Minutes from the January 2006

Connecticut Robotics Society Meeting:

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Total Attendance: 20+

The meeting commenced with a viewing of several short video clips of the Sony QRIO in action.

Following this was an introduction to China's new robotic soccer contest including a discussion of the rules and several short video clips of these 'bots in action.

The Lego NXT was the next topic on conversation and both John G. and Mark W. explained to the club all they knew on this new version of the Mindstorms.

Jake talked briefly about a new robotics magazine entitled “Robot”... more information can be found at www.botmag.com .

Jim came up next showing everyone his birthday present: a Palm OS PDA Watch. He talked about some of its features and how it worked. Very cool Jim!

Visar came up next discussing what he's been up to lately and on how he's fairing at college. It was great to see you again Visar, thanks!

Jake once again brought up the possibility of holding our June meeting at the MIT museum. This idea was received very well with the members of the club, so Jake said he would look into it further.

On the topic of MIT, another member brought word that the college will be holding several interesting lectures in February, in particular course 6.270 on the 2'nd which is an autonomous robot design competition. Thanks for bringing in this news!

Last month, Molly was given Jake's Scribbler Robot for a month along with the task of “doing something cool” with it – which she did. Molly was able to design a completely new program which caused the robot to spell out her name on a large canvas. Excellent job Molly!

David came up next with a discussion of the last FLL competition which he and his team competed in. He explained the contest goals and objectives (all of which had an “underwater” exploration theme) and illustrated his presentation with several photos of the event. Thanks, and great job David!

Scott came up next with a quick demonstration of the Cold Heat soldering iron. Overall he said he was impressed with the device despite his initial skepticism. Afterwards he also gave a quick explanation of the “solder pot” he brought in. Thanks Scott!

After this, the group moved into the next room for Jake's demonstration of the PC Board etching device which we now have access to while meeting at GHAMAS. He explained how the device worked, and how to create a PC board using the Eagle software he talked about last month. Thanks Jake!

While the PC board was begin etched, Jim and Walter snuck back to the meeting room to compete in the mini-sumo contest. After many tries (and a few close calls), Jim's robot was once again crowned champion!

The meeting adjourned around 4:00pm.