Call for Participation - IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Study Groups

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s Standing Committee for Standards Activities is seeking participants for two study groups that have been formed. Information on the goals of the study groups can be found below.

Map Data Representation and Fundamental Data Types

This Study Group aims to develop a consensus on the needs for common representation for robot map data, including metric, topological, and semantic maps. The Study Group will investigate the potential for standardizing fundamental data types for mapping and study existing map data representations from other SDOs including the OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) and the ISO. As part of its work, it will determine how detailed the standardized data types used in map representation need to be. The study group
will set up a long-term roadmap for developing specifications for map data representation and discuss how to represent, encode, and exchange map data for robot navigation.

The leads for this Study Group are Wonpil Yu (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea) and Geoffrey Biggs (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan).

Glossary/Ontology for Robotics and Automation

The objective of this Study Group is to identify, develop, and document salient terms and their definition so that they can serve as a common reference for the robotics and automation community. A core issue that will be addressed as part of this effort is how to represent the definition of the terms. Unlike previous efforts which have attempted to perform similar activities in more specific domains, this study group will take a more all-encompassing approach, focusing on terms that relate not only to the more traditional mobile robotics domain (e.g., service robotics, healthcare robotics, military robotics) but extending it into the automation field which
could include terms related to domains such as automated manufacturing shop floor. The exact scope of this effort and the domains that will be addressed will be one of the first orders of business of this study group.

The leads for this Study Group are Craig Schlenoff and Hui-Min Huang (National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA). 

The outcome of these two study groups will lead to a project authorization request (PAR) which will initiate a standardization process within the IEEE Standards Association.

For more information about these study groups or to express interest in joining, please contact:

Raj Madhavan, Ph.D.
Chair, Standing Committee for Standards Activities (SCSA)
IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
http://ieee-ras.org/industrial/standards