Initial Thoughts:
The biggest concern we have here in NYD is to figure out the purpose of bringing a robot into SMALLab. What is it that a robot can do in SMALLab but no where else? Before I complicate myself with icreate robot kit and all those aid-ons, I decided to do a few simple studies in SMALLab, to understand this space more. First thing I did was spending a quiet weekend afternoon in SMALLab, doing nothing just sitting down on the mat and stimulating ideas. I found out one of the interesting features of SMALLab, also the weakness sometimes, is the top-down projection from the ceiling. It creates an immersive experience instantly by enclosing users in the projection, however, the cast-shadow causes major eligibility problem.
Research:
I learned a while ago that projector operates like a LED matrix, it refreshes pixels in a similar fashion just like turning on and off LEDs in a LED matrix. In that sense, theoretically speaking, the black area in the projection means there is no lights in it. My thoughts started to revolve around brightness and darkness in the projection and then the idea of custom making a line follower robot for SMALLab came up.
Light follower robot is probably one of the first robots people would build to understand the idea of sensorimotors and basic programming logics. A regular line follower robot consists one to three photodiodes that reads brightness (usually with IR lights) on the floor. Based on the readings, we program it in a way that the center photodiode always stays on the black line on the floor. If either side of the photodiodes reads black, that means the robot is off the track, turns the robot the other direction so that the robot will always stay in the center.
In order to read the line from the top projection in SMALLab, we need to put the photodiodes on top of the robot instead of facing the ground. And since the projection was based on brightness, it should work right after we turn the sensors upside down and reverse the order of the readings. T-bot 1000 works well with the projected line (one of those lucky moments when it works right away after building it = =a). However, it is possible to write an extra buffer so it runs more smoothly than what we have now.
Next Step:
1. Looking into icreate robot development kit and see how we can apply what we have now to the next study.
2. Development our co-operative SMALLab game idea with robot(s).
3. Looking into wireless modules for possible data transmitting parts.
4. At this point, there is no electronic communications between the robot and the SMALLab.
5. Play with shadow.
Parts:
Arduino Diecimila X1
Photodiode X3
SN754410NE H-Bridge Chip X1
16-pin chip socket X1
Green LED X1
Red LED X1
Temporary On/Off Switch X1
9V battery box X1
3V battery holder (1.5V AA X2) X1
TAMIYA Romote Control Bulldozer kite (Chassis) X1
Pictures:
