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.

Robotics Floor = Closest thing to paradise!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Sunday, October 11th, 2009

A while ago, I was on the internet TV show – Fat Man and Circuit Girl! At that time, when I showed the robotics floor, we only had a camera and a desk. Now we have everything on the floor, and it’s virtually the closest thing to a paradise!

The robotics floor is basically a group of people that all really enjoy robotics- we’re all on the FIRST 229 team. We help out with 229 related activities, like remote mentoring. Basically any team that is in our county can call in and ask for help on their robot. I really like the feel of remote mentoring, it’s like being on-call for a robo-emergency. There hasn’t been any calls yet, though The fancy name for the floor is ‘Living Learning Community’… or LL Community. We would say LLC, but I was the nerd who pointed out we could easily be pwned for that, especially if someone had a company called Robotics LLC or Team 229 LLC. Plus, it’s just generally confusing if people look on the website and see a LLC, it wouldn’t make sense- so it’s LL Community. =)

This is the phone we use for remote mentoring. We’re going to be switching to VoIP soon, though:

We have a huge computer that has two displays, an extreme amount of graphical processing power, can record TV shows and has a Netflix account. It’s an amazing computer. The keyboard and mouse are really nice, too.

On top of this, we have a huge smart board! It’s really amazing! It stands up and has a projector sort of floating in front of it. You can touch the screen and it’s like your clicking!!! I tried some of the Processing applications that I made, and it works really good, and the particle finger painting looks extremely realistic!

We also have this intense camera! You can move it around from the internet, and it can zoom in super far, it’s creepy!!!

This is what it looked like with people in it, when it was in its most fire hazardous messy lego state:

It’s much cleaner now, though.

So yeah, that’s the Robotics Floor. I haven’t heard about this type of awesomeness at any other university, so Clarkson has done this first! Woohoo!

So, this floor is so super amazing, but what’s the worst part of it? I’d have to say the respect that the people on the floor have. There’s so little of it that it’s somewhat disgustingly sad

The main problem I have is Quiet Hours. For some reason, everyone on the floor doesn’t understand what QUIET means. So this means that I have to do the RA’s job and tell everyone to shut up, EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. I’ve tried being nice, angry, mean, aggressive, sad, happy, ignoring it, and telling the RA to shut everyone up, but nothing works! They don’t have the courtesy to respect anyone that likes to wake up at the beginning of the morning. How can such an amazing floor have that little respect for its floormates? It disappoints me and bedaffles me!

If I didn’t have respect though… I would play classical music super duper loud on my stereo, each morning, at 6AM. >:D But I haven’t done it yet, because I have respect. I respect people that don’t respect me… that doesn’t make sense. :S

Anyway, during the day this floor is the most amazing place on Earth!! This is what I see out of my window:

I hope that the bad part of the floor will improve, but it’s still the most amazing thing ever.

Posted in: Art, Projects, Robot, School.

Robo Writing

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

My fingers have poked so many keys in the last few days! And they will continue poking until they fall off!

Here are the two things that I have recently finished writing:
- Awesome Foundation Grant
- Research Abstract

Here are the two things that I need to finish:
- Math presentation
- Final research paper

WOOAH! You know, I think this is sort of the tragic downfall of research. You finish researching feeling like you saved the world (because you did), and now you have to go write so many things that eventually all the words start to sound the same, but if you place them in a different order they have a different meaning.

Here is what I wrote for the Awesome Foundation. It is extremely long (almost 500 words), but I believe my imaginative intro captures some attention. I was trying to go JKR style with Quidditch

In a jolt of electricity, two robots collide in maddening competition to score the game winning
goal. Their batteries are weak, their artificial intelligence is exhausted. Beading with
condensation from the overheating servos, the crowd roars in excitement. Robot #85 from the
Rusty Roboteers dodges the defense and swiftly uses its reinforced learning to predict where the
goalie will be, and SCORES the game winning goal! The 2028 National Robot Hockey League
is won by the Rusty Roboteers for the third straight year.
Taking a step back to the present, the only competitive sport that humanoids participate in is
soccer. Soccer, to some, is an endearing sport full of strategy. To others, it is a game that requires
too much waiting.

What if they could play hockey?

Currently, I am an upcoming freshman majoring in Computer Science at Clarkson University.
My passion is making robots do things that they normally wouldn’t. In particular, I have a
humanoid robot called MANOI that is able to play hockey.

Currently, it has a hockey stick that can detect a puck in front of it, and its ‘skates’ are made out
of lego. It can skate forwards, backwards, left and right.

However, MANOI does not gracefully stride across the ice to score a goal. Instead, it jerkily
moves its leg as it cannot take the risk of falling over, as it has no sensors to sense it if it is
falling or not.

This is a problem because I cannot advance any further with the current supplies. It is easy to
foresee that one day, MANOI will be able to skate graciously. In order to reach this goal, it needs
some additional supplies to be able to do so.

For instance, if I am fortunate enough to win this $1000, I could buy some servos to allow
MANOI to have extra degrees of freedom to move its legs more and take strides. Additionally, I
could add wrists to MANOI to add some flick shots! Many precise gyro sensors could be
purchased to monitor the key servos and employ reinforcement learning to make the skating
motions more optimal for speed, strength, and stability.

When MANOI is able to skate graciously, it will be truly awesome because it would mean that
robots have reached another stage of mobility. At that stage, ultimately, the possibilities of this
are endless.

One of my grand visions is an inspirational exhibit during an NHL game where miniature hockey
robots would be skating around and playing a game, autonomously. The goal would be to inspire
young hockey fans to pursue an education in science, while excelling at sports.

By inspiring the younger generation, we can ensure that more awesomeness will follow in the
years to come, and keep the cycle of inspiration flowing!

I hope it is awesome enough to catch some attention, and maybe even win! The cool thing about this is that I am happy with what I wrote. When I was writing my abstract, it was important to realize, and make others realize, that it really doesn’t matter if it is 100%. If the person writing it is happy with it, then it will go a longer way than if it is 100%.

I must return to more intense finger poking, but I am planning to take a MAKEation for the first three weeks in August! It would be neat to set a goal of blogging every day.

Posted in: Art, Other, Projects, School.

Cool Gear from Honours Program

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, July 13th, 2009

In Clarkson’s Honours Program, for summer research you get $300 for anything related to your research.

In the hobby robotics world, $300 can do a lot of damage!

I just wanted to mention here some of the super cool gear I have gotten from the Honours Program this summer, and how I plan to use it:

Purchase #1 (Sparkfun.com)

• Arduino MEGA ($64.95)
• 2 XBee 1mW Chip Antenna ($45.90)
• 2 XBee Explorer Regulated Boards ($19.90)

Total: $134.65
Remaining: $165.35

So the Purchase #1 was from Sparkfun, and it came in a nice-sized box. I love the Sparkfun boxes because of their colour and ruggedness. It’s like a super cardboard box!

The Arduino MEGA was just something that was needed. Originally, I intended for it to be used with the computer, attached to Processing, but it is being used for the control of MANOI’s servos. I remember I blogged about why I changed, it was a combination of the space, the fact that it fit in the box, and the way the headers are. It is even more better with the new soap boxes!

Two XBees and adapter boards, well that one is hard to figure out (lol). They are going to be used to transmit data from the computer (Processing) to the Arduino MEGA. I really like these boards because of their red colour and surface-mount LEDs, but the fact that it doesn’t work witht he FTDI cable sort of makes me want to use adafruit’s boards. However, I can use adafruit’s boards to program the XBee and use the sparkfun boards for the actual stuff.

Purchase #2A (Pololu.com)

• 0.100″ Breakaway Male Header ($0.99)
• 0.100″ Breakaway Double-sided Male Header ($1.49)
• Power HD Sub-Micro Servo ($9.95)

Total: $17.38
Remaining: $147.97

The normal male headers are needed for just about anything, especially when you are making the proto-boards (which I plan to do for the RGB LEDs). However, the double-sided headers are quite different. These I can use in jumpers to instantly make them male jumpers. It’s much cheaper to do this rather than just buying male headers!

I was supposed to get two servos, but there was a communication malfunction so I only got one. The servos are going to be for ears on MANOI. Ears are a simple, yet effective, way to make a robot show emotions & actions. I don’t really know where this stems from originally, but it feels like Mickey Mouse cartoons really make this evident as he has big ears, bigger than his own head!

Purchase #2B (Sparkfun.com)

• 2 Breakaway female headers ($3.00)
• Gyro Breakout Board – MLX90609 – 300 degree/sec ($59.95)

Total: $69.17
Remaining: $78.00

This has not arrived yet… but I am so PSYCHED to get my hands on a GYRO! Gyro sensors measure rotation. So, I could put this on MANOI and attach/make an interrupt loop so that if it senses that it is falling, it will try to not fall OR maybe I could get it so that a capacitor holds reset low for 5 seconds so the MEGA & SSC-32 would not be on when MANOI falls and bounces. THIS IS SO AWESOME!! I’M GETTING A GYRO!! WOOT! I know you are all jealous!

The two breakaway female headers are also useful to have when proto-ing boards.

So I still have $78.00 left to spend. I still have to buy that second servo, and while I’m at Pololu.com I’ll probably also buy some servo extension cables.

If I have enough money left, I’ll probably buy a second gyro so that I could mount both of them on MANOI’s knees to tell if one leg is falling faster than another.

This is so exciting!!

UPDATE: Purchase #3 was just made

Purchase #3 (Pololu.com)

• Power HD Sub-Micro Servo ($9.95)
• 5 x #780 Servo Extension Cable 12″ Female-Female ($14.95)
• 5 x #785 Servo Extension Cable 24″ Female-Female ($18.75)

Total: $59.60
Remaining: $18.40

Purchase #3 will get me my 2nd servo that I need for the ears, and will give me some servo extension cables that I need for the lights. I wish the servo extension cables cost less, but what can you do.

Posted in: Projects, Robot, School.

Tech Tent!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Saturday, July 11th, 2009

If you are in up-state New York today, drop by the Potsdam festival to the Tech Tent!

MANOI will be there playing hockey, and there will be a FRC-like game called Puck Push!

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

PechaKucha Night & Multidisciplinary Symposium on Reinforcement Learning

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Saturday, June 20th, 2009

I gave my talk at PechaKucha night a few days ago. It feels much shorter than 6:40 when you get up there! There was about 300 people, I presented first

I just want to show some pictures of the set up:

It’s really cool. There’s an area there that is separated from the other lounge areas by a curtain. In this area there’s 3 screens. Now, the 3 screens are extremely handy when you’re presenting because you don’t have to turn around completely to know that the slide changed. Also, when you’re looking at the presentation, for some reason it makes it feel more 3D when you see the slides from different angles. Pretty spectacular!

This is what one of the lounge areas looked like:

As you can also see by the screen, this was the 2 year anniversary! Woohoo!

It is also worth noting the efforts I went to to make sure I knew what I was talking about. I practiced an insane amount of times, and I even made an app that shows my slide notes, and I can just swipe through them. (Though, when I got there and decided to look at it, the app crashed just about at slide 10. LOL) But, when I got up there, I completely winged it. The key points were the same, but I have absolutely no recollection of what I said, exactly.

So yeah, PechaKucha was really fun, and the people there were amazing.

Oh yeah: My dad was going to record it so that I could share it with yall, but I forgot the batteries. ROFL! I know right, a roboticist forgot the batteries. Total shame!

The next day I went to McGill for this Multidisciplinary Symposium on Reinforcement Learning.

I had to sit on the floor because there were not enough chairs. I also found the general attitude of some of the presenters was ‘my way, or the highway’.

With that being said, it was all worth it in order to listen to Andrew Ng’s talk (Ng doesn’t have the attitude of ‘my way or the highway’). He was most definitely the only person there that had a great in-depth and practical knowledge of what RL is all about. He was leaps beyond many of the other presenters.

It’s funny though because it felt like the other presenters (who thought that they were all the key to the earth), thought that Ng was using the wrong principles, not RL, in his Little Dog algorithms. They didn’t catch on what it was all about. I lol at them!

In any case, I didn’t go back the next day because I figured I could learn more online and do some of my own research, where I would be learning more.

I like AI & ML more than RL. To me, RL is just AI + ML but in a loop. Long live AI & ML!

Posted in: Art, Other, Projects, School.

Social Robotics Research

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Sunday, June 7th, 2009

Evidently, there was no Friday Night Robotics last week! You might be wondering why…

I’m creating a new method for creating social robots. Currently, the social robots are usually ‘hard-coded’ with beliefs, values, etc.

What I’m researching is a way to create an artificial society with numerous layers of socialization to create this social robot.

I’ll post more details later, but I think this is enough to excite some of the readers who read this feed.

Posted in: Programming, Projects, School.