I usually go to this every year, but this year I won't be in town. For those in the area, it's definitely worth the trip. If anyone wants to run an SoR table let me know.
http://www.robotfest.com/This is our 9th Robot Fest and it's still FREE. There are many new exhibits this year including Zanelle, a Painting Robot with a realism flair (http://www.vanarman.com/), electronic music from The Baltimore Synth DIY Group, and The JURBAN team from the Google Lunar X Project (http://www.juxtopia.org/jurban/). Returning this year are our good friends from Maryland Institute College of Art (always new and interesting) with their Arduino-based projects, RC Tank Combat (http://www.rctankcombat.com), Stephan Prosky's Artbots and many others.
You want robots? We've got robots!
The Northeast Robotics Club is back again, bringing their heavy-duty robot battle arena! (http://nerc.us) Also returning are the popular teams and bots from FIRST Robotic Competition, Tech/VEX and Lego Leagues (http://www.usfirst.org/). See more robotics with North County High School BotBall (http://www.botball.org), Howard County Robotic Club (http://groups.google.com/group/howard-county-robotics-club), and Harford Hackerspace will be bringing several projects including Dancing Robots.
We can't forget the old reliable robots. We'll have Heathkit HERO, a hobbyist robot kit from the 1980's (http://www.hero-1.com/Broadband/). And from long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... the Washington DC Area R2D2 Builders (http://www.r2dc.com ) will bring R2 and his colleagues including B9 (“Danger! Will Robinson”).
This year we will be offering a workshop for the young students. They can build a pager-motor powered Vibrabot, customize their creation and then race them head-to-head. Sign-up will be during Robot Fest (there is a small fee). We do need to make sure we have enough supplies, so if you are interested, please email us at [email protected] .
