[Robotgroup] Armadillocon report-

[Vern Graner]

Ok, I wanted to throw a bit of info about Armadillocon onto the list.. :)

First the pictures:

http://www.robotgroup.net/armadillocon28

Don't miss Eric's dancing debut with the therepings!

:)

So, a show summary:

The booth was completely setup and running a little after 10:00am. 
Denise was nice enough to act as the "Hearse" for B0rkin Bob, (aka the 
dungeon keeper) since the coffin wont fit in my car. :)

The booth was in a corner of the dealer room and we had some comments 
from show organizers that they might place us at the *end* of the hall 
next time. Turns our many people came to our booth and stopped right 
there, never getting to the back of the room. Our booth was a literal 
show-stopper! :)

Lots of robo-crew were wandering the halls. Rick manned the eggbot and 
Eric made the babbling head babble with the help of the Haunt 
Controller's power supply. and drove the Black Knight around a bit.

We entertained folks with the Therepings using the Dungeon Keeper as a 
PA system and talked to various folks that came by the booth. When it 
was time for the "Automating Fear" presentation, we carried the dungeon 
keepers coffin across the hall to the presentation room while repeating 
the litany "Bring out your Dead!" :)

Though it took a bit of time to get all setup, we had a standing room 
only crowd and the people laughed and appeared to enjoy the 
presentation. I don't know precisely how focused it was on the interests 
of the type folks that attend Armadillocon as the presentation focuses 
on the types of microprocessors used and software/hardware options.

I think folks enjoyed the presentation nonetheless. We only had one 
person leave "early" and that was after we had been on for about 45 
minutes and someone standing in the back quickly took the empty chair. :)

We then adjourned back to the booth and spoke to folks about the 
projects we were working on. At the booth we had:

XAR (Experimental Arachnid Robot) - Vern
RC-40 Bot - Eric
Tankbot - Eric
Robosapien - Denise
Robosapien Dog - Denise
S.U.V. (Shy Ultraviolet) - Vern
Babbling Head
Therepings
Haunt Controller board - Vern
Eggbot - Rick
Dungeon Keeper - Vern
Black Knight - Eric
Theremin Bot - Bob (on day 2)

The table and area surrounding the robot group booth were FILLED with 
lots of blinkin lights and babbling bots making for quite a traffic 
snarl (hence the reason they would like to move us to the end of the 
hall next year). I think we managed to obtain two new robot group 
members thanks to the great efforts of Denise. :)

We did have one person on day 2 complain about the shrill sounds 
emanating from our booth to which Mike replied something to the effect 
of "Yes the Therepings can be rather ear-drilling". The person responded 
with "No I meant that squeaky sound coming from that silver robot! I 
actually kinda like the Therepings". :)

Also on day 2, we added a wireless video camera to the Black Knight's 
"eyes" and used the video projector to display on the wall what the 
black knight was "seeing" as he wandered about. Video Quality wasn't 
good enough to use for remote navigation (i.e. Eric sitting in the booth 
and using the video feed to drive the bot around) but it was more 
entertaining eye-candy for passers-by.

All in all, the displays we provided did add to the spectacle and there 
really wasn't anything like our booth at the show. Lots of people 
enjoyed our presence, especially the kids. However, as I type this, I 
was hesitant to describe it as a "success" as I'm not sure *exactly* 
what we were there to *accomplish*...? :)

It was discussed that we use future opportunities of this nature to 
either sell things for fund raising for the group, or as a way to 
advertise for new members. I'm going to explore building a presentation 
that details the groups history and activities and can be used to 
encourage people to join the group.

The title we played with was "From concept to concrete - making your 
ideas into reality." or something like this... I think Denise and I had 
a snappier name during a bit of brainstorming at the booth but I didn't 
write it down.. (Denise did you?) :) I'll have it done right after I 
finish robospin.. and SUV and uh.. hmm... ;)

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and if you didn't come out, you missed out!

:)

Vern

-- 
Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
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