Meeting Minutes, AHRC, April 27th, 2002
This month's meeting was held at Automation Direct - many thanks to Ron Drew
for getting this great facility for the club's use.

Officers present:
Frank Borowiec - President
Bob Baxter - Vice President
Clint Bridges - Treasurer
Richard Bodor - Secretary

Attendees:
23

Club Business
Frank made introductions.
Richard said that the next few meeting are preliminarily:

 May 25th Scitrek (confirmed)

 June 29th Scitrek

 July 27th automation direct

 August - Centennial Park Hobby Day - th9is is a field trip day, the meeting
will not be held but we will be manning a 10 x 20 area at Centennial Park.
We need robots and members to help out. We would like to have some contests
to attract attendees.

 September 28th Southern Tech

These locations are subject to change. We will notify members of the meeting
changes via the listbot. Every member is asked to sign up for the listbot,
or to regularly check the web page - since we have complications without a
regular meeting place.

Treasurer's report - although we spent some money for the robot rally, we
brought in money with members dues and donations. Our balance is not
included in the public version of our meeting minutes. For information on
our accounts, please contact an officer of the club.

Signage (banner) - Frank has found a place to make the banner. This will be
needed for the Centennial Park event

New monthly contest - The two different monthly contest ideas are the "can
can" and  the slalom.
We still need to set the rules. A monthly contest committee will be set up.
Bob Baxter will send some info on the listbot.

Scitrek exhibit update - Keith Rowell gave a quick update on the exhibit.
Right now, the robot lasts about 2 hours  before needing a recharge. There
are a lot of ideas to do - including consoles

RBNO:
This month, the group experimented with the CMU cam. Also helicopter
discussion. There was a discussion on a club robot. We need to set up a SIG
for the production of a club robot.

New  attendees:
Murray McKay came in from  Memphis, Tennessee. He was entered in the 2002
Robot Rally, and he placed 3rd in the Vacuum contest. He brought in a couple of
preliminary sumo bots.

Video:
There was no video this month

Show and Tell:
Nicholas Frank brought in the Bissell "go" vacuum cleaner.
Discussion of vision systems for the vacuum contest.
Sean Hussey brought in the block bot. The batteries were low
We discussed the Ga Tech LEGO competition.
Sean and Galen Hussey brought in cybiko.
Murray McKay talked about his mini sumo bots.
Frank brought in his VT100 emulator for the Cybiko. He gave a demonstration
of wireless communications using two Cybikos.

Presentation:
Ron Drew gave an excellent "History of Automation" covering PLCs. He also
discussed the excellent products made by Automation Direct. These products
are very cost effective and emulate much more expensive products. For
further information about the company and products, the members are
encouraged to check out the extensive catalog or check the web site at

Editors Note: The above URL will not render on Netscape 4.7

Mini-Sumo Contest
We held another Sumo contest. Pictures and results will be posted on the web
page.

The meeting ran longer than usual - mainly due to the presentations and
contests.

The club wishes to express their gratitude to Automation Direct for letting
us hold our meeting at their great facility.