ASTM International Committee on Homeland Security Applications;

Operational Equipment; Robots (E54.08.01)

Location: Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel

St. Louis, MO

Date: June 7-9, 2010 (Mon-Wed), 9:00 am – 6:00 pm 

The goal of the upcoming meeting of the ASTM International standards committee on 

Homeland Security Applications; Operational Equipment; Robots (E54.08.01) is to provide an 

update on each working group’s efforts with an emphasis on getting the bulk of the existing test 

methods to ballot. Draft standard texts and apparatus design specifications will be reviewed, 

along with results and feedback captured at the March 2010 Response Robot Evaluation 

Exercise at Disaster City, TX. Due to the short timeframe since the exercise, we expect only a 

small subset of our emergency responder advisory panel will be able to attend to provide 

guidance on our discussions, but the technical folks will press on with detailed discussions. So 

the focus of the meeting will be on addressing comments to the draft standard texts for each 

working group and discussing the balloting status. 

As always, we will be briefing the entire standards committee on our progress, but the real work 

at these events gets done in the “breakout meetings.” These breakout meetings will focus on 

accomplishments that each working group is ready to discuss and allow us to dig deeper into 

issues and ideas. We will also refine future directions. Everyone is welcome to attend ALL the 

breakout meetings to contribute or simply to watch. There are often good lessons to learn from 

other groups further along the standards process. Since many players are involved in multiple 

working groups, we do these meetings sequentially as show below:

MONDAY, JUNE 7 LOCATION

Mon 1:00 – 1:30 SHAW BOARDROOM

TOPIC: TERMINOLOGY (Hui-Min Huang)

Discuss ASTM requirements for repeatability and reproducibility of standard test methods.

Discuss proposed naming conventions for the various suites of test methods.

Mon 1:30 – 2:00 SHAW BOARDROOM

TOPIC: LOGISTICS (Ann Virts)

Discuss recent changes to the Cache Packaging form, robot configuration identification

including new center of gravity balance, targeted video captures (battery changes, manipulator 

removal, etc), and photo booth results from Disaster City exercise.

Mon 2:00 – 4:00 SHAW BOARDROOM

TOPIC: RADIO COMMS (Dennis Camell) 

Discuss results from Disaster City regarding new test method stations using figure-8 path with 

video/audio targets. Discuss status of repeatability data capture and balloting.
Mon 4:00pm – 6:00 SHAW BOARDROOM

TOPIC: SENSORS (Hui-Min Huang, Rick Norcross) 

Discuss results from Disaster City regarding new Directed Search test method apparatuses. 

Demonstrate and discuss new Two-Way Audio test method, and new Audio Spectrum test 

method. Validate robot test plan for repeatability data capture.

Mon 7:00 pm (rally) Hotel lobby bar

TUESDAY, JUNE 8 LOCATION

Tue 8:00 – 9:00 FLORA

TOPIC: E54.08 Committee Meeting – Operational Equipment

Adam will represent us. Others are welcome but not required to attend. 

Tue 9:00 – 11:00 ROOM 543, 5TH FLOOR

TOPIC: MOBILIY (Bill McBride, Andy Moore)

Review draft standard documents for Slaloms (Yellow, Orange, Red terrains), Inclined Plane, 

Gap, Pipe Step, Stairs (wood/metal/wet). Discuss tether routing issues for figure-8 test 

procedures. Validate robot test plan for repeatability data capture.

Tue 11:00 – 12:00 ROOM 543, 5TH FLOOR

TOPIC: MANIPULATION (Adam Jacoff)

Discuss results from Disaster City regarding the weighted pick and place cylinders (wood, 

aluminum, and steel), and reach obstacles (open, reach-over, reach-under). Validate robot test 

plan for repeatability data capture.

Tue 12:00 – 1:00 (lunch) TBD

LUNCH

Tue 1:00 – 3:00 ROOM 543, 5TH FLOOR

TOPIC: ENERGY (Karl Reichard)

Discuss Disaster City results capturing the first 20 laps of several robots with the data logger 

and results of desktop cycling tests. Validate robot test plan for repeatability data capture.

Tue 3:00 – 5:00 ROOM 543, 5TH FLOOR

TOPIC: MAPPING (Chris Scrapper, Alex Kleiner, Johannes Pellenz)

Discuss maps generated earlier with new map fiducials inserted into the Random Maze, new 

Hallway Labyrinth, and new Feature Maze apparatuses. Validate robot test plan for repeatability 

data capture.

Tue 5:00 – 6:00 ROOM 543, 5TH FLOOR

TOPIC: HRI (Adam Jacoff)

Discuss Random Maze Search test method procedure, recent results. Discuss new Navigation 

test method, Underbody Search apparatus, and checklist items for interface and other system 

capabilities. Validate robot test plan for repeatability data capture.

Tue 7:00 pm (rally for dinner) Hotel lobby bar

TOPIC: Discussion: anything but standards!
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9 LOCATION

Wed 9:00am - 11:00 SHAW BOARDROOM

TOPIC: REVIEW/SUMMARY OF OPEN ISSUES

Discuss unresolved issues from previous meetings and make plans to address them.

Wed 11:00 – 12:30 MAJESTIC C

TOPIC: E54 Main Committee Meeting

• Phil represents us, Adam is a backup. All the rest can go to lunch.

Wed 1:00 – 3:00 SHAW BOARDROOM

TOPIC: ADDRESS COMMENTS, NEXT STEPS

(Done!)
OVERVIEW OF GENERAL E54 COMMITTEE WEEK