Monthly Meeting Recap – 10/16/11
- Robot Show & Tell:
- Dan Toborowski brought his Marble Maze which he’s in the process of upgrading for the upcoming iHobby Expo. Some upgrades include a backlit LCD display, a few servo upgrades, and a custom-built gumball dispenser. Dan also brought some new parts recently released from MicroRAX including a tri-corner bracket and rotating joints.
- Peter Campbell brought a new project he built using a Heavy Duty Metal Arm Base recently released by Lynxmotion. Peter mounted a large round platform to the arm base assembly and used a Parallax Propeller to rock the platform back and forth in a sinusoidal wave pattern. When Peter placed a ball on the platform the specific rocking motion would cause the ball to continuously roll around the edge of the round platform indefinitely.
- Mike Dvorsky brought his new line follower he built for the upcoming iHobby Expo. Mike designed the robot base using EAGLE PCB software and had the boards manufactured by ExpressPCB. Mike designed this new robot specifically such that multiple different drive train options are possible on the same board such as a 4 motors/wheels configuration or 2 motors/wheels with a caster. Mike also brought a PoGa portable game development console kit that he hoped to possibly modify and use as a custom wireless controller for his robots.
- Josh Whitley talked about the new iPhone voice recognition software named “Siri.” Unlike most voice recognition software that relies upon keywords and specific commands, Siri understands natural speech and intelligently follows the conversation so that users can continue asking questions about the same topic without restating the question or command. Siri also will ask the user questions if more information is needed to complete a task.
- Announcements:
- Check out the November/December issue of ROBOT magazine for an article about our 2011 Central Illinois Bot Brawl and an article about the ChiBots SRS RobMagellan competition that our club participated in.
- Video and pictures have been posted on the Wheel-E project page for the ChiBots SRS RoboMagellan competition.
- Upcoming Events:
- iHobby Expo – October 22nd, 23rd (Rosemont, IL)
- Mecha-Mayhem 2011 (150gram, 1lb, 3lb, 6lb combat robots)
- ChiBots ChiBotica (line follow, sumo, humanoid)
- MechWarfare
- Final year that iHobby will take place in Illinois
- iHobby Expo – October 22nd, 23rd (Rosemont, IL)
- Presentations:
- Dan gave a presentation on the 2011 FIRST LEGO League challenge; Food Factor. Volunteers are needed for judging at the December 10th regional tournament. If you’re interested in helping contact brucestott@yahoo.com
- Club Business:
- It was decided that there was not enough interest to warrant resuming bi-weekly build sessions until the beginning of 2012. We will work towards selecting a date to resume at future meetings.
- We are in the process of adjusting the dates for our December and November monthly meetings to distance the dates from holidays. When the chances are official an announcement will be made.
- Our 2012 Bot Brawl will officially take place at the LakeView Museum auditorium on Saturday, March 24th! More information can be found at the competition page and registration is now open on the BuildersDatabase.
October 16, 2011 at 11:52 am | Monthly Meeting Recaps | No comment
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