9/26 Signature Project Start
This week I started the prep work for my Signature project. The first task was to design my signature poster, create a blog page, and plan a list of goals or a schedule for how I should complete this project throughout the year.
Robotic hand project goals
- Work at Tech Valley Center of Gravity
- Learn Arduino
- Build hand frame with joints using the 3D printer
- Attaching finger rotors
- Write program
- Attach circuits
- Attach hydraulic pumps
I also met up with my Signature mentor, Dr. Meredith Legg, and we agreed upon a regular meeting time. I also talked to the head of practicums, Ms. Anne Mossop, and discussed what classes I could take to learn how to design 3D objects and print them on the 3D printer, which is one of the first goals where I design the frame of the robotic hand.
9/26 TVCoG 3D Modeling Boot Camp Summary
On Saturday September 26, I headed down to the Tech Valley Center of Gravity for the 3D Boot Camp I signed up to take, in order to be allowed to use the printers in the workspace and to learn how to design 3D objects. Our teacher, Mr. Jerry Huang, mostly focused on how to design a 3D object on this software called SCAD. Within this, we learned how to program three different types of shapes on a triple axis plane. We also learned different commands that could combine the shapes together, subtract one from another, shift the shapes from the origin, and rotate them. After this camp I realized that it would take up a long time to design the frame of the robotic hand and I probably would not have enough time attach circuits and connect it to the Arduino or install hydraulic pumps onto it. Right now I am debating whether I should still design the frame of the robotic hand or order the separate parts online.
10/30 Decision on Frame
I deciding if I still wanted try to design the skeleton of the hand on my own and I concluded that I would instead find parts online so that I could focus on the programming and electronics aspects. I talked to my mentor and she agreed in my reason, and I also found that another student here named, Nana Takada, was doing a project that included a robotic hand as well, so I wanted to talk to her and ask how she managed to find parts for the frame of her hand.
10/30 Finding Recourses to Build Frame
I managed to talk to the Nana Takada and she gave me the link to a sight that designs prosthetic hands using 3D printers. She sent me the link I searched around the website and it consisted of multiple downloads for the different designs. There were multiple designs with five fingers and one called the Ody hand that consisted of three fingers, and since I didn’t want to have the process get too complicated I decided to go with the Ody hand. My taste right now is to print it using the 3D printers, and since the process will take a long time I will be using the 3D printer on campus that is located in the school’s library.
I deciding if I still wanted try to design the skeleton of the hand on my own and I concluded that I would instead find parts online so that I could focus on the programming and electronics aspects. I talked to my mentor and she agreed in my reason, and I also found that another student here named, Nana Takada, was doing a project that included a robotic hand as well, so I wanted to talk to her and ask how she managed to find parts for the frame of her hand.
10/30 Finding Recourses to Build Frame
I managed to talk to the Nana Takada and she gave me the link to a sight that designs prosthetic hands using 3D printers. She sent me the link I searched around the website and it consisted of multiple downloads for the different designs. There were multiple designs with five fingers and one called the Ody hand that consisted of three fingers, and since I didn’t want to have the process get too complicated I decided to go with the Ody hand. My taste right now is to print it using the 3D printers, and since the process will take a long time I will be using the 3D printer on campus that is located in the school’s library.
November
1st Post:
I have been busy with many tests and quizzes recently that I haven’t had time do much on my project. The only thing that I have done was download the programs from the site for the Ody hand and I have set up a meeting with Ms. Biunicky to teach me how to operate the 3D printers in the library.
2st Post:
I met with Ms. Biunicky and she taught me how to use the 3D printers in the library. She brought out the 3D printer named Ada, which is an old model of the Makerbot brand. Before we printed she told me that I would first have to level the platform by manually turning nobs underneath to rise up or down in order for the distance between it and the extruder, or the part that squeezes out the hot material, is small enough that a sheet of paper can slide through. Then we made sure the filament or the plastic was fit in properly and wasn’t jammed. Now we could start heating up the platform and the extruder. While we were waiting she had me download a certain app called Makerbot so that I could connect to the printer. She showed me around the app and how to set up stuff from it for the printer. I opened the buckle part into the Makerbot app, plugged in my computer and started printing the part. At first it was building a raft or a platform for the actual object to stick to when it was being printed. Ms. Biunicky also said that if I wanted to I could print with out a raft but in order to give it a surface to stick to I would have to put glue on the platform. After about 30 minutes the buckle was printed and I peeled off the raft. Ms. Biunicky gave me permission to use the 3D printer whenever I like, now that I know the safety rules and how to use it. I plan to use it after Thanksgiving break on one of the weekends.
1st Post:
I have been busy with many tests and quizzes recently that I haven’t had time do much on my project. The only thing that I have done was download the programs from the site for the Ody hand and I have set up a meeting with Ms. Biunicky to teach me how to operate the 3D printers in the library.
2st Post:
I met with Ms. Biunicky and she taught me how to use the 3D printers in the library. She brought out the 3D printer named Ada, which is an old model of the Makerbot brand. Before we printed she told me that I would first have to level the platform by manually turning nobs underneath to rise up or down in order for the distance between it and the extruder, or the part that squeezes out the hot material, is small enough that a sheet of paper can slide through. Then we made sure the filament or the plastic was fit in properly and wasn’t jammed. Now we could start heating up the platform and the extruder. While we were waiting she had me download a certain app called Makerbot so that I could connect to the printer. She showed me around the app and how to set up stuff from it for the printer. I opened the buckle part into the Makerbot app, plugged in my computer and started printing the part. At first it was building a raft or a platform for the actual object to stick to when it was being printed. Ms. Biunicky also said that if I wanted to I could print with out a raft but in order to give it a surface to stick to I would have to put glue on the platform. After about 30 minutes the buckle was printed and I peeled off the raft. Ms. Biunicky gave me permission to use the 3D printer whenever I like, now that I know the safety rules and how to use it. I plan to use it after Thanksgiving break on one of the weekends.
December
1st Post:
So this Saturday I went to the library to print some parts of the hand, I went down stairs to the makers space found the 3D printer Ada. I found a glue stick, pulled out my computer, turned on the Ada and after adjusting the platform began heating it up along with the extruder. Once that was ready I start printing the one of the 1 inch buckle and beforehand I coated the platform with glue because I didn’t want to print a raft before hand.
So… everything is working fine for the first 7 minutes, until the whole printed part starts moving around along with the extruder. It’s not supposed to do that! I immediately go to my computer monitor and cancel the printing, and as the platform started to lower, moving away from the extruder there was this blob of hot plastic connecting the unfinished printed object to the nozzle. I touched the surface of the platform where I spread the glue and found that it had lost its stickiness, which is weird because the platform was also hot so the glue shouldn’t have dried that quickly. To fix this problem I decided to put even more glue coating the platform, then I heated everything up again and started to print the same object…the exact same thing happened at around the exact same time. I emailed Ms. Biunicky and told her what was happening and she suggested to try and heat up the platform in increments of two and to use glue, but if it still didn’t work, I would have to resort back to the raft.
The reason why I wanted to avoid using the raft is because when I peel it away from the bottom of my object, that surface is not as smooth because there are little strands of plastic sticking out. I ran out of time to print anything else that day so I plan to actually print some parts the upcoming weekend.
1st Post:
So this Saturday I went to the library to print some parts of the hand, I went down stairs to the makers space found the 3D printer Ada. I found a glue stick, pulled out my computer, turned on the Ada and after adjusting the platform began heating it up along with the extruder. Once that was ready I start printing the one of the 1 inch buckle and beforehand I coated the platform with glue because I didn’t want to print a raft before hand.
So… everything is working fine for the first 7 minutes, until the whole printed part starts moving around along with the extruder. It’s not supposed to do that! I immediately go to my computer monitor and cancel the printing, and as the platform started to lower, moving away from the extruder there was this blob of hot plastic connecting the unfinished printed object to the nozzle. I touched the surface of the platform where I spread the glue and found that it had lost its stickiness, which is weird because the platform was also hot so the glue shouldn’t have dried that quickly. To fix this problem I decided to put even more glue coating the platform, then I heated everything up again and started to print the same object…the exact same thing happened at around the exact same time. I emailed Ms. Biunicky and told her what was happening and she suggested to try and heat up the platform in increments of two and to use glue, but if it still didn’t work, I would have to resort back to the raft.
The reason why I wanted to avoid using the raft is because when I peel it away from the bottom of my object, that surface is not as smooth because there are little strands of plastic sticking out. I ran out of time to print anything else that day so I plan to actually print some parts the upcoming weekend.
January
1st Post:
I have been gathering the materials for the project. I got in touch with Mr. McCorkle who was kind enough to give me some motors that connected to the Arduino. I also took some time to talk to him about the code I have been planning to write. One idea for the stepper motors, which will operate over measurements, was that I input a number into the code and the hand motor will rotate that many degrees. One of the DC motors I also received is more simplistic and will rotate as long as there is power, so the code would consists of sending power for a certain amount of time after I figure out through trail and error how fast the motor rotates. Also as you know I have been facing a lot of problems with the 3D printers, I was lucky to be offered the already printed hand by friend, so I can get to incorporate the motors as well. The model I received is a five-fingered raptor hand. The motors displayed on the bottom are the small stepper motor (top left) 6V DC Hobby motor(top right) and a Micro Servo motor(bottom left).
1st Post:
I have been gathering the materials for the project. I got in touch with Mr. McCorkle who was kind enough to give me some motors that connected to the Arduino. I also took some time to talk to him about the code I have been planning to write. One idea for the stepper motors, which will operate over measurements, was that I input a number into the code and the hand motor will rotate that many degrees. One of the DC motors I also received is more simplistic and will rotate as long as there is power, so the code would consists of sending power for a certain amount of time after I figure out through trail and error how fast the motor rotates. Also as you know I have been facing a lot of problems with the 3D printers, I was lucky to be offered the already printed hand by friend, so I can get to incorporate the motors as well. The model I received is a five-fingered raptor hand. The motors displayed on the bottom are the small stepper motor (top left) 6V DC Hobby motor(top right) and a Micro Servo motor(bottom left).
2nd Post:
I was wiring the motors to the Arduino board and was missing some parts, I quickly went to Mr. McCorkle I got the H-board and potentiometer. The H-board is like a smart connecter that can send the commands sent through the Arduino board to the motor. The potentiometer is a variable resistor, which means it control the current flow within an electrical circuit. Once I connected these parts I plugged the board into my computer and tried to run which a sample code on the Arduino cite. I encountered technical difficulties; the software said that the programmer is not responding. For now it seems like a common problem that I can fix using the troubleshooting page on the Arduino cite but it is a lot to read, hopefully I can figure out the problem quickly and once I do I can start programming it to fit my idea.
Interview:
I interviewed my Dad who is a mechanical and petroleum engineer and studied programming. He was born in France and was a very respected student at school. He had always interested in the sciences and math specifically physics, and during his free time he immersed himself in studying. He gained the opportunity to study further when he received a scholarship after taking and ranking high enough in a national test. He continued to study in St. Lawrence and enrolled in their engineering program. From there my Dad earned his Ph.D. and went to the states and taught as a professor at Washington University in St. Louis Missouri. The company he works for today soon recognized him. At the University there is this case showing sponsored by that company, his students would be participating in it soon the company recognized him and gave him a job offer. Soon after he accepted it he moved to California where he works at Chevron’s base and it has been 15 years since. Right now he works as a project manager while living in Kazakhstan and travels around the world meeting with co-workers. He enjoys his job.
I was wiring the motors to the Arduino board and was missing some parts, I quickly went to Mr. McCorkle I got the H-board and potentiometer. The H-board is like a smart connecter that can send the commands sent through the Arduino board to the motor. The potentiometer is a variable resistor, which means it control the current flow within an electrical circuit. Once I connected these parts I plugged the board into my computer and tried to run which a sample code on the Arduino cite. I encountered technical difficulties; the software said that the programmer is not responding. For now it seems like a common problem that I can fix using the troubleshooting page on the Arduino cite but it is a lot to read, hopefully I can figure out the problem quickly and once I do I can start programming it to fit my idea.
Interview:
I interviewed my Dad who is a mechanical and petroleum engineer and studied programming. He was born in France and was a very respected student at school. He had always interested in the sciences and math specifically physics, and during his free time he immersed himself in studying. He gained the opportunity to study further when he received a scholarship after taking and ranking high enough in a national test. He continued to study in St. Lawrence and enrolled in their engineering program. From there my Dad earned his Ph.D. and went to the states and taught as a professor at Washington University in St. Louis Missouri. The company he works for today soon recognized him. At the University there is this case showing sponsored by that company, his students would be participating in it soon the company recognized him and gave him a job offer. Soon after he accepted it he moved to California where he works at Chevron’s base and it has been 15 years since. Right now he works as a project manager while living in Kazakhstan and travels around the world meeting with co-workers. He enjoys his job.
February
1st Post:
Upon further reading into the model of my motor, I see know that there is a certain bridge I have to use instead of the H-board. The unipolar model I am using calls for a Darlington Array uses only one coil of wires on two sides of the motor calling for a different number of wires to change to magnetic pole leading in order to allow the motor to rotate in both directions. So then I successfully completed the wiring after also figuring out that two of the wires, being the power for the two sides of coils are both connected thus limiting my confusion about the discrepancy between the wires and the instructions.
2nd Post:
After replacing the H-board with the Darlington Array, I tried to run a sample program that I found on the Arduino site for stepper speed control. When I run the program to the motor, it still doesn’t respond and I get errors saying that it is unable to upload. The trouble-shooting page is saying that I have to select the proper port. The names of the ports are now showing up on mine, thus I will have to ask Mr. McCorkle because I am very unsure what to do at this point since the instructions are not matching my options.
1st Post:
Upon further reading into the model of my motor, I see know that there is a certain bridge I have to use instead of the H-board. The unipolar model I am using calls for a Darlington Array uses only one coil of wires on two sides of the motor calling for a different number of wires to change to magnetic pole leading in order to allow the motor to rotate in both directions. So then I successfully completed the wiring after also figuring out that two of the wires, being the power for the two sides of coils are both connected thus limiting my confusion about the discrepancy between the wires and the instructions.
2nd Post:
After replacing the H-board with the Darlington Array, I tried to run a sample program that I found on the Arduino site for stepper speed control. When I run the program to the motor, it still doesn’t respond and I get errors saying that it is unable to upload. The trouble-shooting page is saying that I have to select the proper port. The names of the ports are now showing up on mine, thus I will have to ask Mr. McCorkle because I am very unsure what to do at this point since the instructions are not matching my options.
March
1st Post:
Before leaving for spring break I was able to talk to Mr. McCorkle and he explained that I would have to change the port by clicking on the tool bar and choose the one that is labeled USB. Apparently this option shows up when you plug in the Arduino into your computer so when I tried it the port showed up and the software said that it was able to deliver the code. I also went to the STEM workshop afterschool that Friday in order to drill holes into the hand for the motor to be placed, I had Mr. Calos supervise and helped me fix a mistake I made.
2nd Post:
A few problems so far, first of all the motor isn’t responding to the code so either the wiring is off or I need to buy a new 9V battery (which is weird because I had used a fairly new one). For now, however, I have decided to meet up with Mr. McCorkle this week to ask for his help again. Also I have been searching around the internet for a hydraulic pump that is 1 or less GPM (gallons per minute) and the prices are crazy. I mentioned to my dad and he was also concerned about the price so I am thinking of asking my manager if I can excuse this part of the project.
1st Post:
Before leaving for spring break I was able to talk to Mr. McCorkle and he explained that I would have to change the port by clicking on the tool bar and choose the one that is labeled USB. Apparently this option shows up when you plug in the Arduino into your computer so when I tried it the port showed up and the software said that it was able to deliver the code. I also went to the STEM workshop afterschool that Friday in order to drill holes into the hand for the motor to be placed, I had Mr. Calos supervise and helped me fix a mistake I made.
2nd Post:
A few problems so far, first of all the motor isn’t responding to the code so either the wiring is off or I need to buy a new 9V battery (which is weird because I had used a fairly new one). For now, however, I have decided to meet up with Mr. McCorkle this week to ask for his help again. Also I have been searching around the internet for a hydraulic pump that is 1 or less GPM (gallons per minute) and the prices are crazy. I mentioned to my dad and he was also concerned about the price so I am thinking of asking my manager if I can excuse this part of the project.
April:
1st Post:
I am still having problems with making my motor work and it is something wrong with the circuit. I have been looking at a punch of different blueprints for the stepper motors and it shows different ways to wire it into the Arduino board. And there are also different models showing how to wire the Arduino board itself. I was first using the description of the wire from the technical details of the motor to know which order to wire the wires but the motor is still not working.
2nd Post:
I met with Mr. McCorkle and we closely looked at the two models of the circuit and the numbers for the wires to plug it in correctly and after a while we saw that there was a wire missing to connect to negative charges in order to complete the circuit. After we wired that wire into the bread board the motor was moving and responding to my code.
The explanation of how the whole circuit works:
The flow of information start from the code on my computer to the Arduino board then the breadboard, which facilitates communication between the computer and the motor. The grey looking device in between is the breadboard, which is a way of constructing electronics without having to use a soldering iron. The pines coming from the left side of the Arduino board, the red wire from the motor, and the black wire connecting the two columns of the breadboard are just for ground and power. The four, blue wires coming from the Arduino are places at certain points called pins. These pins are specified in my code so that the computer will know which wire to send power to in order to spin the motor in the specified direction. Then there are four wires from the motor that are horizontally aligned with the pins from the Arduino. In order for signals to be sent to each other there is a Darlington Array in between, which is the black rectangle. The Darlington Array is a transistor, which is a semiconductor device that amplifies a signal. And underneath that is a potentiometer, which is that small knob (its blue in picture of my circuit), and it is an electronic component where I can manually adjust the voltage passing through. The interesting part about the potentiometer is that it can store variables so basically if I just connected my Arduino board to an outlet, the potentiometer would have saved the last code that ran through so it would automatically start sending it again through the circuit.
1st Post:
I am still having problems with making my motor work and it is something wrong with the circuit. I have been looking at a punch of different blueprints for the stepper motors and it shows different ways to wire it into the Arduino board. And there are also different models showing how to wire the Arduino board itself. I was first using the description of the wire from the technical details of the motor to know which order to wire the wires but the motor is still not working.
2nd Post:
I met with Mr. McCorkle and we closely looked at the two models of the circuit and the numbers for the wires to plug it in correctly and after a while we saw that there was a wire missing to connect to negative charges in order to complete the circuit. After we wired that wire into the bread board the motor was moving and responding to my code.
The explanation of how the whole circuit works:
The flow of information start from the code on my computer to the Arduino board then the breadboard, which facilitates communication between the computer and the motor. The grey looking device in between is the breadboard, which is a way of constructing electronics without having to use a soldering iron. The pines coming from the left side of the Arduino board, the red wire from the motor, and the black wire connecting the two columns of the breadboard are just for ground and power. The four, blue wires coming from the Arduino are places at certain points called pins. These pins are specified in my code so that the computer will know which wire to send power to in order to spin the motor in the specified direction. Then there are four wires from the motor that are horizontally aligned with the pins from the Arduino. In order for signals to be sent to each other there is a Darlington Array in between, which is the black rectangle. The Darlington Array is a transistor, which is a semiconductor device that amplifies a signal. And underneath that is a potentiometer, which is that small knob (its blue in picture of my circuit), and it is an electronic component where I can manually adjust the voltage passing through. The interesting part about the potentiometer is that it can store variables so basically if I just connected my Arduino board to an outlet, the potentiometer would have saved the last code that ran through so it would automatically start sending it again through the circuit.
May:
1st Post:
Now I have to adjust the code so that the hand will open and retract, but I never formally explained the specifics of my code so I will start from the beginning to my final result.The first part of the code declares a constant integer or variable. It is called steps Per Revolution and is defined by the number 32. Then the first line inside void loop sets the motor speed from 0 to 100, which is defining the fastest and slowest speed the motor will go. The next line called for that range and then after I define how many steps I want my motor to take at a time. It first called the variable steps Per Revolution meaning it is plugging in the number 32. So the motor will rotate 32 steps counterclockwise for 15000 milliseconds, or 15 seconds. Then it is called again but with a negative sign in front of it, so it will rotate 32 steps in the other direction, or clockwise to release the strings and thus open the hand.
2nd Post:
The final steps were to use the hot glue to attach the strings to the axle of the motor. I first attached the pinky string to the motor for a quick test and it successfully pulled the finger down and opened it up. So then I attached all five strings to the motor and that’s when the hot glue started to break. Even if the times that enough hot glue would hold together, I realized the motor itself isn’t strong enough to pull down on all five fingers, but I still think that it is already cool that my idea worked even if it was for one finger.
I finalized my project by attaching the pinky to the motor, which isn’t exactly how I expected to finish but it I would still consider my project a success since it clearly shows the main concept of my idea or design.
Next time I do this project I would pick a stronger motor, one of the new stepper motors that are available and instead of using hot glue I think I would try something stronger, like soldering the strings onto the motor with a longer axle.
1st Post:
Now I have to adjust the code so that the hand will open and retract, but I never formally explained the specifics of my code so I will start from the beginning to my final result.The first part of the code declares a constant integer or variable. It is called steps Per Revolution and is defined by the number 32. Then the first line inside void loop sets the motor speed from 0 to 100, which is defining the fastest and slowest speed the motor will go. The next line called for that range and then after I define how many steps I want my motor to take at a time. It first called the variable steps Per Revolution meaning it is plugging in the number 32. So the motor will rotate 32 steps counterclockwise for 15000 milliseconds, or 15 seconds. Then it is called again but with a negative sign in front of it, so it will rotate 32 steps in the other direction, or clockwise to release the strings and thus open the hand.
2nd Post:
The final steps were to use the hot glue to attach the strings to the axle of the motor. I first attached the pinky string to the motor for a quick test and it successfully pulled the finger down and opened it up. So then I attached all five strings to the motor and that’s when the hot glue started to break. Even if the times that enough hot glue would hold together, I realized the motor itself isn’t strong enough to pull down on all five fingers, but I still think that it is already cool that my idea worked even if it was for one finger.
I finalized my project by attaching the pinky to the motor, which isn’t exactly how I expected to finish but it I would still consider my project a success since it clearly shows the main concept of my idea or design.
Next time I do this project I would pick a stronger motor, one of the new stepper motors that are available and instead of using hot glue I think I would try something stronger, like soldering the strings onto the motor with a longer axle.
Self Reflection:
I finalized my project by attaching the pinky to the motor, which isn’t exactly how I expected to finish but it I would still consider my project a success since it clearly shows the main concept of my idea or design. I had many problems making the motor and the circuit work but after much help and time I got my favorable result. Despite all that happened and the many failure that I experienced I am pretty proud of my project and how I managed to pull through the challenges. The presentation took a couple of practices but I feel that my final result was well presented to the audience and I think that I explained the concepts enough for them to understand. I think I got too nervous when they started to ask questions because my wording then started to fumble and I said a really obvious and dumb sentence at some point, but I still feel like overall they were impressed.
Next time I do this project I would pick a stronger motor, one of the new stepper motors that are available and instead of using hot glue I think I would try something stronger, like soldering the strings onto the motor with a longer axle. I hope that in the future I can make even bigger robotic machines with a variety of functions.
I finalized my project by attaching the pinky to the motor, which isn’t exactly how I expected to finish but it I would still consider my project a success since it clearly shows the main concept of my idea or design. I had many problems making the motor and the circuit work but after much help and time I got my favorable result. Despite all that happened and the many failure that I experienced I am pretty proud of my project and how I managed to pull through the challenges. The presentation took a couple of practices but I feel that my final result was well presented to the audience and I think that I explained the concepts enough for them to understand. I think I got too nervous when they started to ask questions because my wording then started to fumble and I said a really obvious and dumb sentence at some point, but I still feel like overall they were impressed.
Next time I do this project I would pick a stronger motor, one of the new stepper motors that are available and instead of using hot glue I think I would try something stronger, like soldering the strings onto the motor with a longer axle. I hope that in the future I can make even bigger robotic machines with a variety of functions.