Establishing Bluetooth Connection

The end goal of this step is to establish a Bluetooth connection between RedBot and an Android smartphone. At this point, I am just setting up the Bluetooth connection between RedBot and my laptop to get a sense of how it works. For this, I am using a tutorial that can be found here.

As for my next step, I will be working on connecting Redbot to an Android smartphone by using Bluetooth connection as well as building an simple app for my project by using App Inventor. A simple tutorial on how to do this can be found here.

Project Component Details

As mentioned before, we will be building a robot that teaches young children about traffic signs in this project. In order to build this robot, a few different components will be involved. These include the physical road map, the robot vehicle, the communication tool between the robot and traffic signs, as well as the auditory feedback provider.  Each of these components will be described in details, as shown below. 

A.    Physical Road Map 

The physical road map in this project serves as a “traffic environment” where the robot vehicle will move around on. This road map will include several components which are road (basically line where the robot vehicle can follow), traffic signs, buildings, as well as greens such as trees. We want to make this road map look as real as possible. This road map will be made by hand and the ingredients needed to make this road map include cardboard, cardstock, color papers, printed and laminated traffic signs, sticks, and glue.

B.    Robot Vehicle

The robot that we will build in this project serves as the vehicle that will move around on the road map. For this robot vehicle, we will use a RedBot (with basic components included such as micro controller, etc.) with the combination of IR array sensors to allow the functionality of line following.

C.    Communication Tool between Robot and Traffic Signs

In order to let the robot vehicle know what to react when it approaches different traffic signs, a communication tool between the robot and traffic signs is needed. In this project, we will use IR transmitters and receivers to achieve this purpose. IR transmitters will be attached on each traffic sign and IR receivers will be attached on the robot vehicle in the form of an vertical antenna. With this, the robot vehicle will be able to distinguish between different traffic signs based on different signals in pattern transmitted by each traffic sign. By being able to make that distinction, the robot vehicle will be able to react accordingly to different type of traffic signs.

D.    Auditory Feedback Provider 

In this project, we will use a smartphone to serve as an auditory feedback provider. In order to allow the robot vehicle to communicate with the smartphone, we will establish a Bluetooth connection by using a Bluetooth module. Other than serving as an auditory feedback provider, we might utilize the smartphone to display images or animations to enhance the richness of feedback provided by the robot.

Idea Selection

After a discussion with Prof. Min, we have decided to pick Idea 1 as the topic for this project, which is creating a robot that teaches kids about traffic signs. The next steps for this project are

• Writing a project proposal
• Presenting the project proposal in class
• Determining the hardware needed to build the robot
• Purchasing the hardware
• Designing the robot 

The progress of this project will be updated here accordingly once the steps above are being completed. 

Brainstorming

 

 A brainstorming has been carried out to get ideas for the project of this course. Documented below are some of the ideas that came to mind. These ideas are still very rough and will be discussed with the course instructor for their feasibility. There are definitely pros and cons for each idea but they will not be discussed here. The order of these ideas is random and does not represent any level of preference or importance.

Idea 1: A robot that teaches kids about traffic signs 

Traffic signs are very important for road safety. However, often time traffic signs are only understood by adults. Kids, especially young kids, are often unaware of traffic signs and this makes them oblivious to any hazard they might encounter on the road. Therefore, to keep kids safe on the road, it is important to teach them, if not all, some of the most commonly used traffic signs. 

The purpose of this project is to make learning traffic signs fun by creating a robot that can teach kids traffic signs. The idea for this project is to create a robot that can

1. Move by following line on a road map (see Figure 1).

2. React according to different traffic signs (e.g. Stop in front of a STOP sign). 

3. Provide auditory feedback (e.g. "You're approaching a school area" when there is a SCHOOL

    sign). 

If the 3 features mentioned above were feasible, some of the additional cool features that can possibly be added are

1. Kids will be able to control the robot using some sort of remote control.

2. The robot will be able to provide some sort of feedback when kids are "violating" traffic rules. 

Figure 1: Road Map Sketch

Idea 2: A remote controlled selfie stick/ tripod that moves

Whether or not you are using one, selfie stick is a now a THING that a lot of people own so that they can take pictures of themselves and other people without having to ask for someone to be the "photographer".  However, with a selfie stick, a person still has to be assigned to be the "photographer" who needs to hold the stick and make sure that everyone is included in the picture. In addition, there is a limitation in terms of the range of "scenery" that can be included in the picture. 

The idea for this project is to create a selfie stick or tripod that can

1. Stand without someone holding it.

2. Move by being remote controlled ( controlled by hand movement, not buttons).

3. Avoid obstacles. 

The figure below illustrates a rough idea of how this robot might possibly look like. 

Figure 2: Design Sketch

Idea 3: A robot that plays "Tag" with kids with Autism 

Kids with Autism usually prefer to play alone rather than interact with others. Because of this reason, often time they miss the opportunity of playing team games such as "Tag".

The purpose of this project is to provide kids with Autism a chance to experience and play a simple version of team game "Tag" without having to interact with other people. The idea of this project is to create a robot that can

1. "Run away" when someone is approaching

2. "Freeze" when being touched once (one tap)

3. "Unfreeze" when being touched twice (two taps)

4. Avoid obstacles. 

These are the ideas that came to mind so far and more ideas will be added at a later time, if any.

Welcome!

What is this?
This is a blog for the course CNIT 581 Software Design and Development in Robotics taught by Prof. Byung-Cheol Min at Purdue University for Spring 2016. 

What is it for?
This blog will be used to document all the ideas, progresses, materials, etc. that are related to the project of this course. 

Who is in the team?
Ying Ying Seah