With everything that we've learned so far in this course, it's time to put that knowledge to test and create a final project that encompasses everything. Originally, I had no idea what I wanted to create, but after interacting more with classmates and looking at past projects, I had a few ideas of where I wanted to go. First of all, I really enjoyed the interactive portions of this course (DIY piano switches, music box, P5.JS). I loved seeing how different items would react differently to different sensors and such. I also decided that I didn't want to do something too magnificent. I'm not trying to create an item that detects cancer cells or anything, I wanted to create something cute and playful. After some brainstorming with my group, we ultimately decided on a Reactive Robot. This playful desk toy does what it sounds like: it reacts to the environment. For example, placing it near certain temperatures will illicit certain responses. If you place it near something hot, it's face will turn red and emit a shriek, indicating that it's uncomfortable with the heat and wants to move away. If it's near anything cold, it's face will turn blue and will make a shivering noise. As of now, this idea is still changing and the end product will most definitely look different from what we originally envisioned!
The materials for the Reactive Robot are actually mainly included in the Arduino Kit! The only thing that we really need to purchase is a baby bread board for the robot, 3D printing the enclosure, and maybe some RGB light strips
<aside> ▫️ This is the initial sketch drawn by Hannah Curran! The thermistor is placed on top of the head so that it can easily sense the temperatures which will allow the robot to react accordingly. The LCD Module displays shows both the face (which will change based on what the robot is near) and a message. The button is used for turning it on and off, and the LEDs will change colors depending on the robots mood.
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<aside> ▫️ These images just show off how the robot will react! You can see that when it's cold/hot, the robot will make a certain face and display a certain message indicating that the user needs to take action to bring it back to its stable state. Not only that, but it will also emit certain sounds through the buzzer and the LED will change color.
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These are some additional sketches that Hannah created!
<aside> ▫️ Diagram of the robot
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<aside> ▫️ Robot when temperature is cold
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<aside> ▫️ Robot when temperature is normal
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<aside> ▫️ Robot when temperature is hot
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<aside> ▫️ This is the initial schematic diagram drawn by Grace Geer!
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My role in this group is mainly documenter, meaning that I record most of the process and am in charge of any documents. In addition, our group decided to take on different parts of the code. I also helped other group members out if they were having trouble getting something to work in their tasks. The portions that I decided to take up include writing the code for the thermistor/DHT22 sensor and the buzzer. Here are the materials that I used:
<aside> ▫️ As you can see here, I decided to use a DHT sensor instead of the thermistor. Here's a better look:
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