Motor Tests

 Over the past week I have been researching a sourcing motors. I found a motor driver that suited my purpose. It utilities the A4988 motor driver and acts as a shield for the Arduino. The A4988 chips allow you to limit current to the motor that is attached to it so I can use all four of my motors which will need several different limits of amperage.

I assembled my skeleton and secured it upright on a work bench. This was only the third time I had seen it suspended in it's upright position. I attached tension spring to the frame to help it stay it it's upright position. Though as you can see below the tension spring are not quite strong enough to hold it up. The purpose of these is to reduce stress on the actuators when pushing the body upward.

I used basic Arduino code and an old motor to test the shield. I was able to ascertain how the current regulator worked and if the unit was at all faulty.

After assuring the safety of the unit I moved on to test my larger Nema 23 stepper motors at higher amplitudes.  I tested these with my basic Arduino code and with the XBee wireless control. Both operated correctly.

Even though these tests were a success I have decided to exchange the Nema 23 motors for geared Nema 17 motors. These geared motors are rated at a much lower amplitude and will allow for better use with a battery. This is another unfortunate set back but one that is necessary. Once the motors have been set and decided upon I can move onto the custom controller.

I am making good time and have currently kept up to date with my progress goals.

The Mechanical Structure

Over the past week I have developed the final mechanical structure for the use as a skeleton. I attached a pulley system to my wooden puppet but the weight of the puppet made is almost impossible to recreate smooth up and down movements. I have since modified my construction, I was inspired by the design of desk lamps. I found that they achieved my required articulation while also supporting the weight of their bodies. So I began to build a scaled down foamcore version.

Below demonstrates the constructions and action of the new design.

 

After finding satisfactory dimensions I went on to draw up a design for a final metal version. The drawing in below.

I gathered my materials which included aluminium square tubes and sheets, the appropriate fixings and any extra tools needed. 

I was able to use some motors to test the actuators for the movement of this body section. They are not the appropriate strength of motor but did help me develop a refined design. I was even able to use the wireless remote control I built for the robotic base prototype. 

I have started a Gitlab repo for my controller code.

http://gitlab.doc.gold.ac.uk/cjoyc002/thirdYearProject

The LET Award

The LET Award 

During the winter term I applied for the LET Award (http://lesenfantsterribles.co.uk/the-let-award/). The LET Award is organized by the theatre company Les Enfants Terribles. A world renowned company that specializes in puppetry. The award offers a place in a theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, professional mentoring and a £1000 cash injection into the winning play.

I entered our play under the company name "Mid-Atlantic Productions" and with not a doubt in my mind that we would not get anywhere close to winning I pitched the play as a technologically driven production that will use robotics. I clicked submit and thought nothing more about it, not even telling my crew as to not get their hopes up. Well to my surprise on the 25th of January I received an email telling me that our production and nine others had been short-listed for the LET Award out of over one hundred applicants. 

Prototyping 1

Prototyping 2

The showcase in which we show a ten minute snippet of our production was on Monday the 6th of February a short week and a half away. Luckily my production crew were in place and we set to work. We cast the parts internally within the crew to save time, chose the ten minute snippet and got rehearsing.

Rehearsal Conductor Puppet

Rehearsal Fox Puppet

Temp Costume

Sound mixing

This of course had ramifications. My deadlines for a working animatronic had to be push back as this was too good and opportunity to miss. Our team was able to mix a full soundscape, design the lighting, plan costumes and block out the entire 10 minutes in just under a week. For the remainder of the rehearsal time we reviewed and polished the performance.

Emma, Aiden, Erin, Mila, Cormac, Amelie.

The performance at the awards went well and garnered a great reaction for the audience. We were all very proud that we pulled it off. Through this opportunity it not only put our team to the test and gave us a chance to meet others in the industry but also learn a lot about the animatronic itself. Seeing the puppet in action has taught me an a great deal about the character of the animatronic and how I can and need to apply that to the mechanics of the final version. The gesture, speed, actions and presence of the puppet was felt in our performance and I now know how to emulate that through robotics. 

The last six months.

The Idea

The idea for my third year project steamed from my passion for animatronics and the concept of telling a story about a positive effect AI could have on the world.I decided to build  animatronic character to be used in a live play that I would write. The play follows a robot that was unhappy with it's original purpose and choose to become the conductor of a rural train station. Our two other characters, a human and a fox, find this station as a island away from their normal lives. Over the course of the play we follow the three characters and the friendships that they make and the knowledge the gain from these relationships. The conductor character will be the animatronic, the fox will be a traditional hand puppet and the human will be just an actor.

During this project I want to research, identify and build with affordable technology such as Arduino, custom circuitry and Raspberry Pi. I also want to answer the question "How can animatronics be used in theatre to create believable characters which speak through movement alone using robotic motion on stage?". By combining these two efforts I believe that I can demonstrate that animatronics can not only be used in  high budget film but also within the theatre world, no matter the production's level.

The Script

I started to write the script for the play in August of 2016. By the end of September I had a first draft. I used that draft to workshop and discuss with over the next period of weeks. It was at the end of October that the second draft was complete. It had been well rounded and fleshed out.

I opted to write my own play so that I could tell my own story but more importantly it was to dictate exactly what the robot was and what it could do. In an effort to reduce the complexity of the project I wrote in very few complete motor functions for the robot to perform. I did this so that I could focus on the essential movements I needed to convey the character to the audience and not get caught up on needless distractions.

The script is currently in still in it's second draft though it will be worked on during the rehearsal process to account for any new developments.

During the critique sessions of the script I invited actors, writers and technologists to read through and understand the play in terms of their individual expertise. I was able to adapt and polish the play based on their comments and advice.

Gathering the Crew

As December approached I knew that to keep the momentum going I needed to gather a crew together so that when the new term started we could hit the ground running. Already being an active member of Goldsmiths film and theatre community I was able to advertise my project effectively. One after another I met with sound and set designers, composers, stage managers, costume designers and lighting technicians. After much deliberation I selected my team and set about giving them research topics to study for the start of the new term once the winter break had concluded.
The team includes Amelie Iselin (stage manager), Erin Tomkins (composer), Elsie Oakwood (costume designer), Aiden O'Beirne (sound designer), Emma Sheldrick (set designer), Mila Lawlor (lighting designer) and Theo Mason Wood (puppet designer).

The Design of the Animatronic

During this process I was working in collaboration with Karol Sielski, a design student at Goldsmiths College, to design the animatronic itself. We concluded that due to the time sensitive nature of the project and the budgetary constraints we would move away from humanoid forms. Instead we challenged ourselves by trying to design something with recognizable human traits and body language though without and or as little human physical features. Below is a selection of the sketches made over the design process of several months.

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Prototype of Robot Base

During my winter term I took the physical computing module offered in the Creative Computing course. When working on the final project for this module I took the opportunity to test out the systems I was designing and considering as an option for the animatronic. I opted to build a scaled down version of the movement platform that the body of the robot will be placed on.







 

I have made a log of it's development here http://omnimac.blogspot.co.uk/.
This project taught me a lot of important lessons that has lead me to redesign sections of the final animatronic.