For my final project for physical computing, I decided to advance with my progress on the Spark Wand. If you want to see how my part has evolved from it’s last primary iteration, the link to that is:

The Spark Wand is part of a multidisciplinary theatrical project integrating quadcopters, a controller (the spark wand), motion-capture technologies and an actor controlling the system. The system of operations is integrated together using what is known as the Robotic Operating System (ROS). ROS does a great job at being able to get signals and operations between multiple software and systems working together in a cohesive manner. As part of my assignment to this project, I had to communicate with ROS and I did this through ROSPy and I can show you what the results will look like.

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Working with the aerial robotics lab and some of the members involved in the project, I was able to create the first prototype of the Spark Wand. The reason why I call it that is because it uses a component called a Spark/Particle Photon. The Photon is a special Arduino-like micro-controller that has an integrated WiFi component that uses the same programming language as Arduino and has a bit more features like web-based development and browser-based testing. The primary reason I used this board was because of its convenient form factor. Its dimensions are 1.44 in. x 0.8 in. x 0.27 in. with headers on which is very convenient for making an easily-portable and lightweight controller/wand. However, the convenient form factor of the Spark/Particle Photon was only one of the things I was able to use to get a more convenient form factor for the controller itself.

The controller itself comes with 10 buttons and a laser button that relay information into a “dashboard” that is included with the development provided by Particle and also sends information through ROS. The Dashboard lets me monitor the signals, counts how many times they come in and also provide me information of the time the signal is received and gives a graphical representation of it. An example of what it looks like is shown below:

The wand is made to be comfortable, easy to use, and lightweight with no external wires or cables. The latency experienced with a system with even decent connection to WiFi not noticeable and provides reliable results. In this revision of the project, I primarily focused on getting the form factor much sleeker and comfortable. The noticeable changes are that there are no exposed wires. I was able to do this by shielding the robot with a 3D-printed case that housed all of the components, the buttons and let the photon exposed for feedback and access.

Some of the main features is an on/off switch that allowed for power control. A 1C LiPo battery in order to provide power with a sleek packaging. Personalized grippers to house the customized laser pointer in order provide space but keep the laser at a constant position. And a protoboard with all of the wires and buttons in one compact form factor.

YouTube / musiczheir – via Iframely

The Spark Wand is part of a multidisciplinary theatrical project integrating quadcopters, a controller (or wand), motion-capture technologies and an actor controlling the system. Working with the aerial robotics lab and some of the members involved in the project, I was able to create the first prototype of the Spark Wand. The reason why I call it that is because it uses a component called a Spark/Particle Photon. The Photon is a special Arduino-like micro-controller that has an integrated WiFi component that uses the same programming language as Arduino and has a bit more features like web-based development, browser-based development and testing. The primary reason I used this board was because of its convenient form factor. Its dimensions are 1.44 in x 0.8 in x 0.27 in with headers on which is very convenient for making an easily-portable and lightweight controller/wand.

The controller itself comes with 10 buttons that relay information (for the time being) into a “dashboard” that is included with the development provided by Particle. It lets me monitor the signals. counts how many times they come in and also provide me information of the time the signal is received and gives a graphical representation of it. An example of what it looks like is shown in fig. 3 below:

The controllers will interface with a system called ROS (otherwise known as the Robotic Operating System) that takes multiple inputs and communicates between the system, the wand, motion capture system and quadcopters.

The wand is made to be comfortable, easy to use, and lightweight with no external wires or cables. The latency experienced with a system with even decent connection to WiFi not noticeable and provides reliable results.

This assignment is based on the Pololu 3Pi Bot which is a pretty complete basic robot that allows for many interesting applications. It is an interesting robot because it specializes in line following and using sensors for basic outputs but we wanted to see how we can make this little guy a bit more useful. Potentially even able to interact with its world in a way no 3Pi has done before.

Our inspiration for the Zoomba came from the TA’s frustration with the messes in the lab and our classmates lack of enthusiasm to clean it. We wanted to embody the same spirit as the Roomba, a device that sparked much controversy over its usefulness in a commercial home. The Roomba did what it could to clean your messes for you, but just like most initial products, the original Roombas did a poor job with certain messes.

The result: the Zoomba. Essentially a Roomba that uses magnetic forces instead of suction to pick up electronic components instead of dirt. Our pursuit to perfect the electronics components cleaner veered off path. It got tired of doing what it was told to and doing what we told it to do. Our Zoomba, named Tiny, is constantly being told to pick up after the students. But Tiny gets tired and irritated, and likes to throw random temper tantrums that would spread the messes everywhere if we attached the sweeper arms to the servos.

Electronics:

We used a similar schematic to this one. On the 3Pi, we used PC5 as our input pin (yellow) from the IR sensor. Ground and Vcc were used for power to the IR sensor on the 3Pi.

Here is the code:
http://pasted.co/4c22a067

Mechanical:

We used components that were fabricated using 3D printed PLA parts and lasercut Acrylic for parts that needed to be custom made. These parts were modified using simple mechanical processes (drilling, reaming, and tapping) in order to make the components fit together elegantly.

Infomercial:

You can observe the push and pull between the commands that Tiny tries to follow and its personality through our video.

YouTube / Alice Rao – via Iframely

YouTube / Joshua Seal – via Iframely

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YouTube / CheerLights – via Iframely