Ok, if truth be known I have decided to make the plunge and build a robot for the KIPR Open competition with my grandson. In fact, I have purchased an iRobot Create to use as the base for the robot that I will use. Maybe I am shooting ahead a little too fast but I need to get familiar with what the base can do and it's capabilities prior to getting the current rule set for the tournament. The KIPR Open rule set changes each year and is released sometime int he September time frame. Since I don't know much about the irobot Create, I will need to fill in the time getting used to it and learning what constraints that I have on the programming. I have a Chumby which I am thinking that I might use to be a separate processor / controller since I can have it battery operated. The Chumby is based on an ARM processor, 64MB of memory and the Rom resides on a micro-SD chip. The interface to the outside world is a USB port which will work just fine as a serial line to the Create's serial port input. The Chumby already has a linux operating system along with a wireless capability so I pretty much have what I need.

I am going to take the plunge and build a robot. My intent here is to work with my grandson to help him learn to program better and I figure that there is no better way than to attack it with an actual problem. I am going to try and get the KIPR Open challenge package this next year and try and program the bot to that challenge. I might end up programming more than one bot, don't know at this point. I am excited about the prospects, as is my grandson. I might even involve some other members of the family who are interested in "geeky" things like I am. I have pretty much settled in on an iRobot Create, these are the guys that make the Roomba. The Create is a nice little package, sans the vacuum part, just the robot part. WIll type back with more information as it occurs.

Just as I expected, I was shot down when we entered the mall and I asked her if I could buy an iPad if they had them in stock. However she did have a valid point in that the iPad was just released and it might be better to wait until they get all of the bugs out. But right now I am more interested in getting Robot parts to build a spiderbot with my grandson. That part we haven't discussed yet. My grandson will be continuing on the BotBall competitions and I want to make sure his programming skills are up to the task.

This has been a great experience in my life. I have been with a great group of high school students which includes my grandson. Today is the start of the double eliminations. We start in the 41 bracket and our school is in the 23rd bracket. We have a good chance at placing high enough that we will make the final competition on Sunday which will include the last eight brackets. The guys are excited and I am excited about the prospects. To put this in perspective, there are about 65 teams at the Global Conference on Educational Robotics being held at the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Our team came out 3rd overall out of about 55 teams at the regionals in DC. We are now with the best of the best in the country, and since this is an international competition we have one team from Kuwait and two teams from Poland. The competition is friendly and ideas for designs have been passing back and forth freely between teams.

Well, time to think about the trip out to Illlinois with the BotBall team. In a little over 24 hours, I will be carpooling with the BotBall teacher to drive 5 guys out to the Conference. If you would like to know what is going on here, go to http://www.botball.org and look at the information. It looks like my grandson and I will be taking the Prius with the robots and the teacher will be taking 4 other team members. The trip will be about 13 hours and I will keep you posted.

I am finally back from my vacation with my daughter and son-in-law at Massanutten. Over all, I really liked the facility. It's too bad that it could not have been for another week. I was just getting used to the place. I went kayaking down the Shannandoah river and flipped the kayak twice. I will post pictures here and on my Facebook page when I get the pictures developed (I was using a water tight disposable camera on the river). That was an adventure. I also had the opportunity to hike up the ridge line from Massanutten almost to the area where the ski slopes are at. I didn't want to have to climb down the ski slope because it is a double black diamond slope, a little too steep. So I went half way on the ridge and then came back the same way. In all, I spent about three hours on the peak. My wife and I got a chance to sit in the jacusi on the last night of our stay, that felt real good.

I am finally on vacation with my wife. My daughter invited us to their time share for the week and I am finally getting to the rested stage after 4 days. I have to say that the Shannandoa Valley is a great place to be. Too bad everything costs money here. The view is terrific and I have enjoyed the time with my wife and my granddaughter.