Final Project: Little D

Team Member: Yuan Chen, Yiting(Lora) Lu

Little D is a robot acting as a mailman，
deliver messages people can't express orally, or in person.

It acts as a courier for anyone in any relationship to help people express their feelings to the other person while protecting themselves' feelings as well.

Concept:

Some sentences just challenging to express, like: 

I am sorry.

Elton John wasn’t kidding: Sorry does seem to be the hardest word. Some people find it so hard to apologize that getting them to admit to even the smallest wrongdoing involves a significant battle—often, a fruitless one. Although we might perceive the reluctance of these non-apologists as pure defensiveness or pride, a far deeper psychological dynamic is often at play: Refusing to apologize often reflects efforts to protect a fragile sense of self.

We need a courier in our relationships. Kids become couriers for their parents a lot. Our team wants to create a courier for anyone in any relation to help people express their feelings to the other person while protecting themselves’ feelings as well.

Source: Shutterstock

How it works:

This robot Little D sits on wheels powered by motors. It carries a display board, and moving randomly in the room. When Little D detects a person’s face through the camera on the top, it plays music to attracts the person’s attention. When he/she squats and pick up the cute little guy, he/she will see the message. In this way, Little D mitigates dramatically emotional moments, and provide possibilities to fix relationships.

The Components:

Ultrasonic Distance Sensor

Distance Sensor is the eye of Little D.
It avoids the robot run into walls and table legs, and run around the space freely.

SparkFun Ardumoto Shield Kit

Little D is on wheels to approach the message receiver, and move around the space to attract people’s attention.

OpenMV Cam H7

It is Little D’s eye. The camera detects a person’s face and triggers the buzzer to make sounds. 

The sound will attract the message receiver’s attention.

Mini Speaker

When triggered, play music to attract people’s attention.

SparkFun 16x2 SerLCD

Display the message needs to be delivered.

The Building Progress:

Sketch 1.0

The first draft demonstrates some essential functions Little D can have. The appearance and technical details had not been thought through at this stage.

Sketch 1: A robot on the wheel. We are considering display options, distance sensor, gesture detector.

Sketch 2: We are wondering how to display the “sorry“ message in a much impressive way.

Test Sensor

1. The connection between motors and distance sensor.

2. Add an LCD screen to display emoji and the message.

3. Test the robot in the studio. The robot runs in the space without bumping to anything.

4. OpenMV camera talks to the Arduino board: When detecting a human face, light up the LED light bulb.

Schematics

Two Arduino boards run little D. One for connecting distance sensor, motor, and LCD. One for the connection between the buzzer and OpenMV Camera.

Code

The Arduino code: Distance sensor+LCD display, OpenMV Camera + Buzzer

Here is the OpenMV code.

Final Project: Proposal

Team Member: Yuan Chen, Yiting(Lora) Lu

Problem:

Some sentences just difficult to express, like: I am sorry.

Elton John wasn’t kidding: Sorry does seem to be the hardest word. Some people find it so hard to apologize that getting them to admit to even the smallest wrongdoing involves a major battle—often, a fruitless one. Although we might perceive the reluctance of these non-apologists as simple defensiveness or pride, a far deeper psychological dynamic is often at play: Refusing to apologize often reflects efforts to protect a fragile sense of self.

We need a courier in our relationships. Kids become couriers for their parents a lot. Our team wants to create a courier for anyone in any relationship to help people express their feelings to the other person while protecting themselves’ feelings as well.

Source: Shutterstock

Interaction possibilities:

SparkFun RGB and Gesture Sensor - APDS-9960
Related features: proximity detection, and touchless gesture sensing

SparkFun Ardumoto Shield Kit

Related features: get your Arduino device set up to control a simple two-motor-circuit buddy.
The small robot is on wheels, helping to approach the message receiver.

Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Strip

This is the strip with white flex PCB, its identical to the black 60 LED/meter except it has a different color mask on the flex strip

Sketch 1.0

The interactive device approaches to the message receiver. The receiver can interactive with it. Ideally it’s also carries the feedback massage back to the sender as well.

Sketch 1: A robot on wheel. We are considering display options, distance sensor, gesture detector.

Sketch 2: We are wondering how to display “sorry“ message in a much impressive way.

Week 5: PROJECT: Serial Communication Phase2

Project: A Buzz Wire Maze

Group member: Heyu Zhang, Kimaya Malwade and Yuan Chen

Assignment requirement:
Continued from last week.
The goal for last week: concept, design, circuitry finished
The goal for this week: Processing code, serial communication, testing, iteration finished

Continuing working from last week, the team:

• finalize the visual design of the game

• write the program to make a communication between the Arduino and Processing
  
  

The Start Screen
The player starts the game by hitting the space bar, getting rid of the “starting” button in the middle of the screen and a small square controlled by sensors (distance sensor along the X-axis, pressure sensor along the Y-axis) appears on the top left corner of the screen.

Adjust the variables by playing with the sensors, the player sends the square to the bottom left of the screen, where the image of “Fin.“ located.

The final image only appears when the player reaches the Fin. point.

ATTENTION: Do not let the small square touch any of the blocks on the screen. Otherwise, the square will be sent back to the top right. Game restarts.

The Code
Download the code package here

The Demonstration Video

Week 4: PROJECT: Serial Communication(In Progress)

Project: A Buzz Wire Maze

Group member: Heyu Zhang, Kimaya Malwade and Yuan Chen

Assignment requirement:
1. one example of communicating between the Arduino and Processing
2. the piece should demonstrate a good (or funny) reason for existing

Scary Maze Game

Buzz Wire Game

Inspiration:
Inspired by “Buzz Wire Game“ and “Scary Maze Game”, we are working on making a maze game. The player controls the movement of a small circle on the screen by playing with a distance sensor and a pressure sensor. If any part of the circle touches the barrier(color blocks on the screen), the circle will be forced to get back to the starting point (top left of the canvas) and restart the game.

Sketches

The Circuit Test

The Schematics

the Test Code(Arduino)
(The team use this code to make sure all the components on the Arduino board work.)

the Test Code (Processing)
Let the circle back to top left corner when hit the red block

(To be continued…)

Week 2: Enhancement to your homemade switch

Project Name: Don't stop drinking (a.k.a "Don't touch me" box)

I do not play with salty water this week, since liquid as a conductor is not very stable. However, I still want to continue the subject of serving food.

The schematic
I want to make a parallel circuit and the switch connect either path to make a complete loop.

When a cup is put on the coaster, the red light is lit up.
Otherwise, the green light goes on continuously.

The vivid image of the circuit

The actual schematic.

Then, here comes Arduino.

By using Arduino, I can code all these instructions, so that I do not need a green LED light and a red one for my purpose. There is a kind of LED light that the color of light can be changed and controlled by Arduino.

I played around with the assets and made the circuit work.

However, as the sensor is quite heavy, it can’t be mounted onto the ceiling of my box without keeping dropping down. I changed the sensor from a distance sensor to a photoresistor, which is super light weighted.

This works with other object, too.

So, I rename this project “Don’t touch me” box. Basically if an object is put on the box, the red alarm light will be light up..

Week 1: Object with Home Made Switch

Project Name: Bon Appetit

We are asked to make an object with handmade switch. I chose knife and spoon, accompany with salty water. When put the tablewares into the cup of water(to be more specific,salty water), the LED light attached to it just lighted up. Bon Appetit! Let's enjoy the meal!

All the components used in in this project

Sketch of the circuit