MANOI AT01 - Day 10

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, March 19th, 2007

Did nothing!

Posted in: MANOI, Projects, Robot.

MANOI AT01 - Day 9

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Sunday, March 18th, 2007

Didn’t do much today - moved the robot upstairs and tried to fix a few things, didn’t work!

Posted in: MANOI, Projects, Robot.

MANOI AT01 - Day 8

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Friday, March 16th, 2007

Today was really productive!

I got the MANOI to wave it’s arm, and to move it’s head. I can’t seem to make it loop though… the batteries are out..
Gonna add more to this later!

Posted in: MANOI, Projects, Robot.

MANOI AT01 - Day 7

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Thursday, March 15th, 2007

Wow! It’s been 7 days already?!

Today I worked on getting the servos right.

Instead of trying to set the home position, I’m going to put it at the beginning of the program, and hopefully it will work.

Posted in: MANOI, Projects, Robot.

MANOI AT01 - Day 6

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007

I tried to set the home position today… I spent ages just placing all the servos at the right place, then when I clicked the home button all of the changes got lost.

Today was really frustrating - going to try again tomorrow.

Posted in: MANOI, Projects, Robot.

Science Fiction - Does it Have an Impact on Technology?

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007

In a recent editorial article by Jason Pontin, he discusses the impact of science fiction on technology.

I recently read your article ‘On Science Fiction’, and noticed at the end it said ‘Write me and tell me what you think…”. Although I don’t have an extreme amount of knowledge about robotics yet, I’d really appreciate it if you could read what I think:

I think it is absolutely true that in the case of technology and robotics, life imitates art. We (scientists and engineers) always aspire to engineer a robot or a device that is as cool as it is in a book, or in a drawing. For example, I,Robot by Isaac Asimov. Hundred upon hundreds of engineers want to create a Humanoid robot just like those described in the book. Whether it is to save people, or to interact with them, or even if it is a hobby, it is an ultimately an intruiging thing to build. I bought a mini humanoid kit to persue the string of imagination that if everything goes wrong, you can still have a robot by your side to entertain you, or if you are in danger, it can save you.

Although this goes off on a tangent, it can lead to the issue of ethicists asking the everyone, ‘Why would we need robots to serve as friends, when we can interact with humans?’. The general populace, who don’t have a great deal of understanding about robots, would respond somewhat like ‘Here here!’ (or another catchy phrase to show that they agree), whereas the populace who understands a bit, or the scientists who understand a lot about robotics, would probably respond that robots generally don’t offend the person that they are talking to (who would program a robot to offend someone?! (in a case where a school is gloating about how their robots are cooler than yours, I’m guessing it would be suitable for the robot to offend the other robot… hehe)), and that they can, both physically and mentally, do much more than a human.

Getting back to the subject, what would be the basis of technological advancements if there wasn’t science fiction? Perhaps it could be building upon the technology that was already built, but it probably wouldn’t evolve as fast as it would with science fiction. So, in a way, science fiction is a catalyst for engineering!

If robotics didn’t imitate art, as in the form of literature, where would the Laws of Robotics be established from? For example, if robots could think and act on their own like that of a human, they could possibly endanger us because the three Laws of Robotics wouldn’t be present, therefore giving them an option to harm us (the humans).

If you consider engineering a form of art (which it most certainly is!), it all comes down to the same thing: life imitates art. When nothing imitates art, then it can most likely be concluded that it is probably a change … for the worse.

To read his uber cool article, click here!

Posted in: News, Robot News.

MANOI AT01 - Day 5

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007

Ok, so today I tried to map out which channels were what according to the MANOI’s body.

Whenever I try to do something, the MANOI always jumps when I click on POS1, even though all the servos were set to 0.

I was going good, until I noticed this burnt plastic smell… the servos were extremely hot to the touch! I disconnected the power and went off to do some Lego animation

Posted in: MANOI, Projects, Robot.

MANOI AT01 - Day 4

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007

Today was pretty tricky. With slow internet speeds, it was hard to find any info.

Since today was all programming, I didn’t take pics.

I had to troubleshoot it a lot, and found out that I put in the USB wire wrong (woopsie), but at least I found where I went wrong (better late than never). The batteries already had a charge in them, so I connected them and turned on the switch. It took a while to figure out if it was on or not, when I noticed there was a green LED in the back.

I installed the software… and tried to make a program. It works really well in Sync mode, so that you can see the changes you are making LIVE.

I still don’t understand how the programming for it works. I looked at some example programs, still didn’t get it, so I posted on robosavvy’s forum. Hopefully they will respond soon, and hopefully the net will be this fast in the morning!
Tomorrow I hope to tackle the Home Position!

Posted in: MANOI, Projects, Robot.

MANOI AT01 - Day 3

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, March 12th, 2007

Day 3, here we are! Mmm, Had pancakes for breakfast and going to the Museum of Fine Arts later, to see the Disney exhibit.

^ The leg!

^ LEFT leg.

^ The two legs, completed!

^ A piece…

^ that serves as the hips! Yay! It’s almost complete

^ Harder than it looks o.O

^ It’s in! Yay! Loegs, Feet, and Hips!

^ ow, my pom pom is stuck! >.<

^ Lots of wires..!!

^ Even more wires!

^ The heart (aka chip)?

^ Attaching the arms

^ It’s tricky…

^ Gonna attach the arms and torso to the hips!! yay!

^ It’s finished!!

^ Lookin’ good MANOI!

^ It looks happy

^ Standing tall & proud!

I was so excited that I finished it! — Next will be the programming though! Blah, at the Museum of Fine Arts, this woman freaked out at me when we were entering the exhibit about having a camera. That pretty much ruined the whole thing! Seriously, how is one supposed to remember all the detail without a picture? Besides- I wasn’t going to sell them, or claim that the content was mine… and it doesn’t have flash, so how could it harm anything? Some people should inquire before they jump like a leopard! Yeesh. It was a great exhibit though.

Posted in: MANOI, Projects, Robot.

MANOI AT01 - Day 2

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Sunday, March 11th, 2007

Phewph! Ready for building MANOI! Day 2 woohoo! We went to Canadian Tire to get some screwdrivers first

^ The screwdrivers

^ What on earth?! The screwdriver ATE the screw! I mean… just look at it!

^ LOOK AT IT! It got messed up! :(

^ That one got messed up too!

^ Look at it… :(

^ HOLY COW. LOOK AT THE SCREWDRIVER! IT’S BENT!

^ GRRRRrr.!

^ GAAhhh!

^ It wasn’t made like that, honest! (Finally a pic that wasn’t blurry)

^ It’s really bad……….

^ See! GAH!

^ At page 32 - Time for LUNCH!

^ Back from lunch. What limb is this? Arm, leg?

^ Closeup! Yay!

^ Both of the limbs. They look more like the arms!

^ Pretty cool how it was made. The servos move well

^ The screws were well done on this one (Dad did the screws)

^ What is this for? o.O

^ Two of them!

^ That’s how the screwdriver is supposed to look… eheh!

^ Top view of the desk. It’s getting cleaner!

This is where the USB wire and the switch wire go. (I later notice that the USB wire is in the wrong direction)

^ ITZ A FOOT.

^ BIGFOOT!

^ This is what it looks like if you were to look directly at the table with no light

^ Parts of the legs!

^ Cool, Angle Gauge!

^ Look at that screw..!

^ Blurred. XD

^ Bwahaha, it’s PERFECT! I was the one who put in that screw…

^ Legs and feet!

^ Legs and feet, different angle

^ Page 40! w00t w00t! Time to take a break (Have a KitKat)

^ The legs! yay!

^ This part was really confusing because of the perspectives shown in the instructions

^ The Channels are running out, slowly!

^ Sweet picture - couldn’t resist to let this one go

^ The funky leg thingyers

^ The white part of the servo won’t go into the piece!

^ The ridges are so tricky sometimes

^ One of the legs — this was the most complicated part

^ Tricky! …You have to screw through the washer and then into the piece..

^ Getting aggravated - time to stop at Page 44!

^ The table from above

At the end of the day, it became really difficult to see what the instructions were trying to explain. They changed the perspective too much… It’s getting tougher to build! So far it was clear sailing until trying to figure out the legs. Tomorrow is a new day!

Posted in: MANOI, Projects, Robot.