19.10.15

Thesis

I am still working on my appendices, I am having some issues with my copy of word as it seems to keep removing the lines on my charts which is becoming a tad annoying. I need to get things done as soon as possible so I can start going through it and proof reading my chapters. I had an idea of creating my own front cover for the thesis but I have decided that maybe this is not the best move at this stage.  

Model

This session looks at the positioning and operations of the touch sensitive controls situated on the back of the robot. The idea is that this panel and be operated with the puppeteers right hand and the arm operated simultaneously with the left. I am having some issues with the touch sensitive modules that I purchased. It appears that only some of them work, and even more annoying is that they all seem to operate at different sensitivity rates. I have managed to solve this at a programmatic level with one of two of the sensors but ultimately I am going to have to send them back and get alternatives. I do not think these are of the best quality anyway as all the labels on the sensors where stuck on back to front so ground was signal and signal was ground. This did take a few hours to figure out as I was questioning my own abilities rather than the product I was using. 

Regardless of this I now have a working prototype of the sensor activating a servo and returning the servo to its original position on release. This set up actually works really well and I think using touch sensors gives the model a better operational feel than using say buttons or switches. 

First test of the touch sensor control system. 

Feelings: I feel pretty happy with how things are moving on at the moment, the touch sensitive controllers give really good reaction to operation. 

Evaluation: I am still stressing about my package from China, its getting to the point now where I am considering trying to source the parts I need from an English company. I have avoided doing this so far as the national companies seem to charge over 5 times the price as china do for the same product. This is becoming indicative of this type of system construction as I had the same problems with my last robot.  

Analysis: The current situation of the project makes sense to me. I really like the idea of adding elements of manual puppetry into the model as this was covered in my theoretical work as an important element of embodiment and depth.  

Conclusion: In conclusion the sensors I bought are a pile of rubbish and will need replacing, I purchased them in consideration of budget rather than quality and have inevitably paid the price for this. I'd say this is something I will learn from but I don't think it is. Every now and then you get some absolute gems and they form an important part of your arsenal, but to find them you have to trawl through all the rubbish.  

Action Plan: I will continue to work on the programming for the hands as I can do this without actually having the physical sensors in front of me. Then when the new sensors arrive I will just adapt the script to support the new hardware.