IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA EPS Project Proposal Stefano Stramigioli Paolo Fiorini [email protected].

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

EPS Project Proposal

Stefano StramigioliPaolo Fiorini

[email protected]

OUTLINE Why a new WWW and EPS Technical Approach Management Structure Planning

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Why a new WWW

The WWW is THE BUSINESS CARD of our society

Even if managed with great care, the current WWW misses sharp layout and functionality

Difficult to manage since STATIC and with no CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

NO ACTIVE FUNCTIONALITIES available to help running the society

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

To review and restructure all Electronic Products and Services of RAS in order to: Improve the RAS Professional Presence Facilitate volunteers serving the

society Serve better our members Create a central E-presence for Robotics

and Automation Create an a working instrument for RAS

activities

Goal

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

DataBase(MySQL)

Wrappers and Scripts(PhP)

Technical Approach

WWW Interface(Apache)

Tools: GD library, PDFlib, PHP Pear Library, Xstandard, Mambo, Typo 3..

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Database Layer

General RAStables

VP specificor commetee

tables

Access Rights control

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Scripts and Wrappers

Access Rights control

Import Filter Export Filters

IEEE DB….

HTMLExcelLatex….

Otherswrappers

Consistency checks

Info requestsReminders

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

WWW interface

www

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Possible interface

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Rationale or Plan

Ensure quality and continuity without unnecessary waste of money.

Involve end-users continuously in the cycle to ensure final satisfactory results

Create a standing structure to address future electronic needs of the society promptly

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Management Structure

The decisional entity will be the Electronic Products and Services Board (EPSB)

Any investments in the development will have to be approved by the board and financed by a yearly board budget.

The board will report either directly to the President or to the VP TAB.

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

EPSB

Chair: Stefano StramigioliCo-chair: Paolo Fiorini

Members: Excomm: Dick Volz (Presidency), Kevin Lynch (Secretary), Seth Hutchinson (PUB), Ken Golberg (TAB), Antonio Bicchi (MEMB), Max Meng (CONF), Tony Maciejewski (FIN), Shukan Lee (IAB)

Committees: Paolo Dario and/or Steve Hsia (Nomination), …. ??

Others: Roz Snyder (current WWW adm.), Bruno Siciliano (AdComm member), Klas Nilsson (AdComm Member)

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Decisional Structure (1/4)

Small atomic projects (APs) will be proposed to the EPSB.

A proposal will have to concisely include: The Goal of the AP The expected time frame The requested Budget

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Decisional Structure (2/4)

If AP proposal is accepted, the EPSB board will also assign/approve an AP responsible (APR). The APR will have to supervise the development of an AP and make sure goals defined in the AP proposal are met and that the time frame is respected within acceptable bounds.

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Decisional Structure (3/4)

Each AP will have a half life evaluation by EPSB. This will be done by a real demonstration which will have to take place via the WWW to be sure that the required functionalities are properly addressed. This half life feedback will have to define desired modifications and possible adaptation in the goal definition

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Decisional Structure (4/4)

Each AP will have to be extensively documented. A subgroup of the EPSB will be appointed which will have to take care that the documentation is sufficient for the AP to be eventually modified by others if necessary in the future. The documentation will be based on:

Commented on line code Small User Manual and specification Description of the Functionalities

This documentation will be centrally available in the DB system

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Who is doing the work

This will be decided by ESPB for each AP: it may be people supervised by volunteers or professionals.

Rationale: Many subprojects can be professionally carried out under direct supervision of volunteer without unnecessary waste of money with big enterprises. The board has the power to enforce professional involvement if necessary.

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Maintenance

Technical Maintenance Changes or support related to technical problems like access rights, backups and general support. A responsible person will be appointed for this task and yearly costs will be budgeted for this purpose which will ensure a smooth usage. This person does not have to be directly related to RAS and he/she will be likely an external professional.

Content Maintenance Rosaline Snyder

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Continuity

Everything will physically reside in one location which will be properly backed-up not to have fragmentation

In this location there will be a Data-Base of all APs and their documentation so that anybody could find information of any part of the system and modify it if necessary.

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Time Plan

Host decision and testing of the required functionality

Creation of an initial Portal Interface Porting of the main data of the current

WWW by making the layout consistent and uniform and enforcing the usage of CSS. This first porting may be done using an initial Context Management System.

Porting of the TAB functionalities developed under the supervision of Stefano Stramigioli and than reengineered under the supervision of Ken Goldberg.

Definition of the first APs.

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Budget

Reason AmountHosting 500.00$ General mantainance 1,500.00$ Travel Budget 3,000.00$ APs definition 21,000.00$

TOTAL 26,000.00$

Reason AmountHosting 500.00$ General mantainance 1,500.00$ Travel Budget 3,000.00$ APs definition 30,000.00$

TOTAL 35,000.00$

2006

2007

Reason AmountInitial Set-Up and Hosting 1,000.00$ First Prototype Interface 3,000.00$ Porting data 4,000.00$ Porting TAB functionality 1,000.00$

TOTAL 9,000.00$

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Conclusions

The society needs to address the EPS We need to have a structure to promptly address Electronic Needs

We believe to have a procedure to Ensure Quality and Goal achievements Do not unnecessarily waste money Ensure Continuity an proper Maintenance Give RAS a professional and functional view

IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005

San Francisco, USA

Motion

“ I move that an Electronic Product and Services Board (with the goal to implement what presented in the report) will be formed and given a provisionally approved running budget of 35K$ for 2006 and 35K$ for 2007 with possible extension to be approved for future years in 2007”