FAB Academy -  Final Project 2014

My aims

• To create an engineered arts project for learning about electronics, programming and digital fabrication which I can use on my return to school - I am a DT teacher
• To encourage the students to learn by making, prototyping, testing and being inquisitive
• To bring art into an engineering project to provide more scope for being creative and engaging a wider audience for STEaM projects
  

Research

I had originally wanted to make a robot but have become interested in robot faces, expressions and communication so I thought I would take inspiration from the wealth of art history in portrait painting to help me explore the elements of facial expression and ways in which a robotic face might communicate and how an audience might interact with the face. I thought this would also provide me with an interesting project to share with the students at school and lots of opportunities to showcase the skills I’ve been learning on the Fab Academy course.

Features of the project 

• use accessible materials at low cost - sustainable
• easily mended, disassembled, rebuilt, hacked, transformed
  
• personalised – charming - character  - entertaining - interactive
• a simple electronics project to demonstrate the use of inputs and outputs
  
• touchpad interaction
• network to be a modular system that can be expanded at a later stage

Research links

Lego Mindstorms
"Adorable robots that teach kids to code" - Play-i  Bo and Yana uses programming languages Blocky scratch Java and Python

Code Club

Code Academy

Science Buddies  http://www.sciencebuddies.org

Adafruit learning systems - http://learn.adafruit.com

Cynthia Breazeal The rise of personal robots

Ted Talks – personal robots

ERWIN – emotional robots University of Lincoln

             ERWIN Robot face                                                                                Painting by Paul Klee                                       Interpretation of robot face

The above images come from exploring elements of the human face that convey expression and meaning through movement, colour and shape. I drew my own robot face, a version of Paul Klee's painting. I will use it as inspiration for the Robot Face now known as Kleebo

System Diagrams

First system diagrams below to get me started

Network diagrams below using my own board designs showing the stages I will work through to create  the system network

Network

A complex system with simple individual nodes. I have chosen this system to be scalable allowing the addition of other nodes creating a modular system easier to debug and make as each part can be made independently. Hopefully the network will be easier to manufacture, change and mend.

My final network design

Board Designs

I am making my boards using the Modella

First started by designing the servo board in Eagle, added LED, then made, see below

Servo Board

Servo Board - Schematic

Traces

next to programme in Arduino using my FABISP -  then to test the eye movement

Switches board

RGB LED boards

Schematic

Traces

sketch showing working out RGB LED connections with header below

photo showing embedded LEDs working

FTDI board

FTDI board for connecting the network to the computer and processing. Made changes to the my first FTDI connector board to add power as had some problems programming when all boards where connected, the LED's were fading.

This is the Connector board below I am using at the moment with external power from USB hub as it provides the most stable power to all the boards. I have tried  another board that enabled the power source from a 9v battery but we did not have the right capacitor to smooth out the power  and the result was noisy and jumpy so I decided to keep it simple, get the network of boards working, assemble prototype 1 then think of ways to make the project free standing and independent of both the computer and the hub for power as part of the next stage of development for the project.

The network of boards being programmed and tested below - all working, great!

Programming  

 

I will use Arduino IDE to programme my boards and Processing to communicate via my computer to each board.

Useful reference for programming ATtiny with Arduino  Highlowtech.org/?p=1695 PLUS ATTINY PINOUTS BELOW
I used Binary numbers to workout the ID for the switches and boards

Binary numbers to 15

Preparation for programming - before I got started there were several things I had to workout

I created the tables below to help me workout the Switch functions and board IDs for programming

 

BOARDS	ID from Processing
Kleeface_left_eye	“2”
Kleeface_right_eye	“3”
Kleeface_right_cheek	“6”
Kleeface_left_cheek	“5”
Kleeface_eyebrow	“4”
Kleeface_mouth	“7”
Switches	1”

   

 

  Commands Processing is sending out  based on button status. There are 15 possible combinations (see below)

Arduino IDE

Programming each board in Arduino  - links to programming attached

Processing

Programming in Processing, conducting the boards. Processing acts as the system conductor. To Programme the servos I had to first research the range of pulse 500 - 2500 micro secs    1500 home-centre

Processing below showing switch status for the 4 switches  1 2 4 8 below

At last minute added sound (laughing) from an online library into processing using Minim

Mechanics

I need to work out how to move the various parts of the face, eyes, mouth, and eyebrows, using the servos. To achieve this I have first to make a prototype face, 3D print the eyes,  think how to attach and position the servos, design and make my own servo board so that I can test the movement of the eyes and mouth. I will be using servos and rotary motion for the eyes and eyebrows and will explore linkages for transferring rotary motion from a servo motor to linear motion for the mouth to move.

Problems to solve

·      Work out  flexures to move the mouth

·     Work out pivot points for eyebrows and servos
Work out position of eyes and servos

·      In Rhino redraw the back plate of face, position all the press-fit connectors to hold servos so front and back of face match up

Useful website for understanding how to use servos http://www.societyofrobots.com/actuators_servos.shtml

Positioning the  4 servos on face, next to think how to attach them and test - testing movement and position of  eyebrow
                                                                                                                                 

Fabrication

What needs to be designed and made?

Stages of making

Started with 3D print of eyes having drawn up design in Rhino to appropriate dimensions

Attached eyes to servos to see how they fit on the face, is the shape  right? Printed in black as our only option so then needed to source other colours and consider how to achieve a better quality finish

 
First prototype of eyes                                                          Second prototype of eyes, resized and in white

 Making the face

 First prototype of face                                                        Several prototypes later with flexure for mouth and all cut lines cutting, great!

Problems I've encountered using Inkscape have resulted in many test runs. I had problems with some lines not cutting so now check line size 0.01, layers, and opacity 100% before each lasercut to overcome this problem


Flexures for mouth

I added Flexure for mouth movement, made several tests at a variety of speed and power combinations to reduce scorch marks on the flexure

         

Molds for cheeks and embedded LEDs

Started with drawing cheeks in Rhino using measurements from the face and then cut out the mold using the Shopbot. This all went very smoothly.

Backplate for face          

Thought of simple ways to connect the servos so they are secure and don’t interfere with the design of the face. My concern at the moment is that they will be heavy so stability of the structure is paramount. My solution at the moment is to add a back plate to the face which all the servos and linkages can be attached using pressfit connectors. This  has required lots of testing to get all the parts and lasercuts in place. I found drawing up the back plate in Rhino more accurate and easier to measure than Inkscape.

back plate of face above showing position of servos and LED boards and below with all assembled and ready to test

Kleeboo face prototype 1 above working well and responding to the switches board. GREAT!!

I'm so happy and it's fun seeing all the parts moving with sound effects too bringing the face to life

Future Plans for Kleeboo  

• To make Kleeboo relevant to school and turn it into a creative STEaM project I will research where it fits in the curriculum
  
• Improve attachment of servos and consider making the connectors magnetic and the backplate metal
• Take in to school for feedback and display at next CAS Computing at School teachers network meetup
  
• Make prototype 2 more robust it's important that it does work and students can feel a sense of success
• Kleeboo is an open source project to share with other teachers to be used, tested, improved and changed

Files for final Project

Fabrication

stl file  left cheek Rhino

stl file right cheek Rhino
files  3D printing eye Rhino
files pdf face inkscape for laser cutting

Programming files
Arduino IDE

programs eyebrow servo

programs eye servo
programs mouth servo
program RGB LED cheek

program RGB cheek

Processing
processing

Eagle files for Boards  

Servos  
eagle files
servosch

RGB LED

LED sch
LED brd 

Switches

switches sch

switches brd

FTDI Connector

FTDI connector sch
FTDI connector brd