Thank you to those who came on Wednesday. A record turnout, some new faces and some new robots and very interesting topics to talk about and things to see. Thanks too for those who sent apologies, we can't all make every session. We are still fortunate to be able to use the Science Alive facilities, so please keep putting your gold coin donations into the tin, they are appreciated.
Organisational Developments since the last Meeting
Advertising and word of mouth is growing our numbers. Please send me any ideas that you may have for publicity, or just do it! I’ll bring some publicity sheets to the next meeting for new members to take away so that they have contact details for us.
Our prototype web site: http://groups.msn.com/chchrobotics has some photos of Wednesday’s session. Subscribe or send me your content if you would like to have information posted. We have had an offer of help with an improved web site and hosting in return for some publicity. More news soon.
Attending Robots and Topics
Synco Reynders gave us a fascinating talk about the development and operation of his GPS Boomerang with videos of media coverage and some experimental flights. See http://www.gpsboomerang.com/ for more details and prices.
Hanno Sander brought a wonderful balancing robot that uses accelerometers and gyros and a parallax propeller array processor to balance on two wheels and dance. The bot leans back before driving forwards, and has a neat trick if the motors cannot meet the demand. Have a look at Hanno’s site http://mydancebot.com. There are some pics from Hanno here: http://groups.msn.com/chchrobotics/shoebox.msnw.
Peter Harris brought along his Robot Lawnmower. Still under development but moving nicely under radio control. Heaps of sealed lead acid batteries, huge FET H bridges and a neat tendancy to stand on its stabilizer wheel. This looks like a bot not to be messed with.
Carl Ranson brought along some tiny DC motors to give away, thanks Carl.
Peter Morris showed his table top challenge robot named 'Hugo' adapted for line following which it did very nicely. Anyone up for line following races next session?
Steve Graham bought an optical stepper motor driven scanning table with a laser line for capturing 3D images on computer that can then be used for direct fabrication.
Richard Jones brought a micromouse maze simulation written in Python now moving and turning in the maze competition style, and a DSL modem to be adapted for robotics using openwrt. See http://openwrt.org/
All told a very lively and interesting session. If I’ve missed anything or corrections are required just email the group. Thanks to all who came.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 19th December 7.30pm Seminar Room (Note the change back to our normal venue). Bring a xmas fare plate and some robots to talk about. With no main topic we can divide our attention appropriately to each bot that comes along.
Statistics
16 In Attendance including 1 partner, 1 chauffeur, 1 guest
6 first timers, 10 been before.
5 from Tait Electronics
1 from Canterbury University
2 from Bright Sparks
~0 Biscuits eaten. I forgot the biscuits doh!
5 Moving Robots. Lawn Mower, GPS Boomerang, Dancebot, Line Follower, Scanner (in approx weight order)
$21.80 Room Collection for Science Alive!
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