Robot Art Show

Objective

Given the scenario of a distant future where robots have annihilated all human existence, our task was to create a form of art using coding to give an example of what robots would use as entertainment. Using the Arduino coding kit, my partner and I were able to a mini karaoke machine that played parts of three songs seamlessly.

code vid

In order to program this device, we had to first wire it. The buzzer is wired to the negative side of the bread board and also to the GND section on the red board, which gives it power. The LCD screen is wired in a similar fashion, with all "pegs" of the screen wired to the negative side of the board. This gives power to not only to speaker but the screen, so both can turn on.

Then we programmed the code. Each line of code gives the "robot" a new command. For example, "play(' ')" is a command to play a preprogrammed note that is listed below the code. "lcd.print(" ")" is a command to display words on the screen. Each note and line from each song had to be programmed separately giving us over 250 lines of code.

Content

  • V=ir - Voltage is equal to current multiplied by resistance. This equation can be used to find any of the values when the other two are given. The current is the flow of electricity the battery has, the resistance is the force against the current in the circuit, and voltage is the potential force of the energy source.
  • Circuit - a complete loop of conductive materials that allow electricity to flow connected to a power source

a) Series - multiple components one after another on the same path, if you disconnect one the circuit is incomplete and won't work

b) Parallel - components on multiple path ways and the current can travel through either one, therefore the circuit is independent and if you disconnect on portion, it can still work

  • Voltage - the potential energy put into to circuit from the power source.
  • Resistance - amount current is slowed, resisted, due to another component, used in dimmers on volume knobs
  • Power - rate at which electrical energy is transfer

Code to note was the section of the Arduino guide book that explained what the code literally meant. This is what I was able to gain and comprehend from what I read. Coding is very literal and precise, so you must type your exact command and be sure to type it exactly the way it's meant to be. Even just an extra comma can ruin the code and cause the whole program to fail. Before you can even code anything you have to preprogram your code, essentially coding code to code your program, which is as hard as it sounds.

Reflection

We didn't do exceptionally well, but this was my favorite project. I chose one of my closest friends for this project and we argued everyday, but it was still fun. Considering we argued everyday, our collaboration was, needless to say, lacking. We disagreed a lot because in coding you have to do everything exactly right which means that when you make a mistake you have to figure out exactly where and what is incorrect and change it do what is. However we didn't always know how to fix it because we tried to program the robot to play two speakers at once, which wasn't in the guidebook meaning we had to figure it out ourselves. And quite frankly neither of us knew what we were doing, so while one of us was trying to code the other would be saying, "You're doing it wrong!" when in reality neither of us knew what we were doing in the first place. Due to our lack of collaboration our work ethic was a little askew. Because we argued so much we would often take "breaks" from each other and one would wander off while the other did work on the project. So often times you could catch one of us at a table far from ours doing nothing while the other partner worked, especially toward the end of the project as we were finishing. Despite our slight dilemmas with work ethic I believe our time management was astute. I was gone for a few days in the beginning of the project however my partner was able to get through a lot of the guide book and then show me his notes and attempt to explain. We then went a little more through the guidebook and then began working on our actual project. For the first few days we got almost no real progress because we couldn't figure out how to run the program so it plays two speakers at once. Unfortunately, we still don't know how to and no one was able to help us, so we had to stray from that idea and try to add a new creative element to our concept. My partner quickly decided we should use the LCD screen to display some words and after little delegation we came to the decision of making a karaoke machine, meaning the robot would play the notes to a song and the LCD would display the lyrics for people to sing. Anyway, either we happened to be really good at programming the right note frequencies and timing or it was just really simple once you understood it because we happened to finish our project a few days early, so in the last few building days we just had to note our code.