Monty Goodson started the meeting by mentioning that you can park in the parking garage if you get a parking permit from PSU and then getting a parking PARTS ID on the back table to put in your wind shielded. He then acknowledge the OPAL school for letting the group use their projector so is donating $50 dollars to the school and he then mentioned about their robotics program that has been taught by one of the PARTS members. He then told about the upcoming events: Northwest Sumo Composition on May 15th. This is after the Seattle Robotics Groups planning meeting. He then also mentioned Bill Harrison is the founder of the composition. He said that Bill Harrison would like to come to the event but would like money for gas to make the trip. Monty Goodson said that other years we have paid his way to come down and help with PDXBOT. He then asked the group for a vote on giving Bill Harrison $80 dollars so he can attend and help at PDXBOT.04. A vote was taken and was unanimous with 14 in favor and 0 opposed. He next mentioned PARTS meeting will be June 5 the day before PDXBOT.04 for a hack fest and Bill Harrison will also be attending for judging etc. Next Monty told about the T-shirts and Pete Skeggs showed off the design. He then mentioned the poster and Pete Skeggs showed them. Pete Skeggs then mentioned that the ad is in Computer Bits about PDXBOT.04. He then said that online registration would be up soon and Pete Skeggs showed a sample form that will be used for the registration. He then mentioned that we still are looking for a video projector for the event and they needed high power ones. He then talked about needing more volunteers for the event and then he passed out last years schedule with places for volunteers to sign up to help. He then mentioned the main need for judges for the event that have been trained by Bill Harrison or others that would like to be trained for the event. He then talked about the need for more robots for the tech demo area that Tim Weaver is doing for the PDXBOT.04 event.
Monty Goodson then introduced the speakers in this months meeting. They are students from O.S.U. working on tekbots. Tekbots are integrated in the engineering curriculum. The main idea tekbots is for hands on learning for the students. Tekbots was started from money from Tektronix. O.S.U. wants other schools to use Tech Bots for their curriculum so they are working on this as a goal. The students buy the robot and build it. The students and grad students create the Teck Bot's hardware. They are using them in the classroom and are open source. Different classes use the tekbots. The first year the students build a H-bridge and are getting hand on experience. The second year they are taking digital logic. They get an additional board for the digital components with PLD's. Another class is computer organization where they get a board with a micro controller. Another additional class used a board with a camera with MET lab to recognize coins. Then a micro system architecture class has a design counter, timers, frequency counter and interact with other parts on the board. Mechanical engineering uses a board with motor drivers and mechanical parts. Library that is a system Linux with the perating system using cooperated for the running of motors etc. They asked for Ideas for projects. They then opened it up for questions from the group. They also have been involved in Davinci-days at http://www.davinci-days.org and others colleges. There is also a robots club at the college. The web site is http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/education/tekbots.html and E-mail at tekbots@ergr.orst.edu.
Monty Goodson then mention the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair at the convention center that are free on Thursday, May 13 from 2:30 to 9:00 PM and May 14, from 8:00 to 12:00 PM. The web site is at http://www.intel.com/education/isef. Then Monty showed the Tektronix sponsor booth using tekbots. He showed the layout and explained the part that he is working on where the user will get the input from the sensors and then needs to move the robot along a course while another robot with a microprocessor controlled will move along a similar course.
Monty Goodson then recognized Dr. Perkowski and P.S.U. for getting a P.S.U. room for the PDXBOT.04 event and the monthly meeting room, and then Dr. Perkowski thanks the P.A.R.T.S. for money for robots and the scholarships. Monty Goodson then explained that some of the money from last year PDXBOT was given to P.S.U. for robots and scholarships. Dr. Perkowski mentioned the need for help in building the robots for the PDXBO.04. He then introduced the projects that need help a hexapod walking robot motion, movement, voice synthesis, recognition and then he invited the group to see the robotics lab at P.S.U. They are looking for people to help work on Robot Theater. The lab is open on Friday, and Saturday from 10:00 to 1:00 PM.
Daryl Sandberg showed his remote control 4-wheel drive four wheel turning robot with speed control using a chip. He did a redesign the steering again. Using Pickax 8 pin that programs like a basic stamp. He is going to use the basic stamp for future for speech, and communication different parameters.
Monty Goodson wanted to know if Daryl Sandberg was working on his robot for the mini grand challenge.
Pete Skeggs showed a prototype of encoder wheel that will go on a servo using a tool and new stickers for the encoder wheel. The encoder outputs a high for one direction and a low for the other direction, with pulses per rotation and other variations depending on the decoder chip on the board.
Dana Weesner showed a brochure that he is planning to send to the schools in the area. He asked for information on getting the school names from the Vancouver, Washington area. He also asked for people to sign up for the kiddy corral.
Chis Christer is working on an all terrain vehicle that uses video for navigation through natural unmapped terrain.
Christopher Brawn a P.S.U. student showed a HEXOR robot that is made in Poland, that Dr. Perkowski brought back from Poland, for $1,200 dollars with 1200 lines of code in Polish that have been translated. He showed the bumper switches in front, infrared digital sensors around the robot, and a video camera that is transmitted wirelessly. The camera link is separate 2.5 GHz analog that will need a video card in a different computer. The robot uses an omega 128 processor. The mechanical engineering students are working on a couple of claws for the robot to pickup and retrieve pop cans. He is asking help in computer vision. The way the robot communicates to the computer is done using a wireless USB connection. The robot uses lead acid gel cell battery. Looking for someone in the United States to sell the robot.
Mark Medonis working on speech software Maxwell. He also show an Extreme Geek catalog.
Bob Pearson told more about Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with science projects some are robotics that was mentioned earlier.
Johnithan Fant told about what he has been working on navigation software in the home, using Grid Map software that uses link list for grid cost to help with navigation. Additionally he is working on his robot to do text to speech. He needs a robotic arm that does not cost too much and can pick up more than just a few ounces. Also autonomous environment in the home is hard to navigate.
Kyle Reid asked about Robosapien that cost $99.
Monty then gave more details on the Robosapien.
Tim, did not get his last name, talked about the board that he bought for $70 ARM last time that he is running on SRAM it runs Gcc working on the board.
John, did not get his last name, showed tiny ARM from links motion. Larry asked about the ARM board from new micros. It was the tiny ARM.
The meeting ended, but the group was invited to tour PSU robotics lab after the meeting.