AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS Minutes Mechanisms Committee March 14, 1994 Chicago, IL Members Present: J. Angeles* T. Chase R. Cipra E. Fichter* R. Freeman* H. Lipkin* G. Lovell G. Pennock* L.W. Tsai* G. Wiens* * Teleconference Participants CALL TO ORDER Guests: P. Doepker F. Goldfarb J. McCarthy* J. Mirth* D. Myszka The meeting was called to order by Chairman Tom Chase at 7:35 p.m. at the Chicago Hilton. OLD BUSINESS Approval of Minutes for the September 1993 Meeting The minutes for the September 20, 1993 meeting were approved. Subcommittee Status All Subcommittees are now complete. 1994 Design Engineering Conference The Mechanism Committee does not have any sessions at the 1994 Design Engineering Conference in Chicago, and had none in 1993. The dates for 1995 are March 13­16 and it is highly recommended that we provide a session. T. Chase will forward the Proposed Session Description form to D. Kohli who is our Design Show Coordinator. John Beard may be available to help assemble a panel session. T. Chase will check on the paper deadline for the Conference. 1994 Mechanisms Conference A. Papers Coordinator Report: 1994 Mechanisms Conference.

Gordon Pennock thanked the Subcommittee Chairpersons for their outstanding job in obtaining reviews for the papers. He reported that 73 foreign papers were submitted on time and 20 foreign papers were returned since they were late. In addition, 153 U.S. papers were submitted making a total of 226 papers entered into the reviewers' queue. Of the 73 foreign papers, 55 have be accepted and 18 rejected. The U.S. papers are still under review and all reviews are due to the Subcommittee Chairs by March 28, 1994. After some discussion concerning the length of accepted papers, it was suggested that conference papers be not more than 12 pages. The authors may send the mats either to the Subcommittee Chairs or to the Papers Coordinator. Gordon would like the Subcommittee Chairs to assemble tentative sessions and send this information to him by April 7. Note: signed M&P 1903 forms are required before papers will be published. Mats are due back to Subcommittee Chairs by May 15, 1994. B. Session Status Tom Chase anticipates having 35 paper sessions with no more than 5 papers per session. In addition, Professor A. Soni has volunteered to assemble a Research Direction in Mechanisms panel session; G. Lovell volunteered to assemble a panel session on Mechanisms in Education; 2 sessions are reserved for the Student Mechanism Competition; and 2 Tutorials are scheduled: Spatial Mechanism Design by Mike McCarthy and Mechanisms in Product Design by Art Erdman. Thus the total number of sessions is 41. We will be running 4 simultaneous sessions during the conference. An exhibit room will also be available, contact Tom Chase or W. Durfee. Tom will assemble a list of Session Chairs and Vice Chairs so he can send invitations to enable them to schedule their travel. If you have suggestions for Session Chairs, let Tom know. C. Budget Review Tom Chase reported that the full conference registration fee is $285 for members and $365 for non­members. One­day registration is $160 for members and $200 for non­members. The final budget was submitted using a projected attendance of 456. Full registration includes an Awards Luncheon Ticket and the Tuesday evening reception. No Proceedings or Proceedings Coupons are Included In the base registration. No complementary proceedings are provided to the Authors. Instead, highly discounted proceedings are available at the time of registration. One volume is available for $64 (total full registration fee: $349), or all three volumes are available for $ 160 (total full registration fee: $445). The one­volume registration­time price is discounted 11% over the conference rate of $72 (which is further discounted from the retail price); the three­volume set is discounted 2()% over the conference rate of $200.

The traditional Author's Breakfast has been replaced with an Authors' Orientation serving only coffee. This was done to avoid assessing each registrant over $30 to underwrite the traditional breakfast. A $1000 Mechanisms Conference mailing expense line item was included for the first time. The Papers Coordinator will need approximately $750 of this amount to cover mailing expenses and the remainder will be available for distribution to reimburse Subcommittee Chairs responsible for papers reviews for their mailing expenses. Please submit your requests to Tom as soon as possible. Tom recommends raising the mailing fund to $1500 for the 1996 conference. Funds have also been budgeted as follows: $4000 to support the reception at the University of Minnesota; $2880 to pay 50% of ASME's dues in the IFToMM organization for 1993 and 1994, the Design Division agreed to pay the remaining 50%; $1500 to pay for teleconferencing the Mechanism Committee meeting at the Design Engineering Show in Chicago for 1993, 1994, and 1995. After some discussion it was suggested to investigate ways of reducing mailing costs and phasing out the use of mats. Mike McCarthy will take this under consideration for the 1996 Mechanisms Conference. There was a general sentiment expressing disappointment and concern over the change in ASME policy which eliminated complementary Proceedings for authors. Tom Chase will express the serious concerns of the Mechanism Committee over this issue at the General Design Engineering Division Meeting tomorrow. D. Honors and Awards Lung­Wen Tsai reported there. are three awards being considered: The MDI Software Award ($1000), the ASME Mechanisms Committee Best Paper Award (tentatively $500); and the ACME Mechanism Committee Award. For the MDI and Mechanisms Committee Best Paper Awards, each Subcommittee Chair should send their 3 best papers to L.W. Tsai. Note that one paper can win more than one award. For the Mechanisms Committee Award there arc 13 candidates. E. Student Mechanisms Competition John Mirth reported that the organization of the Student Mechanism Competition is going well. G. Lovell came up with an additional $500 sponsorship from Martin Marietta and this gives a total of $1500 in prize money. If anyone has suggestions for judges please let John know.

F. Tom Chase reported that all Keynote and Awards Luncheon speakers have been confirmed. The Tuesday evening reception at the University of Minnesota campus will be held at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum. G. Tom Chase reported that the Pre­Conference Flyer should be mailed out by April 15. Also, foreign authors should be returning the "Paper Designation Form" by April 5. If an author cannot attend, the paper will still be published and the author will be asked to buy the Proceedings volume containing the paper. NEW BUSINESS DED 50th Anniversary Activities 1995 marks the 50th anniversary of the Design Engineering Division. J. Davidson, past Chairperson, has been identified as History Editor. T. Chase has been identified as State­of­the­Art Review Editor. J.M. McCarthy has been identified as Sessions Chairperson for the 1995 Design Engineering Conference to be held in Boston. Tom Chase asked the Technical Subcommittee Chairs if they were agreeable to preparing an approximately 1­page (conference paper length) State­of­the­Art Review on their topical area. A , reference list should also be provided in standard ASME format. Tom suggested reviewing the last 'two years of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design and Mechanism and Machine Theory for material. Tom would like to collect the input from each Technical Subcommittee Chair by June 30, 1994 if possible. The Subcommittee Chairs in attendance agreed to Tom's request. 1996 Mechanisms Conference Mike McCarthy reported on arrangements for the 1996 Mcchanisms Conference in Irvine California. The dates are September 23­25, 1996, and the conference will be held at the Newport Beach Marriott which is five minutes from the University of California ­ Irvine. The committees involved are: Mechanisms; Design Automation; Flexible Assembly Systems, Design Theory and Methodology; and Computers in Engineering (at this point in time). Tom Chase noted that nominations for the Mechanisms Committee should be forwarded to A. Kumar so they can be considered at the Fall 1994 meeting. 1998 Mechanisms Conference The 1998 Mechanisms Conference is scheduled for Atlanta and Harvey Lipkin has submitted a CA­1 ASME. Harvey reported that the Design Theory and Methodology committee is also promptly perhaps Mechanisms and DTM might co­sponsor the conference.

Freudenstein Award Tom Chase reported that Art Erdman has submitted the first royalty check in the amount of $742.32 from the book, Modern Kinematics: Developments in the Last Forty Years. published by Wiley, to ASME. The check is to establish an award fund in the name of Ferdinand Freudenstein, to be managed by the Mechanisms Committee. G. Johnson, Chair of the Design Engineering Division, has forwarded the check to F. Goldfarb of Technical Affairs at ASME. Dr. Johnson's letter (attached) includes the instructions that "The fund is to be distributed according to the instructions of the Mechanisms Committee at some time in the future." Tom requests that the Honors & Awards Subcommittee develop a proposal for the Freudenstein Award. They may want to confer directly with Dr. Freudenstein. Anyone having suggestions should provide Input to L.W. Tsai. Next Committee Meeting The next meeting will be held on Monday, September 12, 1994 in Minneapolis at the 1994 Mechanisms Conference. ADJOURNMENT T. Chase adjourned the meeting at 9:15 P.M. Respectfully submitted, R.J. Cipra Secretary

Paper Review Summary By: Gordon R. Pennock General Notes: Total Papers Submitted: 226 (73 Foreign Papers and 153 U.S A. Papers} Total Papers Accepted: 197 (55 Foreign Papers and 142 U.S A. Papers) Percent Foreign Papers: 26 Percent Domestic Papers: ?4 Session Organization: Total Sessions (Including Tutorials) ­ 42 Number of Paper Sessions by Topic:

Summary by Subcommittees: Subcommittee Name and Chairperson 34 sessions with 5 papers= 170 2 sessions with 6 papers = 12 Panel Sessions = 2 Tutorials = 2 Student Mechanisms Competition = 2 Number of Paper Sessions by Topic Robotics (Wiens & Lipkin) 13 Planar Kinematics (Fichter) 7 Machine Elements (Wiederrich & Thompson) 6 Spatial Mechanisms (Angeles) 5 Machine Dynamcs (Freeman) 5 Spatia1 Mechanisms (Jorge Angeles) 38/32 Planar Kinematics (Eugene Fighter) 47/35 Machine Dynamic (Robert A. Freeman) 33/28 Robotics and Manipulators ­ Dynamics and Controls (Harvey Lipkin) 24/23 CAD/CAM of Mechanisms (Brian S. Thompson) 16/16 Cams, Mach. Elements, and Comp. Coordinated Systems (J. Wiederrich) 20/17 Robotics And Manipulators ­ Kinematics (Gloria Wiens) 48/46 Total Number of Papers 226/197 (North American papers down 30%) Paper Presentations = 182 Proceedings only Papers = 15 Comments: 1) The reviewing went very well indeed, and the work load was fairly evenly distributed. I would like to extend my gratitude to all subcommittee chairpersons for their efforts. 2) There was little or no confusion on how the papers were to be considered for the journal Most were submitted to the Journal separately although the reviews for the conference are to be used when appropriate. 3) We need to budget money for the review committee chairpersons for mailing to facilitate timely response to the authors. Some departments will not allow mailing as overhead expense, and it should be direct expense to the conference. I was allocated $1,000 but I suggest $500 for the papers coordinator and $100 each for the review committee chairpersons, 4) I think that the review chairs should receive a free copy of the proceedings.

5) Most papers were submitted on an 8 1/2 x l 1 word processor format instead of the mats. ASME has a standard for this format and I suggest that we continue to promote it for future conferences

From: [email protected] Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 11:24:33 ­0500 To: '"Thomas R. Chase" Cc: [email protected] Subject: Awards Report Dear Tom: Here is my summary report for the ASME Mechanisms Committee meeting. Do you need a hard copy from me? Honors and Awards Subcommittee ­ 1994 L.W. Tsai The purpose of this report is to document the procedure used by our subcommittee for the selection of papers to receive awards at the 1994 Mechanisms Conference. It is felt that this report might provide some guidance for future years. There were two paper awards under consideration. After consulting with the Conference Chairman, Dr. Tom Chase, it was decided to select just one paper for the ASME Mechanisms Conference Best Paper Award ($500) and two for the MDI Mechanical Simulation Software Award ($500 each). The initial selection of papers for consideration was derived from the paper review process. Papers that had been identified by reviewers as being of exceptional quality were referred by the Paper Review Subcommittee Chairmen. The Paper Review Subcommittee Chairmen provided copies of these papers along with the reviewers' comments to the Chairman of the Honors and Awards Subcommittee. A total of twenty­four papers were recommended. The Honors and Awards Subcommittee Chairman then distributed copies of these papers and the reviewers' comments to the subcommittee members along with a request that they identify their first, second, third, and fourth choice selections of papers for each award. These packages were mailed on June 14, 1994 and the members were requested to respond by July 24. The papers in each category were ranked by assigning the papers four points for the first choice, three points for the second choice, two points for the third choice, and one point for the fourth choice. The final tally was performed by Dr. Shing­Min Song because papers of the Subcommittee Chairman were also included for consideration. This procedure worked very well which provided an efficient and unbiased selection of the papers. The ASME Mechanisms Committee Award was completed on April 6, 1994 according to the well established procedure. A total of thirteen candidates were recommended by the

members of the Mechanisms Committee and the ballots were sent to the members for their selection on March 14. The procedure also worked very well although it was felt that, perhaps, the subcommittee chairman should reduce the number of candidates to a more manageable number, say five, before he sent it out for voting. Best Regards, L.W. Tsai Institute for Systems Research The University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 Tel. (301) 405­6629

From: [email protected] Date: Thu. 1 Sep 1994 17:19:03 ­0500 To: "Thomas R. Chase" Subject: Re: Awards Report Dear Tom: Here is my first draft for the Freudenstein's award Freudenstein's Young Investigators Award This award has been established to encourage young investigators in accomplishing high quality research. The award shall be given for a paper with significant original contribution to the field of mechanism and machine theory presented at the ASME Biennial Mechanisms Conference. None of the authors shall hold a position higher than the rank of an assistant professor or an equivalent entry level industrial position. One award will be given biennially with a certificate and a cash value of $500. All qualified papers shall be evaluated by the Honors and Awards Subcommittee of ASME Mechanisms Committee with an established procedure. Best Regards, L.W. Tsai Institute for Systems Research The University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 Tel. (301) 405­6629 Fax. (301) 405­6707 Michigan Technological University Houghton, Michigan 49931

TO: ASME Mechanism Subcommittee FROM: John Beard College of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Mechanics 906/467­2551, 2561 FAX: 9067487 2822 Date: 12Sep94 REFERENCE: ASME Mechanism Community Participation at the National Design Engineering Conference March 13­16, 1995, Chicago, IL The ASME Mechanisms Committee is organizing and sponsoring a panel session at the National Design Engineering Conference, March 13th, 12:30­2:30.pm. The session is titled "Uses and Limitations of Mechanism Analysis and Synthesis Software." The attendees at the conference are mostly members of industry and have limited knowledge of advanced mechanism design. The purpose of the panel is to present to industry the various types of commercial software available and to demonstrate the "practical" side of the mechanism community. The companies that will be represented on the panel are: Working Model CADSI (DADS) SDRC LINCAGES Maple Saltaire Software, Analytix