Why the name "rockhopper"?

So, I am sure people will ask why "rockhopper"? The robot will be running the linux operating system. The official mascot of linux is "tux" the pengin. I went looking for penguin related names and came up with "rockhopper" which is a penguin breed.

Initial post - Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! My plan is to use this to keep people up to date and to document the building of my entry for this years Trinity College Fire Fighting Home Robot contest. I plan on having a mix of non technical stuff for my "non geek" (and I use the word geek proudly) friends and family as well as some interesting technical details about the robot and it's design for my work friends at HP and Red Hat as well as other Linux and robotics enthusiasts.

Pictured above is my previous Trinity competition entry named "Fawkes" from 2005 (I did not find the time to enter in 2006). I added that picture because at this point there isn't much to photograph of my latest robot since I am still building it. I figured I needed something robot related for my first post.

I have high hopes for this years contest. This will be the first time I have been able to spend a large amount of time on a robotics project because I will be taking a 2 month sabbatical from HP (thanks Suzanne!). So from Feb 17th up until the contest on April 15th I will be out of work and focusing on "Rockhopper" (more on the significance of the name later). Before my sabbatical I plan on spending quite a bit of night and weekend time on it as well.

More to come....