Final Project Update

As an update, parts have been ordered to build 2 possibly 3 more beetle bots.  These won't be solar powered, since the photopopper bot is not reacting well in artificial light.  These new ones we are building will be battery powered, and have the same behavior that the Photopopper Bot has.

Parts are ordered and as soon as they come in they will be assembled.  In the meantime, we are designing a simple "box" for them to all interact in, with obstacle courses of various sizes and weight.

We are also planning on possibly filling the ball caster with ink or a paint of sort, so that we can easily track the bots movements and behavior as well as have a visual of their movement.

Final Project Proposal

So for my Final Project, I am wanting to continue working with the Light Sensitive "Robot".  He reacts very well in Direct Sunlight and is supposed to work with Infrared Lights as well.  I'm currently working on getting some IR Lights to test and  see how well he reacts to it.  I am then planning on setting up a maze and and controlling the lights to see how well he gets through the maze.

For this project, we are also planning on building a second Robot, controlled by an Arduino and see how well he gets through the maze.

We can put the two in together and see how they react with each other.

ROBOPOD

Maze Solving and Tracking Robot

Line Robot

Man-Machine Coupling

“In the physical realm it will process data to solve problems and give information in any area of human interest. It will make decisions. It will execute prescribed courses of action.

In the psychological realm it will analyze personality and diagnose psychiatric problems. It will prescribe courses of action appropriate to personality and, by repeated suggestion and testing, effect psychiatric cures.”

This got me thinking about how much technology is advancing and whether or not It is such a good thing.  While robots and machines are modeled after human behavior with humans in mind, is it really ok for machines to diagnose psychological problems? 

When it comes to physical and biological problems and tests are ran that is one thing.  But how can a machine decide psychological problems when humans already have issues misdiagnosing?  How is a machine able to make the right diagnoses when what it is modeled after has trouble.

Research

            I am interested in Robots, Solar powered robots to be specific.  My ultimate goal will one day be to build a Solar Powered Panda Robot.  But that’s in the distant future.  I am also interested in exploring the Arduino more and using that with my Photopopper Photovore Robot.  I am really interested in seeing how it reacts to different types of lights and colored lights.

Essentially, I would like to build the Photopopper Photovore, which is a light seeking and obstacle avoiding Solarbot.  I would like to eventually combine Max7 with an Arduino and be able to use it to control different lights, set up in various locations that would then make the Photopopper interact with the lights.

I would eventually like to program the lights with music in order to change the lights, I would like to maybe use music of sorts and the tones or ranges to change the lights that would then make the Photopopper move towards the lights.

            Ex. Grey Walter’s Tortoise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLULRlmXkKo

            Ref. Gordon Pask MusiColor

Materials:   

a.     Photopopper

b.    Arduino(s)

c.     Max7

d.    Lights/ LED’s

e.    Music

a.     Songs

b.    Traditional instruments

c.     General Noise

Reference Programs/ Materials:

http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/PhysicalPixel

http://www.soundplusdesign.com/?p=1305

           

http://digitalcoleman.blogspot.com/2009/03/maxuino-005-released-arduino-firmata-v2.html

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/lesson3.html

Reading, Gordon Pask

I like that they mentioned Disney’s Fantasia, and the light flashes and color that pulsated with the music.

“The musical performer (who may, incidentally, be replaced by a small group or band) must first be able to see the visual display and second be able to modify his performance according to what he sees.”

·      Gordon Pask, Musicolor, this is interesting because this is essentially what I want to do with my Photopopper robot.  I want the lights to be controlled by sound, depending on what song is playing, depending on the level, the lights should change, and since the Photopopper is light seeking, it should be drawn to the different lights as they flash.

Partner Ideas

Team Members: Joshlynne Ziegler and Cody Wilhelm

So one of our ideas were to make a 3D map of campus and mark certain buildings.  Then using Slime Mold, we would use it to see about which the best route would be to take through campus.  Instead of using Slime Mold, since we don't have any, we would just use students.

IDEA 2

Team Members: Cody Wilhelm and Joshlynne Ziegler.

The first complex system we thought of was of the stop light system. BasicStoplight is a small Max7 program I put together of a a single, time based  stoplight intersection. (It is in pdf format so I could upload, to run it in max download and change the file extension back to .maxpat ) However, so much more could be added to this. The time of day affects how a stoplight reacts, they now have sensors to monitor if a car comes in the not so busy lane to avoid unnecessary changing, how they communicate with the stoplights next to them, and many more factors that could be involved. I would love to get a look at the code, then I could fully understand how a stoplight works, however, this would most likely have to be done through hours of surveillance of multiple stoplights hat the same time, and trying to deduce a pattern.

Reading 4 Week 5

AI & Cybernetics, Paul Pangaro

·      Cybernetics is about having a goal and then taking action to achieve said goal.  Feedback is what you get in order to know whether or not you have achieved your goal.

·      Cybernetics came from the Latin word Govern, which Plato used to describe the government,

·      Norbert Weiner used the term cybernetics to describe: electrical engineering, mathematics, biology, neurophysiology, anthropology and psychology.

·      Cybernetics is referred to as applied epistemology, because it is limited to what we can know

·      “They quote Maturana: “Learning is not a process of accumulation of representations of the environment; it is a continuous process of transformation of behavior through continuous change in the capacity of the nervous system to synthesize it. Recall does not depend on the indefinite retention of a structural invariant that represents an entity (an idea, image or symbol),but on the functional ability of the system to create, when certain recurrent demands are given, a behavior that satisfies the recurrent demands or that the observer would class as a reenacting of aprevious one.” (Maturana 1980)

·      ”