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December 2004 Minutes

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November 2004 Minutes

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October 2004 Minutes

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September 2004 Minutes

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August 2004 Minutes

Topics discussed included:

• Welcome of visitor
• NBC 5 Tech & Lifestyle event on September 11
• Need a trade show backdrop donated for NBC event
• Bill James was asked to demonstrate Beer Bot at NBC event
• Ron Palmer was asked to demonstrate robotic tricycle at NBC event
• RoboRama B on September 18
• Volunteers requested for RoboRama B
• Talent Contest in November
• Show and Tell

Presentation this month was on the Underwater Robot being developed by Eric Sumner and UTD students

Martin Meier

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July 2004 Minutes

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June 2004 Minutes

Topics discussed included:

• DPRG BBQ/picnic will be on July 10
• Cindy announced video tapes of the Table Top competition as well as the April and September RoboRamas
• Show and Tell
• Bill Cole will check on status of IRS registration
• Sumo course needs to be repainted using flat black paint
• Vicki was asked for a T-Shirt update
• Table Top Contest dates were discussed and someone will check the website archive to find past contest dates
• Need to buy more paper for use with contest courses
• AVR Studio
• AVR STK500, a $79 Atmel programmer board

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May 2004 Minutes

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April 2004 Minutes

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March 2004 Minutes

Topics discussed included:

• New paper is needed for contest course
• David Peterson recommend Wolfe Camera on Harry Hines as source for contest paper. He has obtained paper there before.
• Motion to get new paper passed
• meeting date/location changes were discussed
• July DPRG BBQ
• Eric Sumner talked about his underwater robot project
• Due to an accumulation at the warehouse, no more PC donations are requested
• Cindy announced availability of new RoboRama tapes
• Show and Tell

Martin Meier

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February 2004 Minutes

The weather delayed or stopped a few members from attending the Feb 14th DPRG meeting, but those that made it were treated to an informative presentation by David Hanson. David even had a little car trouble and was delayed arriving.

David was not able to bring one of the "heads" he is working on, but brought a presentation with several embedded videos showing the motion. The motion of the face is controlled by several RC servo motors. The most innovative part of creating the heads was the work done by David to create an elastomer that much more closely resembles skin. This allowed a relatively few servos to create a wide range of facial expressions. We learned about a term called the "uncanny valley" which is where humans are generally accepting of mechanical imitations until they get too close to real, then they make most people uncomfortable. The applications for machine interfaces using realistic facial expressions was discussed too. A very nice presentation.

I will send out a later email requesting some volunteer skills for the upcoming DPRG events.

John Drummond
DPRG President

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January 2004 Minutes

This month's meeting was attended by 42 people, including 7 guests.

The dates for this year's contests and the annual DPRG barbecue were discussed. The dates were listed below were approved without objection, but the final date of the Fire Fighter Contest still needs to be set:

March (date not set) - Firefighter
April 3 - RoboRama I
July 10 - BBQ
July 17 - Table Top I
Sept 18 - RoboRama II
Nov 20 - Table Top II & Talent Contest

The Treasurer, Martin Meier, reported that we have just over $2000 in the treasury, not counting any membership dues that would be collected that day.

An announcement was made that Kip Morevac would Chair the Rules Committee. Any issues regarding contest rules should be directed to Kip.

A proposal was made to form a Contest Committee. Traditionally, only a small handful of volunteers have done the majority of the work involved in producing our contests and this has often resulted in a shortage of help. The Contest Committee would recruit and coordinate volunteers prior to each contest to ensure that the various tasks needed to make our contests successful are fulfilled, without over burdening any one member. These tasks would include score keepers, judges, physical setup/tear down, and backup Master of Ceremonies. Anyone interested in this committee should contact Brian Merritt, DPRG Vice President.

An announcement was made that Bill Cole would be coordinating the Public Relations work for the DPRG. Any contact information you feel would be helpful to the DPRG should be emailed to Bill.

An announcement was made that we are looking for volunteers to teach workshops, to be held once a month at RBNO. The purpose of the workshops will be to provide real "hands-on" training on specific projects rather than just observing a demo or lecture.

Cyndi Rivers has tapes of the September 2003 RoboRama for sale at $12.99

The Articles of Incorporation have been filed with the state of Texas and the return paperwork is expected back any day now. We will file the Federal paperwork for tax-exempt status as soon as we get the paperwork back from the state.

Dale Wheat brought in a stack of catalogs and two small multimeters which B.G.Micro has donated to the club. He also had a box of small, geared motors which he sold after the meeting.

David Maxwell of Innovation First, Inc (www.InnovationFirst.com) gave a very educational presentation that started with some information about the FIRST contests, covered some background information about his company and concluded with a show-n-tell about some of the items his company produces for robotic enthusiast. (David also brought a large collection of robots and spare parts from kits produced by InnovationFirst that many DPRG members greatly enjoyed playing with after the meeting ended.)

Sanjay Dastoor gave a very entertaining visual presentation (despite a few technical problems) featuring pictures and video clips of various robotic projects that had been worked on at UC Berkley, in California, while he was studying there. One of the projects involved the Mar's Rover and another was a mechanical arm powered by artificial muscles which Sanjay himself worked on as part of his studies.

Bill Cole
DPRG Secretary