Some good news

I have good news!  The Robotics for Grandparents class size limit has just increased from 8 to 12.  This is due to the generous loan of a Mindstorms NXT kit and a Dell laptop computer by the gang at SA BEST Robotics.  We will now have 3 robots to work with, one for each 4 students. 

Field Trip scheduled for the RFG class

On Saturday, October 15, the RoboticsForGrandparents class will have an optional field trip to the 2011 San Antonio BEST robotics competition.  This will be an opportunity to do some basic volunteer work and see how exciting robotics can be.  See www.sabest.org for current information on the competition and for directions to the Convocation Center at St. Mary's University.

This year's competition theme is "BUGS!" 

Robot babies??

This is from IEEE Spectrum's Robotics Newsletter:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/slideshow/robotics/humanoids/robot-babies-cute-or-creepy

Class schedule for Fall 2011

The class schedule for "Robotics for Grandparents" for Fall 2011 has been set.

This is a six-week class, meeting once per week.

The first class meeting will be at 9:30 AM on Monday, September 12th.  It will last 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Class dates for your calendar:

September 12, 19, 26
October 3, 10, 17

Due to the limited amount of lab equipment available, enrollment is strictly limited to 8 students.

Students should have a basic familiarity with the running of applications under Windows, but do not need any knowledge of programming, engineering, or robotics.

Most of the class sessions will include a few minutes of lecture followed by hands-on lab.

Encino Park Robotics Club

Last Friday, April 15th, I visited the Robotics Club at Encino Park Elementary School and gave a slide presentation "Space Robots I Have Known".  At the beginning of the presentation, I passed around a couple of space program artifacts from my bookshelf: a wooden mockup of a spacecraft "black box", made of white pine, and a pushbutton "ENTER" switch from the Shuttle Orbiter's Cockpit Avionics Upgrade program, which was cancelled.

The presentation took about 40 minutes, and was followed by viewing of some live-action and animated videos showing the space robots in action.

The club members, all 5th graders, had many interesting questions about what those robots could do.

JPL Mars Rover "Curiosity" article and great animation

This article from IEEE Spectrum Robotics newsletter shows the complete landing and deployment sequence of this new robotic rover. 

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/jpl-animation-shows-off-new-mars-rovers-harrowing-travel-plan

IEEE Spectrum Robotics Newsletter

IEEE Spectrum is a magazine for members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and is sent to all members.  Spectrum also has an e-mail "Robotics Newsletter" that is sent out twice a month, at no charge, to anyone who subscribes.  The Robotics Newsletter is well-written and always has interesting content.

You can subscribe to the newsletter at http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/newsletters, and you can unsubscribe anytime.