Zombial Robotics

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Based on results from a computer program executed last night, social robotics is NOT achievable.

All researchers should therefore shift focus to a more advantageous field of robotics: Zombial Robotics.

All robots on RobotGrrl.com will now be zombies. All social robots will be overrun by a zomboni machine.

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RobotGrrl.com- version 4.01

Posted in: Art, Projects.

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!)

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:

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.

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. 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!

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

Friday Night Robotics

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Friday, November 21st, 2008

Today I finished off a part of a project that I can’t blog about, then worked on MANOI. I didn’t really do much, all I did was configure (AKA: plug in) the force-sensing resistor and watch the results on Arduino’s serial monitor.

I was really surprised with the FSR! I thought there would be some jitter when it isn’t being touched (or, has no force on it) but it wasn’t. It’s value stayed at 0!

I can’t really add much AI to hockey MANOI until I get an IR sensor. I would mount the IR sensor on the side of the stick to see if there is a ball. That, combined with the FSR, would make a good scenario for the Bayes filter algorithm.

What I did tonight does have something in common with robotics….

WALL-E!

You might think that I watched the movie… but I didn’t! I watched the special “The PIXAR Story” on Disk 2. I had major problems figuring out what DVD to get too… I had my mind set on the 3 disk one. When we get to the store, there is no 3 disk one… and they’re all packaged in French! I can’t read what the fudge it’s saying!! Then there’s like Blue-Ray and HD and normal and super and GOLD ULTIMATE EDITION and it’s all like “omg -.-”.

It’s pretty neat how similar robotics and animation is. When it all comes down to it, you’re trying to make an inanimite object move, interact, and have character! I still haven’t finished exploring all of the features on Disk 2… but it’s pretty AWESOME!

Posted in: Other, Projects.

Today…

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Today is a pretty happy day! ^_^ It’s sunny out, and it’s my birthday! I didn’t get any presents, but that’s okay I did something that I wanted to do for a while now… I still haven’t finished blogging all of my pics from the Stanford EPGY SI AI trip!

The last place I went to while in California was the JPL! It was really amazing! Our tourer works on Deep Space. Uber cool!

Click continue reading to see the pics

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: News, Other News.

Astonishment

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

You know that Cylon contest, over at MAKE and DVICE?
Well, I may not have been able to enter, but they featured my Styrobot!

I went from $200 to $700 to $1000 in a matter of hours. I’m quite flattered, really!

I’d just like to shout-out to everyone that has helped! This means all the anonymous people, thank you all so much! Also, Jon, Win, Norri, Adrenalynn from Trossen Robotics Community Forum for buying my three Styrobots (and wanting me to autograph them XD), RoboJenny, Mike, Chris, Laurel, and (a different) Chris!!! Thanks so much to all of you. I really appreciate it.
Also, thanks a bunch to Steve who made the article on Robots.net and Kevin who made the article on DVICE.com. I really appreciate it!

I updated some stuff around as I had spare time,

• Posted pics of Teachers Styrobots
• Posted pics of Rube Goldberg machine
• Posted pics of uCHobbygoo

It has been an amazing few days, thanks to everyone! I really do appreciate it, really!

THANKS!

And thanks a bunch to Miss Gierus!

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

It’s almost over! :D

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

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Friday

OMG YAY! This was the best day of school, ever. I think I was smiling 92.5% of the time, to be precise. I don’t understand though, how some people cry on a happy day?! Isn’t crying for bad things? Hmm.. anyway I left my yearbook at home, LOL, I was the only person without one. Woops! Well, the entire school year is worth waaaay more than a yearbook entry to me

As promised, a reflection post from elementary – highschool!

Junior Kindergarden (Hyland Hights, Shelburne, ON) – Weee! So much fun. I liked building stuff out of the wooden blocks.

Senior Kindergarden (Hyland Hights, Shelburne, ON) – Woohoo! I learned how to print on a line, I think. Well, I knew how to write and read before Kindergarden. Haha, I remember this:
Teacher: “You have to write a ‘D’ with a more of a point at the end”
Me: “But then it will tip over, if it has a point! It won’t be able to stand up on the line!”
I started gymnastics then … immediately fell in love with spinning around on the parallel bars!

Grade 1 (Hyland Hights, Shelburne, ON) – oOoOo This was quite fun. I most fondly remember counting to 100 by 5′s, for some reason! Still did gymnastics, in the elementary school that was on the opposite side of Shelburne, but it was fun! Also, I think it was this grade where a selected few went down to the library for typing lessons, and I was really good at it. The librarian was like “she’s a natural typer”. LOL, but I was using the computer a few years before this, so it was easy.

Grade 2 (Hyland Hights, Shelburne, ON) – I remember doing these math problems, and finishing them in a second. The question was raised as to whether I should skip a grade or not, however my parents decided against it as they wanted me to be more fun-oriented than mark-oriented. Mrs. Pugsley always kept insisting that she will eventually read one of my books one day. I had a ton of fun

Grade 3 (first half) (St.Benedict something something (aka: a religious school), Orangeville, ON) – Wooah. This school, I remember, was SO weird. They didn’t like me talking about Pokemon. I think they banned Pokemon cards too. The teachers were weird too, same with the books. I actually flipped through one of the books a few months ago, and it actually talked about adult issues. I was shocked, thank god I didn’t see that stuff in Grade 3!

Grade 3 (second half) (Laurel Woods Elementary School, Orangeville-ish (out on the R.R.’s), ON) – Wow, this school had so much land it was amazing. Plus, it was near one of the farms that had emu’s! It was so cool to always see them at lunch. I remember catching Mew on Pokemon, and trading lots of cards. Oh yeah, and being one of the fastest runners. First time I heard of Harry Potter. I remember trying to memorize the times tables, too. LOL. (I was so bad at them!)

Grade 4 (Roland Mitchener School, Ottawa, ON) – This school was amazing. It was a circle, with no walls. The computer lab was all macs. First time I heard about neopets. Track & Field was so much fun, I remember running so fast that my hat blew off and I didn’t care because I won the race by a lot. I won lots of red ribbons The pool noodle throw was so hilarious! Everyone thought I would throw it so far, but it didn’t even make it past the line LOL. That was really funny. I remember gymnastics being in the Earl of March High School gym. Reminded my of Dynamics, in Shelburne! This school was really cooool! My most fond memory is probably playing Pokemon with Mark, Tegan, and Chrispy. (I actually still stay in touch with Chrispy, she has been through A LOT, but is an amazing person).

Grade 5 (Hyland Heights, Shelburne, ON) – Back to my old school, Grade 5 was my favourite grade of all time. I got straight A+’s!!! I remember there was this math problem, and I solved it before everyone else did. It required a lot of thinking, back then. Earthkeepers was an amazing field trip, I hope to one day get all of the beads! I remember when Mr.Mac’s guitar string broke and flicked Adam in the face. Building a bridge out of toothpicks was so much fun… then seeing who’s could hold more weight was even more fun. Ours broke when I started jumping up and down because I was so happy. (LOL). I remember there was this game we invented, and it was really good. There were two chairs, and the point was to hit the chair with the ball. You could run with the ball, but if you were touched you had to give it to the other team. However, you could put the ball on the ground and roll it, and it wouldn’t matter. It was fast paced and LOTS of fun. At the end of the year, Mr.Mac gave me ‘The Bridge to Terrabithia’. I don’t think I read it, as I already knew the story… or maybe I did read it. I have no clue. Oh yeah! I remember liking using the computer for Excel spreadsheets. XD I was really Harry Potter crazy too, in Grade 5. I won a Nike Basketball signed by Q-mac for beating bullying. Go figure! I did gymnastics in Orangeville, as the club in Shelburne closed down.

Grade 6 (Hyland Heights, Shelburne, ON) – Grade 6 with Mrs Lemieux was interesting. I can say that I passed the D.A.R.E. course! even remember what it stands for. Drug Abuse Resistance Eductation. Every school in Ontario had to do this course. It was pretty cool, you get a lot of free stuff like pencils and erasers. And you got to see an OPP! Another memory from Grade 6 was the Air Band project. Me and Jenny did Shania Twain’s ‘UP!’ song, in Ottawa Senators jerseys. (That was when they were a good team). Gymn was lots of fun!

Grade 7 (a few weeks) (Hyland Heights, Shelburne, ON) – Was being bullied too much, had to leave.

Grade 7 (The Maples School, Orangeville, ON) – Wow, I get to go to a PRIVATE SCHOOL! No bullying! This school was pretty fun. I remember throwing a fit at the computer, after saying that I know everything about Powerpoint. The teacher asked me to do a quiz, and it was asking stupid questions about Outlook. Back then, Outlook was known for ALL of its viruses. It still is! I remember getting really high marks in Science. The only really horrible thing I remember was that there we all belonged to a mandatory dance club, after school. It was so lame! However, art class was really fun. They had functional paint brushes and paint, which amazed me compared to the other school. Also, there was a band. I chose the flute. I wasn’t really good at it as I couldn’t do the high notes, nor can I carry a tune. And I can’t do that thing where you inhale an exhale at the same time. Oh well! I still have my flute though. Most unfortunately, half-way through the year I had to quit gymnastics as I did a front tuck the wrong way, even though I told the coach I didn’t want to do it, and hurt my neck and back. Was fun while it lasted, and I DID get the back handspring down! I started playing more on the computer, designing webpages too. Actually, that Christmas I bought my first domain name, with Yahoo.

Grade 8 (Kuper Academy, Montreal, QC) – Moving to Quebec, I thought it would be better, especially since it had such a big and profound history. It wasn’t. We had so much trouble with the language laws and everything. Getting a licensee for the cars was ridiculously hard and stressful. At school, I remember Computers class, Art, Home-Ec, and science with Miss Mallette. She was SO funny! Math was pretty funny, as the entire year we learned proportions like 500 different ways, which all equated to one basic way. I remember doing a problem that was a Mastermind Game (I really like Mastermind) and I was the only one that could solve it. I got the highest mark on the Jan. exam, too. In French, we were graded based on how well we played chess. That was really amazing. I met one of my best friends that year too, cutting like a dozen apple pies at the senior luncheon. I participated in Track & Field, won a bunch of 1sts in 200, 400, 800, long & triple jump. Also won team MVP at the sports banquet!

Grade 9 (Kuper Academy, Montreal, QC) – Math with Miss Aubie was so much fun! Wow, I remember laughing so hard in that class, phoning in to win prizes on the radio, and a bunch of other crazy stuff. Robotics was extremely fun. We built robots using the Lego RCX 1.0 GUI programmer. Man, trying to understand that was so difficult and annoying. At home, I prgrammed my personal Lego RCX 2.0 in NQC. Way easier to understand! I began interning this year too! I couldn’t participate in Track though because of a torn hip flexor. Owch!

Grade 10 (Kuper Academy, Montreal, QC) – I think this entire year revolved around me, always getting 90s in math, going down to low 20′s. This book was unbelievable. It was translated from french, and there were no notes in the book. Had I known the class was going to be taught similar to an independent studies course, I would have prepared myself more. Thank god it was a ministry exam, and I was able to get a 72 on it. However, there was something more important than stupid math “436″ in this grade. For Science Fair we, Anne-Marie and Olivia and I, created this machine that would compare the difference between a light sensor and a touch/weight sensor. (I used Hooke’s law to make the touch sensor into a weight sensor w/springs). Although it did win gold at both the Kuper Science Fair and the MRSTF, what I learned from it was not the science. There was a big dispute over who would be going to the regionals. Me being the leader wanted both to have an equal opportunity to succeed … so if one had a question, I would make sure both heard the answer. I remember one day sitting in the library when one of the members just started really being mean towards the other. I couldn’t control it so I ran out of the library, and just my luck one of the science teachers was there and was able to calm them down. We still couldn’t settle the dispute, so we had to have a meeting with the school psychologist. After that, the decision was made that a panel will be set up and the best person that presents the project will represent it at the regionals. I always remember being asked ‘who do you want to go’ and I would always answer this person. Thank goodness the other person went to regionals though, because the person mentioned before became extremely mean after. It really showed me that some people are only in it for the rewards. The person that went was in it because it was fun. We had a great time, we had GREAT judges, and walked away with a McGill and Polytech award. And, a gold medal. Even though it was stressful (no sleep for 1 week) – I have ‘Robotics’ on my grad ring to remember it. It was fun, and I really learned A LOT about it. I really have a feeling that it will help me in the future. In grade 10 I was in the ‘Advanced Robotics’ class, only me, and I learned Java and php/mySQL. It was a lot of fun! I couldn’t do track though because of my fainting.

Grade 11 (Kuper Academy, Montreal, QC) -It’s the last year! Again, always failing failing failing math. I felt hopeless! But, thankfully, I was given a break and put into the science program even though my low marks in math last year. The first term, in retrospect, looked boring. Maybe it was. I remember having really good time management at the beginning of the year. I failed the Career Choice test (LOL). Term 2 was eventful. We got a new Physics teacher, who is now my inspiration to work at the JPL designing martian robots, and the class was really fun. Oh yeah! In term 2 I also went to the MIT Splash. That was SO much fun. I will never forget the Advanced Java class. Again this term I failed the Career Choice test (LOL). Term 3 was insanely fun. A new computer class was created, and I was able to learn more and work on new projects. For instance, Robbie the Robot. This was also the term where I wagered getting 75′s to work on this project, and hopefully win bigtime at the science fair. MRSTF really went downhill. I had judges that had no clue what I was saying. I don’t mean the vocabulary was too big, I mean they didn’t understand English completely. Apple lent me a big display, so I could make the interface bigger. Everything was shiny, and Robbie could have a long conversation with you. I was even asked by one of the big cheese’s if I can actually test it on autistic children in time for provincials. I of course said yes, as one of the potential uses of Robbie is to aid autistic children. I have no clue what happened, but they apparently did not like it. The comments that I received were very positive, however there were others that said that there was no innovation, that it was all money. I know it’s out of the ordinary, but there are people, or more precisely, GIRLS, that can program AND do graphic design. I guess they never saw a computer science project that had flashy colours and nice graphics. Whatever. I’m flattered by that judge’s vileness, because obviously the display was so glamorous he couldn’t focus on the project. The Apple community really likes Robbie the Robot. So, after I was pretty much heartbroken that night I got the silver medal (my goal was to get to ISEF, or at the very least Provs then CWSF). Pretty much a slap in the face. Also, they stole our ‘Support Our Troops’ sticker off of our car, crumpled my certificate, and originally lost the comments. At least I unveiled that not all the parts of MRSTF are fair for Kuper, next year. I hope they seriously kick butt and win some good stuff next year. But, the most important part was that I didn’t give up. I started working on my next robot project (Pinky aka BubbleBoy) that night. Term 4 went by soooo slowly. In computers I had fun with the Arduino, though! In Physics we had to build a Rube Goldberg machine, which was REALLY fun until the part where it didn’t work. In any case, the project is donated to the school now. I can only hope that maybe they will start a team to participate in the competition at Perdue University each year (there is a high school section for the project). In Chemistry, redox reactions in basic solutions makes me insane. I better figure it out soon, though! I think one of the biggest disappointments of the whole year was that I got laryngitis right before the track meet. I actually practiced and trained for the 400 and 800. Oof! That really SUCKED! I really wish I could have ran. Grr! I’m still angry that I missed it. On the last day, we went to Chez Cora’s for breakfast. To be honest, I never heard of this whole ‘Eat out for Breakfast’ thing. Why don’t people want to eat Fruit Loops at home? Anyway, my mom mentioned to me that the Lakeshore duckrace would be there, and it really was. It was cool, since the school paid for the tickets. A few years ago my family always bought lots lots lots of tickets, but we never knew who won! It got so annoying, I think it’s riggedz0rz. Anyway, for breakfast I had hot chocolate (drank it until I felt that I was having too much milk — lactose intolerant), and tried to figure out the menu. They said that they had pancakes, but they didn’t!! Instead, I had a ‘crepe’. Or, as I pronounce it, ‘crap’. ROFL. It tasted so bad. I didn’t have it with the bananas or chocolate though, because that didn’t sound too appetizing to me. It’s a big meal for breakfast though! Almost like having a meal at supper. At least we got to support the hospital though, and take a picture with a duck. I think I’ll stick with my Fruit Loops. When we got back, I was pretty much lost.. so I went to French class where the teacher tried to steal my duck :O then I went to the computer lab. Watched a crazy movie with flying cars and an Anthrax alarm… and a mix of JFK’s speeches with other pres’ to make a message. It occurred to me then that I’ll actually be celebrating the 4th of July in California!! OMG!! I can’t wait, really, I can’t. Finally I won’t look like a weirdo on the 4th in all red white and blue. I think though this will mean I will miss the Boston Pops on TV. Shucks, but still, celebrating is so much more fun than wishing we were on the Charles river on our boat watching the fireworks and listening to the 1812 overture. (If we were to move to MA, we would bring our boat with us (which is currently in Pickering, ON — and I miss it). The river is so breathtaking…). I finally got a 100% on a Math test, AND passed a Career Choice test (with an 84) O_O. Pretty cool. I gave Styrobots to several of my teachers, hopefully they will remember me? I really hope so, because most of them inspired me, LOTS! I feel so bad though, one of them that I gave to one of my favouritest teachers didn’t work. So, now that Styrobot just looks cool instead of ‘looks cool and moves’. The last day was the best day, ever! Oh yeah, my community service totalled to ~55 hours. BAM!

Woohoo! So, that took a good 2 hours away from studying. I’m gonna go and play soccer now. I’ll post pictures of the last day maybe later.

Oh yeah, and just to confirm the answer to the question that everyone is asking: No, I have no clue where I’m going. No clue where I’m moving, but I know that it will be within North America. We’ll see what happens after the Stanford trip. And, yes, compared to other moves, it is less stressful because you have NO IDEA where you’re going, but you know you have to go somewhere so you’ll just end up wherever you end up. w00t!

And the real reason that I didn’t apply to CEGEP was because I didn’t have the $30 on hand for the application fee. But, I wouldn’t want to go to CEGEP anyway.
HAPPY SUMMER

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Thursday

So, today I really started to make these Styrobots for 10 of the people that have inspired & helped me. I was painting them before-ish, which was good because I wasn’t leaving it to the last minute… right. I should have done the soldering first, and the painting last. xD I started working on them at 7ish, went to do some HW at 7:30. Came back to the Styrobots at 9, and worked until 12. Then, did more of my English essay until 2ish, which leaves me here. (And I just got really scared out of my mind because I heard a weird noise, LOL)

Here’s pictures of all the Styrobots:

Although the supplies for the Styrobots cost the usual ~$39, and that money could have been used to raise ~$200 for my Stanford Trip, I think it was extremely worth it! These are the people that got me into this 3 week program, and it’s going to be really fun! Like, I look forward to it every second of everyday now. How could I not make these Styrobots for them? Besides, it’s a great way to remember someone, in my opinion! I’ll be posting the pictures of the 10 Styrobots tomorrow, since we get out early.

Anyway… YAY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL TOMORROW!

And what better way to end with than achieving my goal from 1 year ago of getting 100% on a math test! Woohoo! (Finally!)

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Wednesday

This year is almost over!!!

It’s been a long one, and I can’t wait to celebrate (a tiny bit). Save the real celebration till after exams, though! I’ll make a gigantor reflection post on Friday. (That way I can look at it in 5 years and have a good laugh, hopefully!)

I’d love to go to a public tour at the JPL while I’m in Cali!

I wonder if Apple has tours of its buildings…

(GEEZ Erin, such a boring blog post!)

Posted in: Projects, School.

Bad Timing…

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

Wowza! I caught a really doozie cold. It sucks!

It has taken all of my energy away from making the Styrobots (more on that later) which I’ll be using to fundraise money to go to Stanford.

Speaking of taking energy away… our power will be cut today! I hope that my fever won’t drive me insane. I’ll probably read Foundation by Isaac Asimov, or something

Thanks for hanging in there…

Posted in: Projects, Robot.