From ion@falcon.cc.ukans.edu Mon May 22 12:06:27 EDT 1995 Article: 3 of comp.robotics.research Newsgroups: comp.robotics.research Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!zip.eecs.umich.edu!umn.edu!news From: ion@falcon.cc.ukans.edu (Iain Shigeoka) Subject: [ADMIN] CRR News 1.0 Message-ID: Summary: Intro to CRR Keywords: guidelines Sender: news@news.cis.umn.edu (Usenet News Administration) Nntp-Posting-Host: tera.cs.umn.edu Reply-To: ion@falcon.cc.ukans.edu (Iain Shigeoka) Organization: Univ. of Kansas Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 01:50:02 GMT Approved: hougen@cs.umn.edu, crr@ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca Expires: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 00:00:00 GMT Lines: 218 CRR News 5/13/95 Vol. 1, Issue 0 Contents: 1.0 Hello 2.0 A Rocky Start 3.0 A Short History 4.0 The Future A1 Appendix: The Moderators 1.0 Hello everyone, Welcome to the moderated newsgroup comp.robotics.research (CRR). This group has been a long time coming. Hopefully, it's going to be well worth the wait. Before I say anything else, I would like to thank everyone who helped form this newsgroup. Especially Wesley Scott and Dean Hougen who did most of the dirty administrative work to get this newsgroup created. Pat yourself on the back because I think we've started something really good here. Now before you go and start posting, please read the _Charter for comp.robotics.research_ which explains the moderation policy that we are going to be implementing here. Also, please feel free to contact us (the moderators) at any time with suggestions or comments. We can be reached through email at: crr-request@ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca. We'd love to hear from you. 2.0 A Rocky Start The first few weeks of operation for CRR will probably not run 100% smoothly. This will be the first time any of us have done any moderation. In addition, I am almost positive we will suffer from some technical difficulties during this initial break in period. Please be patient. Hopefully our learning curve will be pretty steep and we'll be up to speed quickly. During the first two weeks, expect to see a lot of work done by our two temporary moderators (Wesley and Dean) as well as the normal moderators (Martin and Iain). Martin Boyer will be out of town on business during the last two weeks of May. In fact, one of his stops is Nagoya, Japan for ICRA '95. If any future readers are going, he would love to meet with you there and discuss ideas on how you see CRR evolving. Send email to crr-request@ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca or leave a note on the message board at ICRA to set up a time and place. Iain is also planning to be out of town May 19-29 for a purely frivolous vacation. He hopes to check in regularly though and keep in touch. Hopefully, all this personnel shuffling will be invisible to readers. 3.0 A Short History The idea for CRR has been brewing in the minds of some comp.robotics readers for quite a while now. These people, mainly "funded researchers", were finding it harder and harder to locate useful information and discussions in the newsgroup. The research relevant posts were beginning to get lost amidst a flood of micromouse and stepper motor discussions. Many dedicated comp.robotics readers sadly saw the number of researching colleagues reading the group dwindle. Something needed to be done. Comp.robotics readers began the first steps towards the actual birth of CRR last summer, with discussions that culminated in the issuing of the first Request for Discussion (RFD). The movement quickly met it's first setback when the Usenet people informed the readers that all *.research newsgroups needed moderators. A search for moderators was begun. Within the week, Martin Boyer and Iain Shigeoka volunteered to co-moderate the newsgroup. An informal straw poll was held beginning on September 21, 1994 to make sure that there was enough support to meet the Usenet requirements for new group creation. The results were favorable. It was decided that the formal newsgroup creation process should be started. Wesley Scott and Dean Hougen spearheaded the effort, writing proposals and getting in contact with Usenet gurus to learn the technical details of newsgroup creation. The official Request For Discussion (RFD) was issued on January 23, 1995. Everything was moving along well, when the movement hit another minor snag. People concerned with preserving the "name-space" of Usenet newsgroup heirarchies asked to have comp.robotics renamed to comp.robotics.misc. We worried that addding it to the RFD would detract from the issue of importance to us, creating CRR. After some discussion, it was decided to include it in the RFD but make it a completely seperate issue. There were no serious objections to the creation of CRR during the public discussion. On April 7, 1995 the Call For Votes (CFV) was issued for a lengthy four week period. We waited impatiently and finally, the results came back. CRR passed! 4.0 The Future The creators and moderators of CRR hope that this newsgroup will resemble a virtual conference. We see this as a place where research can be presented, and new ideas can be discussed with peers and colleagues. A place where questions can be asked and new partnerships are formed. Of course, the quality of such a conference completely depends on the people who participate in it. We realize that you, the readers, will have to spend valuable time and effort to make this possible. Posting research results, answering questions, and writing summarized descriptions of your "work in progress" to CRR will most likely be an additional detail in your already busy life. We hope that what you give, will be richly rewarded by the interaction and information provided on this newsgroup by your own colleagues and peers. The future of CRR now lies in your hands. Your Moderators: Martin Boyer Iain Shigeoka Dean Hougen Wesley Scott May 15, 1995 A1 Appendix: The Moderators The co-moderators for comp.robotics.research are Martin Boyer and Iain Shigeoka. There are also two backup moderators who will moderate CRR when either or both of the regular moderators are unable to do so. The two backup moderators are Dean Hougen and Wesley Scott. A short biography of the moderators is provided below. **Martin Boyer . Martin Boyer is working at the Robotics Division of the Hydro-Quebec Research Institute (near Montreal, Canada). He is currently managing the long-term research within the Division. As such, he is a member of several working committees, within and outside of Hydro-Quebec. He is also responsible for Hydro-Quebec's share of the Telerobotic Development Systems (TDS) project. This five year project unites four industrial and academic partners in the development of three robotic testbeds; one for the manipulation of large objects, one for micro-fabrication, and the last one for research in direct-drive robots. Mr. Boyer's main interests are the workspace optimization of telemanipulators, and human factors in force-feedback systems. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering (McGill, 1983) and a Master's Degree, also in Electrical Engineering (McGill, 1988). He has been with the Hydro-Quebec Research Institute since 1985. **Iain Shigeoka Iain Shigeoka is a first year masters student at the University of Kansas. He has completed a BS in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Mr. Shigeoka is currently working in the Kansas Augmented Telerobotics laboratory which is equipped with a pair of Kraft Telerobotic arms. Although he has not committed to a research project yet, there are strong indications that he will be doing research in remote operations, semi-autonomous telerobotic controls, or telerobotic vision systems in the near future. **Dean Hougen Dean Hougen is a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, in the area of Artificial Intelligence, with a graduate minor in Cognitive Science. Mr. Hougen's doctoral research is focused on the use of artificial neural networks for learning to control physical systems. Mr. Hougen received a BS in Computer Science from Iowa State University in 1988, with undergraduate minors in Philosophy and Mathematics. Since then he has been a full-time graduate student in the Computer Science Department at the University of Minnesota. Research assistantships in the Soil Science Department have allowed him to gain extensive experience in the design and implementation of Expert Systems, Geographic Information Systems, and User Interfaces. His doctoral research is being carried out at AIR-VL, the Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Vision Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. **Wesley Scott Wesley Scott is completing his second year as a PhD student at Texas A&M University (Currently Industrial Engr / Originally Civil Engr). He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (Oregon St Univ, 1985) and a M.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering (Purdue 1992). Mr. Scott's research topic is undefined but he is anticipating something in the mobile robotics area, probably involving using vision as a vehicle guidance system. As co-moderators and temporary moderators of comp.robotics.research, Mr. Boyer, Mr. Shigeoka, Mr. Hougen, and Mr. Scott will be acting as individuals, not as representatives or agents for their respective Internet sites or other organizations in which they may participate. *************************************************** * Iain Shigeoka: ion@falcon.cc.ukans.edu * * http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~ion * *************************************************** *********************** (moderated) *************************** Submissions: Meta-discussions/information: crr@ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca crr-request@ireq-robot.hydro.qc.ca