Minutes: Atlanta Hobby Robot ClubDate:  10/28/2000
Location: Radioshack.com

Officers in attendance:
Paul Burrell, Co-Vice President
Richard Bodor, Secretary
Clint Bridges, Treasurer
31 attendees

Clint welcomed the attendees and summed up the recent activities of the club
including the activities with the Robomows. He then gave the rough agenda to
the attendees.

The Video presentation:
The video presentation was a recording from the history channel on humanoid
robotics and artificial intelligence.

Clint wrapped up the video and gave the Treasurer's report. (This
information is not included in the online version of the minutes. Printed
version of the minutes is available from the secretary via e-mail for paid
members.) Clint then gave a Robot Builders Night Out (RBNO) report and
submitted a schedule for the next 12 months. Unfortunately, the time of the
RBNO was left off of the schedule. The time is 6:30PM - 9:00PM (The schedule
is posted separately and is not included here).

Club Business:
A motion was made and seconded concerning the use of the two RObomow robots.
The motion is that the Robomow Silver Classic be repaired using the parts
donated by Friendly Robotics during the RBNO. Then the Robomow Silver
Classic will be given as a prize at the Robot Rally 2001 - to be determined
by the Robot Rally committee. In addition, the RObomow 500 will be used as a
club robot for presentation purposes. There was a quick show of hands of the
members and no dissenting votes so the motion has been carried. It was
further moved, seconded, and voted that a Certificate of Appreciation be
made for Friendly Robotics as well as providing their marketing department
with information and ongoing references for their purposes. This will be
presented again at the next meeting.
A motion was made and seconded that the next meeting will have a "members
only meeting" to discuss pressing club business. We will begin the meeting
at 9AM on November 18th prior to our regular meeting. We have not yet
contacted Radioshack.com to ask them for the use of the room. We need to
finalize our non-profit status and protection of our intellectual property.
We will try to make the vote as close to 10am as possible to allow members
to make it for the vote. If, however, a member wants to be involved in the
debate - get there early.

Nominations continue for the new officers for 2001:
President:                 Frank Borowiec
Barry Ward
Co-Vice President:  Richard Bodor
Paul Burrell
Treasurer:                 Clint Bridges
Secretary:                 Calvin Grier
Nominations are accepted from all members and MAY BE REFUSED BY THE NOMINEE.
Balloting will be handled at the next meeting, November 18th. The meeting is
held one week early due to Thanksgiving. It has been suggested that
balloting not be closed until the December meeting when the results will be
tabulated and announced.

Around the room:
The new attendees introduced themselves. David Hill, Josh Hill and Whit
Bolado; John Olthoff - found us on the web; Darrell Foster, Garrison Foster,
Cullen Foster, and Brent Foster; Hugh Watkins (2nd meeting); Todd Smith;
Vince Chan (Ga Tech Robojackets member); (Sorry, Jeremiah - I didn't get
your name on the sign-up sheet and therefore have no last name).
Calvin introduced the youngest attendee, his new baby - but he DID NOT sign
her up on the sign-up log so I didn't get her name. Sorry, Calvin.
Andrew M. showed his version of the Lego Mindstorms 6-legged robot. He
found that there was an error in the designs and had to put a spacer in to
allow the robot to move.
Sean Hussey also brought in his version of the 6-legged robot. He found the
same error and had to replace the entire chassis section to make it work. It
walked and turned quite well.
Clint Bridges showed an old (March 1977) article of himself with his first
robot. Then he brought out he Robomow 500 and gave a quick demonstration.
For these purposes, Clint has removed the blades, but they can be easily
replaced if there is a need to actually mow with it.
Richard made an appeal to the club members to join one of the committees -
particularly the robot rally committee. At the end of the meeting there were
still no new volunteers. There has been one volunteer through the listbot -
Bob Baxter. Thanks, Bob.
Calvin asked the room to state for the record their intentions to submit
robots to the rally. A quick scan of the room came up with the following,
fairly soft, commitments:
Vacuum Contest: Paul Burrell, Bill Kline, Hugh Watkins, Charles Oldham,
Dale Heatherington, Calvin Grier, Robojackets (Ga Tech)
KitBot Contest: Jerrod Hussey, Sean Hussey, Andrew M.
Robot Rally: Clint Bridges, Bill Kline, RoboJackets, Ed Larson, Don
Brown, Calvin Grier, Daniel Schaeffer

The monthly contest:
The prize this month was a $50 dollar bill. There were only two
contestants: Dale Heatheington with "Scream Machine", and Bob Baxter with an
un-named IR-robot.
Dale ran two attempts, with very impressive results of 3.38 seconds and
3.28 seconds. This is a new record.
Bob ran two attempts, one of which finished very well with 5.72 seconds.
This would have beat last month's entry, but was unable to beat Scream
Machine.

Both Dale and Bob gave explanations of their robots. Details are omitted
here. For full details, please contact the robot designers, as the rights to
their designs, and their intellectual property, is theirs alone.
Video tape was made of the contest, and will be put on the web as soon as
possible.

The meeting adjourned at exactly 12 noon! And several attendees experimented
with the Robomow.

references:
www.listbot.com(AHRC1) - AHRC listbot services
www.botlanta.org - AHRC home page