Schlagwort: Uno

  • Fingertip force control aids in sports and musical training

    Fingertip force control aids in sports and musical training

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    A great number of activities require the precise application of force with the fingertips. When playing a guitar, for example, you must exert the proper amount of force to push a string against the fret board. Training is difficult, because new guitarists don’t know how much force to apply. This wearable system controls fingertip force to help users learn how to perform new activities.

    Developed by NTT Corporation researchers, the system needs two parts to enable fingertip force control: stimulation and feedback. EMS (electronic muscle stimulation) handles the former by pulsing a small amount of electric current through the user’s muscles, forcing them to contract. That is commonplace technology today, with uses ranging from legitimate medical therapy to more homeopathic remedies. For feedback, the system utilizes bioacoustic technology (a transducer and piezoelectric sensor) to determine the amount of force applied by a user’s finger.

    An Arduino Uno Rev3 board paired with a function generator gives the system precise control over the EMS unit, allowing it to adjust muscle stimulation as necessary. It does so in real-time in response to fingertip force estimated by a machine-learning regression model. An expert in the activity could use the system to train it on the proper amount of force for an action, then the system could provide the amount of stimulation necessary for a new student to replicate the expert’s force. With practice, the student would gain a feel for the force and then could perform the activity on their own without the aid of the system.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T8IF5Lo65c?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Additional details on the project can be found in the researchers’ paper here.

    The post Fingertip force control aids in sports and musical training appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This robot car accepts voice commands or operates autonomously

    This robot car accepts voice commands or operates autonomously

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    The fantastic thing about Arduino boards and maker hardware as a whole is that they make creativity accessible. Just a few decades ago, it would take serious expertise and a generous budget to build even a simple robot. But with the technology available today, Parikshit Pagare was able to create this robot car that can be controlled manually, by voice, or operate autonomously.

    Pagare started with the kind of RC car that you can find at any toy store or online retailer. That provided a platform to build upon, with a frame, wheels, and motors. But the original RC control was very rudimentary, which is why he replaced all of the electronics. The upgraded vehicle has an Arduino Uno that controls the two DC motors through L298N motor drivers. An HC-05 modules allows for Bluetooth® communication with a smartphone and an ultrasonic sensor mounted on a servo arm provides some feedback.

    A custom app, developed with the MIT App Inventor platform, enables the different control modes. The manual mode lets the user operate the vehicle directly, just like the original RC control. The voice mode lets the user speak commands like “move forward.” Before following such commands, the robot checks the ultrasonic sensor to ensure that there isn’t an obstacle in the way. In autonomous mode, the robot will perform its own pathfinding with the help of the ultrasonic sensor, similar to a Roomba.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jAYXDv8F4I?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This robot car accepts voice commands or operates autonomously appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • A PCB shaker perfect for a maker

    A PCB shaker perfect for a maker

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    There are a few approaches to making your own PCBs at home, and perhaps one of the most interesting yet potentially tedious methods involves making a UV-resistant mask and then etching away the non-copper areas with an acid bath. This etching step requires constantly moving the acid across the board’s surfaces for up to 30 minutes at a time, which is why Earl Daniel Villanueva made a small machine to handle this automatically.

    Villanueva began by gathering together an old CD-ROM drive, an Arduino Uno, an Adafruit Motor Shield, and a 5V power supply. The disc drive was chosen because it not only had an easily accessible DC motor, but also due to the disc ejection assembly being able to rapidly move in or out. After desoldering the motor from the drive’s mainboard and connecting it to the motor shield, he wrote a simple sketch for the Arduino that caused the motor to quickly oscillate between directions, thus creating the desired shaking motion.

    Satisfied with the electronics, he then moved onto building a base plate from scrap wood and mounted the drive on top. Lastly, he attached a plastic container full of acid to the drive tray and watched as it continually swirled the solution across the PCB, resulting in a clean finished product.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrBoGoltejU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    To see more, you can read Villanueva write-up here on Instructables.

    The post A PCB shaker perfect for a maker appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Building an experimental magnetic loop antenna with a stepper motor and an Arduino

    Building an experimental magnetic loop antenna with a stepper motor and an Arduino

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    Ham radio allows for the broadcast and reception of non-commercial radio signals across vast distances with relatively inexpensive equipment. As the name implies, ham radio relies on antennas to function, and most designs can take up large amounts of space. An alternative antenna is the magnetic loop design which has a tall circle of copper tubing around the outside while each end is soldered onto a variable capacitor that is used to tune the signal.

    TekMakerUK was inspired by Kevin Loughin’s YouTube video on the design and decided to make his own experimental version capable of 5W transmissions, which he could tune via an Android phone. The variable capacitor is from an old valve radio and has a central shaft that rotates to adjust the distance between the dielectric plates. In order to turn the coupling, a 5V stepper motor was added to the base along with a ULN2003 stepper motor driver. The driver was then connected to an Arduino Uno, although the board was replaced by a Nano Every for soldered connections.

    In terms of usage, there is a digital encoder that increments the count either up or down depending on the direction it is rotated in, and this dictates how far the stepper should move. Calibrating the “zero” or home position is done by slowly moving the stepper on initialization until it hits a limit switch. More details about TekMakerUK’s magnetic loop antenna tuner can be found here on Instructables.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGmuCjrnVGE?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Building an experimental magnetic loop antenna with a stepper motor and an Arduino appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • A very nimble DIY hexapod robot

    A very nimble DIY hexapod robot

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    While robots can get around on two legs (or even none), it is difficult to get a smooth and efficient gait. Moving up to four legs improves the situation a bit, but each of those legs will still need multiple joints and careful balance for the robot to move in a stable manner. Once you increase the leg count to six, you can achieve some very good gaits, which is why hexapod robots are so popular. To experiment with six legs, Aecert Robotics built this nimble DIY hexapod robot from scratch.

    As you can see in the detailed video, this robot is quite agile. If you watch carefully, you can see that three legs lift and three legs remain in contact with the ground for each step. That keeps the robot very stable, as it can balance easily on the tripod formed by the three legs touching the ground. Each leg has three joints: a “hip” joint that pivots the leg horizontally, a “knee” joint that pivots vertically, and an “ankle” joint that also pivots vertically. Servo motors directly actuate all of those joints, meaning there are 18 servos in total.

    To control those servo motors, Aecert Robotics used an Arduino Mega 2560 board. A custom PCB shield made the connections much easier and tidier. The hexapod’s body and all of the legs were 3D printed. Aecert Robotics can control the robot via radio, using a custom controller based on an Arduino Uno. The two Arduino boards communicate via nRF24L01 radio transceiver modules. With the controller, Aecert Robotics can move the robot forward, backwards, left, and right. But the controller will also let the operator extended all the legs simultaneously. That means that they can make the robot hop in place by rapidly extending all of the legs at the same time.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-U2VmCW-e8?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post A very nimble DIY hexapod robot appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This remote sensor system determines if water is good for drinking

    This remote sensor system determines if water is good for drinking

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    The public often hears from various media outlets and documentaries that many regions in the world lack consistent access to quality drinking water. But what does exactly does that mean? It is more than water that is clear and free of parasites. Distilled water, for example, isn’t recommended as drinking water because it lacks minerals. This off-grid water quality monitoring system checks more factors to determine if water is good.

    This monitor has sensors to check a handful of data points: temperature pH, turbidity (clarity/cloudiness), and the total dissolved solids (TDS). When examining otherwise clean drinking water, TDS readings are a result of minerals and a small amount of organic matter. While some level of TDS is okay (and often desirable), the readings shouldn’t be too high. This water quality monitoring system, which is powered by a battery pack, is meant for use in natural bodies of water and wastewater treatment plants. Its comprehensive readings can help to determine the quality of the water and its suitability for drinking and other uses.

    The hardware resides inside of a small, waterproof enclosure and includes an Arduino Uno board, a microSD card reader, a 20,000mAh USB battery pack, and the sensors. Those sensors are: a DFRobot Gravity analog turbidity sensor, a DFRobot Gravity analog TDS sensor, a DFRobot Gravity analog pH sensor, and a DS18B20 waterproof temperature sensor. The Arduino sketch takes the sensor readings and stores them on the microSD card for later retrieval.

    This low-cost design is perfect for monitoring water supplies, especially in remote regions where on-grid monitors aren’t feasible.

    The post This remote sensor system determines if water is good for drinking appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Smart bedside mat won’t let you snooze your alarm

    Smart bedside mat won’t let you snooze your alarm

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    There is one thing that we can agree on: more sleep is better. None of us want to wake up, which makes that snooze button oh so tempting. That leads to the inevitable cycle of pushing the snooze button over and over again until suddenly you find yourself let for work or your kid’s school drop-off time. Many people have tried to find solutions to this problem over the years, but we like Arpan Mondal’s Smart Wake-Up Mat.

    This is a small mat designed to sit by the user’s bed. When the alarm goes off in the morning, the user must get out of bed and stand on that mat for five to 10 seconds. Until they do so, the alarm will continue blaring. Snooze is not an option here and the simple act of getting out of bed and standing up should be enough for most people to shake the sleep off, ensuring that they won’t fall back asleep. Best of all, this is affordable and easy to build.

    The clock is an Arduino Uno board, which has onboard timekeeping accurate enough for an application like this — though it will drift eventually without the use of an RTC (real-time clock) module. The alarm sounds through a piezo buzzer. Instead of an expensive and finicky load cell, the Smart Wake-Up mat utilizes a custom sensor. It is essentially a big button made of aluminum foil sandwiched between sheets of cardboard. A mat of the user’s choice covers that. When the user steps on the mat, they push down the foil so it makes contact with a wire, completing the circuit.

    If you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, this is a great solution.

    The post Smart bedside mat won’t let you snooze your alarm appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Lamptopus: The most adorable desk lamp in the world

    Lamptopus: The most adorable desk lamp in the world

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    Sometimes the only motivation you need for a project is “because I want to.” That is especially true for cute and quirky decoration that doesn’t need to prioritize functionality. The perfect example of this is Ruby Zoom’s Lamptopus, which is the most adorable desk lamp in the world.

    Lamptopus is a small lamp designed to sit on a desktop and look as cute as possible. Its 3D-printed body was modeled after an octopus, with the light shining through its smiling, bulbous head (complete with top hat) and long articulated tentacles dangling down from there. Those tentacles really stand out because Lamptopus has a trick up its sleeve: it rotates. As it spins back and forth, the tentacles swing to and fro. It is just plain delightful.

    If you have access to a 3D printer, this is a fun project that should be fairly easy to tackle. The light comes from two Adafruit NeoPixel rings and two servo motors provide the rotation. An Arduino Uno board controls those, with the sketch starting the rotation at set intervals. All of the 3D files and the sketch are on GitHub if you want to build your own Lamptopus, and Ruby Zoom’s video provides thorough instructions.

    The post Lamptopus: The most adorable desk lamp in the world appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Turn your lights on and off by staring at this little robotic switch

    Turn your lights on and off by staring at this little robotic switch

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    Unlike every other hands-free light switch that relies on infrared motion detection or changes in ambient light values, Michael Rigsby’s “Look at Me Light Switch” instead requires a person to stare at it for six seconds.

    Based on an embedded machine learning model and a microcontroller, this device uses Person Sensor from Useful Sensors, which relies on a camera to gather images, processes them, and outputs the results over I2C. This information can include the total number of faces as well as individual bounding boxes for every detected face. From here, the information sent by the Person Sensor is read by an Arduino Uno and used to determine if someone is staring at the switch.

    When the face is initially found, a small red LED starts to blink at the top to indicate that the user has been seen. Then once they have been staring for over three seconds, a servo-actuated googly eye spins around to show the action was successful and a relay is toggled to turn the light on or off via a remote control.

    As Rigsby notes, “This is not a ‘clap on, clap off’ switch from years past; this is a ‘look on, look off’ switch for the present age.” The Clapper was popular in the 1990s, so who knows, maybe his tinyML solution could be the next big thing in lighting control? To see more about this fun project, you can watch Mike’s video below and read his write-up here on Instructables.

    The post Turn your lights on and off by staring at this little robotic switch appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Self-guided circular saw automates woodworking

    Self-guided circular saw automates woodworking

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    A circular saw is a must-have tool for anyone who wants to do even basic woodworking. But getting clean, straight cuts is a skill that takes practice to develop. To automate the process in order to perform clean cuts every time with zero effort, Red Tie Projects created this self-guided circular saw.

    This is exactly what it sounds like: a circular saw that moves across the table on its own. It rides on hardened steel rods, ensuring repeatable cuts. It also moves at a nice, steady pace, resulting in clean edges. A projected laser line shows the user exactly where the cut will fall on the work piece. A small control panel lets the user turn the machine on, start a cut, stop a cut, turn the laser on, and move forward/backwards.

    On the mechanical side, this build is as simple as possible. The circular saw, which is just a handheld Makita corded model, mounts to a plate with four bearing blocks. Those bearings fit onto hardened steel rods running the length of the table. A spring-loading retraction mechanism pulls the power cord taut to keep it out of the way.

    An Arduino Uno board controls the single stepper motor through a driver board. That stepper pulls the saw carriage back and forth with a belt. A relay module controls power to going to the saw. Limit switches let the Arduino detect when the saw reaches the ends of the rails. The laser line projection comes from a standalone off-the-shelf unit. The machine’s controls are standard arcade buttons.

    While this saw is now only capable of doing one task, it can do it very well. For someone that performs similar cuts over and over again, it is a perfect tool.

    The post Self-guided circular saw automates woodworking appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • All aboard the java train!

    All aboard the java train!

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    These days, everyone seems to turn to robots for automating tasks in the physical world. But robots are often clumsy and unreliable — not to mention expensive. Trains, on the other hand, are famous for their reliability. With that in mind, YouTuber James Whomsley designed a model train railway to bring coffee from his kitchen to his desk.

    Whomsley’s home office is downstairs, but his coffee machine is upstairs in his kitchen. He didn’t want to make that trek every time he needed caffeine, so he constructed a model railroad track that traverses the distance. When he wants a coffee, he activates the train. It leaves his desk carrying an empthy mug on a car, goes to the kitchen, stops at the coffee machine, starts the brewing process, waits until the mug is full, then returns to the desk. That is simple in theory: an Arduino Uno board at each end detects the train and controls power to the rails. But the stairs posed a real challenge.

    Model trains receive their power through the tracks, which means that those tracks must make a complete electrical circuit. To move the train on an elevator up and down the stairs, Whomsley had to find a way to break the circuit and then reconnect it. Once again, an Arduino detects the presence of the train. When it does, it activates a motor in a LEGO elevator lift mechanism. That starts moving the elevator platform either up or down, which breaks the circuit. When the lift reaches the top or bottom, it touches contacts to complete the circuit, which restores power and lets the train continue on its journey to deliver bean juice.

    The post All aboard the java train! appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Plotting AI-generated art onto paper

    Plotting AI-generated art onto paper

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    AI-generated art is all the rage right now, thanks to widespread sharing on social media. The appeal is obvious: anyone can utilize an online service to create a unique (and often hilarious) piece of art based on a simple prompt. To display that art, one can utilize a high-quality printer or a digital photo frame. Or they can follow the lead of Eric Oaks, who built this pen plotter named “Drew” that draws AI-generated art onto paper.

    This pen plotter works with DALL-E 2, which is a popular AI art generator model from OpenAI. Like most AI art models, DALL-E 2 costs money to use. But OpenAI gives users 50 free credits to start and another 15 free credits each month. Oaks utilizes the DALL-E 2 API to generate a new piece of art using the credits he has available, then plots that image onto paper.

    The pen plotter in question is a DIY machine that Oaks constructed using linear rails, stepper motors, and an Arduino Uno board with a CNC Shield that runs Grbl firmware. The computer connected to the Arduino takes the DALL-E 2-generated art in bitmap format and converts it to vector art, which contains line paths. It then translates those line paths into g-code that the Grbl firmware can understand, so the plotter can draw the lines.

    This works really well for art pieces that look good as line art. Oaks even created a one-player Pictionary mode, in which the player can try to guess the randomly chosen prompt used to generate a piece of art.

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    Website: LINK

  • Snacky, the snack dispenser, enables snack delivery

    Snacky, the snack dispenser, enables snack delivery

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    Sometimes you get a hankering for a snack, but there is no snack within arm’s reach. Such a situation is a tragedy and exactly what we built society and technology to avoid. To prevent this frankly appalling possibility, Michael Rigsby made Snacky, which is a snack-dispensing system that lets Amazon Astro robots deliver snacks to peckish people.

    The Amazon Astro is a robot designed for helping around the home. It is a bit like an Amazon Echo on wheels, which extends Alexa’s abilities to the physical world. By default, it doesn’t do much except drive around to look at stuff — something that has potential for applications like security and teleconferencing. But because Astro utilizes Alexa, it can take advantage of developer and user-created Skills. In theory, that will make Astro very useful as accessories and abilities become available. Rigsby is leading that charge with Snacky.

    Snacky is essentially a vending machine dispenser attached to the Astro robot’s charging dock. At Rigsby’s spoken request, Astro will drive over to the dock, park, wait as snacks drop into its storage bin, and then drive over to him to deliver a treat. The custom Skill tells Astro to head over to its dock, and then the Snacky hardware handles the rest.

    That hardware includes an Arduino Uno board, an Arduino Motor Shield, two infrared sensor modules, a continuous rotation servo motor, and a DC power supply. The mechanical parts are a combination of wood and custom 3D-printed pieces. The Arduino detects the presence of Astro using the infrared sensors, then rotates the servo motor to spin the dispenser coil long enough to eject some nibbles.

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    Website: LINK

  • 3D-printed continuous rotation servo motor is super smooth

    3D-printed continuous rotation servo motor is super smooth

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    There are three types of motors that makers typically consider: stepper motors, servo motors, and DC motors (either brushed or brushless). Stepper motors are great when you need high precision and torque, but tend to have jerky movement. DC motors work well for high speed movement that doesn’t need any rotational accuracy. Servo motors are somewhat of a compromise between the two. But Aaed Musa’s 3D-printed continuous rotation servo motor is even better, because it is fast, smooth, and accurate.

    This motor works like a standard servo motor, so you can set it to any desired position. But it features continuous rotation, an integrated gearbox to improve torque, very smooth movement, and a magnetic encoder to ensure accurate positioning. As you can see in the video, it responds almost instantly, moves fast, and isn’t jittery at all. Because all of the mechanical parts are 3D-printed, durability may be a concern. But otherwise this is a very attractive option.

    Musa designed this to work with a 600RPM DC gear motor. He then further reduced the output with a 3D-printed gearbox designed in Autodesk Fusion 360. An Arduino Uno board controls the motor through a BTS7960 motor driver and monitors the position with an AS5600 magnetic encoder. The total build cost should be around $30, not including the cost of the Arduino. More details on the project can be found in Muse’s Instructables write-up.

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    Website: LINK

  • Augmented reality fire drills make training more effective

    Augmented reality fire drills make training more effective

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    While we adults don’t experience them often, school kids practice fire drills on a regular basis. Those drills are important for safety, but kids don’t take them seriously. At most, they see the drills as a way to get a break from their lessons for a short time. But what if they could actually see the flames? Developed by a team of Sejong University engineers, this augmented reality fire drill system takes cues from video games to provide more effective training.

    This mixed reality system, which combines virtual reality and augmented reality elements, makes fire drill training more interactive. Instead of just evacuating a building by following a predefined route, participants perform basic firefighting tasks and experience smoke-filled rooms. Using a familiar video game-esque medium, it gives kids a more realistic and believable idea of what an emergency might look like. It is equally useful for adults, because it challenges them to take action.

    That action comes primarily in the form of virtual fires, which participants much douse using fire extinguishers. The mixed reality visuals are straightforward, as the technology is now mainstream. The VIVE VR system can, for example, recognize objects like tables and overlay flame effects. But the fire extinguisher stands out. Instead of a standard VR controller, this system uses a custom interface that looks and feels like a real fire extinguisher.

    That extinguisher has a VIVE PRO tracker, which lets the system monitor its position. The nozzle has an MPU-9265 gyroscope and the handle has a momentary switch. Both of those connect to an Arduino Uno WiFI Rev2 board, which feeds the sensor data to the augmented reality system. With this hardware, participants can manipulate the virtual fire extinguisher just like a real one. The system knows when users activate the fire extinguisher and the direction in which they’re pointing the nozzle, so it can determine if they’re dousing the virtual fires.

    More details on the project can be found in the team’s paper here.

    Image credit: Kang et al.

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    Website: LINK

  • New authentication technology measures light reflected by hands

    New authentication technology measures light reflected by hands

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    Biometric identification and authentication is big business. As an example, consider Apple’s Face ID technology, which has made strong smartphone security both user friendly and readily available. But Face ID requires substantial hardware and computational power to work, which makes it ill-suited for applications where cost is a major concern. To fill that gap in the market, an international team of researchers developed technology called LIPAuth that can identify people by the light reflected by their hands.

    LIPAuth stands for “Light Intensity Pattern Authentication,” which accurately describes how this technology works. It measures the intensity of different light patterns as they reflect off of a person’s hand. As it turns out, those reflections are unique to the individual, just like a fingerprint. The reflected light depends on the shape of the hand, its unique crevasses and wrinkles, skin tone and capillary structure, and the way in which the individual holds their hand during scanning. By projecting different light patterns, LIPAuth can gather a large set of data points to compare for authorization.

    The prototype built to test this concept consisted of an Arduino Uno board, an LCD screen from an HONOR V30 Pro smartphone, a TEMT6000 light sensor, and a Dell laptop. The LCD shows different patterns, which reflect off of the user’s hand. The Arduino monitors the intensity of the reflected through the TEMT6000. The Arduino then sends the data to the Dell laptop, which analyzes the information and compares it to that of authorized users.

    In testing, the research team determined that LIPAuth could recognize users with accuracy higher than 99%. It is also quite resilient to attacks from unauthorized users. Because of the low requirements and high accuracy, LIPAuth could be very useful for low-cost biometric authentication.

    Image credit: Cao et al.

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    Website: LINK

  • Robot collects ping pong balls after matches

    Robot collects ping pong balls after matches

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    If you frequent driving ranges, you’ve probably seen a machine (often attached to the front of an armored golf cart) designed to pick up golf balls. Because a driving range can easily fill up with thousands of golf balls an hour, such machines are necessary. After noticing that nobody wanted to pick up the ping pong balls after matches, Maxime Monsieur and his team (Oumaima Achkif, Reda El Marsse, and Amir Farbod) built this robot that collects ping pong balls using a mechanism similar to those used for golf balls.

    Like a golf ball collecting machine, this robot picks up golf balls using a spinning mechanism that resembles something you’d see on an agricultural harvester. Any ping pong balls in front of the robot get pushed towards that mechanism by a pair of spring-loaded arms. The rotating mechanism then pushes the ping pong balls up a ramp and into a bin. The robot navigates through the room like an old robot vacuum: by driving forward until it meets a wall, then turning in a random direction.

    The team constructed the robot’s frame and body using a combination of laser-cut MDF and 3D-printed plastic parts. It has two stepper motors that spin the two drive wheels, and a DC motor that spins the collection mechanism. An ultrasonic sensor detects walls and other obstacles. An Arduino Uno board controls the two stepper motors via A4988 driver boards and turns the DC motor on via a relay module.

    In tests, this robot seems to work quite well, even though its navigation is inefficient. No word on if nearby players attempt to pelt the robot with ping pong balls as it works.

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    Website: LINK

  • Sci-fi film prop doubles as a DJ helmet

    Sci-fi film prop doubles as a DJ helmet

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Take a moment to think about some of your favorite electronic music DJs. How many of them wear some sort of a helmet or mask? You can probably think of at least a few. For whatever reason, DJs like their privacy. Daniel Aagentah was tasked with making a sci-fi film prop helmet and decided to use it for DJing, too. The result is this cool sci-fi-themed, audio-reactive headpiece that incorporates an Arduino-controlled display.

    Aagentah is part of a team working on an indie sci-fi movie being filmed in Manchester, England. He was assigned the job of constructing a helmet for a character costume and this is the result. He made the helmet out of every cosplayer’s favorite material: EVA foam sheet. That is a lightweight and strong material that is easy to cut and form. He carefully worked that EVA foam into a helmet shape, then gave it a coat of silver paint that we all know is synonymous with the future. The final touch was a seven-segment display mounted where the eyes should be.

    An Arduino Uno board controls the four digits of that seven-segment display. It sets the digits according to MIDI notes coming from a connected computer running Ableton DJ software. Each MIDI note carries information on the corresponding digital instrument, which the Arduino uses to determine what numbers to show on the display. The result is a DJ helmet with a numerical readout that mirrors the music in real time, which also doubles as a prop for the sci-fi film.

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    Website: LINK

  • A 3D-printable, Arduino-controlled star tracker great for astrophotography

    A 3D-printable, Arduino-controlled star tracker great for astrophotography

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    Most modern digital cameras are perfectly capable of capturing photos of the stars. But many of them have trouble collecting the small amount of light available in a short amount of time, which means that you need to leave the shutter open for 30 seconds or more to get a decent exposure. That presents a problem, because the Earth rotates. As it does, the light from the stars leaves trails in your long-exposure photo. To overcome that issue, Ondra Gejdos designed this 3D-printable star tracker.

    The purpose of a star tracker like this one is to move the camera in the opposite direction of the Earth’s spin in order to keep the stars still in the frame. That lets astrophotographers keep the shutter open as long as they need to to get proper exposure without star trails. The “OG-star-tracker” mounts to a standard tripod and the camera attaches to it. A single stepper provides rotation, and it is up to the user to set the angle properly for their position on the planet.

    An Arduino Uno board controls the movement, though Gejdos also uploaded firmware for the Nano. It controls the stepper motor through a TMC2209 stepper driver. The 3D-printable design includes a gear box that dramatically reduces the stepper motor output, resulting in very smooth movement that shouldn’t create any blurriness in the photos.

    The documentation is a little bit rough at the moment, but all of the files are on the GitHub page so you can build your own star tracker.

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    Website: LINK

  • This search and rescue robot creates 3D maps of disaster areas

    This search and rescue robot creates 3D maps of disaster areas

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    If you look at footage from the search and rescue efforts following any disaster, you’ll see that first responders have a very difficult time navigating through rubble to find people in need of emergency care. They also have to take extra precautions, as gas line ruptures and other hazards present dangers they don’t normally face. To assist in those efforts, Ranit Bhowmick and his team built the SARDA (Search and Rescue Deployable Assistant) robot that can create 3D maps of disaster areas.

    SARDA is currently an early prototype and its capabilities are limited, but the idea is sound. It is a little wheeled robot that would (in theory, at least) rove around a disaster area while mapping its surroundings. It could work autonomously or an operator could guide it manually. While moving around an area, it would generate a 3D map of rigid objects, like walls and obstacles, and also health hazards like clouds of smoke, heat, or toxic gases. A computer at a control station would use that data to produce a digital 3D render of the environment that first responders could reference during their search and rescue efforts.

    The robot is affordable to build and uses only off-the-shelf components. Those include an Arduino Nano board, a pair of ultrasonic distance sensors, a temperature and humidity sensor, and a smoke sensor. The Arduino controls the drive motors through L239D drivers. The RCU (receiver and controller unit) contains an Arduino Uno and communicates with SARDA through a pair of nRF24L01 radio transceiver modules.

    Bhowmick and team created SARDA for a science fair and it is rudimentary, but functional. The mapping software can only generate simple blocks where the ultrasonic sensors detect obstacles and the positioning is based purely on open-feedback motor control. But this is a great start and something to build upon.

    The post This search and rescue robot creates 3D maps of disaster areas appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This reverse geocache gift box only opens at specific GPS coordinates

    This reverse geocache gift box only opens at specific GPS coordinates

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Geocaching is a hobby that combines the fun of a scavenger hunt with modern GPS technology. One party will hide a small cache somewhere, then post the general location and the exact GPS coordinates for other parties to find. The goal is to use GPS navigation to find the hidden cache. Often, people will sign a log or leave a small memento in the cache for others to find. Trent Wyatt took that idea and flipped it with this “reverse geocache box” that will only open when someone takes it to a specific GPS location.

    Wyatt designed this with gift-giving in mind. The box has an internal lock that isn’t accessible from the outside. The only way for the recipient to open the box and get their gift is by pushing the red button when they are at the location set by the giver. If they aren’t at the proper location, the display on the box will show the distance to the proper GPS location and how many tries they have left. The idea is that the giver will tell the recipient the general location and the recipient will have to perform triangulation to find the exact coordinates where the box will open.

    If you want to build your own Reverse Geocache Box, you can start with a hinged wooden box. You can then use any Arduino board (like an Uno or Nano) to monitor the box’s location through a serial GPS module. Before locking up the box, you will need to add the unlocking location to the Arduino sketch. When the box closes, the Arduino locks the lid using a simple servo-actuated mechanism. Power comes from a pair of 18650 lithium batteries through a 5V regulator. Distance data displays on a small 16×2 character LCD screen. You also have the option to add a small amplifier and speaker to add sound effects (like a celebration tune). You can, of course, include a secret backdoor to open the box in the event that something goes wrong.

    The post This reverse geocache gift box only opens at specific GPS coordinates appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This train of trash bins moves to the curb with the press of a button

    This train of trash bins moves to the curb with the press of a button

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Once a week, millions of people set out their trash cans next to the curb for collection the following day, which many consider to be extremely annoying or laborious. So rather than manually dragging out the garbage and recycling bins, the YouTuber known as Max Maker decided to build a system that could automate the task at the touch of a key fob button.

    Max’s idea involved creating a single track that would span from the back garden area all the way down the driveway to the curb. From here, a train consisting of several flat carts with wheels underneath would be connected together in addition to a single locomotive cart at the rear. The first version of the locomotive used a windshield wiper motor, controlled by an Arduino Uno and motor driver board, to rotate a pair of rubber wheels along the lower track. However, the lack of power from the windshield wiper motor combined with the lack of grip from the wheels meant the heavy weight of the loaded trash cans could not be moved uphill.

    For better grip in less-than-ideal conditions, the drive wheels were replaced by a rack-and-pinion assembly that is either raised or lowered into place to move the locomotive along the track. Power is provided by a rechargeable power tool battery pack, and it gets charged thanks to a set of contacts that engage at the end of the track. For more information about this project, you can watch Max’s video below!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhYEOG9LOIk?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This train of trash bins moves to the curb with the press of a button appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK