Agenda for Feb. 14th, 2010 meeting

1:00 PM Call to order – Club business

Treasurer’s report
Reminder to pay club dues for 2010
Chibots domain name – report
Bill’s offer for an alternative gathering place for Chibots
Call for presentations
Call for people volunteering for the positions of:

• Presentation Chairman
• Public Relations Chairman
• Membership Chairman
   

Events:

• IIT Engineer’s Week, Sat. Feb. 20, 2010 at Wheaton Campus
• CIRC Bot Brawl competition, Sat. Mar. 6, 2010 at Lakewood Museum, Peoria

1:30 PM Presentation: Robot Vision Toolkit, by Eric Gregori

Get ready everyone! Eric will be presenting the Robot Vision Toolkit. These are a set of modules that the robot builder can use to implement a vision system for the robot. How good is this vision? What shapes and elements can it see? What applications does it have? How hard or easy is it to implement such a solution on my robot? To find out, come to this exciting event.

More than a presentation, Eric wants it to be a hands on workshop. He recommends that we bring our laptops so that we can install and test drive the Toolkit. Do you have a Web cam? Install that on the laptop for more hand on exercises. He also recommends that we install the Toolkit before the presentation so that time can be spent on stuff that will be more fun than installing software.

Eric will also show people how to use a USB joystick, so if you have one, bring that too. He will be bringing one or more robots so that we can get a first hand look on how to use the Toolkit. One of these robots is the Lynxmotion BRAT which he will be giving out as a door prize! If you want to know how a robot can “see” and how to use the prebuilt routines of the Toolkit, don’t miss this event! And if luck is with you, maybe take home a BRAT!

Heads up! Only paid members are eligible for door prizes. Membership is $20 USD per family per year and includes registration fees for the Chibotica competitions.

Download the Robot Vision Toolkit here:
http://www.robotsee.com/RobotVisionToolkit.zip

The LynxMotion BRAT robot (door prize may be different than the model described here):
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Product.aspx?productID=532&CategoryID

3:00 PM (or upon completion of the presentation) Show, Tell and Ask

Tony is bringing his simple line following/line maze course. He encourages everyone to bring their line following and maze solving robots.

Hey! Who else is bringing something? I can include it in this agenda up until 48 hours of the meeting. Describe whatever you are bringing in the comments section below or post on the Yahoo List or Trossen Forum. Let’s get people interested in what we have to show!

4:00 PM Adjournment

We meet at the Schaumburg Public Library, second floor, last meeting room, next to the restroom facilities.