PAReX Meeting Notes

Dec 4^th 1998

Discussions were had about the topics of:

Possible new meeting sites, including; DeVry, ASU, Intel, The Arizona Science Center, and Bob’s Garage. Site considerations were electrical outlets, room to maneuver robots for show and competition, Public exposure, Fairness to those coming up from Tucson, and availability.

Name for the Group: several Ideas were discussed and PAReX (Phoenix Area Robot eXperimenters) Was Agreed upon by unanimous vote by all present.

Competitions were discussed, and a monthly competition was agreed upon. The first competition will be a simple obstacle avoidance course. the following parameters were decided at the meeting, the course will be 2 ½’ X 8’ with dividing walls in the main area of the course. the walls will be flat white , and 6" tall. The floor will be made of perfboard and be flat black in color. (Yes, I realize Black isn’t really a color!) There will be three classes of robots to compete in the maze competition. (1) Lego Robots; which are to be creations utilizing lego mindstorms for the robot. (2) Lego Hybrid; which range from lego chassis with aftermarket controllers to any other robot with a Lego brick attached to it. (3) The Open class which is just that Open with the size restriction that it must completely fit on a standard 8 ½ X 11" sheet of paper. The competition will be for the shortest time with deductions for any collisions incurred.

Possible sponsorship possibilities for the group, ranging from requesting Assistance from Primenet (Frontier Globalcenter) for Web Sponsorship to requesting possible partial sponsorship from Netmedia Inc. the makers of the BasicX Microcontroller.

Other Notes from the meeting,

Thanks to all for bringing Robots and Projects, that’s the kind of participation that we need to help foster the growth of new ideas and to attract newcomers to the hobby.

I am horrible with names so please give me some time to get it all straight.

Next time we really do have to come up with a meeting agenda, That way we can get the business at hand delt with and go on to showing off the latest creations and the competitions.

Also I would suggest that we have a technical "Article" for each meeting, It doesn’t have to be an original doctorial thesis but more of a practical robotics how to. I would suggest things suce as practical robotics circuit how to’s, programming tips and hints, how to interface uControllers to pc’s for programming, and I personally would like to learn more about that BasicX chip.

The Pictures are hopefully going in for processing tomorrow, But please realize I have a full plate this week between work and I have been selected for Jury duty as well.