"UK robot meetup Saturday 19th April" (UKBRG)

[Sonic]

Changed the title of this thread to now include the date of the meeting which will hopefully attract a few more members.
Pete will finalise the venue and time at a later date.

Absolutely love the idea of football and was thinking of maybe a squash ball as a practice ball that we can all use, these can be purchased quite cheaply.

PS. UK Biped Robot Group (UKBRG) meeting
NovaOne"s

[Orac]

Interesting.

I had a little look around.

Robocup says a foam ball 4-6 cm
Kondocup looks to be around 8cm from the videos

I was thinking more like those lightweight yellow foam balls you get for kids soft-ball tennis. (9cm)

I'll get hold of a squash ball when I get home and see how well it kicks about.

[BillB]

Using a squash balls sounds great, they should be about the right size, are standardised, and easy for everyone to get hold of. I have a few of them at home - I will give them ago (once my Robot is back in working order).

[BillB]

Just read your post Orac - yes a Foam ball would also be great. Thinking about it - a key property of the good RoboSoccer ball is that it does not roll too much or bounce too well. (can you imagine how unplayable it would be to use a ping pong ball). Would be interesting how a foam ball and squash ball compare in that respect.

I suspect that we are going to need some walls on the edge of the pitch - judging by the dexterity of the current crop of humanoid robots, they will be unable to keep the ball on the pitch (let alone in the goal). It would be much more fun if the balls could bounce off walls - like Table Football/Fussball.

[Orac]

I had a go last night at making a decent kicking motion. Its harder than it looks.

To get good power, you need to de-stabilise the robot quite a lot which is a nightmare to control. Every time I try a kick, the robot spins a bit due to the momentum of the leg.

Just walking into the ball actually gets better results but I will spend another 5 hours tonight to try to get it right

Getting the bot quickly up on one leg is a struggle. What I ended up having to do is actually pushing DOWN the leg I wanted to raise to get the body of the robot moving in the right direction and then quickly reversing the leg motion to get it up into a kicking position.

Very interresting when you start designing critical balance moves.

[Orac]

Here is a quick and dirty test video

phpBB [media]

[BillB]

Nice moves - particularly the turning, it looks very maneuverable.
A champion in the making.

[limor]

It's on the home page of robosavvy.

We will contribute some prizes for the event..

[Orac]

Many thanks Limor.

Hopefully putting it on the front page will attract a few more people



I have also seen that Bipeds may be welcome at this event

http://www.micromouseonline.com/forum/v ... .php?t=217

I may not be able to make it, but it would be nice to have a presence at the show with 2000+ visitors expected !!

[Robo1]

That sound interesting about the big robot meet. I'm back in the country then. (Then snowboarding season would have ended). So I would be up for it but it could be to close to your meet.

Just my thoughts Bren

[Orac]

Yep, I had the same thoughts.

I should be able to make it up to Leicester on the Sunday. Hopefullly they will let us into this event with enough space to have a bit of fun. I have been to this centre before and its well worth a trip around it.

Is anyone else able to attend this one?

If this eclipses the event next month then no problem, I'll just use it as a testing session for who ever makes it on the day

[NovaOne]

Hope to be coming down from "the north" to Orac's Bicester meeting on the train via Birmingham and Banbury, any one else going my way?

I will try to attend on the 17th or 18th, but unless some one else is going with a Robot that is 100%, I don't think I will bring mine (...although it could be a good chance to spend some time re-programming the moves?)
I will feel a bit lonely if I'm the only one there on Saturday 17th

Are we actually invited to this one. Also are most people still up for our 1st anniversary event on the 28th June at TIC

[Orac]

Ok,

We have three events now

19th April Bicester
17th - 18th June Leicester
28th June Birmingham

Can anyone interested please reply to the thread with which dates they can make or which date they would prefer if they will struggle to attend all 3.

I will be at all dates except the 17th June (supporting my wife running in her bra through London at night !!! 18th is ok though)

Once we have rough numbers, we can then approach the organisers formally.

Bren has kindly agreed to help out again with one of the later events when he returns from his adventures.

Thanks

[Sonic]

I am planning on attending the Bicester event in April aswell as the Birmingham event in June but will not be able to attend the Leicester event in June.

[i-Bot]

I'm planning to come to Bicester for the 19th April, and Birmingham in June.

If Leicester is 17/18th MAY ?, I will not be there. The 18th May is DDRC Luton Car Boot sale (Maybe the best and biggest dedicated electronics/radio boot in the UK calendar now)