Robot Art Show
Evidence Of Work
For this project, we were put in groups of two and tasked with creating art a robot would enjoy in the far future. My partner and I chose to make a Robot Boom Box! In order to do this project, we used Arduino software, which allowed us to learn and familiarize ourselves with coding such as simple commands/functions. This is then connected to a Sparkfun breadboard and Redboard to upload and perform actions.
Picture of Robot Art show ------------------------------------>
This project is one of my favorites mainly because it brought together two entirely different concepts, music and robotics. We turned these ideas into one fun noisy mess of wires and eventually created the boom box we desired. Our project consisted of four songs connected to there respective buttons. once a button is pressed you would see the corresponding color light to the button on, and the song corresponding to the button playing. My partner and I decided to code the songs "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas, "How I Met Your Mother Theme song" by The Solids, "The Office Theme Song" by Mike D' Abo, and "Cantina Band from Star Wars" by John Williams. On top of that, we programmed each song to a button and a light.
As you can imagine, coding all this to work was a lot of work and took a lot of research into how things worked and what could be done to manipulate it, and after every mishap, challenge and frustration, we successfully finished our art show!
Circuit Diagram
Below are my groups code to notes and our full Arduino code
Content
Circuit:
A complete/ unbroken loop of conductive material from one side of a power source (+) to the other (-).
Series Circuit:
A complete loop with multiple components one after the other (current must go through each component)
Parallel Circuit:
Multiple loops with components on them running to the same power (current may go through any pathway)
Voltage:
Potential energy difference across a component and is represented by the variable "V"
Current:
Flow of charge or electricity throughout the circuit and is represented by the variable "i". Found with equation V=ir
Resistance:
The amount the current is slowed or resisted through a component. Represented by variable "r" and other symbols such as the resistance unit ohms (Ω). Can be solved for in a series circuit by using the equation r total = r1 + r2 + r3 and in a parallel circuit, 1/r total = 1/r1 + 1/r2 + 1/r3.
Ohm's Law:
A law that states that the potential difference (voltage) across an ideal conductor is proportional to the current through it. (V = ir)
Power:
The rate electrical energy is transferred through a circuit. Is represented by variable "p" and units is watts (W).
Important Coding Terms:
Void Setup () {}:
A function created at the top of a program which runs the code once.
Void Loop () {}:
Same definition as Void Setup but, code is looped instead of running once
pinMode ():
A function to configure the port as an input or an output. Used to hook pin 13 from red board to the computer, (Turning the pin on).
digitalWrite ():
A command which enables a port as HIGH or LOW. HIGH is on and LOW is off.
comments (//):
A readable explanation or annotation of the code of a program without it affecting the code.
delay ():
A time delay in the transmission of pulse signals.
Reflection
I have to say, this project was very challenging for me. I was sluggish in learning all about breadboards connections and circuits because I've never known very little about them. My partner, who was not as knowledgeable on this topic, learned very fast and helped me though this project and I ended up learning a lot about coding, circuits, and as well as electricity. After this project I have prided myself for being a Conscientious Learner. I have embraced the challenges of what I did not know by taking risks and having them pay off as well as having a positive attitude towards learning. I also was a Critical Thinker when applying information that we learned from books and the internet to guess and check and eventually apply in our robot art program. Even when I ran into problems, I leaned into the challenge and came out smarter.
Even though there was many successes, I could also have improved in some ways during this project. As an example, I felt that I didn't communicate as well as I could have with my partner. This resulted in having to redo some things because of communication mistakes. Communication is a big factor that I want to improve for my next project. I also would like to be more open about my ideas and not let others take over the project.