Minutes from the October 2004

Connecticut Robotics Society Meeting:

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Total attendance: 18

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

Jake was up next with the usual introductions. He also brought in several give away items such as power supplies, stepper motors, and various other goodies. Thanks Jake!

A new member came up next asking the members for advice on building a robot. Several very good ideas were given, but the majority of people agreed that the Lego Mindstorms kit was the best way to start.

Mike then gave everyone a progress update on his book review. He recently bought two robotic books, one of which he was asked to give a review on for the club. However since he wasn’t entirely sure which of the two books to review, Mike asked if anyone else wanted to read one and review it. Someone accepted the offer, so we can now look forward to two excellent book reviews (no pressure)!

Our speaker this month was Paul Cappa and he talked about the Help Mate robot from Cardinal Health. In this very fascinating talk, Paul described what the robot is and what it does (this robot is capable of navigating a hospital in order to deliver supplies to various departments). He then went on to talk about how the robot is able to move around a busy hospital without running anyone over and also how the robot is able to interface with an elevator via a wireless link. Paul Cappa was one of the original designers of the ‘bot and he has worked on almost every system on this project. Great work Paul!

The meeting adjourned around 3:15pm