Portland Area Robotics Society

Regular Meeting Minutes

February 7, 2009, 10:30AM

Agenda

1. Welcome – Fred Stevens

2. OSU Robotics – Robotics Club Arial Project

3. Show and Tell – w/ Introductions

4. Club Business – Vote for Vice President

5. Line Maze Challenge – MARCH 2009

Presentation

OSU Robotics Club - UAV Development for International Arial Robotics Competition

http://oregonstate.edu/groups/osurc/aerial/

OSU Robotics Team – developing an entry for the 2009 International Aerial robotics competition.

· Designing a 1 meter UAV using a quad rotor helicopter design

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrotor

· The design team presented and demonstrated their progress to date. See link below to their current progress

http://oregonstate.edu/groups/osurc/aerial/news.php

Announcements

Special Election – Donald Davis was elected as P.A.R.T.S. Vice President

· The special election passed by unanimous vote of all members present (15 votes – YES, 0 votes – NO)

· Fred Stevens had previously assumed the office of President after the resignation of former P.A.R.T.S. President Robert Scheer.

Line Maze Challenge, March 2009 P.A.R.T.S. Meeting

· Get your maze solving robots ready!

Club Business – Put off further discussion until March

1. It’s time again for membership dues for 2009.

· By a vote of the club membership in December 2007, payment of dues is now on the “Honor System”. Paid membership is encouraged, but not required for club participation. Suggested membership price is $20/year, but $1 qualifies for a paid membership. Dues of $40 or more qualifies as a “Sponsoring Membership”. Dues support club activities, such as to cover the monthly rental for meeting room and the P.A.R.T.S. website.

2. In January, Fred Stevens, P.A.R.T.S. President, opened a candid discussion of what the membership wanted for the future direction of P.A.R.T.S. The following are the ideas and direction that was discussed. This discussion will be continued at the March 2009 meeting.

· Most members present like the current meeting format that showcases member show and tell. It is good to see what others are working on and to see projects. It provides motivation for further robot development.

· P.A.R.T.S. will not be sponsoring a large scale Robot competition in 2009. PDXBot was last held in 2007 and will not be held in 2009.

o Botfest 2008 was a success but should P.A.R.T.S. spend resources to put on another one? Botfest 2008 involved lots of effort and was coordinated almost solely by Pete Skeggs. However, there was limited club member participation in the competitions. Most competitors were from outside the P.A.R.T.S. group. The general feeling was that P.A.R.T.S. should work to raise the level of Robot development within the club.

o P.A.R.T.S. Outdoor Challenge 2008 – Had a good response for member participation. A future event similar to this may be considered if members are developing robots for these events.

o Line Maze Challenges – These will continue at future meeting to help promote maze solving robot development among interested club member. The next challenge is at the March P.A.R.T.S. meeting.

· There was interest in a robot building challenge at a future P.A.R.T.S. meeting similar to what was coordinated by Steve Davies at a meeting in 2007. Members were broken into team and given a box of surplus parts with which to build a robot to complete a simple challenge; all within a 2 hour meeting.

· One suggestion proposed a robotics collaboration among club members to design and build robots to solve previous years FIRST Robot Challenges. This suggestion did receive some positive feedback from the members present at the meeting.

· Start a club development project similar to the development of the MKIII controller board previously developed by P.A.R.T.S. members. There was no discussion of what this project would focus on but it would not necessarily be a new controller board. This collaboration project may leverage Open Tech Space.

§ Any volunteers to coordinate a collaboration project?