The Riverside Robotics Society Mar Meeting Recap

Transcription

1 The Riverside Robotics Society Mar Meeting Recap Board of Directors John McCarthy, President Thomas Messerschmidt, Vice President Greg Allen Secretary Hayden McCarthy, Treasurer Forrest Thompson, Historian Monthly Programs Join our mailing list at: Riverside-Robotics-Society/ Dear RRS Members, We had a houseful of new faces that became members at the March meeting. Thank you for referring friends to the Riverside Robotics Society (RRS). Sharing what you learn at RRS and inviting others helps us all learn more about robotics. Although we had to share news that Hansol Hong, the CEO of RoboLink could not attend our meeting due to an unfortunate event, the March meeting was another education filled program. Professor Vannoy (@TeachElectron, RoboticsProfessor@Gmail.com and delivered yet another spectacular lecture. The March program focused on sensors as they apply upcoming contests our club will have later this year. Affiliated Chapter RRS is affiliated with the Robotics Society of Southern California. They meet at Cal State Long Beach: Thank Your Sponsors! The following companies help support Riverside Robotics Society. California Institute of Robotics botcollege Nuts & Volts Magazine Robotis Servo Magazine com/ Other Events m/ Yes, we did say contests. In June we plan to host our first contest a Line Following Contest and later in the year a Sumo Bot Contest. 1

2 As the name implies in a Line Following Contest, the objective of the contest is to traverse the path as quickly as possible and the robot that completes the path the fastest is declared the winner. Professor Vannoy shared several contest variations in his presentation. Download his prezo to learn more. For our contest, we will probably keep it simple. We will have 2-3 classes of robots (e.g. Lego, 3Pi, home built). Each robot in its class will traverse the path 3 times and we will record the total time. The robot that completes the path 3 times in the fastest time will be declared the champion for that class. Anyhow, Professor Vannoy began the lecture by teaching us about sensors in general and the most common types of sensors used in Line Following and Sumo Bot competitions. 2

3 He mixed Line Following theory along with strategies. Professor Vannoy wrote that he wrote a detailed document on designing and building a line following robot. Following our meeting I searched his website and found that document and uploaded it to the Meetup site: 3

4 For those that could not attend the March meeting and are interested in Line Following, I HIGHLY recommend you download this PDF. Professor Vannoy talked a lot about parts of this document and this PDF closely followed his lecture. Page 14 of Professor Vannoy s 31 pages on Line Following. 4

5 We concluded the meeting with some Show & Tell. Chip showed off the Vex Robotic Arm ( He explained how it worked and also how it could be improved. It turns out the shortcoming of this robotic arm is how jerky the movements are. Chip explained that if you integrate a microprocessor like an Arduino could deliver much smoother arm movements and improve the overall robotic functions. 5

6 Walter the Secretary for the Robotics Society of Southern California ( showed off an educational robotics kit help personally designed and launched at the website This educational kit includes lots of sensors, sample programs and step-by-step instructions to guide you through robotics using the Arduino platform. This kit is great for kids just learning Arduino and also awesome for teachers as the kit includes experiments as a sonar sensors autonomous navigation as well as infrared remote control navigation. Here is a link to see the class material as well as lecture slides: Lastly we had a new comer today discuss a robot gift he received at Christmas. Since he is under the age of 18, I don t release names without parental permission. Nonetheless, he discussed the Meccanoid G15 Personal Robot. This robot is really cool in that it recognizes voice commands so you can speak to it and it has witty comebacks. It even tells jokes. ccanoid-g15-personal-robot 6

7 Videos We Saw Today Autonomous Pizza Delivery > RoboLink Interview on CNET at CES > Daredevil Drone Flies Thru Trees > Boston Dynamics, Atlas, The Next Generation > As I write the March newsletter, I don t yet have the presentation from Professor Vannoy. When it is uploaded to the Meetup site, I will send everyone an in the event they want to download it. Upcoming Events April 3 Robot Day The San Diego Central Library is celebrating Robot Week, with a Robot Day on April 3 noon to 6 pm. Here is a link to watch a video from last year. The event is free > If you would like to showcase a robot or exhibit at the event, please fill out the Google form below or contact Uyen Tran at utran@sandiego.gov for more information. April 16 Meeting We will take a break from the educational lectures and learn about robotics from author John Mullen and his robot called Dick Young. This is a very fun and interesting lecture don t miss it! 7

8 Tim Laren Tim has been playing with ESP82666 Wifi stuff and he will be sharing his insights at the April meeting. Per Tim, The ESP8266 is an ARM processor with built-in WiFi on a little module starting at $4-$20. This one works with the Arduino IDE and costs less than an UNO. The ESP01 and WSP02 sell for $5 (I think). We hope that you are enjoying the free classes and learning lots. If you have any suggestions, comments or ideas for meeting ideas, send me an (HelloJohnMcCarthy@gmail.com) or pick up the phone ( ) and say hello. John McCarthy President, The Riverside Robotics Society 8