Day 9: (Tue Sep 26, Week 5) Common Platform Constraints

Notes for 2023-09-26.

New Assignments

  1. New assignment, due Thursday by class: Exercise: Project Idea. Please post via Assignment 6 Posts: Project Idea.

Agenda

  1. review Assignment 5 Posts: Visual Interaction

  2. discuss related work (below)

  3. discuss new assignment

  4. discuss emerging forms

    • interaction (human/machine, human/human)

    • light, shadow, reflection

    • sport

    • drawing machines

    • clocks

  5. discuss emerging themes

    • competition

    • order and chaos

    • futility

    • sentience

    • vastness, scale, infinity

    • forgetting

  6. common platform constraints

    • a single performance machine built within A11, visible through the glass

    • running multiple performances in rotation

    • quiet enough to maintain an office environment in the corridor

    • reliable enough to operate for a week at a time

  7. common platform resources

    • fixed physical structure: plywood, wood, aluminum extrusion

    • preferred actuation: NEMA17 stepper motors, AMS 12V gearmotors, hobby servos

    • additional actuation: linear electric actuators, linear pneumatic actuators

    • DMX light fixtures (white or RGB)

    • optional: LED strip lighting

    • staging: hanging fabric, small props, googly eyes, etc.

    • mirrors

    • some possible motion systems:

      • arrays of rotary actuators (horizontal or vertical)

      • material impellers

      • large turntable

      • linear cable suspension (a la cable car)

      • array of suspended elements (top gantry with motors)

      • tilting table

      • rolling balls

      • robot arms

      • floating balloons

      • underactuated or undriven elements (e.g. pendula)

    • some possible sensor systems:

      • camera watching the hallway floor

      • camera watching the machine

      • proximity or motion sensors

      • proprioceptive sensors for the machine (encoders, switches, etc.)