Robot Art Show

Tinker-cad was our main design source that held presets for the electrical components that we needed, allowing us to create a proper circuit diagram of the product's electrical components. Alongside that, we connected the circuit within a breadboard, which was then directly connected to an Arduino pin set with ground and voltage connection. The electrical components that we used in our project were...

• Buttons - input devices that are connected through a ground connection and a digital pin connection for the 5 volts voltage; they are pushed down to send a signal to the Arduino

• Buzzers - output devices that are connected through a ground connection and a digital pin connection for the 5 volts voltage; They receive a signal from an output device to produce a tone from its speaker; The tone can vary based on he pitch that it is provided with

• Brushless Servo Motors - output devices that use an electrical current to create a magnets field, which spins the rotor around within a 0-180 degree parameter; These motors are used to create movement within the physical components of the circuit after receiving a signal from an input

Aside from the Arduino and electrical components, we also had a number of hardware components that went along with the robot itself. This mainly focused on the building of the robot with wood, screws, and wires. The main hardware components that we used in this project were...

• The Physical Robot - All of the hardware components were connected to the making of the physical, dancing robot. This included screws, wood, motors, wires, battery, and even the breadboard. 

In order to access the electrical and hardware components' uses, we needed to write code that would control the components and create outputs. Our program was connected directly from a computer to an Arduino. This allowed us to use the Arduino IDE and write original code to be compiled and uploaded onto the Arduino itself. For our code itself, much of it was simply repeated codes on the revolutions of motors and the tones produced by the buzzer, which could be controlled by for loops. This code was written along a google doc as well...

This was by far one of my most interesting projects I have done this year, as it involved connecting various different areas in the engineering field, such as electrical, mechanical, and software, to create an entire robot. While I do think that this project could have turned out better with the time and organization, I am very satisfied with the results of the project, and I believe that we created a working, enjoyable product that performs well. Throughout this project, I focused mainly on collaboration and critical thinking, as I was working with a partner. When it came to the project, we split the work between each other based on our skill sets. I was more skilled and experienced in coding and electrical fields, while my partner was more fitted towards the hardware part of the project. This required us to communicate and organize our ideas while progressing collectively as we completed our parts separately. Also, near the end of the project, we came across a major issue and mistake that we forgot to take into account, the continuous servo motors were not compatible with the Arduino boards we had access to, meaning I had to rework the code to the standard servo motors, while my partner had to create smaller positionings for the standard servos. This was a great challenge to overcome as we were coming close to the dead line. However, we were able to use our critical thinking skills and collaboration in order to finish everything on time with the proper performance. While there are a number of things that I believe could have been done better, such as the torso movement as well as a motion sensor-based program, I know it would have been possible with extended time and more thought, which makes me satisfied with what we created.