December 14, 2013
Robotics Society of Southern CA Meeting 12-14-2013
CSULB Engineering department building, 302
Minutes : Doug
Announcement! We made it to Electrical Engineering Community EEWEb.com Engineering Website of the Day http://www.eeweb.com/
Class : 3D Printing
Mike from http://arxterra.com spoke about several pieces of software used for 3D Printing, which he used to help develop that Arxterra Rosco robot.
1 - Design software : Examples are SolidWorks, FreeCAD, OpenSCAD, etc. After designing the part, it must be exported as an STL file
2 - Repair the STL file : CAD software tends to export files that may contain issues for 3D printers. Products such as NetFab or MeshLab can be used for this purpose.
For more information on STF repair, see these links:
http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/how_to_use_meshlab_and_netfabb
3 - Slicing (G-Code generation) : Slicing takes the model and cuts it into horizontal slices, which are then converted to commands that the machine can interpret (G-Code).
One of the most popular software packages for this is Slic3r. This program allows you set the layer height, infill (lines or honeycomb), thickness of the shell along the height, as well as the base and top layers.
One note was that the first layer should be set to less than the nozzle height for good adhesion. For example, for a 0.5mm nozzle you probably want to set a first layer height of 0.4mm.
4 - Running the printer : The Repetier Host or Pronterface software takes the G-Code from Slic3r and sends it to the printer. It allows setting the fan, head and stage temperature to be set, as well as other settings, and supports two extruder heads.
Other topics discussed in detail were materials, controller firmware and the best Slicer program settings.
Business Meeting
Announcements
Bob Barbosa announced an exciting project involving the LEAF software/robot and sending a NAO robot into space. If you have more questions or would like to help, contact Bob Barbosa ASAP. The project has a timeline of about a month - see http://www.KidstalkradioLA.com for more details.
Officer Elections
President : Walter
VP : Jim
Secretary : Walter and Jim to share
Upcoming Classes (11:00 – 12:00)
January - Walking Robots
Upcoming Competitions:
January - http://rssc.org/content/grid-navigation-0
February - Mini Batte Robots contest by Mason
Talent Contest
Click here to see the rules for the Annual Talent Contest.
Entries
Solar Tracker - A small wheeled robot that uses several motors to steer a solar panel to point to the sun.
Tilt Maze - An "autonomous" marble maze solver, implemented on an 8-pin PIC microcontroller. It has an internal bitmap for the maze, with all code done in assembly. It can also solve the maze in reverse.
Color Recognition - A color interpretation software and blob finder that can convert colored areas in a camera image into "human named" colors, like red, blue, etc., instead of RGB or HSV values. Based on ROS and OpenCV - robot by Alex
Rosco - A 3D printed robot that uses a cellphone and has an interface for remote control over the web. Robot by Mike.
Princess - Sergei demonstrated the robot doing "behaviors" such as angry, mad, and so on.
Show and Tell
1. Walter Martinez spoke about the research him and Bob Barboza are doing on using robots to help autistic kids become more sociably aware. They have been very succesful in getting Walter's nephew to recognize his name when called by the NAO robot. Walter created the coloful yellow robot above so that his nephew would interact with it via an iPad. Walter also showed his latest Robotics++ robot kit to be implemented by libraries maker spaces and military kids summer camps.
2. Ron spoke about a new IR sensor (to be updated soon)
3. A demo about shrunked Arduino! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1608192864/rfduino-iphone-bluetooth-40-arduino-compatible-boa