2002-Oct
Meeting Minutes, AHRC, October 26, 2002. Held at Pinckneyville Community Center
Officers present:
Frank Borowiec - President
Paul Burrell - Co-Vice-president
Clint Bridges - Treasurer
Richard Bodor - Secretary
Frank made introductions. Clint explained how we got the new location. we are
scheduled to use this room for the next year.
Attendees: 24
Club Business
* treasurer's report - the treasurer's report is not included in the public
minutes. For information concerning the finances, please contact an officer of
the club..
* robot rally - Richard passed around a volunteer sign up sheet. we will have
robot rally committee meetings beginning in November. They will probably be held
at the Pinckneyville Community Center.
* BBS and listbot. Paul gave quick synopses of what the discussion board is
about. We have decided to keep both active for now. Information that is
important to archive will be copied into the BBS as needed.
* monthly contest - dead reckoning contest vs. line follower.. We have decided
to have both a line follower and the monthly mini-sumo. These will happen as
needed. Members are encouraged to bring their line-follower track to the monthly
meetings so that others can try to use the track. In this way we may get several
different configurations.
Nominations: (October and November only - Elections held in December)
Pres - Frank Borowiec
co vice president - Nicholas Frank
co vice president - Galen Hussey
treasurer - Clint Bridges
secretary - Richard Bodor
RBNO: Clint gave a quick synopses of the most recent RBNO. In the last RBNO, one
of the main chores was to disassemble the lathe.
New attendees: Names, Ages, how they found us, what they want from club
Shane Fried - a co-worker of Paul Burrell, he is interested in embedded devices
Brian Byrne - a member of Robojackets, he said that he is looking for a place to
hang-out
Video: a history of artificial intelligence - shakey, flakey, and CART. This was
a tape brought in by Clint from the History Channel
Freebies - Frank brought in some goodies that were offered to the attendees.
Among the items were power supplies, switches, fans, and some flat panel
displays. He had about 4 full boxes of stuff, and we were able to take at least
three full boxes of stuff off his hands.
Around the Room:
Sean Hussey - line follower made from Lego using java. This was a particularly
fast bot.
Katherine Marting and John - brought in their Lego line follower. This one had a
unique swivel head.
Frank brought in his line follower course. We may have different maps every
month. the line should be 3/4 to 1".
Ringo brought in "bot bert." he has started over and he brought a book by Dennis
Clark. "building robot drive trains"
Dale Heatherington brought in new drive for t-zero uses modified model race car
motors - originally designed for 7V and 50amps. He rewound the wire
in the motors for 24 volt operation. It'll lift about 9 lbs.
Calvin Grier brought in his home-built vacuum uses big trak motor/wheel assembly
using a magnetic clutch. it also uses two sharp infrared sensors.
Murray Mckay brought several bots down from Memphis. He built a lap counter for
the line follower contest also brought in lynx motor predator he also brought
George III as a line follower. This is based on the Mark III kit. He also
brought in a sumo bot - Quasimoto. He also brought pokey which is another sumo
bot.
Brian Byrne brought in two bots - one is the Mark III. He also brought in a Lego
sumo bot.
Joe Kushnick built a 60 lb battle bot chucky. This uses a pneumatic flipper.
Presentation:
Clint brought in Roomba for another demonstration. Clint got a document from
embedded.com. Roomba has 5 DC motors. We gave the Roomba the task of vacuuming
sugar from the floor. It did a pretty good job. We will try to perform an
official evaluation of the product. It was suggested that the club purchase a
Roomba.
Monthly Contest
In the line follower category, we had the Marting entry - wheezer and Sean
Hussey brought in a line follower called "ask him" Sean's bot finished the track
in 8.4 seconds
In the mini-sumo category, we had three competitors:
Brian Byrne brought in "Last Minute"
Murray McKay brought in "Pokey"
Dale Heatherington brought in the champion "Delta Force"
The first contest was "Last Minute" vs. "Pokey"
Last Minute won the first round and Pokey won the second and third round.
Next, "Delta Force" went against "Pokey"
The first round was called a tie by the Gyoji. The second and third rounds went
to Delta Force.
The next meeting will be on November 23rd. It is held one week earlier than
usual due to Thanksgiving holiday. We are planning on having some refreshments
at the November meeting. More details on the meeting will be sent via the
listbot and the BBS.