THE PRESENTATION POST

This post's privacy is set to Everyone. This post showcases your final design by telling the comprehensive story of how your idea was born, developed, and manifested. The arc of the story should encompass the, How of your project in a compelling narrative. It showcases your design process including your brainstorming, each of your iterations, and your final prototype. It allows the viewer to delve deeply into your process.

• Every Slide should have a Title and Caption.
  The body of this post is The Brief. You should include a version of the Brief for each collaborator in the project.
• This post will be used in your review presentation at the end of the session.

You are encouraged to make your narrative as compelling as possible. All of the content below should be included, but if you would like to rearrange the material in order to tell your story differently, work with your coach.

INTRODUCTION PORTION

Your presentation is a narrative, and the introduction sets up the scene for that story. Here you introduce the project, say why it is important, and summarize what you did.

TITLE WITH TAGLINE: This slides shows a crisp, clear final image and the title of your project. with a pithy blurb describing the project. The image, name, and tagline should draw a viewer in. 

Examples:

• The Fruit - A line following, light tracking robot
• Segmented Vehicle - A vehicle that conforms to the landscape
• Cacoon - Wearable sculpture exploring the concept of transformation and death

EVOCATIVE  IMAGE: This is a single image that shows a clear image that evokes the soul of your project. This image helps set up the why in a compelling way, sets the stage for your narrative, and will help frame the entire presentation. The caption of this slide (set with the Edit Captions button when editing your post) should discuss the context of your project. No Text on the slide.

THESIS STATEMENT: This is a TEXT ONLY slide for which briefly describes the Soul and Body of your project. You can use the project description from your Brief or write something new. This statement ties together your narrative.

Examples:

• The Cocoon:  A wearable sculpture that explores the concept of transformations and death. The Cocoon explores the spiritual journey beyond the human experience; what it means to be human, how wonder effects us, and the concept of what happens after death.
• Body Accordion: A musical prosthetic that translates the wearer’s body movements into a dynamic multimedia performance. The Body Accordion converts flex sensor input to sound through Arduino, MaxMSP, and Ableton Live. 
• Seed to Soup Animation: A whimsical animation about the slow food movement. Seed to Soup showcases a holistic method of cooking. From garden, to kitchen, to dinner table.
• Antlers: A wearable sculpture inspired by antlers found in the deer and antelope family. "Antlers" explores the comparison between armor and attraction. 

PROCESS PORTION

The Process Portion of your presentation tells the story of how you iteratively developed your project. Somewhere in that story you should include conceptual and technical precedents that guided you at each stage as well as brainstorming and process sketches and clear photo booth imagery for 3-4 stages of your process.

This portion is made up of three types of slides repeated 3-4 times. Each iteration in your process should include:

• PRECEDENTS:  Precedents are any projects that inspired you creatively or gave you technical guidance. These can include conceptual precedents and technical precedents. No Text.
• SKETCHES/SKETCH CONCEPT DIAGRAMS: These slides show your generative ideas in sketch form. These should clean, clear drawings. A sketch should show a clear idea. Do not simply scan a messy sketchbook page and expect that people will understand. If you do not have a clear concept or working sketches it is fine to make them after the fact. No Text.
• PROTOTYPE IMAGES:  These are actual images of the prototypes  you documented in your daily posts. These images illustrate your design decisions and how your project changed at each step. No Text.

FINAL PORTION

The Final stage of your presentation is the resolution of your narrative and shows your completed work. The use diagram shows how your project works and the construction diagram shows how it is assembled. Final photos show the project both in action and at rest. The imagery captures your final built design.

USE DIAGRAM: A diagram showing some aspect of the functionality. These can include:

• How one uses or interacts with the project
• The overall behavior of the project over time
• For a complex interactive project, this can be a clear diagram of the software behavior

MECHANICAL DIAGRAM:  A diagram offering insight on how the project is put together and functions technically.

• Ideally, this will be an exploded axonometric
• At minimum this can be a labeled disassembled photo  

ELECTRONICS or OTHER DIAGRAM: Additional diagrams showing some important aspect of your design. 

IMAGERY: The last slides should have an images of the final project. These images should be taken in the photo booth, cropped, and adjusted for contrast, brightness, etc. Images should include:

• An image of the project in use (taken in the booth or at large). This should include a human interacting with the project.
• Images of project alone. Include at least one overall image and one detail image.
• You can also use an image In-Use. 
• Consider using a GIF to show how the project works. 

THE PRESENTATION POST

This post's privacy is set to Everyone. This post showcases your final design by telling the comprehensive story of how your idea was born, developed, and manifested. The arc of the story should encompass the, How of your project in a compelling narrative. It showcases your design process including your brainstorming, each of your iterations, and your final prototype. It allows the viewer to delve deeply into your process.

• Every Slide should have a Title and Caption.
  The body of this post is The Brief. You should include a version of the Brief for each collaborator in the project.
• This post will be used in your review presentation at the end of the session.

You are encouraged to make your narrative as compelling as possible. All of the content below should be included, but if you would like to rearrange the material in order to tell your story differently, work with your coach.

INTRODUCTION PORTION

Your presentation is a narrative, and the introduction sets up the scene for that story. Here you introduce the project, say why it is important, and summarize what you did.

TITLE WITH TAGLINE: This slides shows a crisp, clear final image and the title of your project. with a pithy blurb describing the project. The image, name, and tagline should draw a viewer in. 

Examples:

• The Fruit - A line following, light tracking robot
• Segmented Vehicle - A vehicle that conforms to the landscape
• Cacoon - Wearable sculpture exploring the concept of transformation and death

EVOCATIVE  IMAGE: This is a single image that shows a clear image that evokes the soul of your project. This image helps set up the why in a compelling way, sets the stage for your narrative, and will help frame the entire presentation. The caption of this slide (set with the Edit Captions button when editing your post) should discuss the context of your project. No Text on the slide.

THESIS STATEMENT: This is a TEXT ONLY slide for which briefly describes the Soul and Body of your project. You can use the project description from your Brief or write something new. This statement ties together your narrative.

Examples:

• The Cocoon:  A wearable sculpture that explores the concept of transformations and death. The Cocoon explores the spiritual journey beyond the human experience; what it means to be human, how wonder effects us, and the concept of what happens after death.
• Body Accordion: A musical prosthetic that translates the wearer’s body movements into a dynamic multimedia performance. The Body Accordion converts flex sensor input to sound through Arduino, MaxMSP, and Ableton Live. 
• Seed to Soup Animation: A whimsical animation about the slow food movement. Seed to Soup showcases a holistic method of cooking. From garden, to kitchen, to dinner table.
• Antlers: A wearable sculpture inspired by antlers found in the deer and antelope family. "Antlers" explores the comparison between armor and attraction. 

PROCESS PORTION

The Process Portion of your presentation tells the story of how you iteratively developed your project. Somewhere in that story you should include conceptual and technical precedents that guided you at each stage as well as brainstorming and process sketches and clear photo booth imagery for 3-4 stages of your process.

This portion is made up of three types of slides repeated 3-4 times. Each iteration in your process should include:

• PRECEDENTS:  Precedents are any projects that inspired you creatively or gave you technical guidance. These can include conceptual precedents and technical precedents. No Text.
• SKETCHES/SKETCH CONCEPT DIAGRAMS: These slides show your generative ideas in sketch form. These should clean, clear drawings. A sketch should show a clear idea. Do not simply scan a messy sketchbook page and expect that people will understand. If you do not have a clear concept or working sketches it is fine to make them after the fact. No Text.
• PROTOTYPE IMAGES:  These are actual images of the prototypes  you documented in your daily posts. These images illustrate your design decisions and how your project changed at each step. No Text.

FINAL PORTION

The Final stage of your presentation is the resolution of your narrative and shows your completed work. The use diagram shows how your project works and the construction diagram shows how it is assembled. Final photos show the project both in action and at rest. The imagery captures your final built design.

USE DIAGRAM: A diagram showing some aspect of the functionality. These can include:

• How one uses or interacts with the project
• The overall behavior of the project over time
• For a complex interactive project, this can be a clear diagram of the software behavior

MECHANICAL DIAGRAM:  A diagram offering insight on how the project is put together and functions technically.

• Ideally, this will be an exploded axonometric
• At minimum this can be a labeled disassembled photo  

ELECTRONICS or OTHER DIAGRAM: Additional diagrams showing some important aspect of your design. 

IMAGERY: The last slides should have an images of the final project. These images should be taken in the photo booth, cropped, and adjusted for contrast, brightness, etc. Images should include:

• An image of the project in use (taken in the booth or at large). This should include a human interacting with the project.
• Images of project alone. Include at least one overall image and one detail image.
• You can also use an image In-Use. 
• Consider using a GIF to show how the project works. 

In today's class, I followed the advice of my Nuvu coaches and made more extensive research on stepper motors. First, I searched for lighter versions of the stepper motors that could still provide me with enough power to move my robot. When I found out that a stepper motor (42x38cm) could lift up to 2.4 kg of weight (see video below) and could lock itself in place better than the servos, I was convinced that they would be well fitted for what I want to accomplish.  Among the stepper motors I found, I chose to use the NEMA 17 model that weight 285 grams.

Next, I enlarged the leg dimensions from 8.5cm to 10cm to create a bigger robot meant to accommodate the larger stepper motors. I also decided to change the building material for the legs from wood to acrylic. I found out that metal screws wore wood very quickly, which meant that screw holes that were meant to fit the screw would be expanded, hence creating space for the screws to wobble.

Next class, I plan on studying how to control stepper motors efficiently while I wait for the motors to arrive. I also plan on assembling more legs in advance to save time.

- About stepper motors and other types of propulsion: https://www.hackster.io/taifur/complete-motor-guide-for-robotics-05d998

- On the capabilities of the stepper motor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzrrzmT_LY

Today, I worked on finalizing the first phase of my project. First, I made simple adjustment in the code to correct mistakes I found during my testing yesterday. I also made a number of improvements, such as reducing the length of that the leg has to travel in order to complete one walking motion. In addition, I included a void_setup function that allows the leg to get into the walking position when it is first connected to power. 

Then I attempted to find ways to solve the power issue with the stepper motors. Due to the fact that I have not yet figure out how to more power to the motors, I decided to use a gearbox to improve their performance. However, the gearboxes proved to be very large and occupy most of the motor shaft length I need to mount the leg. As such I need to lengthen the motor shaft length, which would allow me to put the gearbox on the back of the motor and keep my current leg setup.

Overall, I believe that the core objectives of my project for this mod have been achieved. However, if time allows it, I would include a potentiometer into the arduino setup to control the different modes of the leg (ie. jumping, climbing stairs or normal walking)

During today's class, I made further improvements on the code for controlling the stepper motors. I tried to make each steps of the stepper motor smaller (i.e. 2 instead of 5) to create a smoother motion of the leg. Still, even with this method, the leg movement was still very fragmented and I fear that the choppiness of the movement may affect the effectiveness of the leg at walking (only one of the two motors move at any given time). My first response was to try to modify the "accel_multiStepper" code to fit my setup. However, my attempts to do so failed, and I decided to make more research on how to make the motors move simultaneously. While doing so, the new stepper drivers arrived. At the same time, I found a tutorial that could control the two motors to move in sync. In light of this new discovery, I decided to first setup the A4899 driver for testing. However, due to time constraint, I was unable to begin testing. 

Tomorrow, I plan on beginning testing with the A4899 drivers. If I manage to make them work, then the first phase of my project would be essentially completed.

Today, I started working on adjusting the code to create the movement of the leg. At first, I separated each leg motion into 4 lines of code. However, when I ran the code in the Arduino, I found that due to the block nature of the lines of code, the first motor had to complete its motion before the second one could move. This was not ideal for my leg setup, as it required a coordination of the two legs moving simultaneously. I tried to use another code where I could control the two motors at the same time, but due to time constraints (A-team meet), I deemed that I would not have enough time to figure it out. Instead, I decided to command the motors to move smaller steps one after another. This way, the motors would not come in conflict with one another and I managed to make the current code work. However, during my testing, I ran into another issue. Though the stepper motors worked fine while the is placed on the table, the leg upper leg refused to move when placed on the test rig. It seemed that the motor cannot handle the weight of the leg and it would get stuck whenever it tries to lift itself. 

Tomorrow, I plan on making further testing of the leg and attempt to use the new code as well. I also plan on making research on how to solve the power issue for the legs.

In today's class, I successfully overcame the issue with controlling the stepper motors. At first, I tried to figure the problem using the code Luis gave me. Despite my efforts, I made little progress. I tried to combine elements of the new coding with a simpler example I used earlier. However, my decision to do so backfired as the motors ceased to move completely and showed no signs of moving after I imported the allegedly improved code. 

My unsuccessful attempt compelled me to look for other solutions. Looking into the studio's electronics inventory, I discovered the only TB6600 driver available to me. After finding a reliable tutorial on Youtube on how to use it to control stepper motors, I decided to attempt to discard the motor shield temporarily and incorporate the driver into my Arduino setup. Though I followed all of the instructions, I was still unable to control the stepper motors.  However, just as I was about to discard the driver, I remembered that there was always the possibility that I had wired up the motor incorrectly. As such, I swapped the position of the wires from the negative port to the positive port. In doing so, I corrected the problem of conflicting current direction within the stepper motor and I was able to control the motors to create a back and forth swinging motion. 

Using this progress, I moved on to create a code that could control the stepper motor using the motor shield. When this attempt was successful, I decided to try to control 2 motors at the same time. After some experimentation and research, I was able to control two stepper motors simultaneously. Unfortunately, due to a lack of time, I was unable to make further progress today. 

Tomorrow, I plan on creating a code that would control the motion of the leg, which I plan on completing this week. 

Today, I built the test rig used to experiment with the different motions of the leg. At first, I wanted to build a structure with four support beams. However, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, so I decided to go with a three leg support platform. Next, I had to figure out the height at which the leg would be hung. While I wanted to allow the leg to walk, I decided to place it higher because I needed to create the walking motion first. I could then make the ground level taller or driller another whole at a lower point. 

After completing the test rig, I tried to reinforce the structure holding the motors. I wanted a material that would be strong enough to not crack but thin enough to fit and light enough to not increase the weight. I found that the thin transparent plastic sheet fitted many of the qualities that I had been looking for. However, when I cut out the pieces and fitted it to the motors, I found that the material was too soft and flimsy. In the end, I deemed that this addition was not absolutely necessary and I scrapped the idea.

At the end of the day, I looked at what Luis sent me about the Arduino code used to control the motor. Due to time constraint, I did not have time to complete the analysis. I intend to complete it during the weekend. Next week, I plan on working on the code and the movement of the legs. I hope to finish the coding part of my project before pencils down.