Wow um talk about big ideas. :) I’d have to see what his ideas and _SCALE_ *cough* cause it’ll be difficult to try to fit an elephant sized robot anywhere but the zoo. Good project and id be happy to help just going to list some points cause I’m excited.
1. Depending on scale we are DEFINATELY making a skeleton out of lightweight aluminum and either have some sort of material to make “skin”
2. How/Where are we going to be working and when our deadline is
3. About EVERYTHING else ;)

Yay! I am super excited! This is an awesome opportunity! I want to help! How big would the “elephant” be? I picture it to be like…..pretty small but a parade? How big would it need to be?

THAT SOUNDS SO COOL (and fun)!!! *shining eyes*
i might not be able to do much with build (cuz anyone that’s seen me try knows i fail at it…besides maybe organizing tools =P), but i’m more than willing to help if there’s anything graphics related ^^

I’m going to look into it tomorrow and give her a call.

I think this is a great oppurtunity for us! However first things first:

We need to estimate how much money we’ll need to build the robot (or is she providing the funds for us)? We’ll need to work out a clear budget plan next meeting and try to keep costs to a minimum. If we’re making a metal robot of a decent size, what would be a rough cost? 500 dollars and up?

Also, contact information please to PR people? not to sound greedy, but this could even be an oppurtunity for sponsorship (we build them a robot, they sponsor us! =D)

I love the idea =]

I think the point Maia is getting at is from an animal-rights perspective: the Woodland Park Zoo entry in Wikipedia notes that there were some incidents with the elephants that made animal-rights groups protest, and it sounds like Maia wants to send the animals to a sanctuary, and have the Zoo display robotic elephants instead.

I’m not sure the Woodland Park Zoo would react positively, but this needs verification.

Building an elephant robot seems like it might be an interesting project regardless of anything else. (Have fun with those legs, though.)

Even though building an elephant would be cool, I don’t think our robotics team should support Maia and her cause. First, we need to consider that we have higher priority things to do, such as modifying the old frc robot. Second, we don’t have the money or the materials to make such a big robot. Third, I’m not sure if the FIRST organization supports her cause, so if we do this for PR we don’t want people mixing our cause with Maia’s cause. Helping a few elephants has nothing to do with inspiring students in science and technology. And finally, I don’t think it would be wise for us to step into this politically controversial issue.

But on the other hand I think most people agree that finding a cure for muscular dystrophy is a good cause, so I think Walk for Aidan would be a good opportunity for us to show our robot.

I talked with Maia and Kevin about this and basically here’s the deal:

Maia and her family want to get the Woodland Park Zoo to see that there are other ways to educate the public about wild animals (namely elephants) without using live elephants as demonstrations.

Instead of building the elephants (they changed their mind), they were thinking of having us come in as consultants to help explain to the Woodland Park Zoo that it would be possible to build robotic elephants to help educate the public.

Because of the controversial nature of this, Kevin has decided that SR1899 will not officially support anyone that will do this, but anyone will be welcome to do so on their own time.

I really like the idea of building an elephant robot! but I understand the problem. I hope Maia and her family will understand that we are not against animal rights; that we just don’t want to get involved in political controversy.