Meeting Minutes – Aug. 20, 2000

Members Attending

Chris Boros – President
Peter Campbell – Librarian and Treasurer
Mike Dvorsky – Secretary
Andrew Black
Michael Houston
Matt Underwood
Phil White

Non-members Attending

Andy Vitale
Otis R. Bullock

Discussion

Sumo Competition Prizes. Chris opened boxes containing prizes sent by Parallax and Square One Electronics.
Sumo Competition Scoring. Andrew summarized the discussion that has gone on in the mailing list over the last few weeks regarding how to arrange and score the matches. Last year's competition used "No Chart N-Elimination." We would like to find something this year that is better matched to a robot competition. The fairest method is to let every robot battle every other robot, but for N robots that requires (N choose 2) = (N)(N-1)/2 matches. This is impractical for more than 8 or so entries. If there are more than 8 entries in a class, the class will probably be divided into "heats," and within each heat all the robots will battle all other robots. Winners from each heat will battle for the overall rankings.
There was also some debate in the mailing list over the time required for each match. Should there be 3 minutes per match or 3 matches of 3 minutes each?
Vice President. Jim Frye had announced via email that he will be unable to devote the time to the club that he has in the past, and hinted that he might wish to step down as Vice President. Nobody at the meeting indicated an interest in taking over the position.
Regional Fire-Fighting Contest. Chris proposed giving the winner of the regional contest round-trip airfare to Trinity in 2001. After some discussion, it was concluded that an upper limit should be established. An amount of $200 was proposed.
Group Designed Fire-Fighting Robot. Most of the people present indicated an interest in participating in a cooperative/group design for a fire-fighting robot, but nobody volunteered to lead the effort.
Fire-Fighting Arena. The club needs to provide an arena for the regional fire-fighting contest next year. Larry Kruzan had previously indicated that he would build it, but was not present to confirm that he still intends to.
MC for Sumo Contest. Chris announced that Bill Harrison will be the MC for our sumo contest. He will fly into Chicago and be given a ride to Peoria. He will probably give a talk, and perhaps a demonstration. The club will cover his airfare, using personal donations and club funds.
Circuit Cellar Ink. Circuit Cellar has offered to publish a two-page article on the contest. Due to publishing deadlines, it will almost certainly be published after the contest is over. This is a great opportunity to gain some publicity for the club. In addition, the Circuit Cellar web site will put up a photo and article (~250 words) on individual robots in the contest.
NiMH Battery Charger. Mike Dvorsky talked about a Nickel Metal Hydride battery pack charger that he is working on for his sumo robot. It will fast-charge packs of 3 to 10 cells, with configurable charge rates and automatic change to trickle charge when the pack is full. When the project is complete, Mike will make design details available so others can build the charger or use it as the basis for their own design.
48V Lead Acid Charger. Matt asked for advice about a 48V charger he is using for his fork lift battery. It trips out after charging for a short time, and is not able to fully charge the battery without constant intervention. Some members offered suggestions, but nothing definitive.
Peoria Superfest. The Peoria Superfest hamfest is September 15, 16, and 17 (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). This is the same weekend as the club meeting. The club will have a booth like last year. Chris asked for people who can help man the booth. There were no volunteers at this time.
Junk Robots. Phil talked about his work building robots from salvaged components taken from VCRs, hard drives, etc. There are a lot of useful parts that people routinely discard.
Club Library. Peter, our librarian, reminded people of the club library, which has videos, magazines, catalogs, etc.
Color Discrimination. Michael Houston mentioned a project he is working on to design a robot arm that sorts objects by color. This led to a general discussion of techniques for discriminating between different colors and gray scales.
Sumo Workshop. Following the meeting there was an informal "sumo workshop" where members could test out their sumo robots and discuss designs with other members.

Next meeting: Sept. 17