Thesis: I am currently working on my contents pages, this part of the thesis is proving the most difficult to format. I have tried various techniques in order to align my page numbers and titles but I am still having problems getting it to align correctly. I am starting to think that as long as my page number all light up the titles can just go wherever. I have seen examples where people have used a cascading effect and it dose not look to bad but its still not brilliant. I cannot understand why they have made such a simple format procedure so difficult.
Robot: I have now rigged up all the fingers to their corresponding touch sensor they work really well and it feels great to operate as each finger matches the placement on the sensor on the back of the robot. Doing things this way makes it feel like the hand is an extension of your own and hopefully adds to the concept of embodiment via physical control. This whole section of the robot now runs off its own portable power source, I have used a 6amp 2500v speed battery for this as it seems to give everything enough power while at the same time. The charge time of the battery is around 5 hours but this gives the operator around 2 hours worth of usage. I think this is in part down to the quality of the spektrum servos as they have a very low stand-by power requirement.
Final test of the touch reactive sensors
This system is now complete, it runs off its own power source and micro controller. The action of the fingers is very smooth and the hand can perform simple tasks like gripping and dropping objects.
Feelings
I feel very happy with how things have turned out in this session, the programming framework I put together for the arduino side of things has worked really well in this instance and it was very simple to measure the angles of the servos using my servo tester and then just input the data into the scripture.
Evaluation
I have enjoyed this session in part down to seeing this element come to life via the touch sensors. It has a better operational feel in comparison to using the r.c remote. I am really glad that I included this control format in the model as it was not something I would have considered at the start. This is how important my theoretical work is in consideration of the physical build as it really outlines the direction of the practical elements of the project. Giving this element of the robot its own power supply as gives it in many ways independence from the other parts of the system, what I mean by this is its really easy to demonstrate to people how the hands work as it does not require booting up a pc or setting up several wires into different ports on a computer. I think this is a really nice way of going about things as its quick, simple and it gives everyone access as the flick of a switch.
Analysis
The current situation of the project makes sense, both elements of the project are starting to enter their final stages and its just a case of making sure everything goes smoothly during this period. I also feel that the practical side of things is catching up with the theoretical side of the project now I am reaching the end of things. This is more or less how I wanted things to run as the written side of things has always led the project up till this point.
Conclusion
In conclusion this session has been very useful in terms of perceiving how the rest of the project will run. I have still got a fair bit to go on the practical side of things but so far I am really please with how things have turned out. I need to start replicating all the elements I used for the left hand of the robot to construct the right hand. I plan to run both of these elements from the same controller. I am going to use a set of switches to control the functionality of each of the hands. I think this will provide a unique way of operating the system and it will also allow me to run everything from the same power source as I will just be using splitter cables instead of individuals powering each servo from the main source. The only issue I can see by doing things in this manor is I will have to have the same scripture for both hands. This means I need to position the servo arms on the left manually and not a programmatic level. This should not cause too many problems as the right hand will function exactly the same as the left in terms of operational
Action Plan
The plan for the next few days is to start putting the different parts of the robot together and finish of constructing the other hand. I am becoming aware of the looming deadline but I really feel that things are moving on at such a rate that I should either finish right on the deadline or a little bit before.
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