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kkeerroo
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QRSC robot workshops

I got a call this afternoon from someone who is setting up a technology center accross from the Queensland library. He has seen us at the Ideas Festival and asked if it would be possible for us to run public workshops on robot building as part of the center. These will be starting in Feburary so we don't have much time.
He also said he would email me but I have not received it yet.
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Post Fri Jan 22, 2010 9:19 pm 
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marto
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Hey what sort of robot stuff are they wanting? Like highschool, primary school? and do they want combat style stuff or do they want just basic robotics?

I have been looking at doing a basic robot kit to sorta supplement the ENB244 subject which is introduction to microcontrollers. But the same sort of thing could readily be applied to a high school group with a pre-programmed micro. I did a two day workshop at griffith in grade 10 in which we soldered up a complete robot that could do a heap of things with a basic book on how it worked.

There is a lot more questions and specifics which need to be worked out but I am pretty interested so let me know.

Steve
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Steven Martin
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Post Fri Jan 22, 2010 11:47 pm 
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kkeerroo
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I found my email password for the qldroboticsports@gmail.com account. Here is a copy and paste of the email:

Hi guys



I just spoke to Andrew Kerrison about getting Robowars involved with The Edge.



You may have heard about The Edge – we are a new digital culture centre that will be opening adjacent to the State Library on 26 February 2010. Our actual website will be launched in February - our interim site is a bit daggy but will give you more of an idea of what will be happening at The Edge: http://www.theedge.slq.qld.gov.au/



I have seen Robowars at Suncorp Piazza during the Ideas Festival and think a version of this event would work really well at The Edge. Ideally, it would be great to have an experienced robot builder run workshops in the lead up to the event so participants can build their own bots and then battle them. I’m not sure how hard it would be for people to build their own robots and how long this would take but would be interested in talking this through with someone. As I was saying to Andrew, perhaps we could run a longer more in depth workshop and a shorter more basic workshop.



We are operating on a really tight timeline so if you guys are interested it would be great to get you in to have a look at the space sometime next week - just let me know what time would suit you.



Looking forward to hearing from you.



Jaina





Jaina Kalifa I Project Officer I The Edge



I think this would be good thing for you marto. May I suggest workshops on sumo bot? If you want his email address I can pm you.
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Post Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:29 am 
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marto
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You got any sumo rules in mind?

What we could do really depends on quite a lot of things. The most important of these two is time and money.

It seems like they would be interested in running a public comp but if they want to do it in march it would probably be too close to robowars to attract many from interstate.
Running workshops for people to build combat bots would probably be doable but really your minimum cost for a combat bot is prolly around $300 unless you have lots of parts lying around at home. So whether there is enough people interested in this is questionable.

I will reply to the email and see if I can get a bit more of an idea of what they are looking for.
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Post Sat Jan 23, 2010 6:53 pm 
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kkeerroo
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He will be out of his office untill wednesday.
I have already told him we will need at least 6 months to get ready for a large comp.
I had in mind starting with mini sumos. I have plans from the book Junkbots, Bugbots & Bots on Wheels (Dave Hrynkiw and Mark W. Tilden) for a sumo with minimal parts. 2x motors, 2x DPDT relays, 2x LEDs, a 4700uf cap, a battery and a couple of switches. If you want more info and can't find the book I can copy a few pages for you. A good book for cheap robots.
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Post Sat Jan 23, 2010 7:54 pm 
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marto
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Yeh I was never really that interested in robot sumo, always seemed a bit boring. Though it would be relatively easy and much more inexpensive compared to a combat robot.

Maybe something like the Inexus style robots would be more interesting though may be a little difficult for beginners.

Or could go autonomous combat. Sort sumo without the damage restrictions. Though some limitations might have to be put on that.
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Post Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:44 pm 
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kkeerroo
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well limitations on autonomous combat robots is sumo. It is a format that has something for the AI guys as wells the combat guys. After a few weeks of that then move to ant weights and other challenge based robot comps.
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Post Sun Jan 24, 2010 10:58 am 
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marto
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Well in sumo you can't intentionally cause any damage to the opponent so that is a little bit more restricted than what I was meaning.

Might be best to build a fairly generic robot in the workshops and then run a heap of different comps. Such as sumo, maze solving, line following, soccer, ect.
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Post Sun Jan 24, 2010 12:30 pm 
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the iNexus pages have decent tutorials on those sorts of bots if you're interested.
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Post Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:44 pm 
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marto
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Techfest tutes are average. Some good info but a lot of trawling through to find the right info.

Working on a bot design. Is a simplified version of our Inexus one. Few things fixed and actually has line following circuit instead of just using encoder values like last time. It has quite a few spare connectors so that you can add functionality and a lot of the parts aren't really necessary to get it running. Also there is no programmer required to program the chip as it can be run with a bootloader.

Few things left to finalise but I intend to put it together as a kit for uni even if it doesn't get used.
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Post Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:47 pm 
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kkeerroo
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I got another email asking for a meeting before the end of the week. I would not be able to make it. Have you sent any emails yet marto?
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Post Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:28 am 
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marto
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Not yet can you forward it to me will reply. Might be able to do friday if they want.

Steve
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Steven Martin
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Post Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:37 pm 
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marto
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Just sent off an email saying that I should be available for a meeting on Friday.
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Steven Martin
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Post Wed Jan 27, 2010 1:22 pm 
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marto
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So I had a meeting with Jaina today. And they seem pretty keen to get something going. They are looking for a basic proposal within a week if I can get a few ideas on paper.

The timeline they would like is rather short but I think I can get some workshops going. If we were to run a public event that would prolly be late June. They intend
to announce all the events and schedule at their opening end of Feb so if anything is going to happen in that time period we probably need to have it planned and at least a vague idea of what we are going to do by then.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to how we could run robowars style workshops and comps with minimal cost. As they really want to see more workshops and activities rather than just an event. Any other ideas which are robot related are also welcome.
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Last edited by marto on Mon Feb 01, 2010 11:36 pm; edited 1 time in total

Post Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:12 am 
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kkeerroo
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I have a couple of questions.
What sort of times will the workshops be run (twice weekly, couple weekends per month)?
What facilities and tools are available? (a metal workshop?)
Is there anywhere to store our arena? Wink

Maybe we could look at a MDF servo switching type bot. Or ant weights powered by modified servos?
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Post Sat Jan 30, 2010 6:28 pm 
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