When I heard about the Open Hardware Summit Scholarship contest, I couldn’t let this opportunity pass. The prize would do more than wonders to get this idea flying. For example: A 3D printer would be able to be bought and used to create parts for kits. Also, we would have been able to order some custom PCBs online with the winnings, too.

When I heard about the contest later on that evening was when I started (Sept 8). I created the structure and beak mechanism all in that one night

The first day (Sept 9), the mini RoboBrrd character was crafted, and all servos and LEDs tested and functional.

The second day (Sept 10), the modular electronics board was created. Featuring a slide-out drawer for the Google Android ADK This was also my birthday! Hooray!

Third day (Sept 11), all of the circuits and wiring was complete. Had some pitfalls during the day trying to use different connectors, but switched to the ones you see below in the photo. The plugs are great, really sturdy!

Here’s a timelapse of some parts of the build:

Forth day was for creating the software and documentation, and submitting to the contest rather early. My train was leaving the next day, so I had to get everything done ahead of time

We didn’t win the contest, or place in the top 3. Somehow. So this became yet another unobtained opportunity, but I can definitely say that Learning Pet was a competitive entry. The documentation webpage was a force not to be reckoned with compared to the other entries. Learning Pet has a purpose that would benefit society. Furthermore, I created a demo prototype for the video about my idea.

Maybe some people will think that it was crazy to pour in all this dedication to one robot. If it would have won, it wouldn’t have seemed crazy. Success is defined as getting up one more time than you’ve been knocked down. I’ll still be continuing with Learning Pet, the idea is exciting and education desperately needs an effective use of technology in the classroom, rather than more technology in the classroom.

Thanks again to everyone who left a comment on my Google+ during the build progress! And thanks to the FIRST team that I mentor, COSI, the gang from FMCG, and all my friends for voting!

Also: I used some parts (the large servo and two RGB LEDs, specifically) from the parts that Adafruit Industries sponsored for the original RoboBrrd, so thanks to them also

Featuring my robots!
MANOI- the hockey playing robot
RoboBrrd- the virtual food eating robot
Dogcow- the robot that is driving around randomly
Mini RoboBrrd aka Learning Pet- learn how to sort numbers from lowest to highest *and* blast UFOs!

We will be located in Zone A, the Robot Square!

Also, check out Jonah and Katherine’s Scrapyard Challenge talk! It will be an excellent source of information about creating an event in numerous places in the world. Truly amazing and inspiring, and they may mention RIP Banff too!

We hope to see you there!

Here was a fantastic interview by Ian Cole, thanks so much Ian!

The future of Learning Pet is that there will be time spent on apps4arduino to make some money in order to be able to purchase some laser cut parts, 3d parts, and boards.

Here are some stats of the contest that I collected from the webpage:

- 51.9% had a prototype
- 48.1% showed a demo in their video
- 51.9% had a website
- 3.7% released their hardware files under a license for the open hardware definition
- 22.2% had their hardware files available
- 14.8% had a bom
- 5.6% released their source code under an osi license
- 22.2% had their code available
- 40.7% had documentation
- 22.2% had additional videos
- 59.3% said what they would do with the prize if they won
- 18.5% demoed while at the ohs

You can check out all the documentation for Learning Pet here:
http://robotgrrl.com/learningpet

Thanks again!

Learning Pet will be at the Maker Faire this weekend, so be sure to say hi! (or whatever hi is in robobrrd language)

Introducing Learning Pet, a mini RoboBrrd with a very large theme- education! Learning Pet enriches lessons by creating a physical interface to interact with the virtual world.

We demonstrate a number sorting game, where the student interacts with the robot to blast virtual UFO’s with the lowest value. Correct answers are celebrated with a wing flap, and each level-up with a dance. We use the Accessory Development Kit to interface with mobile devices while away from the computer.

On LearningPet’s webpage, it has all the detailed information about the hardware, software and design. There is also a handy checklist at the top, so that at a glance you can quickly see the important facts.

It would be awesome if you could vote for Learning Pet in the Open Hardware Summit Scholarship! VOTE here!

Here is a YouTube playlist of all the videos!

Here is a video where I explain everything in detail!

View video on YouTube

Here is a link to the code on Github!

What is next? For WWDC 2011 legacy sake, I will probably try to drive DOGCOW robot with the iPhone’s accelerometer. This time though, the cable would be attached to an XBee so that it will be wireless.

Dogcow now works with the iPad without the use for a middleman in between! It goes straight from the App to the XBee for Dogcow to receive.

Here is a video explanation:

Or view the video on YouTube.

The process begins with an App using the ExternalAccessory framework:

Then goes through the SkyWire cable:

RS232 is converted to TTL:

Which is then sent through the XBee:

The XBee is powered by 3.3V, using an Arduino as a simple power supply haha:

And Dogcow receives with the XBee:

Making this whole process really cool!

Here are some resources that may be helpful:

• ExternalAccessory framework
• EADemo Code
• SkyWIre 30 pin to RS232 cable
• Sparkfun RS232 to TTL
• More photos on Flickr
• Also FYI, the baud rate is 9600 on the SkyWire cable

Also, as per Technote #31:

Dogcows, by their nature, are not all dog, nor are they all cow, but they are a special genetic hybrid. They are rarely seen in the wild. Since dogcows are two dimensional, they will stand facing a viewer “on edge” to avoid being seen.

Most of the time Dogcow bot will be controlled by my iPad using TouchOSC. The way this will work is that the iPad will be connected to the WWDC wifi, the TouchOSC App will be talking to a Processing sketch running on my Macbook (also on wifi), the Processing sketch will be using Firmata to talk to the Arduino. Unfourtunately, this means that the robot will have to be connected via USB cable which probably won’t be much fun, unless I implement a quickie Xbee solution.

There will also be a mode where the Dogcow robot can be autonomous. It has a switch, a potentiometer, and an ultrasonic sensor on it. The switch will control what direction the wheels will be going (forwards or backwards), and the potentiometer will control the speed.

If the potentiometer is in the slowest position, and the switch is set to backwards, then there can be a routine going where the Dogcow robot is roaming around with its ultrasonic sensor and “latch on” to someone if they come within a certain distance. This would essentially use a PD loop, if I have enough time. If not, an if-statement will work.

The programming isn’t done yet, but I hope to finish it tomorrow. And hopefully the curse of the blog-filled promises will not strike! XD

Making a small, semi-stable robot platform is really tricky. I’m used to more loose and experimental robot platforms, I guess!

The potentiometer is huge. I would definitely not recommend huge potentiometers. Also, that switch was huge (I later switched it out for a smaller one).

Using the Ping ultrasonic sensor will be fun. Hopefully it will live up to the rave that everyone has been giving it!

On Saturday we searched EVERYWHERE for dual-lock. Dual lock is almost like velcro, except it is plastic and has no wiggle. Ended up getting dual-lock at Staples.

This robot is paper thin!

You can see some more photos of Dogcow Robot’s construction on flickr.

Here are some tips that I would recommend for people going to do something similar:
- Smaller potentiometers, wires, and switches
- Flip the image of the object horizontally when printing the other side
- Use headers or some modular way of connecting the wires so that if the solder or wire breaks, you have the last resort to be able to plug it in to the original connection
- Be able to take things apart
- Have the parts that can come apart be stable (dual-lock)
- Make the programs straight-forward, no fancy programming

More updates later! Woot woot!

I made a new video about RoboBrrd and MANOI with the commands. I like the angle used for the robots in this video, it portrays the social cue that they are talking to eachother, which they are, but in their own robotic-mesh way. :3

View it on YouTube.

RoboBrrd now has passive behaviours, which turned out to be really cute and fun. I love how passive behaviours always add so much more depth to the robot. Only problem is the sequential and timing aspect of them, sometimes they override the sensors. Also, the gurgling of the speaker can probably be fixed with a capacitor and resistor. I moved the speaker to the main board from the communication board because it wouldn’t work all of the time. It was really fishy. :/

Last week I worked really hard on RoboBrrd to try and finish something (anything!- just trying to make it work!) for the MAKE: Bots With Character contest. One night I stayed up really late trying to debug the TLC5940 PWM shift out circuit. The next day I ended up scrapping it and just using the Arduino MEGA’s PWM outputs (there are a lot of them!).

Luckily, the contest was pushed back, so I have more time to write the written tutorial. The written tutorial is getting pretty long, it is quite surprising!

The second bio-inspiration video and the design video will be next on the line. Also going to make a character overview of RoboBrrd for the contest.

I am crazy for this contest because I live, eat, breathe social robotics, and having character in your robot is an important part of that and so many people forget about it! I want to show the whole world what it would be like if robots were their own sentient species! I want to be able to get people to make their own interactive robots so that they can experiment too! It is all so super exciting with so many exclamation points!!!!!!!!

View the video on YouTube.

The code can be found on Github.

There are other posts on the tag robot mesh network that you can look at if you want other videos on how they work on the mesh network

Here are some randomly ordered thoughts:
- Doesn’t use XBee API mode, because I could never make it work
- Not sure why RoboBrrd’s eyes weren’t blinking :S They do blink when I power the Arduino UNO (Communication board) instead of the Arduino MEGA (Main board).
- Need to make MANOI’s communication board loop a bit more fast & optimal
- RoboBrrd’s beak looked funny because the popsicle stick bindings are all loose
- RoboBrrd’s base needs to be painted
- YodaBot needs to get its wiring redone for inter-board communication
- The bugs I encountered were:
-> An interrupt pin that was triggered whenever touching the wire. Fixed by changing the Arduino. (This one tripped me up for two days, it was extremely tricky to debug)
-> XBee couldn’t send out. FIxed by swapping the XBee.
-> NO TX/RX BUGS FOR ONCE! YAY!

I hope to link together more behaviours between MANOI and RoboBrrd! Networking the robots together is amazingly fun ^^, and it lets me do something that I’ve always wanted to do, let robots communicate with each other. It will be interesting to see what can happen when we add Yoda Bot into the mesh

You’ll be hearing more about RoboBrrd as I’m going to try to enter it into the MAKE Bots with Character contest! Yay!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. GO OPEN SOURCE!

Yelling Robot is a FREE Mac App that is an animated robot avatar which yells at you at regular time intervals!

The “yelling” capability is done through Mac OS’ speech synthesis Text-To-Speech (TTS) engine. It uses the “Zarvox” voice, since it is a robot.

It has a Questionaire for you to fill out, so that it can yell personalized phrases at you. It is almost like a “Mad Libs” activity, except that it actually says it out-loud through Mac’s TTS capabilities and you don’t see the complete phrases.

It is the most simplistic behavioural “robot” that you can get.

Please DOWNLOAD Yelling Robot and check it out. Leave a rating too!

I will have a video up soon, as I accidentally maxed out my Vimeo data with the BubbleBoy video, haha.

This was a quirky little Mac App that I created to share on the App Store when it is first opening. It is a fantastic day for the Mac OS, and software in general!

Happy Mac App Store Day!

DOWNLOAD YELLING ROBOT