• Come see robotics competitions like Roborodentia- an annual autonomous robotics competition at Cal Poly held during Cal Poly Open House in April. Last year’s competition drew over 1000+ spectators and approximately 12 robot entries and teams. This year’s competition is a head-to-head double elimination tournament where the object of the competition is to stack cans the fastest.

• The Robotics Club will also be hosting a club booth where students can work on a scribbler demo or drive a robo-recycle-bot with a live feed on the screen! The intended layout is below:

See you there! Mott Gym, Saturday (4/20) from 10am-3pm!

The BeagleBoard-xM

If you have a project that could really use this board well, please talk to the Robotics Club President. To learn more about the board and its capabilities, visit http://beagleboard.org/hardware-xm.

1. General Meeting Recap + Slideshow
2. Saturday Build Meeting (1/19)
3. ‘Monday’ Meeting Cancelled (1/22), Seminar Moved (1/29)

General Meeting Recap + Slideshow

The First General Meeting of the Winter 2013 quarter was this last Tuesday (1/15). We re-capped the big accomplishments for each group, ate pizza, and watched cool videos. It is not too late to get involved in the Robotics Club! Below is a short recap of what slides are in the Slideshow (including contact information and tentative meeting times if you would still like to get involved on a project):

• A cool Hexapod flight video from David Hoyt: Summer Breeze
• Autonomous Aquarium Glass Cleaner (project started last quarter with a senior doing senior project)
• Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition
• Lego Robotics Mentoring
• Robotics Mobile Platform
• Small Wild Autonomous Robotics for Mayhem
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (with more videos)
  • Video 1, Video 2
• Underwater Remote Operated Vehicle
• Club Store items available
• E-Week wants… something. We need a team to figure out what that should be.
• RoboRodentia

The full slideshow has pictures and videos and such. Download a PDF of the slideshow here: 2013-01-15_General1_Final.

Also, if none of the above interests you, I should add that there is still an opportunity for the Display Case Project or the Robo-Suit Project.

Saturday Build Meeting (1/19)

This Saturday is the first build meeting of the quarter. Stop by to say hello, hang out with the officers, work on a project, learn about Robotics, eat lunch (if you’re a paid member), etc. See you in the Robotics Club Room anytime from 10am-2pm. Frisbee’s, Football’s, Soccer balls are always welcome during lunch!

‘Monday’ Meeting Cancelled (1/22), Seminar Moved (1/29)

Next Tuesday is actually going to be a Monday Schedule. Therefore, we will not have a Seminar Meeting that day. However, the following Tuesday (1/29) we will have a Seminar on RoboRodentia rules and competition. See you then!

REMEMBER: The Robotics Club is only as cool as its members. If you don’t show up and get involved, then we won’t be as cool as we could be (but we’ll still be somewhat cool, don’t you worry). I hope to see you all throughout this Winter 2013 quarter!

They have been working on a platform for a couple years now. Jonathan is coming to tell us more about Synbotics, and then to propose a entry into the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), potentially using their platform.

Latest Platform from Synbotics, GRP2400x (image from: www.synbotics.com)

If you are interested and are a member of the Robotics Club (or soon will be), please show up to hear about this opportunity!

Date: 10/2/2012
Time: 11:10 am – 12 pm
Location: 10-231 (agriculture, room 231)

See you there!

I hope you had a great summer and first week of classes. Below is some information regarding our first general meeting of the year.

Our first general meeting will take place in Building 197 (aka “Bonderson Building”), room 104. This is the large room right next to our club room (Google Map: http://goo.gl/maps/By4cD) on Tuesday, September 25, 11:10AM – Noon. There will be free pizza as with all Robotics Club meetings.

The agenda for this meeting (after/while eating pizza of course) is to first briefly introduce the club and the officers and give an overview of each of the current club projects (such as UROV, UAV, RMP, etc.) and events (such as BotShop). After this, there will be free time to visit one or more of the booths which will be setup around the room for each project and event. Either the project leader or a representative will be at the booth showing off the project/event, answering any questions you might have, and taking contact information of those interested (non-committal; info only).

We will also be collecting membership dues which are the same as last year; $30 covers an entire year of free pizza at all the meetings and a free club T-shirt. Wala! Member-fied!

This first general meeting is a great way to learn more about the club and our projects/events and learn how to get involved with the Robotics Club. We look forward to seeing you all there.

I just changed the time, so if 1pm conflicted for you, give it another shot. There are now two options.

Our Industry Relations Officer, Tyson Messori, works at SBIR and has set us up with a tour of their facilities. You can learn more about SBIR before signing up for the tour, if you like, but there are only 15 spots available! However, please only sign up for the tour if you know for a fact you can go.

We will be leaving at no earlier than 2pm and returning at around 7pm or slightly later. So if you want to go, reserve a spot so we can figure out carpooling after that!

President: Troy Weber
Vice President: Connor Citron
Treasurer: Corinne Warnock
Secretary: Stephanie Krapil
Webmaster: Michael Roberts
Special Events Co: Brian Gomberg
Publicity Director: Eliana Stefani
Industry Relations: Cordell Hollingsworth
Outreach Co: Paul Sullivan

The new officers will be training under the current officers for the remainder of the quarter, and will officially be full time officers come Summer, or more appropriately, Fall quarter.

In a moment, I’ll provide a link at which you can review the position descriptions, but first I want you to understand why you should read the descriptions at all, whether you are interested in running or not.

If you are interested in running, it is obviously beneficial to know what you could be running for. However, if you are not interested in running, I hope you would still be interested in voting, and we would need your input to have a fair vote and decide whose abilities and claims are the most sound fit for the job.

Granted, no officer is going to be able to perfectly achieve these goals, and there will inevitably be some overlap in responsibilities, but here is a good set of guidelines to help you determine if there is a position for which you would like to run: Officer Descriptions Slideshow (or Officer Descriptions PDF).

After reading the descriptions, if you are interested in running for a position, you must fill out the nomination form for yourself, or have someone else fill it out for you. Once you are nominated for one position, you may run for others at the elections.

The elections will be August 24, 2012 @ 11:10am-12pm in Room 10-231.

Below I’d like to congratulate our winning T-Shirt Designs:

• First Place: Colin Smith
• Second Place: Sheen Kao
• Third Place: Mason Hayes

Thank you for your entries! To those who voted, thank you for your votes! We are currently working on tweaking the colors of the winning design, getting permission to print Cal Poly’s name, and getting the T-Shirts printed. For those of you who have gone without a shirt this whole time, we appreciate your patience, and expect the T-Shirts to be complete in the Spring Quarter.

Also, this weekend is our quarterly clean-up day! Please show up to contribute to the club’s cleanliness, eat burgers, and toss some Frisbee!

Since the bulk of the work was done last quarter, this quarter should be an easy clean-up/organization, leaving more time for burgers and Frisbee. Thanks to those who contributed last quarter, and who will contribute tomorrow. As a side note, we unfortunately cannot promise that the room will be available for project work, but the more people that show up, the faster we’ll get organized, and the ability to resume robotics work will increase.

See you tomorrow!