Arduino Game Controller

Ronit Banerjee

Video

The Rationale & Goals

The creator of the arduino game controller is a mechanical engineer and made it as part of his senior mechatronics project. He made a much larger project of mapping and sensing in a 3d space using the Arduino and this is just a specific usecase. The main motivation for this project was to help handicapped people. In the video above, he demonstrates using his project to control a car in a video game. Manipulating a video game controller usually requires a high degree of dexterity and hand-eye coordination and some people may have difficulty using the controller. By changing the gesture into something more natural, it become easier for both handicapped people as well as people who are new to gaming with controllers.

The Mechanism & System

He  integrated three different fields in one device, t.e. mechanical, electrical and computer engineering:

  • Solidworks to design the 3D model that represent the movements of the arm.
  • Arduino Mega 2560 card for connecting the real world with the computer.
  • MATLAB / Simulink to program the control of the 3D model

He used an accelerometer for tracking the orientation of the arm. As the arm moves, the values from the X, Y and Z axis from the accelerometer change and are being read in the Analog Inputs of the Arduino Board. Separately, in matlab, a 3d model of the arm is tracked and with these inputs.

Potentiometers are used for tracking the position of the fingers. a spring holds the potentiometer slider at a certain position and as the fingers move the slider is being pulled and the resistance of the potentiometer is change. That values are being read in the Analog Inputs of the Arduino Board and according to them the 3D Model’s fingers moves as well.

Conclusion

This is an interesting project because it melds three different field of engineering all to solve one problem. Furthermore, while there has been a lot of progress in video game development, there has been limited effort put into making gaming a more inclusive activity. I think that by simplifying the gestures needed to enjoy games and other activities, more people will want to partake in them.