Meeting Minutes, AHRC, September 28, 2002 Officers present: Frank Borowiec - President Clint Bridges - Treasurer Richard Bodor - Secretary Attendees: 16 Frank introduced the meeting. Thanks to Nicholas Frank for finding us a location. Club Business: Treasurer's Report - we have money in the bank. Centennial Park meeting (Hobby Day) We were thanked by the coordinator of the event and we are intending to go again next year. Attendees gave some input for the hobby day. RBNO report - Clint explained the RBNO to the new attendees. This last one we had Mike Panetta who brought in a test board and the group fiddled around with it. Also fiddled around with a controller board. This one was more of a brainstorming session. Next month's meeting location discussion. The bottom line is that we don't know where we will hold future meetings. This is the biggest challenge for the club right now. Listbot update - new server is now Unix. Paul and Dale have been working to get the BBS up and running. It should be on board very soon. Look for an announcement on the listbot and the web page. Robot Rally - Richard has started a robot rally volunteer sheet. Everyone is asked to try and find a job to volunteer. Rules Committee - we have three main competitions, although the open is split up by age. The vacuum rules need to be adjusted. New monthly contest - we discussed the need for a new monthly contest. No decision has been made. Much effort goes into the monthly meeting location and this has delayed the new monthly contest. New Attendees: * Jeff - 12 and Steve - his father and Tim - 11. They found us on the web. Video: Dale brought video on DragonCon. They have 12 lb weight class and 60 lb weight class. These are not true "battle bots". The rules don't allow certain techniques like band saws and projectiles. These are RC bots - not autonomous. Dale competed with his T-Zero bot using the innovative pneumatic catapult and the unique "invertible" design. Around the Room: * Nicholas Frank showed his new vacuum bot. He has a heat sink issue. It is named Sir Suxalot. * Frank brought in the Intel microscope. This is a USB device that has 10X, 60X and 200X magnifications. He got it for $40. Model number QX-3. He believes that the device is no longer manufactured and that Intel has gotten out of the "kid's" market. * Galen Hussey brought in a new calculator that has an embedded Z-80 chip! It is the TI83+. * Clint Bridges brought in the Robot Builder's Sourcebook. This is an excellent book and is very current. It cost him $25 and is a good resource for anyone looking to build robots. Presentation: Clint Bridges brought in the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner by iRobots, Inc. He was able to have a demonstration run in which the Roomba collected tea off of the tile floor. He also showed the electronic "wall" that sends out a beam and keeps the robot from going past. The robot costs about $199 and is going to be available from several distributors. Mini-Sumo Contest: Since there was only one contestant, Delta Force, Dale just gave a short demo of Delta Force pushing objects off the ring. Don't forget that nominations for the 2003 officers will start in October. Please warn anyone that you intend to nominate as this requires a HUGE commitment from the person elected. Elections are to be held at the December meeting with the new officers taking their positions for the January meeting. Also, if anyone has a suggestion for a meeting place, please take the next step and find out whom we can contact and see if it is a viable location for us. Contact Richard or Frank directly if you need help in talking to someone about allowing the meetings. Thank you all for your help during this difficult time. After the regular meeting, there was a 30-minute discussion about the rules committee. We will make an announcement concerning the next meeting, since we have no idea where it will be held. It is scheduled for October 26th, 2002 from 10AM until Noon. Please watch the web page and/or the listbot.