Inspiration

At first I wanted to have this exist out in the world, preferably out over one of the rivers. But due to the scope of the project, the time we had and some technical issues, I scaled it down significantly. I decided on a light and silly output of a running animation. I wanted to get more familiar with Processing and figured this would be a good project to start doing that.

Technologies Used

I used a Particle Photon board to the initial signal processing from the piezo microphone that was on the instrument. Then I used Processing to control the animation with a Serial input.

Photos

Here are some photos of earlier prototypes for the propellers

I even tried to make my own propellers so I wouldn’t have to use spoons, but unfortunately I couldn’t get a good form from the vacuum former.

Here’s a sketch for the final animation. Hopefully I can redo the animation so that its more than a woman running.

Code

https://github.com/dcamposzamora/windmillanimation

The file name “Switching_animations.pde” is the first code I showed for critique that switched between 2 different animations. But the second “Slow_still_frames.pde” is the one in the video, where the animation moves depending on the input of the serial. So if the wind is hitting faster the images of the animation switch faster.

External Libraries

I used examples from the Processing reference libraries for this project.

Conclusion

I had a lot of difficulty with this project so the final product is far from what I envisioned. Since I was caught up with the conceptual roadblocks, I had less time to troubleshoot the technical difficulties that arose. But in the end I’m glad I got the microphone and animation working. Initially I thought of this as being just a kind of dumb, fun project to get to know some of software and hardware better but during the critique, the suggestion that something like this could be applied to children’s toys or books was really interesting to me. It makes me wonder what the possibilities of using interactive technologies could be to expand on children’s books (Goosebumps choose-your-own-adventures x100)  or cartoons and short animations.

Process

Abstract

Sumo Bots are a pair of miniature robots looking to wipe the opponent out of a small arena. Inspired by a conglomerate of robots that are put in combat with each other, these Sumo Bots are able to recognize the sumo ring to adjust and avoid being pushed out by their foe. They trace their path around the ring, while a dry eraser mounted on the chassis, erases the path of its opponent. These battery powered robots are created with simple laser-cut chassis, Particle Photons (powerful, Arduino-like, wifi-enabled microcontrollers), DC motors and sensors to control the motions of the robots.

Related Work

Autonomous Sumo Combat Robot with Pneumatic Flipper by kmmarlow

A sumo robot that uses a flipper to help get its opponents out of the ring.

Sumo Bot kit by Parallax

A complete kit sold by Parallax at $135 for one, and $225 for a complete kit. It uses BASIC Stamp control boards and comes equipped with servos, QTI line sensors, and other components all mounted on an aluminum chassis.

C3D4 Joao Luiz Almeida de Souza Ramos 

A sumo robot who uses extreme speed to knock its opponent out of the ring.

Implementation

Each sumo bot used two DC motors for movement. A white board eraser was used as a third point of contact with its terrain, allowing the robot to balance and move easily while performing the erasing task at the same time. To hold everything together, we sandwiched the motors between two plates of acrylic. Additional acrylic pieces were included to hold the motors securely by sandwiching a tab on the motors and securing them with nuts and bolts. We also included holes in the plates that held the marker in place.

On top of the robot we placed our breadboarded circuit. Power was supplied from a rechargeable 9V battery. For the photon’s input voltage, we dropped the 9V down to 5V using a linear regulator. For sensing, we used a reflective object sensor, that was able to sense the line that marked the edge of the sumo ring. The motors required the 9V straight from the battery, so we used MOSFETs to control them. The 3.3V from the Photon I/O pins was not enough to switch the MOSFETs, so we used a level shifter to bump this 3.3V up to 5V. We also included diodes across the motor leads to prevent reverse current from entering our circuit.

To control the robots, we made a basic autonomous program that moved the robot forward until the line sensor saw the line. Then, it turned the robot around to get back into the ring.

The code, schematic, and SolidWorks design files can be found at: https://github.com/arathorn593/sumo_bots_phys_comp

Discussion

This project was a good way of getting used to the workflow of physical computing and teaching us how to structure our process. The 2 small fighting robots were very different from our original ideas of the project, where we wanted to have a large robot fighting a small robot so that the robots had different personalities. Essentially, we spent too much planning and thinking about the final product instead of executing and prototyping right away.

We were able to adjust focus on making 2 smaller robots that buzzed around the ring and were battle ready. We were able to get them to operate them on batteries so they were able to fight without any wires getting tangled. The build quality of the robot was enough for them to take some hits and keep on running without issue. The robot is balanced well enough for the robot to erase the opponent’s path while writing its own path.

We would have liked to give the robots different personalities and create more of a story with the interaction between the robots. There are also different control systems we considered and would have explore including an OSC user control, and also a system using different sensors to detect the opponents. To reinforce the changes in code and hardware, we would make aesthetic changes to the robots, like vacuum forming different bodies for the robots befitting their respective “personalities.” In the end if we had more time we would have focused on developing more of narrative.

Explained: A complete kit sold by Parallax at $135 for one, and $225 for a complete kit. It uses BASIC Stamp control boards and comes equipped with servos, QTI line sensors, and other components all mounted on an aluminum chassis.

Chosen: I chose this project because it seemed like the most similar product that is out on the market.

Critiqued: I think that the company definitely mad a robust product by using the aluminum and it is surprisingly light at 400 grams. I think that while there is room to change the circuitry and hardware for the robot, it seems like the shape and look of the robot is limited. Its a 10x10x10 box that you have to work with.

Related: The company doesn’t really say what inspired the SumoBot but it seems like they were targeting hobbyists and hardware enthusiasts. I think this probably informed the zumo Robot shield that adafruit sells for the arduino now(https://www.adafruit.com/products/1639) but I don’t know of hobby and commercially available battling robots before.

Link: https://www.parallax.com/product/27402