HomeBrew Robotics Club
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Mar 26:

"Practical Controls for Robot Geeks"
  by 
Ted Larson

The talk will focus on mobile robots and how to develop control systems and software for their motors, steering, animatronics, etc..  Ted will start with the basics of PID, work up to modern control theory and then wrap up by distilling it all down to something that can be usefully applied.  He will also provide references and links that show how to decipher and build the right control system for your robot, without needing a Ph.D. in control theory.

Presentation Slides

" Infrared Optical Sensors"
  by 
Bob Krause

Bob discusses the process of designing and evaluating optical sensors for positioning, encoding or determining the end of limit for various robotic arms and mechanisms

John will discuss various walking robots created by researchers and cover the technical challenges and design issues encountered in making a walking robot.  Finally, some simple projects will be proposed that build important skills, before you go off and build your own Android.

Altera Corporation will present a session on the use of FPGAs in robotic control systems.  This presentation will cover the basics of FPGAs, current uses, and demonstrate one application using a (home built) robotic tracked vehicle that can receive control inputs remotely (through IR in this case) or operate autonomously.  There will be time for attendees to both experiment with the design software and play with the actual tracked vehicle

No sensor is perfect, and many have serious limitations such as poor high frequency response, DC bias, and noise.  But, by combining multiple sensors with a (often quite basic) model of your robotic system, it is possible to design a sensor suite than can deliver improved estimates of your system parameters, or "states".  The Kalman Filter is an optimized form of such an estimator. This talk will introduce the Kalman Filter, its applications in robotics, and its nonlinear sibling- the Extended Kalman Filter.

Phase 1 
6th Annual HBRC 
TableBot Challenge

Build a robot that goes from one end of the table to the other and back.  The HBRC Challenge is two solid hours of the best part of the meeting.

In addition to our normal meeting we're planning a "potluck" dinner out on the patio at 7:00 pm so bring your favorite dishes and "snackables"... karma points for foods with a robot theme!

Mark will present an introduction to the development of intelligence in robots. He will chronicle the early research into analog behaviors  by Valentino Braitenberg that lead to the introduction of subsumption architecture by Rodney Brooks.

Phase 2 
6th Annual HBRC 
TableBot Challenge

Robot must locate a randomly placed block and then push it off of the table.

This is the second part of the "Infrared Optical Sensors" presentation that Bob made at the Feb 27, 2008 meeting.  In this presentation, he will focus on the use of optical sensors for "line Detection" and "Gross Object Detection" (a wall or table edge).

Phase 3
6th Annual HBRC
TableBot Challenge

Robot must locate a randomly placed block and then push it into a goal positioned at one end of the tabletop.