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March Meeting Back At RCL

Our March meeting will be back at RCL, aka River City Labs. They are located at 7916 N.Hale Ave., Peoria, IL 61615. Use the white door on the north side of the building.

And yes, we’ll meet at 5:00 PM. The meeting will last until we decide that we have had enough. Attendees can leave anytime they desire. One does not need to be a member to attend.

Agenda:
1) Show and Tell – Share current projects.
2) Tech Talk – “PID Control” multi-part series with Mike.
3) Business – Plan club activities.
4) Build Session – Work on team or personal projects.

March 11, 2020 at 11:17 am | Monthly Meeting Recaps | No comment

Due to the weather, we rescheduled the February meeting to Wednesday, 2/19/2020. We’ll meet at Germantown Hills Library meeting room at 5:00 PM. The meeting room is to the left as one walks into the library. Agenda: 1) Show and Tell, 2) Tech Talk: Mike will talk about PID Control, and 3) Beloved Business Stuff. There will NOT be a build session due to lack of time and being in a library instead of a shop. We will need to be out by 6:45ish at the latest, though the library would like us out by 6:30. (They close the building at 7:00). Hope to see you there.

February 12, 2020 at 3:41 pm | Monthly Meeting Recaps, Uncategorized | No comment

December Meeting Canceled

Due to our schedules becoming more congested and conflicted than normal, we have decided to cancel the CIRC December meeting. The January meeting is on Wednesday, 1/8/2020, at 5:00 PM at River City Labs. See directions on the Meetings page.

December 16, 2019 at 8:59 am | Monthly Meeting Recaps, Uncategorized | No comment

December meeting date moved to the 18th

We moved the December meeting date to the third Wednesday, 12/18/19. It will still start at 5:00 PM and be held at River City Labs, 7916 N.Hale Ave., Peoria, IL. The new twist we will add to the meeting is to have a build session after the meeting. This means that our general meeting agenda will be

Show & Tell
Tech Talk
Business
Build Session

Hope to see you there.

December 8, 2019 at 7:50 pm | Uncategorized | No comment

Bot Boogaloo Fall 2019 Results

Our Bot Boogaloo was a lot of fun this Fall. We had some new faces along with all the contestants from last Spring. Some of the old rivalries got to go at it again to settle scores and some new rivalries were surely started. Plenty of us had sensor and/or program logic issues to give us more humble pie then we wanted. Still, we all had a great time competing and talking robotics.

When the competitions were over, a group sat down to have a build session and talk more robotics. This worked out well and we will make it more of a part of our next Boogaloo in the Spring 2020.

Sumo Results:

Timed event results with times:

November 9, 2019 at 7:00 pm | Brawls & Boogaloos | No comment

Harper Experience Day Bot Brawl 19

CIRC hosted their second Bot Brawl of the year! Harper Experience Day Bot Brawl 19 was held on Saturday, October 5, 2019 at Harper College in Palatine, IL. We were located in the cafeteria located on the first floor of building A. This event was held as part of Harper Experience Day and Harper Maker Fest. This was the first time that CIRC hosted a Bot Brawl as a part of these events and it was a great time for all. There were maker demonstrations and maker exhibits going on all day long in addition to the Bot Brawl.

The only event with an award was Antweight (1 lb) RC Combat. We also had fun and exhibition matches based on what contestants brought.

Rules: RC Combat Rules

Competition Schedule:

Combat Results: We ran a round robin bracket where robots were scored 1 for a win, 0 for a loss, and 0.5 for a tie. Ties were decided by the judges. For the rumble, Shenzou was the last robot standing. Great job everyone.

August 28, 2019 at 1:11 pm | Announcements, Brawls & Boogaloos | No comment

September Meeting 9/4/19

We have moved the September meeting 1 week forward to Wednesday, September 4, 2019. Same time. Same place. 5:00 PM at River City Labs, 7916 N.Hale Ave., Peoria, IL 61615. Use the white door on the North, or left, side of the building. Members and non-members are welcome to attend. We will have our show & tell where participants share their progress on different projects, a technical talk where Mike will present the 2nd half of “Using Zumo Line Sensors”, the update on Wheel-E progress, and then everyone’s favorite – Business. If you have questions, contact Bruce at president@circpeoria.org

August 24, 2019 at 9:57 pm | Monthly Meeting Recaps | No comment

Bot Boogaloo Fall 2019 Announcement

We will host our second Boogaloo of the year, Bot Boogaloo Fall 2019!! It will be similar to our Spring event with the addition of a RoboMagellan contest. The date is set for Saturday, November 9, 2019. We will have it at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, Illinois, in room 212/213 of the Academic Building, same place as last Spring. Parking will be in Lot V. If it is full, Lot C will work well. Note that College Drive is a one way road going counter clockwise.

The competition will start around 10:00 AM and finish in the early afternoon. People can arrive as early as 8:30 AM. Contestant check in is from 9:00 AM to 9:40 AM. The order of events will be weather dependent. We will have the indoor events when rain and/or snow is most expected and the RoboMagellan outdoors when rain and/or snow is least expected. If there is snow, we’ll shovel or get clever or go inside. The final decision will be made Saturday morning.

What is a Bot Boogaloo? Last Spring it was a lot of fun and with the addition of RoboMagellan, it should be better. The events with links to their respective rules are listed below. Two of the events are of our own making.

We will accept mail-in entries. If you are mailing in an entry, email me so we can anticipate your robot(s).

Registration via BuildersDB is closed. Walk ins are welcome Saturday morning during the check in time. Please email me if you plan on entering Saturday morning. It’s not mandatory, but will help us plan and get better organized. president@circpeoria.org

Events

Sumo: Autonomous sumo bots (example video):
Mini Sumo (500 g)
Mega Sumo (3 kg)

Line Course: Autonomous line following bots (example video):
Line Following
Line Maze

Cone Stalking: Autonomous indoor cone touching bots Cone Stalking rules

Art Bot: Something fun and free form. Art Bot rules

RoboMagellan: We’ll use Seattle Robotics Society’s RoboMagellan rules

Schedule This schedule is approximate.

August 19, 2019 at 4:32 pm | Brawls & Boogaloos, Uncategorized | No comment

Bot Brawl 19 Results & Videos

Bot Brawl 19 was another great time!! Ignite Peoria and the Midwest MakerFest were loads of fun, again and as usual. We want to thank the Ingnite Peoria, Midwest MakerFest, competitors and sponsors. You make if fun and easy to work together. This year we saw lots of old faces, some new faces and a lot of true brawls! It was great fun. The day is long, but always worth the effort. We look forward to next year. Pencil in the date of Saturday, August 9, 2020. That is our guess of when it will be held.

Full videos.

Ant Rumble. It’s nuts.

Beetle Rumble. Great fun.

The final results have been added to the rankings on SPARC’s BotRank.com. Individual robot rankings can be found at this page of BotRank.com One thing to note is that if you type in www.botrank.com you will be taken to a listing that is no longer updated, which is something I always forget. Just one of those internet things. Here is the table for our final results.