Minutes from the June 2005

Connecticut Robotics Society Meeting:

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Total attendance: 15

The meeting commenced with a half hour viewing of the 2004 Trinity College Fire Fighting Robotics Competition.

After this Mark did the usual introductions as Jake was absent.

John O. came up next with a demonstration of a digital compass he recently purchased. He talked about the pros and cons of the device (sorry, I missed the model number) and also setup a very nice demo where he used an LCD to print out the compass readings. Nice work!

Walter came up next with a quick demonstration of his object orientated compiler. He explained some of its features and also talked about its ability to be easily used on just about any microprocessor. For more information (and for an eventual BETA version), please visit: http://www.geocities.com/waltsrobots/ObjectCompiler.html

After this, Mark showed everyone some advanced gauges which his company works on. These gauges are designed to work in boats, military vehicles, and other such extreme conditions. After explaining the inner-workings of these devices, Mark setup a small demonstration. Thanks Mark!

Jim came up next with some ideas for increasing club participation next season. Among other things, Jim suggested holding monthly competitions (including sumo, maze solving, and line following), however unlike our previous attempts at competitions, Jim, Mark, John G., Walter, and others agreed to bring in a robot to compete each month so that there would always be something to look at/compete against. Everyone agreed with these excellent ideas, thanks Jim for suggesting them!

Our speaker this month was John G. giving part 2 of his interesting speech entitled “Wheeled Robots 101”. John started off with a review of part 1 including the different types of robots there are (1 wheels, 3 wheels, walkers, etc.). After this, he explained the design process of a robot including specifications (weight, size, etc.) and different design strategies (top-down, bottom-up, and heuristics). Afterwards, John gave a short intro to some of the topics he wants to talk about in part 3 coming sometime next season. Thanks John for this very informative talk!

The meeting adjourned around 3:30pm