Day 4: (Thu Sep 10, Week 2) Inverse Kinematics; Performance

Notes for 2020-09-10.

Notes from Day 3

Thanks for answering the skill survey. Some selected results:

  1. More than half of the class has some interest in lab access.

  2. Everybody has some kind of fabrication skill.

  3. Majority of class has either laser cutter or 3D printer experience.

  4. Programming:

    1. Modest overall Arduino programming experience.

    2. Majority have Python experience.

    3. Very little robot programming.

  5. High level of CAD skill, but not Fusion 360. (What are you using?)

  6. Unanimous physics and calculus, but only two have taken linear algebra.

  7. Four have taken kinematics and dynamics, two have taken control theory.

  8. Five musicians; two jugglers; four multi-lingual.

New Assignments

  1. Preparation for next class: watch Day 5 videos.

Daily Agenda

  1. Administrative: it’s time for me to start working out material and equipment needs, thus we need to start working out the final show objectives.

  2. Q&A: forward and inverse kinematics of the two-link arm.

  3. Discussion of performance objectives:

    1. My only essential prompt: what does it mean to be surprisingly animate?

    2. The syllabus-suggested theme: expressive dynamic behavior using multiple agents.

    3. Flexibility. As a practical hedge, the final idea needs to work either remotely or in-person, and either live or as documentation.

  4. Performance constraints:

    1. I don’t have any industrial robots to offer you.

    2. We can build or buy hardware, but we don’t have a huge budget.

    3. We can work in three groups of three.

    4. At least one student will be working remotely, maybe eventually all.

  5. Short breakout session:

    1. Brainstorm two ideas for a machine performance centered on the physical, tactile interaction between two machines.

    2. Please draw sketches to share.

    3. The central question: what will the audience see and hear and what will it reveal about the interaction?

  6. After class: general questions.

Followup

A few items mentioned during class: