Robotics Club

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Hello, welcome to the site of the newly formed robotics club. Composed mostly of Computer Science students, but open to everyone!
Join the mailing list .

The 5th line following contest was held on May 7/2011 at Science Rendezvous . There was a larger audience but challenging conditions with the rippled floor surface with the tarpoline and stretching paper surface. This time we had enough robots in the competition that we were able to hand out cash prizes again. The first prize of $200 went to David Ciampini, a newcomer to the club, who recently learned robotics, PCB making, and microcontroller programming. Second prize $50 went to my grad student Alex Ufkes with his vision controlled system that had been in previous competitions but hadn't won a cash prize. Also in the competition was an undergrad thesis Android cell phone guided robot by Radu Trambitas report .

Here are some videos (courtesy David C): 1, 2, 3.

We had the 3rd line following contest on Wed, Nov 30/2010. Sadly not enough contestants entered to hand out cash prizes. The first place finisher was Jimmy Tran's 'hammer head' robot at 31.8 seconds/lap, followed by Alex Ufkes' computer vision controlled robot using a Pioneer robot at 50 seconds/lap. A mysterious Android cell phone robot appeared... we hope to see it again!

Check out the Canadian Robotics and Vision conference website . The Eighth Canadian Conference on Computer and Robot Vision (CRV 2011) will be in St. John's, Newfoundland, 25-27 May 2011. If you work with on a paper with me (Dr. Fiala) I may partially pay your way to attend the conference.

Ryerson Robotics Club Contests
5th Robot Line Following Contest was held at Science Rendezvous May 7/2011. -winners David Ciampini (1st = $200) 28 seconds, Alex Ufkes (2nd = $50) 1:14 mins:secs. The other robots were: Billy's robot (3rd) 2:26 mins:secs, Radu Trambitas (4th) 2:09 mins:secs, and the fire-engine bot (5th) with >4 mins.
4th Robot Line Following Contest held March 9/2011
3rd Robot Line Following Contest was held during the last CPS607 class on Wednesday Nov 30/2010. -winners Jimmy Tran (1st) 31.8 secs, Alex Ufkes (2nd) 50.0 secs.
  • See Jimmy`s webpage .
  • videos of Alex`s vision guided Pioneer robot 1, 2 .
  • videos of Arthur`s Android phone vision guided robot 1, 2 .
    • 2nd Robot Line Following Contest Oct 25/2010. -winners Jimmy Tran (1st)15.4 secs, Alex Ufkes (2nd).
    1st Robot Line Following Contest was at Science Rendezvous May 8/2010 PDF -winner Alex Ufkes (1st),


    SUMO robots Come watch or help as the public drives around our SUMO robots, also at Science Rendezvous. We need help finishing/fixing the robots!

    Ryerson Robotics Club wins gold! Our 'Devinbot' wins 1st place in the SUMO 'Clever' competition. Check out the videos.

    SUMO 2009/2010 videos .

    Check out some SUMO pictures . Be part of the next year's generations of SUMO robots as we aim to take gold again!

    Below are links to web pages for robots built by robot club members or students of Dr. Fiala:

    Devinbot SUMO robot built by Devin Ostrom, modified by Mark Fiala and Jimmy Tran.
    Stereo vision controlled Dalek . Ugrad thesis project by Stephen Riddle 2008/2009. Stephen's webpage (may have newer content).

    Are you a robot builder?
    Do you want to be a robot builder?
    Do you want to learn electronics, microcontroller programming, robot programming?
    Are you really a robot?

    If you answered yes to any of these questions, or you simply think robots are cool, you should join the informal Ryerson Robotics Club (I assume there isn't already a robot club, in which case our first task will be to destroy them...) The purpose of the club is to provide a relaxed atmosphere to learn about robots, to meet others with such interests, and to get excited enough to maybe even create teams for local and international robot competitions! The club is meant to be an informal meeting place to learn and become a robot hobbyist. No skills or background required, an interest in robotics is all you need.

    Meetings

    So far our meetings have been held in the NCART lab (room ENG-209 of the George Vari building).

    Wednesday Nov 19, 2008 Our first kick-off gathering

  • I (Mark) chatted a bit and showed some videos
  • Vijay showed his thesis work and at my request gave a good presentation on particle filters for robot navigation.
  • Steven Riddle showed off his new Beagle board, tiny but powerful linux system.

    • Tuesday Jan 27, 2009:

  • Jimmy showed videos from the NCART's trip to a search and rescue event at Disaster City in Texas
  • Steve K demonstrated how to program for the AVR boards he built
  • Jimmy demoed a robot he just built, AVR board with bluetooth serial controlled by his laptop

    • Tuesday Feb 10, 2009:

  • informal building stuff meeting - we had no presentations but talked as we worked on a SUMO robot for the OCAD competition
  • Jeff (EE grad student) generously lent us his mostly built robot base, motors, and motor drivers to which we hooked up a microcontroller (Atmel AVR)
  • We can now control the motors via a wireless bluetooth interface from Jimmy's laptop. However, the motors and wiring were loose, we need to mechanically mount the motors
  • Three of us went on an excursion (Active Surplus) to look for parts. We found a sprocket to match the one on the wheel shaft but no chain.

    • Wednesday March 4, 2009:

  • 5:30pm in the NCART lab
  • Playing with our three SUMO robots ready for battle on Saturday
  • Watched a SUMO movie from last year's OCAD SUMO robot competition.

    • Saturday March 7, 2009:

  • We participated in the 2009 OCAD Robot SUMO competition at OCAD here in downtown Toronto
  • Three robots slugged it out against some serious heavy metal competition
    • You can see more at: sumo_robots_battle_at_ocad online article .

    Tuesday April 14, 2009:

  • Some little robot projects to show.
  • Open discussion about projects, contests, etc .
  • Discussion about who might be able to come help at the Science Rendezvous open house on May 9, where we'll have our SUMO robots and our SUMO stage available for the public to play. .

    Saturday May 8, 2009: We showcased the club's SUMO robots at Ryerson's Science Rendezvous open house day in the Kerr Hall Upper Gym.

    Tuesday Sept 29, 2009: NCART Lab (ENG 209) 6pm

  • Robocup presentation by Arman Masoumi ( presentation slides )
  • demo of CPS607 robots
  • Open discussion about projects, contests, etc .

    Tuesday Oct 27, 2009 : NCART Lab (ENG 209) 6pm

  • Building mobile linux platforms with USB cameras: Martin Gerdzhev ( presentation slides )
  • Autonomous robot helicopter team paid us a visit
  • demo and video of more CPS607 robots

    • Wednesday Nov 11, 2009 : ENG211 from 10-11am or 3-6pm

  • Open house to visit CPS607 "Build your own mobile robot" course. You could see several home made robots avoid obstacles, follow lines and light, and avoid falling off the table. Course webpage . Take it next year! (when offered).

    • Thursday Feb 4, 2010 : NCART Lab (ENG 209) 5:30pm

  • Mobile robot navigation and mapping with laser scanner, CARMEN system - Alex Ufkes
  • Latest robots for search and rescue projects - Jimmy Tran
  • discussion of robot competitions, plan for SUMO competition
  • discussion of our upcoming robot competition, cash prizes! Maze and/or line following in the spirit of these videos: micromouse , fast line following .

    • Saturday March 6, 2010:

  • We win gold! 2010 OCAD Robot SUMO competition at OCAD here in downtown Toronto
  • Our "Devinbot" wins 1st place in the "Clever" category. Devinbot also battled in the heavier "Classic" category but didn't take 1st place due to the 180 lb opponent Dicky-Dee. Sadly the overnight work of our crew did not solve all mechanical problems in time to have all three of our robo-beasts in this year's competition.

    Thursday April 8, 2010: NCART Lab (ENG 209) 5:30pm

  • Discussion about work on the SUMO bots, and volunteers to help drive them around for the Science Rendezvous open house in May.
  • Discussion about robot line following competition at Science Rendezvous.

    Oct 9, 2010: NCART Lab (ENG 209) 6:00pm

  • School term intro to club - discussion of work on SUMO robots.
  • Demonstration of Alex Ufkes' robot laser mapping project.

    Monday, Oct 25, 2010: NCART Lab (ENG 209) 5:00pm

  • Second Ryerson Computer Science robotics contest. See poster at top of page - $250 in prizes!.

    Wednesday, Nov 30, 2010: NCART Lab (ENG 209) 5:00pm

  • Jimmy Tran presented his winning robot 'dead weight' from the 2nd line following contest (his robot won back on Oct 25). See his webpage describing the robot and its use of PID control.
  • robotics presentations from CPS607
  • discussion of possible involvement in Ontario Science Center robot exhibition

    Wednesday, Apr 6, 2011 : NCART Lab (ENG 209) 5:00pm

  • Discussion of the Calgary Robot games.

    Contact

    There will be a mailing list in January, please email me (mark.fiala AT ryerson.ca) to get on the list.
    Ryerson Robot links

    Data Sheets from club projects.
  • Active Surplus Annex . On Queen Street past City TV on the south side, second floor
  • Above All Electronics
  • http://robotshop.ca/
  • http://www.robotcraft.ca/webshop/
  • http://robotsinsearch.com/
  • http://www.creatroninc.com/

    • More stores listed in this store list webpage courtesy Richard Lee.
    Robot Competitions:
    Here are a list of some robot competitions and their links. Please email me more to build up this list.
    OCAD SUMO 2009 and its rules and registration .
    http://www.robots.net/rcfaq.html (thanks to Mauro for this one).
    Robot Parts:
    Here are a list of some places to buy robots and supplies. Please email me more to build up this list.
  • Active Surplus Annex . On Queen Street between Univ. and Spadina, past City TV on the south side, second floor
  • Above All Electronics
  • http://robotshop.ca/
  • http://www.robotcraft.ca/webshop/
  • http://robotsinsearch.com/
  • http://www.creatroninc.com/ near College and Spadina

    • More stores listed in this store list webpage courtesy Richard Lee.

    Robot links:
  • omni-crawler
    • Please email me more good links to build up this list.

    At our meetings we'll just talk a little about robots we can build, watch some Youtube videos, and learn about where to get robot kits and parts. If you have built a robot in your life, bring it or pictures (ideally in electronic form to watch on the projector).

    In general I want the club to be open and mostly unstructured. I.e. no treasurers, executive or any of that nonsense. The only structure is that there would be 30-60 minutes of presentations by different people on robots they've built, technology tutorials, cool things they've found on the web, etc. After that it's random chatting amongst people.

    Specifically I want to give, or have others give talks on:
    -robots they have built or are building
    -Atmel and Pic microcontrollers
    -controlling robots via bluetooth and other wireless such as WLAN and Zigbee.
    -robot vision
    -modifying toys
    -controlling servos

    One major goal of the club is to get together groups to enter robotics competitions.

    Try out the online bulletin board at http://ryerobot.webs.com/ .