Minutes from the November 2004

Connecticut Robotics Society Meeting:

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Total attendance: 20

The meeting commenced with a 10 minute viewing of the IR sensor seminar that took place at last years Trinity College Fire Fighting Robot contest.

After this, Jim began his surprise robotic movie contest. The goal of this contest is to watch twelve short robotic movie clips and remember not only the name of the movie, but also the name of the robot that starred in the film (such as “Robbie” in the film “The Forbidden Planet”). After watching each clip, we tallied up the points (24 points total, 1 point for each correct movie and robot name), and it turned out that Rick won with 20 points! Great job Rick for winning this contest, and to Jim who put together this very enjoyable event!

Walter was up next with a quick announcement that he was making ID cards for any CRS member who wanted one. If you weren't at the meeting and are interested in receiving an ID card, please send an email to wkrawec@waltsgames.com giving Walter your full name and he should have them all printed for everyone by the December meeting.

Our speaker of the month this time was John talking about Wheeled Robotics. In this very informative talk, John discussed different design challenges you are faced with when constructing a wheeled robot. He talked in detail about the different types of wheel designs including four wheel, three wheel, and two wheeled 'bots. John also went over some of the various applications each design can be used with. After this, John then addressed other designs including tracked 'bots and even stair climbing! Thanks for this very interesting talk John!

Walter came up after this with a presentation of his Palm Debugger. He talked about how the Palm can be used as an Event Logger in order to help in the debugging process of a robot's program. After this, he used the Palm Emulator to demonstrate the Debugger. Walter mentioned that whenever the software is finished, he would upload it to his website at: http://www.geocities.com/waltsrobots/page3.html .

The meeting adjourned around 3:30pm