I played around with Google Earth a bunch yesterday afternoon. Yes, there's a lot of stuff you can do. I uploaded a file which has a combination of points...
Steve, Every second. It reads in the new GPS NEMA string, converts and scales to integers (actually decimeters), calculates distance and direction to goal, and...
Tracy, No more stage fright? That is a major accomplishment, particularly when the robot is so far away! I compare this to sending a landing craft to the moon...
Steve, That's great. You are really getting into this. The last Chicago event, I preprogrammed the paths that I intended to follow using Google Earth. The...
Steve, I see what you are doing. I posted two more files. The KML for the waypoints at Science Central and the Excel spread sheet that converts those...
For what it's worth, you could count on two spectators (possibly future participants) from Bourbon. -Tracy ________________________________ From: Steve...
Not sure if Lou has his ears on, but three is a good start, in my opinion. We'll usually reroute a competition for NEIRG if we don't have enough competitors,...
Tonight I ran and logged the path that I had set up in the park to the South of Science Central. The file is saved in the file section. Run 1 and Run 2 were...
Rick, Would you have an educated guess how much current a stock (27 turn I think) Tamiya (Johnson?) 540 motor would pull for a <5 lbs robot? Somewhere in the...
Tracy, I'd figure on 5 to 10 amps in normal operation, 20 amps max normal operation and perhaps 40 amps stall. I think that your rover is going to be too fast....
Rick, My chassis is an old Tamiya 1/12 scale Humvee that is realistic looking. The realism hurts as a robot chassis since the scale tires are sometimes too...
Rick, Yes I received Blackout today - still in one piece. Congratulations on the win! Exspurt just looks more impressive every time I see it. Thank you so...
Tracy, I was thinking that it was too bad that Blackout could not do that 180 degree turn at the start of a match that has been successful against ExSpurt in...
Rick,  Since my main emphasis this time was dependability, I implemented a gradual change of speed in all cases to protect the motors & motor controller. ...
Tracy, You can also thank Dan Derrick for mailing his sumo in to UNI the first year. Dan's from Pittsboro, IN and has attended a few NEIRGs. If it wasn't for...
Rick and Steve, Congratulations, it sounds like you both did well at ChiBots' RoboMagellan Saturday. I wish I could have been there to see it but I wanted to...
I see the 2010 NEIRG is set for February 20th which is right around the corner. Are there any significant changes for 2010? Is the line following going to be...
Tracy, No changes for 2010. The line following will be the same. But, I should be writing new rules for a much simplified line following contest to be...
Thank you again for that, Rick. I do look forward to this new, kinder version of line following. Hopefully it'll serve to garner more interest in these events....
Tracy, Here is the first draft of the basic line following contest. Any comments? Rick Basic Line Following Concept The present NEIRG line following contest...
Rick, It looks good! I would make one small suggestion and that is putting something about the two minute time limit in the Description paragraph. In the...
Tracy, Thanks for the comments. One of our high schoolers did run a BOE-Bot on a sample course a week ago, but I didn't time it. I will time one Wednesday...
Rick, Here's my thought. The biggest problem with line following events, is the speed of the robots. The fast ones are the best to watch, but you only get to...
Steve, You really got me thinking. One of the problems with NEIRG is the lack of time for all of the events. I never liked the idea of running some events in...
Another thought would be to take your original event, line follow for 2 minutes in the factory. Take the "winners" (those that completed the course) and have...
