[chbot] Meeting Report for Wed 21st April

[Richard Jones]

Sixteen people attended on our first meeting this year without daylight
saving. The gold coin collection raised $ for Science Alive.

 Synco opened with a talk about problems with CAA approvals for GPS
boomerang and his new powered plane with choices for autonomous and remote
control to work around flight restrictions and address new markets. He also
brought along servos adapted for 180 degree operation with additional
resistors at the ends of the feedback potentiometer. The servos were driving
a laser for test purposes but ultimately are intended to drive a tracking
aerial. Hooked into the xplane flight simulator to track a simulated plane
position the pointer looked very convincing with a neat swivel at times to
overcome the lack of 360 degree rotation. See http://gpsboomerang.com

 Timothy showed us the beginning of a football robot simulation written in
python as part of the journey toward Junior Robocup football. The simulation
accepts a mouse entered track and displays a graphic that turns in the
direction of travel. Bravely Timothy also showed us the source code and
walked us through its operation.

 Hanno gave us a preview of his new robot development called TBot destined
for schools. It has dual geared motor drive with rototion sensors on large
wheels, 5 line following sensors, zigbee, bluetooth, usb, speaker,
microphone, tri colour LED with a target price of $50 US. It interfaces to
the 12 blocks programming environment and is based on the Parallax
Propeller. The robot will recharge its batteries through the USB cable.
Holes in the top plate accept many extensions such as Meccano, Lego and Vex.
Further details on http://hannoware.com <http://honnoware.com/> as they
become available.

 Timothy took to the floor again and showed further developments on his
tethered under water robot (ROV) made from electric motors, brass
propellers, drain pipe directional tubes and polystyrene to achieve neutral
buoyancy. Timothy showed a video of an ROV conducting a set of tasks for a
competition in the US.

 Charles brought along a vacuum forming jig for making model Dalek parts and
had a number of different materials that he had vacuum formed.

 Kay showed us his walking legs now with an energetic gait and steerable
zimmer frame that walked rapidly across the car park.

 Thanks to all who came and especially those who brought things to show. Our
next meeting is planned for Wednesday 16th June. See http://kiwibots.org for
final date and directions.

Richard Jones
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