April 13, 2013
Robotics Society of Southern CA Meeting 4/13/13
Location: CSULB Engineering - ECS302
Minutes By: Walter
April 2013 minutes
Class
By Carl on: http://teletoyland.com/
- Physical Construction - Instructables
- How to connect servos to the internet, Arduinos and WiFI
- Web pages to control things
- Camera choices –
- Network setup at home
Member Carl Sutter's hobby is TeleToyLand, a site that the viewer can use to interact with toys in his workspace. He talked about the challenges in lighting and the technology behind the implementation of the Teleskeleton, Sandbox, Rolling Ball Machine, Marble Maze. It's a playspace, so is not configured for heavy-duty use, although anyone can participate.
Business Meeting
The RSSC donated $75. to help cover expenses for use of space at the Sea Base for the event.
A motion to add a guideline for board members to make financial decisions outside of board meetings was made and approved. The board may vote to approve spending of up to $250 as long as it does not threaten the solvency of the club.
Walter and Trish recapped the experience of the National Robotics Week at the Scout Sea Base.
The event was sponsored largely by the RSSC, President Martinez and the Robotis manufacturer. Thanks to all who participated.
President Walter Martinez announced several first place contest prize donations by great sponsors:
Parallax donated 3 Boebots. $160 ea value
Polulu – Two Brand new Zumo robots. $100 ea value. Will be mailed next week..
Orbotix.com Makers of the Sphero product http://www.gosphero.com/ donated a Sphero robotic ball $129 value
Controllable from the iphone – device i3, itouch, ipad, android phones over 2.2.
Control with device, own SDK. Sphero developers.
C#, unity plugin. Waterproof. Induction charger (sealed)
Note: We might be able to get more Spheros donated if we can put together a team that would like to implement them in nonprofit projects. Trish has some ideas for this as part of our outreach youth program. Other possible areas of research for us to think about and this product include Hand eye coordination for physical teraphy and autistic kids concentration training.
Coming Up Classes:
May – PID Control by Alex
- Leafproject.org we will continue to discuss Leaf’s source code. Leaf works on Windows 8 Pro tablet.
June- 3D printer by Thomas
Coming Up Contest:
May - Walking Robot (rules to be updated soon)
Sumo Line Following April 2013’s Contest Winner
Sergei (see video on contest below). Sergie won a Sphero donated by http://www.gosphero.com/
Sergei is also the creator of http://trackroamer.com/
Show and Tell
Scout Program in Downey Paul Ashley is delivering a free robotics class based on the VEX robotic kits. Prof Martin Mason has positively shared Paul Ashley’s equipment with hundreds of kids.
Bob Huss
Just returned from his visit to San Jose. Visited several incredible museums, all within 10 miles of the city and shared info on the technology he saw at these museums.
Trish.
Showed us videos she took during the National Robotics Week open house at USC robotics.
This link also has lots of info and pictures for the event Trish hosted at the Scout Base during the National Robotics Week
http://belmontshore.patch.com/blog_posts/southern-california-national-robotics-week-recap
Carl Sutter
Showed Kickstarter project, Fritz: A Robotic Puppet Head
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1591853389/fritz-a-robotic-puppet?ref=live
Event in Colorado showing Fritz http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-_4kDMjKoNQ
Glenn
Baby Wanna Walk. Went over the mechanics and components of baby wanna walk.
Walter shared a few of his robots.
Showed WowWee robot Mr. Personality, has SD card slot to change its voice
Showed Leaf base using Parallax’s wheel base with encoders.
Walter won a grant to purchase three Bioloid humanoid robots for a class he teaches at CSULB.
It took 6 hours to assemble and test one.
Demonstrated some of Bioloid’s capabilities including doing pushups, standing on his head and clapping. Bioloid is $1200 compared to the NAO humanoid robot which is $16K
Bioloid uses ARM Cortex controller, smart servos, can get torque and direction, 18 servos and has a ton of other parts to build other robot configurations. http://www.robotis.com
Wheel kit from Parallax. Has encoders that attach to the wheels. 144 encoder positions per revolution. Used in their large robot kit. Can carry a good amount of weight.
http://www.parallax.com/tabid/768/productid/507/default.aspx
Reviewed his leaf robot... Buy kit from parallax, Lowes, PVC, aluminum plate, need to make it wider, laptop. Will be his leaf robot. Head came built www.roboticssquared.com
demos in video show very fluid motion. Neck for pan and tilt motion. $150, 4 servos, pre-built.
Sergei
Has been working with Anthony Pedeferri of the US Paralympic cycling team per email (see below). Provided status. More documentation on http://trackroamer.com/
Video of Sumo competition http://youtu.be/cDFdQOdtNDs
Anthony Pedeferri's email
> I am not sure where to start with this project. I am a member of the US Paralympic cycling team. I am paralyzed from the chest down and ride a handcycle that we pedal with our arms. Currently, most people run the cable actuated controls on the cranks handles. At 100rpm, the metal cables eventually snap and it is annoying to have them rotating around in front of your face. I am one of the only people in the world that has adapted a wired shifting system (Can-Bus) system that is designed for regular bicycles. The major drawback is the wires have to rotate around just like the cables. I was thinking I could house an RC transmitter or Blue tooth transmitter inside the grip handle, and the servos inside the bike frame. The servos could be very simple on/off type to simply push the buttons of the current shifting system. Or, the best would be able to somehow integrated the can-bus system to wireless. I also need to operate a brake and that would require a potential type servo. It would simply have to push on a diaphragm on the master cylinder, the same way a hand lever does now. I know this probably makes no sense, but what I was hoping somebody could point me in the direction of somebody who has the knowledge to develop this type of system. There would be some type of compensation, not looking for handouts. Thanks for the time.