The next general meeting of the ION North Star Section will be April 22nd in Mechanical Engineering Building Room 1130 at the University of Minnesota (http://me.umn.edu/info/findingus.shtml ).
Please email us at ion.nortstar@gmail.com, if you plan to attend.
The agenda for the meeting is:
6:00 Meet and Greet
6:30 Welcome and Section Business
7:00 Keynote Speaker
8:00 Closing remarks
Sandwiches and beverages will be served during the Meet and Greet portion of the meeting.
The keynote presentation will be:
Title: NASA AirSTAR: Subscale Flight Testing for GN&C
Presenter: Austin Murch
Abstract:
NASA has developed the Airborne Subscale Transport Aircraft Research (AirSTAR) flight facility to allow flight research, validation, and system testing for flight regimes that are considered too risky for full-scale manned transport airplane testing. The AirSTAR facility utilizes dynamically-scaled vehicles that enable the application of subscale flight test results to full scale vehicles. This presentation will give an overview of the facility, flight operations, current research capabilities, and future directions.
A short unofficial video of a flight of the dynamically scaled vehicle that was flow as part of this program can be viewed through YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjNZ-htsfHg
The North Star section had a successful demonstration for the Snow Plow Competition at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. It was wet, but many people toured our display and expressed interest. You can read more about the Snow Plow Competition and Winter Carnival display at http://www.autosnowplow.com/Welcome.html . The Snow Plow Competition was written up in the ION National newsletter. The article can be viewed at Winter ION Newsletter pg 12.
In addition, to the Winter Carnival we have been investigating having a regional competition for the ION’s Mini-Urban Challenge. More information on the Mini-Urban Challenge can be found at http://www.ion.org/outreach/muc We are considering a demonstration of the Mini-Urban Challenge in conjunction with the Snow Plow Competition at the Winter Carnival in Jan 2011. If successful we would sponsor a regional competition for the 2010-2011 school. The regional competition would be held at the same time as the Winter Carnival in Jan. For the demonstration the section will need to program a Mind-Storm to navigate through a small “city.”
After reviewing the status and plans for the Snow Plow Competition it was decided that the Section should put together an autonomous Snow Plow for use during the Snow Plow Competition at the Winter Carnival in Jan 2011. This vehicle would be designed to meet all the requirements of the competition and be able to host “snow plow” application software. The purpose of this vehicle would be to provide teams a method to enter the competition without having to build a vehicle. The design of this vehicle is considerably more challenging since the vehicle design must be robust to ensure that the vehicle remains safe when the “snow plow” application software is installed.
If you are interested in volunteering to help develop the Mini-Urban Challenge demonstration or to assist in developing the Section’s autonomous snow plow, please email Chuck Bye at ion.northstar@gmail.com
An Executive meeting was held at the Loring Pasta Bar (http://www.loringcafe.com ) at 327 14th Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Click here to access the meeting notes
The next meeting of the North Star Section Executive Committee will be at 6:00 PM on March 4th. The meeting will be at the Loring Pasta Bar (http://www.loringcafe.com ) at 327 14th Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414.
At this meeting we will accept nominations for all Section officers. All terms will begin July 1, 2010. If you would like to serve as a Section officer, please email us at ion.northstar@gmail.com.
You may nominate someone for a Section officer position by submitting an email to ion.northstar@gmail.com or in person at the March 4th meeting. The nomination must include the name of the nominee, office, and email address and phone number.
The January meeting will be at the Alma Restaurant. Click here to read the meeting minutes.
The ION North Star Section had a very successful promotional display of our upcoming Autonomous Snowplow Competition at this year’s Saint Paul Winter Carnival. To help publicize our competition, this display was presented on Saturday and Sunday, January 23 & 24, 2010 in Rice Park in downtown Saint Paul, MN. Click here to access a more detailed description of the event.
The next meeting of the North Star Section Executive Committee will be at 6:00 PM on Jan 14th. The meeting will be at the Alma Restaurant (http://www.restaurantalma.com/) at 528 University Ave SE Minneapolis, MN 55414. The agenda is
- By-laws Amendment
- Financial
- Next General Meeting
- Mini-Urban Challenge
- Autonomous Snow Plow Update
- Executive Commitee Performance Review
- Executive Commitee Elections
The North Star Section Executive Commitee approved the modification of Article IV of the by-laws. Article IV governs the election of officers to the Executive Committee.
The purpose of the amendment to the by-laws is intended to simplify and clarify the election processs or officers.
The amendment is open for comments as required by the by-laws for 15 days. Please go to
Amendment to Article IV to view information about the amendment and the ballot.
The meeting room has been changed to Akerman Hall, Room 319. The meeting will not be in ME 113.
The next general meeting of the North Star Section will be on Dec 3, 2009 at the University of Minnesota. The meeting will start at 5:30 PM with beverages and sandwiches. The location will be Akerman Hall Room 319 at the University of Minnesota, East Bank ( http://me.umn.edu/info/findingus.shtml)
The next general meeting of the North Star Section will be on Dec 3, 2009 at the University of Minnesota. The meeting will start at 5:30 PM with beverages and sandwiches. The location will be Room ME 1130 at the University of Minnesota, East Bank ( http://me.umn.edu/info/findingus.shtml)
The key note speaker will be Yohannes Ketema Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics. The title of the presentation will be In-Situ Step Size Estimation using Dynamic Models of Human Motion. The abstract for presentation is:
In this presentation we examine the answer to the question of “How much
useful information can be gained about personal navigation by
incorporating ideas from dynamic models of human motion?” In other
words, can kinematic and kinetic models of human motion as virtual
sensors in a dead reckoning system used for personal navigation?” To
this end, we attempt to address the issues associated with using these
models as sensors to aid in arresting the position drift that is
inherent in other dead reckoning schemes such as step counting or
shoe-mounted inertial measurement units. The kinetic model discussed in
this presentation is one that will provide a real-time estimate of
step-size and, thus, can potentially augment algorithms which rely on
step counting or shoe mounted IMUs.