical merits very strong; rapid growth will continue.  In 5 years, VR technology with also intersect extensively with ASE domain.  “Test” magazine special issues (CS for sure and possibly RAS) are being considered to gauge interests–authors and readers.  RAS must play, or be left behind.  RAS will have to be aggressive–now–to achieve co- sponsorship.

21. 21 Planned Action  Pursue the creation of the new journal.  VP PA will promote 50/50 co-sponsorship with CS; continue development of formal IEEE TAB proposal.  Preliminary special magazine issues will be published to provide data.  TAB/CAB will be encouraged to add VR/haptics tracks in upcoming conferences.  If successful…submit to AdCom for approval in the future.

22. 22 Status of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics Dick Volz