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Week 1: Balloon Popping Challenge
Students working on connecting their Raspberry Pis to the UCSD Protected Wi-Fi
Cluster 10 at COSMOlympics practice
Day 1: 7/7
The Beginning of our Robotics Journey
On the first day of classes, we were introduced to our teachers for the cluster: Professor Nick Gravish, Professor Curt Schugers, and our teacher fellow, Johnnie Lyman. We were then given a brief introduction to our first project, Balloon Popping Robots. For this project, we built a robot and attached servos that have unique arms meant to pop balloons on the backs of other robots.
The last robot standing is victorious. Students are all excited to start building their robots; however, first we head to lecture. From Professor Nick Gravish, we learn about the work done in the robotics dept. at UCSD, including the amazing measuring tape robot. From Professor Curt Schurgers, we learn about breadboards and wiring the Raspberry Pi (RPi). After lecture, we head to a delicious lunch at 64˚, and then head back to start working in the lab.
Our lab is on the third floor, and after a long walk upstairs, we reach our wonderful lab. The professors, as well as our teaching assistants, have set up kits that we will use to build our robots. During this lab time, most pairs begin building their robot chassis and also start connecting their RPis to the desktops.
The materials students were given to begin building their chassis on the first day.
After lab, we head to COSMOlympics practice where we create a unqiue skit about a robot in the Stars Wars universe. We begin designating roles and lines. After practice we head to dinner, which is followed by many fun activities in the Plaza, including a matcha night, Target run, craft night, and soccer game. After such an eventful day, students head to their dorms for suite time to bond with their suite mates. An amazing start to the COSMOS program!
Highlight of Day 1: Matcha Night
One of our night programs was a matcha night. The drink has been extremely popular recently, and students had the opportunity to try it for the first night or drink one of their favorite drinks. As students drank their matcha, they talked and played board and card games. It was extremely relaxing and a great way to meet new COSMOS students on our first day!
Day 2: 7/8
Our Robots are on the Move!
On Tuesday, our second day of classes, we were introduced to the COSMOS ethics project. We attended a video lecture taught by one of UCSD's philosophy professors, Reuven Brandt, and learned about ethics in science. We were challenged to find solutions to deep ethical questions, such as whether an autonomous car should save a passenger or pedestrians in the case of an accident. We grouped up and started working on our video projects where we will explore ethics within robotics. We also began our digital portfolios so we will all remember the amazing things we did at COSMOS!
After an amazing lunch at 64˚, we came back to the Engineering building, except we headed to the third floor to continue working on our robots. Most group finished building their chassiss and started wiring their motors to their Raspberry Pis. The wiring was a cool new process, and we were able to apply our knowledge of breadboards from day 1 to this part of the robot. Groups began to run sample code on their robots to see if the robots would be able to move forward and backwards, and they did! Some groups even began to use the remote controller. They began by pairing the RPi and the remote, and then they started combining and tweaking sample code until they could use their controller to move their robots forward and backward.
Lab ended at 4, and students headed back to their suites for an hour of rest time. Then, COSMOlympics practice started, and we finalized our skits and roles. After dinner, students had the option of going to Target, crafting, running, and playing dodgeball. It was a very eventful day!
Wiring the RPi to connect to the motors
Highlight of Day 2: Target Run
On day 1, a Target run was offered as one of the activities during the evening. Over 100 students went, and four trips had to be taken. Since the trip was so popular, a second run was offered today, and again over 100 students went in four seperate trips. Students bought essentials, like towels and soap, as well as stationary, and notebooks to prepare for classes. Students even bought snacks to eat in their dorms!
Sunset overlooking the ocean at the Rooftop Garden.
Our trip to visit the Fallen Star House by Do Ho Suh. We checked out a few other areas like the library and got to see the sunset on the roof of Irwin & Joan Jacob's School of Engineering.
Wiring the servos to our RPi
Welcoming our newest student to the group, the Darth Vadar drawing that now represents Cluster 10!
Day 3: 7/9
We Advance our Robots with Servos
Students walked into lecture eager to learn, however, the lecture was short. We explored picobots to learn more about FSM, Finite-state machines. It was a very challenging but fun programming activity. Most students were able to finish the first map, but many got stuck on map 2. Professor Curt was extremely helpful in explaining FSMs and how to code the picobot.
After lecture, we headed up to the lab to continue working on our robots. Since we had connected our motors to our remote controllers yesterday, the next step in building was attaching the servos that will pop the balloons in our challenge. Students wired the servos and combined the sample code to connect the servos to the remote controllers. Different groups of students decided to connect the servos to different buttons on the controllers: we will see which works best on Friday! After this, students started designing the arms they are going to attach the servos in order to pop the most balloons. With access to popsicle sticks, cardboard, hot glue, and only 10 thumbtacks, students started designing, with each partnership having a unique design.
After lab and a quick rest in our suites, students headed to COSMOlympics practice where we drew masks for our stormtroopers and created a banner for skit. Then, after dinner, students had the option to take a trip to the Falling Star, a lopsided house in Warren college, paint and watch the sunset at the Rooftop Garden, do yoga and pilates, and play four square and tetherball. Lots of fun activities to end the night!
Chilling working on posters of a workshop sign and the opening statements for our COSMOlympics skit.
Painting from the rooftop garden painting party.
Highlight of Day 3: Rooftop Garden Sunset Painting Party
We had the option to go to the rooftop as one of our nightly programs to paint, talk, and listen to music as we watched the sunset over the ocean. The beautiful glow of the sunset made it the perfect place to take pictures. People painted the sunset they saw onto the canvases and mugs. It was a beautiful way to end the night with friends.
Day 4: 7/10
Attachments are Designed and Balloons are Popped
Today, most groups were starting to make their robots function and pop balloons with several sucsessful test balloons popping on contact with the thumbtack "weapons" that each group had constructed out of popsicle sticks. The morning hours were used to prepare our ethics videos and discuss solutions that would "solve" the moral dilemma. Furthermore, we worked on updating our digital portfolio, including our coding strategies, what we learned, and pictures and videos of our progress. This portfolio will be extremely useful in our future, as we can track everything we learned at COSMOS!
Groups made final touches on robots and were getting ready for competition day. Using their creativity, teams were able to come up with many interesting solutions and were able to program the servos to help control the weapons.
First challenge: be the last robot standing
Blue team vs Red team in capture the flag
IMG_3136.MOVThe last red robot standing trying to protect its flag from the blue robots
Day 5: 7/11
Competition Day: Get Ready to Pop Some Balloons
Today, students started of the day with two lectures by Professor Curt, one on image processing and the other on an intro to electronics. Both lectures are key for next weeks challenge: a maze navigating robot.
After lunch, students headed up to the lab to set up for the balloon popping competition. Using foam blocks, we set up an arena, and placed our robots into battle. Our first competition was to determine who could survive the longest. While it was an option to play the defense, most students went on the offense, trying to pop as many balloons as they could. Our second round was to determine which team could pop the most balloons, and our winning team was able to pop four other balloons. The two winning teams became team leaders and then alternated selecting robots to build two teams: red and blue. These two teams went head on head in our third round in a game of capture the flag. The goal was to pop the ballon on the other teams side, however, you could only move if your balloon wasn't popped. It was a vicious game, however, students had lots of fun cheering each other on. After that, we competed in a two vs two, where groups could select another team to participate with and then battle two other teams. We continued this until only one team remained victorious. Overall, all the robots performed well and students learned so much in one short week!
In the evening, some students headed home for family weekend, while others watched the Minecraft movie during movie night in the plaza and ate candy the RA's provieded. It was such a fun week, and the cluster 10 students learned so much!
IMG_3129.movOur robots in battle!
Brought to you by the Cluster Ten Newsletter Team!
Writers: Ishika Shah, Kellyn Hu, Shanie Tsuei, Kyra Malik
Photographers: Ishika Shah, Olivier Kung, Gaurisha Sagar
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