Archive for December, 2009

MANOI’s Holiday Xtravaganza

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Thursday, December 24th, 2009


HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!!! :)

MANOI Holiday Xtravaganza

MANOI Holiday Xtravaganza

MANOI Holiday Xtravaganza

MANOI Holiday Xtravaganza

MANOI Holiday Xtravaganza

Posted in: Art, MANOI, Projects, Robot.

MANOI on Discovery Channel – Daily Planet!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Friday, December 18th, 2009

RobotGrrl on Daily Planet

On December 17th, MANOI made its TV-screen ‘debut’ to gazillions of viewers in Canada! Daily Planet, a news style of a show for DIY’ers and scientists, featured MANOI’s holiday Xtravaganza warmup in the PlanetYou clip!

You can see the clip online by clicking here. It’s after the iPhone App part. ^_^

It was pretty awesome to see MANOI on TV, and a great way to ring out the year. WOOT! :D

The actual version of MANOI’s Holiday Xtravaganza will be posted soon :)

Posted in: MANOI, News, Projects, Robot, Robot News.

Friday Night Robotics * 3 – MANOI’s Holiday Xtravaganza Warmup

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, December 14th, 2009

This weekend really gives patronage to how challenging the sport of robotics is (Technically it’s not a sport since it’s not in the Olympics), and how frustrating everything can be!!!! >:(

Last year, MANOI barely showed off any holiday spirit. Just a seemingly 2D stocking sticky-tacked onto its head.

This year I really wanted to improve on that because… well, I don’t really have a reason. I just wanted to. I wanted to see what it would be like for MANOI to ring bells ^_^

The decorating started off with just a hat, followed by the hunt to find jingle bells that are a circle, not a bell. My mom eventually figured out the type of bell that I was looking for, and bought me some festive bells and bows!

Et voila, MANOI! C’est magnifique! (Tada, MANOI is magnificent!)

Festive MANOI

I spent an enormous amount of time getting various actions set up so that I can string them together into a final product. In total, there are 7 different movements. My favourite of which, called ‘tango’ can be seen in the video below where one of MANOI’s arms is outwards, and another is inwards, perpendicular to its front shell with the bow. Surprisingly enough, its only two motion frames:

  1. int tangoHeadTilt = 400;
  2. int tangoHandTilt = 200;
  3. int tangoHandIn = 120;
  4. int tangoHandUp = 500;
  5. int tangoArmUp = 500;
  6. int tangoArmTilt = 600;
  7. int tangoHipTilt = 200;
  8. int leanBack = -25;
  9.  
  10. int tango_keyframe1[17] = {
  11.       HOME0-tangoHeadTilt,
  12.       HOME1+tangoHandTilt,
  13.       HOME2-tangoHandIn,
  14.       HOME3-tangoHandUp,
  15.       HOME4,
  16.       HOME5+tangoArmUp,
  17.       HOME6+tangoArmTilt,
  18.       HOME16+tangoHipTilt,
  19.       HOME17+leanBack,
  20.       HOME18,
  21.       HOME19,
  22.       HOME20,
  23.       HOME21-tangoHipTilt,
  24.       HOME22+leanBack,
  25.       HOME23,
  26.       HOME24,
  27.       HOME25
  28. };
  29.  
  30. int tango_keyframe2[17] = {
  31.       HOME0+tangoHeadTilt,
  32.       HOME1,
  33.       HOME2+tangoArmUp,
  34.       HOME3+tangoArmTilt,
  35.       HOME4+tangoHandTilt,
  36.       HOME5-tangoHandIn,
  37.       HOME6+tangoHandUp,
  38.       HOME16-tangoHipTilt,
  39.       HOME17+leanBack,
  40.       HOME18,
  41.       HOME19,
  42.       HOME20,
  43.       HOME21+tangoHipTilt,
  44.       HOME22+leanBack,
  45.       HOME23,
  46.       HOME24,
  47.       HOME25
  48. };
  49.  
  50. void tango(int repeat) {
  51.   for(int i=0; i<repeat; i++) {
  52.   setFrame(tango_keyframe1, 800, 50);
  53.   setFrame(tango_keyframe2, 800, 50);
  54.   }
  55. }

It’s weird because tango looks way more complicated than a movement that has 6 frames, the ‘both arm jingle’. This is where MANOI jingles both of its arms, so one is back and the other is forwards, then the hands both jingle.

  1. int bothArmJingle_frame1[17] = {
  2.       HOME0+200,
  3.       HOME1,
  4.       HOME2+leftArmOut,
  5.       HOME3+leftArmForward,
  6.       HOME4,
  7.       HOME5+rightArmOut,
  8.       HOME6+rightArmForward,
  9.       HOME16,
  10.       HOME17,
  11.       HOME18,
  12.       HOME19,
  13.       HOME20,
  14.       HOME21,
  15.       HOME22,
  16.       HOME23,
  17.       HOME24,
  18.       HOME25
  19. };
  20.    
  21. int bothArmJingle_frame2[17] = {
  22.       HOME0+200,
  23.       HOME1-leftWristMovement,
  24.       HOME2+leftArmOut,
  25.       HOME3+leftArmForward+50,
  26.       HOME4-rightWristMovement,
  27.       HOME5+rightArmOut,
  28.       HOME6+(rightArmForward-170),
  29.       HOME16,
  30.       HOME17,
  31.       HOME18,
  32.       HOME19,
  33.       HOME20,
  34.       HOME21,
  35.       HOME22,
  36.       HOME23,
  37.       HOME24,
  38.       HOME25
  39. };
  40.  
  41. int bothArmJingle_frame3[17] = {
  42.       HOME0+200,
  43.       HOME1+leftWristMovement,
  44.       HOME2+leftArmOut,
  45.       HOME3+leftArmForward,
  46.       HOME4+rightWristMovement,
  47.       HOME5+rightArmOut,
  48.       HOME6+rightArmForward,
  49.       HOME16,
  50.       HOME17,
  51.       HOME18,
  52.       HOME19,
  53.       HOME20,
  54.       HOME21,
  55.       HOME22,
  56.       HOME23,
  57.       HOME24,
  58.       HOME25
  59. };
  60.  
  61. int bothArmJingle_frame4[17] = {
  62.       HOME0-200,
  63.       HOME1,
  64.       HOME2+leftArmOut,
  65.       HOME3-leftArmForward,
  66.       HOME4,
  67.       HOME5+rightArmOut,
  68.       HOME6-rightArmForward,
  69.       HOME16,
  70.       HOME17,
  71.       HOME18,
  72.       HOME19,
  73.       HOME20,
  74.       HOME21,
  75.       HOME22,
  76.       HOME23,
  77.       HOME24,
  78.       HOME25
  79. };
  80.  
  81. int bothArmJingle_frame5[17] = {
  82.       HOME0-200,
  83.       HOME1-leftWristMovement,
  84.       HOME2+leftArmOut,
  85.       HOME3-(leftArmForward+50),
  86.       HOME4-rightWristMovement,
  87.       HOME5+rightArmOut,
  88.       HOME6-(rightArmForward+50),
  89.       HOME16,
  90.       HOME17,
  91.       HOME18,
  92.       HOME19,
  93.       HOME20,
  94.       HOME21,
  95.       HOME22,
  96.       HOME23,
  97.       HOME24,
  98.       HOME25
  99. };
  100.  
  101. int bothArmJingle_frame6[17] = {
  102.       HOME0-200,
  103.       HOME1+leftWristMovement,
  104.       HOME2+leftArmOut,
  105.       HOME3-leftArmForward,
  106.       HOME4+rightWristMovement,
  107.       HOME5+rightArmOut,
  108.       HOME6-rightArmForward,
  109.       HOME16,
  110.       HOME17,
  111.       HOME18,
  112.       HOME19,
  113.       HOME20,
  114.       HOME21,
  115.       HOME22,
  116.       HOME23,
  117.       HOME24,
  118.       HOME25
  119. };
  120.  
  121.  
  122. void bothArmJingle(int repeat) {
  123.  
  124.   for(int i=0; i<repeat; i++) {
  125.    
  126.   setFrame(bothArmJingle_frame1, 500, 0);
  127.   for(int i=0; i<5; i++) {
  128.   setFrame(bothArmJingle_frame2, 20, 0);
  129.   setFrame(bothArmJingle_frame3, 20, 0);
  130.   }
  131.   setFrame(bothArmJingle_frame4, 500, 0);
  132.   for(int i=0; i<5; i++) {
  133.   setFrame(bothArmJingle_frame5, 20, 0);
  134.   setFrame(bothArmJingle_frame6, 20, 0);
  135.   }
  136.  
  137.   }
  138.  
  139. }

Crazy right? I’ve found that in most of my other MANOI motions, the movement was very focused, with no other moving parts. So I made sure to make the most things move at once. :D I think it gives off a more exciting vibe. ^_^ Check out the video!

It really wasn’t as easy as the video makes it look. There were a lot of times where various movements wouldn’t match up, so they would catch the balance off-guard. Also, one of MANOI’s ankle servos went crazy on me, so it let the other foot down, causing a fall.

It’s super challenging to fix this because when MANOI falls, there are at least two things that temporarily break. You fix those things, but while you’re fixing them, other things break. While you’re trying to fix the new things, you can’t get a good grip on the robot because its entire body is made up of servos, and if you set the robot down, another thing will break. I would be willing to wager that working in no-gravity is a cinch compared to this!

Once everything is working again, you go and fix the motion. Fixing the motion is a whole separate routine of trial and error- you change some of the values of the servos and see what happens. There are two options for the next step, either have super fast reflexes, or only program with one hand on the keyboard. Since macs are not very one hand friendly, I have to have super fast reflexes to turn the power switch off on MANOI so that it won’t fall. If it does fall, you have to go back and fix everything.

In any case, once the motion is fixed, you go back and try it with the other movements. Just your luck, the battery runs out! MANOI falls, and you have to fix everything again.

It’s so unbelievably frustrating!! >:( Especially doing it for 3 days straight! There have been three times where MANOI has fallen off the table, about 1 meter (3 feet) tall. The risk of this is MANOI getting shocked by me, the air, and the carpet! It’s really nerve wracking, but thankfully MANOI is alright. Here’s a video of all of MANOI’s falls from the various videos that I tried to take:

At the end of the day, I really enjoy seeing MANOI move around. I think of it this way: it is my frustration and patience that has given an otherwise inanimate object LIFE. How cool is that? :)

There will be more videos of MANOI in its holiday gear showing up soon, with more blinky lights too!

Festive MANOI

Posted in: Art, MANOI, Programming, Projects, Robot.

Friday Night Robotics – Competitions all weekend long!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Saturday, December 5th, 2009

For FNR this week, there are many competitions going on! Thursday was Physics I Team Design Lab Challenge Sessions, Friday was a FTC Competition and Saturday is a FLL Competition! After Saturday is the competition that is the most worthless but “necessary” … final exam(s). -_-

Friday, the FTC competition was amazing! FTC is FIRST Tech Challenge, and it’s where middle school and high school students build robots out of metal and some lego parts. The brain of the robot is an NXT, and they can program it in either RobotC, NXT-G, or LabView with the NXT toolbox.

The field is 12 feet by 12 feet, and this year’s challenge is called HotShot! The robots have to score wiffleballs into the zone in the middle, the nets above the zone, or the containers off to the side of the field. The wiffleballs are released onto the field when a holster tube is pushed. Yellow wiffleballs are better than white wiffleballs.

There’s a 30 second autonomous mode at the beginning of the game, followed by a teleoperated mode. The robots are controlled by a logitech controller that has joysticks and buttons (hahaha, what a lame description), which goes into software called the Field Controller Station. This software is on the laptop that the team supplies. The software then communicates via Bluetooth to the robot.

On the technical side of things, the Bluetooth works great if you have one robot. If you have 40 robots connected with Bluetooth, the air gets too cluttered. We ran into some problems the other day when robots started moving on their own and some teams would be disconnected if they switched from autonomous mode to teleoperated mode.

Problems or not, it was fun. Apparently it ran more smoothly than it did last year, so that was fantastic! Plus, one of the teams that I was helping gave me one of their team t-shirts! The music was great, and the event was streamed live from WCKN onto the internet!

There are 79 pictures that were taken live at the event up on team229robotics.com.

The FLL competition is today, Saturday December 5th. You can tune in to the live stream right here and subscribe to team229robotics.com’s RSS feed to have updated live blogging images as they come in!

Posted in: Other, Programming, Projects, Robot, School.









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