Meeting Notes from 2011

Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society on January 15, 2011 Club Business

Cathy Saxton

Events

Jan 29th MakerBot/RepRap 4:30 to 7PM

First Robotics Jan 15th Sammamish High School

Jeopardy! Human vs. Computer - Feb 14-16 www.ibmwatson.com

New Tacoma Robotics Club www.tacomarobotics.org

Technical Questions

Round-the-Room

Bryan showed off his RepRap Mendel

Tom – Robot on a pcBoard from TI - $150.00 - Built in bump sensors, lcd, wireless ports, usb, microsd, Ethernet, Solaris chip

Timothy – 5 volt @ 48 amps Ex Military power supplies for $30 at Liquidators in Kent - Willis Street

Mike Payson – NetBook free from Google (www.google.com/chromeos) Net based – basically a portable web browser – might still be available.

Ron Lake – Updating method for Roomba

Tom – Installed charging plugs in his Tesla to mate with public charging system – designed and printed it and it works!

Richard - Mostly Richard designs car amplifiers – just before leaving for Asia he blew up the Amplifier Test Center at work. He designed an 8000 watt load center for one 8-channel amp or eight 1-channel amps

Presentation

Lloyd Moore – CyberData Corporation

The Cypress PSOC – What it is and how to use it for robotics

Single chip containing a processor, traditional peripherals, CPLD/FPGA hardware, analog hardware, programmable analog hardware

Advantages are reduced part count, reduced cost, increased flexibility, and increased reliability

1 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society on January 15, 2011 PSoC1 – original – 8 bit mpu Power PSoC – added high current (1A range) FETS on board PSoc 3 - more analog blocks, 33 Mips PSoc 5

Features of the family o Program in C o Low cost development kits o Free development tools o Single chip solution for many designs o Easy migration from PSoC 3 to 5

o Architecture on board – PsoC 5 o Processor o Clock o FPGA – universal digital block o Analog components - A to D and D to A o Voltage regulator and booster

o Universal Digital Block o 2 PLD’s o 8 bit single cycle ALU o 2 accumulators o 2 data registers o 2 FIFo banks at 4 bytes

Uses o Counters o Timers o PWM o UART o Random number generator o Quadrature Encoder

o Programmable Analog Blocks o Each block is basically an Op Amp with programmable resistors and capacitors around it o Used for programmable gain amplifiers, mixers, sample and hold amplifiers

o Prebuilt Components o Large library – UARTs, timers, oscillators, etc.

o CapSense Module o Touch buttons, proximity detection, 64 inputs available

o LCD module o Very helpful for debugging, directed at character displays

o Boost Convertor o Input from 0.5V to 5.5V. Can run off a single solar cell. o Source up to 30 mA with internal diode, 50 mA with external diode. 2 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society on January 15, 2011

o Best Practices o Develop hardware layer first o Implement timing critical functions in hardware, complex functions in software o Use provided APIs and macros – allows for: . Component upgrade automatically . Easy conversion between PSoC3 and PSoC5 with minimal changes o Reserve and use “debug pins” to access internal signals o Keep digital and analog signals separate – processor die split, orient this with board layout o Use dedicated pins for internal op-amps o Watch for hardware race conditions – clocks are different! o Read and know the errata sheets o Reserve time for experimentation

Resources o www.cypress.com o www.psocdeveloper.com o www.cypress.com/training

Conclusion

Mingling

Pictures from the meeting...

3 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society on January 15, 2011

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This file is archived on Yahoo Groups under “SeattleRobotics” in the “Files” area.

Notes recorded & pictures taken by Jim Kindsvater & content edited by Steven Kaehler, SRS Secretary, [email protected] All comments from SRS members are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the Seattle Robotics Society. All content is provided as is, with no warranty stated or implied regarding the quality or accuracy of any content on or off this site. All trademarks, service marks, and copyrights are property of their respective owners. Copyright © 2011 SRS. All rights reserved.

6 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for February 19, 2011

Club Business

Steve Kaehler

Events

Bellingham AI & Robotics Society Competition today (sort of like Robothon) http://all-aces.org/bairs/

FIRST Regionals, March 17-19 at QUEST Events Center Two separate events, over 100 teams competing http://firstwa.org

Round the room

Bill Harrison – Line-following robot built on a very strict budget. Basic Stamp ECU. Quite a challenge to do a line-follower with only eight I/O pins

Bob - R/C Control Robot with Video Camera and head mounted display

Asked about how much power is available from a PC serial port – Answer: typically no more than 5 to 10 mA (depends on computer)

Tom – Wristwatch demo unit from TI: watch, temp sensor, accelerometer, data logger, radio communications all in one compact unit. Very programmable. Dongle attaches to computer and programs the platform. http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/landing/mcu/index.htm?DCMP=MSP430&HQS=To ols+OT+ez430

Tom & Cathy - Built a special stage clock driver for Issaquah little theatre. They wanted to control the clock with RS485. Features are common clock time, with the ability to jump an hour forward or back, or set a specific hour. Cathy used a stepper motor with a stepper drive board and an RS485 transceiver. Project was done with parts on hand in four days!

Terry - Magazines, Servo, Nuts & volts, Dollar tree “dancing flower”

Tyler – http://www.Enviroteach.com tiny commuter vehicle, electric powered.

Brian - Walker with legs made on a homemade 3D printer. JALduino controller (Just Another Language; http://justanotherlanguage.org/content/jaluino) Fully walkable. VHS tapedeck-based two-wheeled robot. Both robots programmed in PIC programming language.

Bill – tools to help others get into robotics. Creating a Wiki site for robotics builders. www.atlantisDIY.com or email [email protected]

1 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for February 19, 2011

David Marshall (RTC Staff) – Talked about the electronics programs available at the college. http://www.rtc.edu

Xandon - Plastic tubing which is activated by later. Lwire or Electroluminescent wire. Available from Spark Fun (http://www.sparkfun.com). Comes with an inverter to power it.

Feature Presentation

Mark Allen - Underwater Admiralty Science www.uasciences.org

Educational Programs – High School ROV Challenge Fisheries research – embedded transponders in fish, etc. Underwater projects to survey and recover ships and aircraft. Customers are collectors, museums and universities.

VideoRay = manufactures commercial ROV’s – BlueView costs ~$35,000 http://www.videoray.com

Closely aligned with BainBridge HighSchool ROV Challenge - High school challenge to build an ROV and recover objects in a pool.

What is an ROV? o Tethered, Underwater Vehicles o Free-Swimming or moved by cable o Remotely operated

Used for o Underwater inspection o Underwater Construction/Assembly o Bottom Recovery of objects from the sea Floor or buried in the sea floor

Science and Research Applications “Build You Own Underwater Robot” – a basic text on underwater robots http://www.powells.com/biblio/4-9780968161005-0

Conclusion

Mingling

Lunch

Afternoon workshop from 1-5PM

2 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for February 19, 2011

Pictures from the meeting...

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This file is archived on Yahoo Groups under “SeattleRobotics” in the “Files” area.

9 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for March 19, 2011

Club Business

Steve Kaehler opened the meeting which was attended by about 40 folks.

Events

TODAY! FIRST Regionals, March 17-19 at QUEST Events Center Two separate events, over 100 teams competing Webcast available at http://firstwa.org

Robogames are coming - http://www.robogames.net/ Fri-Sun, Apr 15-17, San Mateo Fairgrounds (near San Franscisco, CA)

Discovery Days (UW EOH) - April 22-23 (Fri 9AM-2PM), (Sat 10AM-3PM). http://www.engr.washington.edu/alumcomm/openhouse.html

Other Event Calendars

CYCOGS LLC Robotics Events Page: http://www.cycogs.biz/news/events.htm

Robotics Trends - Conferences: http://www.roboticstrends.com/conferences

National Robotics Week April 9-17: http://www.nationalroboticsweek.org/

Joanna Hall - My Modern Family Contest - http://www.mymodernfamily.net

Round the room

Lucas K. - Looking for other people with experience hacking Roombas. Found some Roombas at the Seattle (Dearborn) Goodwill. You never know.

Tom D. - Wants to fix wobble in driveshafts without remachining.

Christopher - OSU Student, showed a MicroMouse line-follower based on OSU (Tekbot) kit. - http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/education/ - http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/education/resources/hardware/tekbot/

Barry - Made flexible ribbon cable to connect camera to PCB but only gets a black screen. USB interface seems to be working but the sensor doesn't wake up. Could be inter-trace capacitance. Every other trace is grounded on ribbon cable. This might not be helpful.

Xandon - Demo'd a targeting laser using a motion-sensing webcam.

1 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for March 19, 2011

Paul - Demo'd an NXT "Legway" two-wheeled balancing robot that uses Hi Technic gyro sensors.

Steve - Showed a video of a telepresence robot called "Anybot" done by PC Magazine. Robot was featured in Feb 2011 Design News Magazine. http://www.anybot.com

Magazines that circulated: - http://www.DesignNews.com (Feb 2011) - http://www.ECNMag.com (Mar 2011) - http://www.ElectronicDesign.com (Feb 10, 2011, Mar 10, 2011) - http://www.InformationWeek.com (Feb 28, 2011, Mar 14, 2011)

Feature Presentation

Tom Sommerville – A self-powered haptic feedback device

- Handheld device - Uses a servo & rotary encoder - Operator rotates to generate input to a system - Device uses torque feedback to indicate the end of a list (gets harder) - Produces detents to indicate list items

UW Ubiquitous Computing Lab - http://ubicomplab.cs.washington.edu/wiki/Main_Page

Talked about "InGen" self-powered haptic feedback device & gave overview of UCL.

Conclusion

Mingling

Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for March 19, 2011

Pictures from the meeting...

3 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for March 19, 2011

4 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for March 19, 2011

5 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for March 19, 2011

6 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for March 19, 2011

This file is archived on Yahoo Groups under “SeattleRobotics” in the “Files” area.

Notes recorded by Steve Kaehler, photos by Alex & Joel Kaehler & content edited by Steven Kaehler, SRS Secretary, [email protected] All comments from SRS members are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the Seattle Robotics Society. All content is provided as is, with no warranty stated or implied regarding the quality or accuracy of any content on or off this site. All trademarks, service marks, and copyrights are property of their respective owners. Copyright © 2011 SRS. All rights reserved.

7 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for April 16, 2011 Welcome

65 people in attendance

Club Business

Steve Kaehler

Swap meet at every meeting. Bring stuff to move to someone else’s garage. Take anything home that does go with someone else

Consider presenting your project at a meeting sometime. Contact Steve at [email protected]

Events

National Robobitcs Week (started last Sat., ends tomorrow (Sun)) - http://www.nationalroboticsweek.org/

Robo-Games in San Fransisco - http://www.robogames.net/

Linux Festival Robot Exhibition 4/30 BAIRS (Bellingham at WWU) http://www.all-aces.org/bairs/ >Events

Discovery Days April 22-23 at UW (next Friday & Saturday) http://www.engr.washington.edu/alumcomm/openhouse.html

Robotics Trends – Quarterly Virtual (online) Events http://www.roboticstrends.com/conferences

Round the Room

Lucas K. – Selling Roomba for $60. Talked about hacking Discovery

Kenneth M. – Discovery Robot Details. 60 foot-pounds of torque per wheel http://www.users.uswest.net/~kmaxon/index.html

Jim K. - Rovio - http://www.wowwee.com/en/support/rovio

Dick – PSoC Demo Board with accelerometer – USB interface

Terry L. - magazines (Servo, Robot, Nuts&Volts, etc.) for free, HDMI cables available at Harbour Freight for $6.95 Monster cable with sames specs is $150

Bill H. - Inexpensive Line Following Robot

Michael P. – needed electrical help

Xandon – Interpreting GPS module data from Spark Fun and printing coordinates to LCD module. Teaching himself programming. Works indoors! 1 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for April 16, 2011

Jesse – An analog line follower (set up to jump voids in the line), a wired remote camera, and a helicopter.

Presentation

Lucas Keyes, Video Game Algorithms for use in Robotics. Gameplay Programmer, Griptonite Games

Characteristics of Video Games. Characters need to appear intelligent, need to react to the player and the environment, but may know the environment completely.

Robot Characteristics need to fulfill task, react to operators and the environment, but cannot know everything about the environment, but may learn as they go through sensors (touch, sonar, vision).

Finite State Machines – a very popular way to make a game intelligent. Can have many states,but only occupy one at a time.

Easy to code and debug, intuitive, flexible, adaptable to Object Oriented Programming

Example – light switch, 2 states, on/off, Robot example: Roomba. States, Move forward, Back up, Turn

Behavior Programming. A behavior is a state or set of states that represent a specific function. BP is built into the Lejos package for Lego NXT.

Pros: Cleaner code, transitions. Cons: Not as intuitive as an FSM. May be harder to control if transitions are complex.

Arbitrator. Takes a list of Behaviors and regulates what is active. There is a Hierarchy of Behaviors. Higher Behaviors are dominant.

A graph is a set of nodes and edges which represent an environment. Nodes define points, edges define allowable connections (or directions) between nodes.

Define a graph in a matrix. Nodes across top and up left. Cells define allowable connections. Fast lookup, but may have lots of empty space.

A Sparse Graph may use an adjacency list (1 connects to 2,3,5).

Graph Search Algorithms may define paths between nodes and find the BEST path between nodes. Can be based on cost of each path (energy or distance).

Conclusion

Mingling

Lunch

Afternoon Work Session (1-5 PM) 2 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for April 16, 2011

Pictures from the meeting...

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This file is archived on Yahoo Groups under “SeattleRobotics” in the “Files” area.

7 Seattle Robotics Society Meeting for May 21, 2011

Welcome & Introduction

65 people

Club Business

Steve Kaehler

Events

Swap meet after meeting in July out in the parking lot.

Tractor Pull Competition, Port Orchard Airport, June 4th, 5th & August 13th, 14th

Maker Faire in Poulsbo, WA, June 5th (Sunday)

Round the room

Tom Saxton, Tesla Tattler, Tesla Motor Club.com, small modem for keeping track of your car or whatever.

Daniel - Video Spy car, RC control with full video, 2 way audio, LCD monitor on control, “SpyTracler”, full ARM9 hackable processor on both control and in car. SD card in robot for saving video and stills, Target, Amazon for about $70. www.spytrakr.com.

Tom - Parrot AR drone, Iphone control, sold without a controller – iphone App makes it the control. Carries an extra 2 ounces only. Very stable flight. $300. Front mounted camera at 15 frames per second. Bottom mounted camera at 60 frames. Downward directed Ultra Sonic Sensor detects height. Small battery limits flight time to 12 to 15 minutes. StyroFoam frame is fragile. Standard wifi limits range to 50 to 100 meters. Programmable ARM processor. Source code protected. Running Linux and Busy Bots(?).

Xandon - Wild Thumper chassis, Odd Bot Robots website, Wild Thumper consists of only the six motors, Wheels/Tires, central frame and suspension. Differential Steering. He bought it for RoboMagellan Competition. Mast mounted compass module. No wheel encoders. 6 wheels make it hard to turn on a surface with any tractive grip. About $300 for the chassis.

(?), The Tomorrow Project, Full details at www.tomorrowproject.uw.edu

Seattle Robotics Society Meeting for May 21, 2011

Presentation

Advanced Technology Future of Surgical Robotics, Dr. Richard Satava, UW Prof. of Surgery

The future is here – this is the information age

CAD CAM in medicine, HOLOMER is Holographic medical electronic representation of a person.

HIFU is high intensity focused ultrasound. Immediately coagulates blood to seal wounds.

LSTAT – portable intensive care unit Nightingale UAV will pick up the LSTAT and transport to hospital.

Surgery performed by inserting instruments through a tube in the mouth avoids external wounds which are subject to infection.

Accuray – focused Radiology to destroy tumors without an incision.

Penelope – voice controlled robotic scrub nurse.

The objective is an operation room with no people other than the patient. Take the operating room to the patient.

We also have the capability to grow every organ in the body except the brain in the lab. In the future surgeons will simply remove and replace organs, not fix them.

Suspended animation is the future of anesthesia.

Human beings are the first (and only) species on the planet that will be able to design their successors.

http://depts.washington.edu/biointel

Conclusion

Mingling

Seattle Robotics Society Meeting for May 21, 2011

Pictures from the meeting...

Seattle Robotics Society Meeting for May 21, 2011

This file is archived on Yahoo Groups under “SeattleRobotics” in the “Files” area.

June Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for June 18, 2011

Welcome & Introduction

55 people

Club Business

Steve Kaehler

Swap Meet after July 16th’s meeting

Elektor Magazine highly recommended – free issues with purchases from Pololu http://www.elecktor.com

Workshop today after meeting (every even month; Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec)

Sadly, No Robothon this year. Look for it Summer 2012 http://www.robothon.org

Sandwich signup sheet passed around the room

Events

Mini-Maker Faire in Vancouver, BC next weekend $15 for one day $20 for 2 days http://vancouver.makerfaire.ca/

Round the room

Daniel, Brian - Download site - http://research.microsoft.com/en- us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/download.aspx - code for complete robot control using a kinect and a pc - $100 Does a great job with people tracking – good for other. Also speech recognition.

Bill from Langley, BC – “Marco” is based on Parallax Boe-Bot with Sharp IR Sensor, compass, wheel encoders, Propeller chip. and Polo – based on a robot from robotshop, sharp IR sensor mounted on swiveling system, track drive. www.mikronauts.com

Cathy S. - Time indicating module with leds, songs playing, two pcb’s, programmable with dip switch on rear for various functions & time intervals.

David Marshall - Kits from RTC classes. Light seeking robot bug. IR sender and receiver. + Robert www.rtc.edu Program includes introduction to all electronic components up to microprocessors and programming. Also troubleshooting including DVM’s, Oscilloscopes.

Ty – Portable power project box with universal interface cable (USB, iPod, iPhone, etc.)

1 June Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for June 18, 2011

Tom Sommerville. ?

Doug B. - Low end robotics for the annual “Georgetown Power Tool Race”. Dual steel “screw coil wheels” driven by AC drill motors. Didn’t make it to the end of the raceway, but got a trophy anyway. Shook itself apart during the meeting demo.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&biw=1043&bih=783&source=hp&q=georgetown+power+tool+races&aq=1 &aqi=g5&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=c924775ad1dac27b

Presentation

Peter Henry at UW & formely Intel Research Seattle (IRS is now closed)

RGB-D Mapping. Depth Cameras for 3D modeling of indoor environments.

Based on Microsoft Kinect-10 million units sold since introduction – a Guiness record

IR light source sends signal out to 10 meters distance, reflects to CMOS image sensor in Kinect. Works well with soft surfaces, unlike stereo video systems.

RGB+D means color video (red, green, blue) plus depth

RANSAC – RANdom SAmple Consensus finds features in view to align with distance readings to create 3D Map - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RANSAC

RANSAC details

Feature Detector using SIFT (1), SURF(2), and FAST(3) detection algorithms - all available in OpenCV. (http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/)

Alignment can also take place in the dark or where there are no visual features or color using ICP (Iterative Closest Point) – frame-to-frame comparison/optimization in a statistical manner which can derive accurate date from a series of inaccurate data.

Loop Closure – sequential measurements generate area. In a closed loop (building cooridor) it will correct itself and close the loop.

Loop Closure Detection runs RANSAC against previous frames. Filter options

o Use on a subset – Keyframes o Looke for similar estimated 3D pose o Place recognition o Reject detections changing pose by too much

Detection loop closure is performed best by the SBA (sparese bundle adjustment) process

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SBA requires features – won’t work where ICP has been used without complexity.

From all this data one can create a SURFEL (surface elements) map. 750 million points reduce to 9 million surfaces.

Animations & videos: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/peter/slides/srs-2011/ http://www.cs.washington.edu/ai/Mobile_Robotics/projects/rgbd-3d-mapping/ http://ils.intel-research.net/projects/rgbd http://www.xbox.com/en-US/kinect

Conclusion

Mingling Sandwiches were ordered, then picked up.

Lunch

Workshop Until about 5PM

Pictures from the meeting...

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This file is archived on Yahoo Groups under “SeattleRobotics” in the “Files” area. Notes recorded & pictures taken by Jim Kindsvater & content edited by Steven Kaehler, SRS Secretary, [email protected] All comments from SRS members are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the Seattle Robotics Society. All content is provided as is, with no warranty stated or implied regarding the quality or accuracy of any content on or off this site. All trademarks, service marks, and copyrights are property of their respective owners. Copyright © 2011 SRS. All rights reserved.

7 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for July 16, 2011 ~50 people

Club Business

Steve Kaehler Swap Meet after today’s meeting

Announcements & Events

Space Elevator Conference on August 13-14 at Microsoft Conference Center, Redmond, WA http://spaceelevatorconference.org

No Robothon this year – look for it Summer 2012 – http://www.robothon.org

Round the room

Jim – Linux – ROS - using Intel Atom from www.mini-box.com - looking for help on hard drive replacements.

Bob – Solar Powered Outdoor lighting – diffused and spotlight versions at $7 from IKEA (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/)

Mark – Summer version of Make Magazine is out. (http://makezine.com/)

Dick – Accelerometer Data Logger based on PSoC, USB flash drive for data logging, RS232 comm., battery back-up, LCD output, starting data logger stores accel. Output on USB drive in various formats, WIXEL - http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1336. http://www.ftdichip.com/

Tom & Cathy – iPhone app to monitor TESLA Roadster status & mode, reads car location & displays on Google Maps, checks battery condition, charging mode, Car locked/parked? Also showed a custom board designed by Cathy to warn of imminent charging disconnect and shuts off TESLA charging system – draws power from charging side at 220 VAC, stores in super-cap on board during shutdown.

Steve -Video of weird gears. http://www.lisaboyer.com

Presentation

Lloyd Moore – Using PSoC Creator (continuation of last winter’s intro to the PsoC)

The project is to reprogram the standard accelerometer demo program using PSoC Creator.

The PSoC contains a set of pre-built hardware and software components which allow the creation and inclusion of discrete components on the chip – thus eliminating external components. Cost for a PSoC varies from $.30 each for a PSoC1 in 10,000 quantity to $25 each for PSoC5 in 1 quantity.

Components available: Digital I/O, UARTs, SPI, I2C, CAN, logic gates (and, or, etc) ADC, Amplifiers, Analog MUX, Counters, PWM, shift registers, RTC, voltage reference, graphic LCD

1 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for July 16, 2011 controllers, Capacitance Sensor. More available online. Can build your own. Each component has a data sheet like regular hardware.

Program from the C level API always for full and reliable control and operation.

Focusing on the AD converter. Designed to raise the output to a high level (mVolts, volts) which is platform independent. Can define accuracy (up to 32 bits), on chip gain for inputs, sampling rate, reference voltage.

Bubble Level Project

Accelerometer Configuration – X,Y,Z sensors, low pass filter.

Project Steps

1. Create a project 2. Choose and configure hardware components 3. Define configuration and pin assignments 4. Build 5. Write ‘C’ code 6. Build 7. Program Code 8. Test

PSOC Creator is a Windows program

Steps.

1. Create a project. File, new project, name, location 2. Choose device (PSoC specific) OK. Shows workspace, schematic. 3. Define an input pin and configure as analog. Select AD convertor style and configuration (sampling mode, resolution, Input range. Check resources used (limiting factor overall) 4. Add inputs and outputs, devices, and wire in schematic. 5. Build and check code. Check for “conversion done”. 6. Test

Resources

www.cypress.com www.psocdevelop.com/forums www.cypress.com/training www.cyberdata-robotics.com

Contact Info: [email protected]

Pictures from the meeting...

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4 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for August 20, 2011

Introduction & Welcome

42 people

Club Business

Steve Kaehler

Events

DorkBot Seattle - “ThingOut” – Today - http://dorkbotsea.org/

Microsoft .Net Gadgeteer applied to SRS Workshop Robot. Demo after Oct mtg, presentation during April 2012 mtg. http://www.netmf.com/gadgeteer/

Round-the-Room

Steve K - Microsoft.NET Gadgeteer running on SRS W.S Robot. Demo coming after October meeting; formal presentation at next April’s meeting. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/gadgeteer/ http://rdmag.com/News/Feeds/2011/08/information-tech-net-gadgeteer-launch-pad-for-devices/

Tom – Parrot Quadricopter, downward looking camera for vision and stabilization, forward looking camera, weight about 500 grams, runs about 15 minutes with 1Ah battery. Turn off by unplugging the battery, controlled by I-Phone at up to about 50 meter range. Runs Linux, serial terminal running wireless, comes in Ad-Hoc mode for I devices. About $300. Other models with more battery at $500. The Parrot is extremely stable in flight. Indoor and Outdoor mode – slightly slower in indoor mode. Tom’s team added a daughter board with a Laird radio link for 3 to 5 Km range. http://www.google.com/search?q=parrot+quadricopter

Steve – Festo Actuators - Video of flying robot bird (TED talks) – see http://www.TED.com/talks

Another interesting video site is www.engineeringTV.com – lots of cool technology demonstrations.

Geo-Cosmos – Amazing 6-meter spherical computer display (globe) in the National Museum of Emerging Science & Innovation in Tokyo, Japan. Contains over 10,000 coordinated OLED displays. Videos are incredible, especially the ones showing how it was made! http://www.google.com/search?q=geo+cosmos

Presentation

Paul Verhage – Boise Schools in Boise, ID

1 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for August 20, 2011

STEM technology – Science Technology Engineering Mathematics

Near Space and Robotics

Part 1 – Near Space Showed video taken from a helium balloon at up to 113,000 feet. The balloon bursts, camera/payload parachutes down - see http://nearsys.com Camera was recovered 7 miles from the launch site. $200 for balloon and helium. Tracked using amateur radio transceiver (low-cost transmitter carried in payload).

Part 2 - CheapBots

Great way to teach STEM

Problem with Robotics is $$$

How to make robots cheaper

PICAXE Microcontroller - http://www.picaxe.com/ Toshiba TA8080K H-Bridge Plastic jar lids Syntra plastic body Plastic pull knob caster

100% programmable Multiple sensors Run motors and sensors simultaneously

PICAXE Programmer is free Uses BASIC Software supports flow charts Software supports simulation

Wire Snare robot arm XBee radio

CheapBots  Flexible  Capable  Cheap

Paul’s Dissertation - design a distributable near space data collection package – balloon SAT kit Paul is looking for schools interested in a free balloon-SAT kit.

Paul’s Blog is nearys.blogspot.com

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Email is [email protected] http://www.nearsys.com/catalog is online source for Paul’s lots 4 different kits 2 wheel drive, caster, gripper arm Wheel drive articulated chassis Air cushion fan driven robot.

Conclusion

Mingling

Lunch

Afternoon work session

Meeting pictures mostly taken by Jim Kinsvater...

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7 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for September 17, 2011

Welcome

Club Business

Steve Kaehler 41 people in attendance

Events

Arrow, Freescal, LT Data Conversion Techniques Seminar on Data Conversion Techniques – http://www.arrownac.com – Free Kit

Heathkit back in the “kit business”! Or so their website says. They claim to be gearing up to sell kits like in the olden days. If they’re documentation is anything like it was back then, they’ll blow everyone else doing kits out of the water! http://www.HeathKit.com

NWBrickCON LEGO show at Seattle Center Sat 10/1 9AM-4PM, Sun 10/2 10AM to 3PM. Tickets: $9/person, $30 for family of 4. This is an annual event with displays rivaling what you’d see at LEGOLand. Buy tickets at http://www.BrickCON.org

Industrial Automation & Robotic Systems Online Conference & Trade Show – 9/28/11 http://view.email.globalspec.com/?j=fe5a157270620d7a7711&m=fef01d73726d07&ls=fdef1772746005797d1c787c&l =fe91167771640c7970&s=fe2013707262007e711c78&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe3015747c67047d7d1476&r=0

Round the room

Steve – wants to mask front row of overhead lights – any ideas? Plan is to clip 2’x4’ cardboard sheets over three lights by projector screen & see what happens.

Tom – Willow Garage sells their turtle bot - based on IRobot Create. Includes Kinect, netbook, (3 axis) Arm, Irobot Command Module $1400.

Dan -- Rhoomba available

Joe -- Demonstrated a Graphical Interface for Remote Control program plus Arduino Interface Allows drawing paths for a robot to follow and then communicating it to a robot

Doug – Electronic Gold Mine offered 2000 LEDs for $20. Doug is building a cube of LED’s . 6 x 6 x 6 or so. Discussed the mechanics of building the cube. Consists of layers of drilled plastic mounting the leds. 1/32 brass rods connect the layers vertically and carry the led signals. 11 leds high x 12 deep x 15 wide. Runs using Charlie Plexing.

Cathy – Game Timer – LED display, sound generator. Come to October meeting to learn about the technical innards of this device.

1 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for September 17, 2011

Xandon -- Discussed connecting with a GPS module (serial interface). Decided to convert it to I2C for robot communication. Controller is an Arduino. Feature Presentation

Jesse Gordon – What Can YOU do with old Printer Parts?

Demonstrated several gadgets using “available” technology (parts mostly from printers & floppy disk drives). He creatively uses whatever parts he has on hand to create the thing he needs.

1. small robot with dc motors 2. small robot with stepper motors 3. home built motor 4. night vision goggles 5. The better mouse trap. Battery powered solenoid release. Very sensitive trigger switch pulls the solenoid which drops the cage. 6. Line following robot (follows the right side of the black line).. Two angled drive motors. Index sensor off a floppy drive. 7. Home brew pick and place machine for smt parts. Includes video camera to recognize part alignment and correct. Controlled by a laptop. 8. Mounted a B&W line of sensors on a track which cycles back and forth and scans the back of a camera to make a simple digital camera. A Microchip PIC processors converts the signals to a format readable on a parallel port. 9. Remote controlled robot with video camera. Hand held control with lcd screen. 10. Video microscope. Video camera mounted on a column. Showed closed up pictures of a honey bee wing. Powered stage to move picture. Bell & Howell movie projector lens projects directly into the video camera without other lenses. About 700x amplification. White LED light source. Controls mounted in an Apple floppy drive case on the back of the column.

Conclusion

After-meeting robot work session next month

Mingling

Pictures from the meeting...

2 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for September 17, 2011

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Pictures from the Presentation...

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8 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for October 15, 2011

Welcome

Club Business

Steve Kaehler - 60 people in attendance

Events

StudentRND.org – meeting today to play with RepRap gear http://studentrnd.org/

National Plug-In Day – Mercer Island, later at Luther Burbank Park http://www.pluginAmerica.org

Pat O’Dowd – Xbot team update - http://www.teamxbot.org/

Arrow, Freescal, LT Data Conversion Techniques Seminar on Data Conversion Techniques – http://www.arrownac.com – Free Kit

Christen Boyd – Mini-maker Faire coming locally very soon. Plans are firming up. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=maker%20faire%20seattle&source=web&cd= 3&sqi=2&ved=0CCkQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpag es%2FSeattle-Mini-Maker- Faire%2F234330433251940&ei=66XBTqf_BOLfiAKj0Yz_Ag&usg=AFQjCNG eKidiI__Zjj6-O3QTXyaU7-x1qw

Round the room

Steve – Cardboard mask over center room ceiling light works pretty well.

Gene – Showed a 200X digital microscope (magnified “pencil” video camera). USB “webcam” type device. Very cheap.

Bill H. – Roslyn Rollers. Showed us various robots including a like follower & a maze robot that uses the “left-hand-rule”. Also showed “gumdrop” LED lights.

Jim – Needs parts for a Weller electronic soldering station

Mike – Showed a STM32F4-Discovery board he got for $16. Sometimes that can be had for free (sample). http://www.st.com/internet/evalboard/product/252419.jsp

He also updated us on his latest RepRap frame design that seems to be simpler, stiffer, & more precise that previous designs. He hopes to have it running in the next couple months. See pictures below & http://reprap.org

1 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for October 15, 2011

Xandon – Showed us a “BOB” stroller converted to a motorized remote control robot. Autonomous mode isn’t far off.

Steven Cole – Teaches network technology at RTC & wants to start a club at the college. Contact him at [email protected]

Feature Presentation

Cathy – Discussed the technical details of her Game Timer – LED display, sound generator. It was a great tutorial on designing & building this cool project. See the SRS home page or Presentations page for PPT. She used EAGLE PCB design software (http://www.cadsoftusa.com). Tutorial on this SW after lunch today.

Conclusion

After-meeting robot work session, EAGLE PCD SW tutorial, .& NET Gadgeteer demo.

Mingling

Pictures from the meeting...

2 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for October 15, 2011

Pictures from the Presentation (& earlier showings of Cathy’s Timer)...

Pictures from Round-the-Room...

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6 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for October 15, 2011

This file is archived on Yahoo Groups under “SeattleRobotics” in the “Files” area. Notes recorded & content edited by Steven Kaehler, SRS Secretary, [email protected] Pictures taken by Steve Kaehler & Mike Partain.

All comments from SRS members are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the Seattle Robotics Society. All content is provided as is, with no warranty stated or implied regarding the quality or accuracy of any content on or off this site. All trademarks, service marks, and copyrights are property of their respective owners. Copyright © 2011 SRS. All rights reserved.

7 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for November 19, 2011

Welcome

41 people in attendance.

Club Business

Steve Kaehler – Check SRS website for weather-induced closure of RTC. Also check the SeattleRobotics group on YG Friday and/or Saturday if something nasty blows in.

Announcements & Events

FIRST LEGO League –Aviation High School 12/3/11, 9AM-4PM

FIRST Regionals – check FIRST Website – check http://firstwa.org

Black Friday sale –http://www.pololu.com/blackfriday2011 - 11/24, 11/26

Richard Greenway – Will present at our Feb 2012 meeting on SMT soldering techniques, offering SMT kit for $40 (to practice on) if 10 folks sign up.

ROBOTHON 2012 – 6/2, 6/3? Centerhouse has been reserved but Pete Miles is retiring as Robothon Organizer/Leader, & is looking for a replacement. Get hold of the Robothon Committee if you can help. http://www.robothon.org

Round the room

Jim - PML - alternatives? Parallax Laser Range Finder #28044. $130. 2 articles in SERVO detailing a low-cost laser Range Finder. http://www.parallax.com/tabid/768/txtSearch/28044/List/0/SortField/4/Default.aspx

Tyler - Showed his Urban cycle. Trying to respond to Homeland Security call for proposals for an Search-and-Rescue robot.

Bob

Jeff - Microsoft Robotics Studio Service on the web. Looking for comments.

Nathan - Passed around a PSoC3 Development kit. http://www.cypress.com/?id=2232

Jim - His refrigerator is hooked up to twitter. Search Jim’s refrigerator. Using an Arduino board with a twitter bootloader, I2C, and an Ethernet shield that tells the world door open/close, temperature in refer and freezer, and a real time clock. Arduino sends a tweet to Google which publishes it on Twitter using a Google Ap. Using temp sensors and other parts from SparkFun.

Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for November 19, 2011

Cathy - Her home zoned-heating control system has multiple electronic satellite thermostats that have been dying. Replacements are $200 each & her home has nine zones! Units seem overly complicated for what they do so she wants to design & build her own. She has decided to design a new one.

Presentation

Pete Miles - Waterjet Cutting Technology

Can cut anything with a water jet at 150,000 psi! Inconel, 4 inch thick steel, Titanium, holes down to 0.010 inches in diameter.

Can also do controlled depth milling. Took 138 pounds out of a mirror that went up on the Space Shuttle.

Equipment detail - Systems run at up to 60,000 psi. Nozzle “jewel” made of diamond and Sapphire. Water velocity thru jewel: 3000 feet/sec. Add garnet abrasive at up to 2 lb/min. Other materials used are walnut shells, aluminum oxide, tungsten carbide, etc. increases cutting ability & speed dramatically.

Cutting speeds of up to 20 inches/minute. Thickness up to 6 feet. Up to ¼ inch thick materials, lasers are much faster and more economical. Above ½ inch thick material, waterjet is superior.

Accuracy typically 0.005 inches. No heat added to parts. No heavy clamping needed. Pumps typically 15 to 100 hp.

Variable nozzle angles allow cutting from vertical to horizontal. The shape of the jet can be altered by changing pressure to actually cut curves in hard materials (e.g. turbine blades).

Traditionally the X–Y axis is driven by ball screws which limits size of table. Omax has developed a traction drive to beat this limitation.

Controls are mostly PC-based plus proprietary 9-axis controller board. Some older systems use traditional PLC’s like Fanuc, Allan Bradley.

Information imported from CAD in DXF format.

Conclusion

Mingling

Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for November 19, 2011

Photos from the meeting...

Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for November 19, 2011

This file is archived on Yahoo Groups under “SeattleRobotics” in the “Files” area.

Welcome Steve Kaehler 65 people in attendance

Club Business

Robothon Committee meeting after regular meeting. Anyone interested is invited www.Robothon.org

Events

Round the room

Tom Carroll – Turtle Bot from Willow Garage, Netbook running ROS, parallax Propeller board controlling Robot, Wheel Encoders, multiple ultrasonic sensors, Kinect Sensor, High Quality Chassis – send photos to [email protected]

Cathy Saxton – Silhouette Cameo Cutting Plotter – cuts stencils easily and accurately from Mylar www.idleloop.com/robotics/cutter/#stencil

Tom Saxton – Cable that plugs into iPphone or iPpad with a serial (DB9) (RS232 at 56,900) connector on the other end.

Carol – Balancing Robot with HiTechnic Gyro chip, sonar sensor

Xandon – Self-Driven Dual Carriage – Chain Drive – PC Brain – Sonar sensors to avoid obstacles

Mike – Working RepRap! MendalMax – Dramatically improved software (Slic’r) with new printing head gives accurate prints given accurate supply material diameter. The greatest difficulty is starting and stopping the plastic. Amazon selling LED ring lights for $12 www.mendalmax.com

Richard – details on the design of SMT class board being built in February. See details on www.fenchurch.org. Get on Monday night chat to suggest additions or modifications.

Presentation

Eric Johanson – 3ric Johanson – Intellectual Ventures www.IntellectualVentures.com

Defcon Sentry Gun – Airsoft gun looking for targets High Altitude Balloon Launch – pictures from Space Hackerbot Space Quarter Shrinker – Charge a bunch of big capacitors and discharge them into coil around a quarter in about 35 milliseconds gives about 25% shrinkage.

1 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for December 17, 2011

Vend-o-rand – a vending machine to dispense very, very (high dispersion) random numbers Laser Projector – vibrant pictures on a wall or whatever Paypass - wave your wallet or purse to charge an item (wireless transfer of credit card information) DrawBot – XY pen drawings Seattle Wireless – replace local telephone with a WiFi net. Hackerbot – roams around and steals credit card information CCC – hacking conference that happens in Germany – everyone at the conference gets a public IP – studied dynamics of interaction of people coming together to work on stuff

Intellectual Ventures Lab

Allows Eric to work on very early stage product ventures. Has a lot of cool CNC tools. Doing a lot of things very quickly. Have a machining lab, an electronics lab, a laser lab, a supercomputer modeling really tough problems (climate change, Africa, Weather), culinary lab, an EDM center

The Point is using Technology tools to drive innovation.

Eric is presently working on ending malaria. Malaria is a serious real-world problem in third-world countries. The malaria problem can be solved if the chain can be broken somewhere in the cycle. Not by using DEET. Using lasers to create an invisible barrier (wall) (100’ long by 20’ high by 1’ wide) around a structure to exclude (or kill) mosquitoes. Set up 4 perimeter poles. Each pole has a camera to recognize things (insects) crossing the barrier. Mosquitoes are recognizable by their flapping wings. They then shoot the wings off these bugs with blue diode lasers. 20 milli-joules of energy does it. Won’t shoot if a people are around. Won’t shoot beneficial insects, just the pests. Safety is paramount.

Other projects: Reprocess spent Plutonium. Steer and focus radio signals by altering the antenna electronically. (See pictures from website below)

Conclusion

Mingling

Pictures from the meeting...

2 Monthly Meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society for December 17, 2011

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