Mar 08, 2008
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Class
11:30 to 12:00 Class by Jim Uberzetsig: Home Robot Design
Jim focused on change and showed how we are still thinking pre‐1961 as far as our designs and he suggested for us to evolve. His idea is that in order to evolve we must add grippers or dexterous hands to our robots. Jim discussed different hand designs and made suggestions on what we can use for our next robot contest in June. Jim will email the revised rules to the group soon.
Note:
Next robot party will be March 22. During this day a few students from different high schools will come with their VEX Robotics kits to seek help in troubleshooting problems and to get help for their next competition on March 29th. Anyone that would like to come and help please come to the March 22nd meeting starting at 10:00 am. See Business Meeting for more information.
Business Meeting:
1. We are looking for someone to teach the club how to post documents on our website or any websites. We want to be able to have a site or repository of all of our documents. Any volunteers please let us know at our next meeting.
2. Jim discussed some preliminary rules for the June 2008 “pickup after the kids” contest. Jim will continue to post the updated rules to the group.
Show & tell
An instructor named Robert Castano from Orange Coast College talked about the great things that people are doing with the VEX kits. He gave a description of the VEX kits including how the VEX uses PICs with parallel processing and programming options such as EasyC and RobotC. Robert is an IEEE Robotics and Automation member and he mentioned how students can start their own student sections by using the VEX products. Robert suggested that RSSC mentor the kids who are new to robotics and those who have problems getting their robots to work. New students teams will be at the robot party session on March 22nd (at CSU Fullerton) in the morning. Some RSSC members will be present to help these teams as they prepare for their competition on March 29th at Orange Coast College. This competition will be the pre‐qualifiers that will help the teams go to the world series in May. There will be 27 schools present and the event is on a Saturday March 29th from 8:00 am and later at Orange Coast College – go and support the kids so they will stay with the interest of robotics. They estimate about 130 students will be present. You can contact Robert Castano at r.castano@ieee.org or 714‐432‐5745 VEX products can be purchased at www.vexlabs.com
Bruce Weimer presented his OWI Robotic Arm Trainer. Cost was $100. Bruce still has questions on how the software will look like to control this arm. The group discussed different possibilities for a long time and some people will experiment with Roborealm and hardware and software to see what will work. Some recommendation included a. vision object recognition in 3D space and b. kinematics
Walter Martinez brought three different robot bases with motors and wheels. All robot bases are completed but have no electronics. Walter wants to test different platforms to see what performs the best. All platforms consisted of material found at the common hardware store.
Marty showing his remote control truck (TRAXXAS)he is planning to use in the Hall Contest. He will be replacing the front wheels turning servo motors with more powerful servos so that it can turn better in the grass when it is on the lawn. We might start our own Robo Magellan contest if there is enough interest. Start your suggestion now.
Jim demonstrating a very economical hand using materials from the $1.00 store and a $9.00 power door lock.
John Walters showing a PICAXE microprocessor. John demonstrated some programs he created including a guessing game. Very neat!