Arduino usage, robotics, and engineering
Ceal Craig @ WRRF
Regarding Rick’s question:
· Are Robomagellan competitors typically designing their electronics from scratch, or are they using some combination of Arduino boards and custom equipment?
In mid-June, I was back in Columbus OH to present a poster about how K-12 robotics programs influence career decisions of young people to the Women Engineer’s ProActive Network (WEPAN) conference. This group was founded over 20 years ago, as a professional organization for the Women in Engineering (WIE) programs at various universities throughout the US. So, I met many engineering professors, deans, WIE directors, industry, folks from National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Engineering. Social scientists, engineers, and business people. Interesting collection. J I also took the opportunity to visit Tim’s and my alma mater, The Ohio State University,J meeting with a number of the mechanical engineering faculty, department chair, and some folks in the Women in Engineering program there, sharing photos of Brutus, RoboMagellan, RoboGames, WRRF’s CalGames, and such. I cannot tell you how MANY times I brought up Home Brew Robotics Club over those days in Columbus, sharing the web site, describing what a marvelous group this is. I think one or more of the profs at OSU will be joining to stay in touch with such a CURRENT group on robotics. J
Now on to the topic at hand: Arduino. Engineering professors at the WEPAN conference and at OSU were all familiar with it and were using it, wanting to know more about it, and its idiosyncrasies (I needed spell check that one!). In general, the conversation was around using platforms, hw and sw, like ROS or Arduino or Willow’s Garage efforts (and others), versus designing any custom PCBA or software language. Open Source had made its inroads there as well in the dialogues. I cannot remember all the university profs/deans that I talked to at WEPAN where this came up, though the larger universities, both private and public were there.
When I ran a literature search across the NTIS, Academic Search Complete, ERIC, Computers & Applied Science Complete, & Education Research Complete, with just Arduino in “any text,” 1053 hits, then with peer-reviewed, down to 1181 hits, from 1927 – 2012. Peer-reviewed knocked it to 1181, 1970-2012. Did NOT on Arduino as “author” too. Added robotics as any text: 19 from 2001 – 2011. Abstract only, peer-reviewed, only 8. Here’s the main list. I checked for most and yes, indeed Arduino was used in these studies. Quite a wide range of uses!!
Arduino in abstracts:
Hernández, C., Poot, R., Narváez, L., LlanesA, E., & Chi, V. (2010). Design and implementation of a system for wireless control of a robot. International Journal of Computer Science Issues (IJCSI), 7(5), 191-197.
De Paoli, S., & Storni, C. (2011). Produsage in hybrid networks: Sociotechnical skills in the case of Arduino. New Review of Hypermedia & Multimedia, 17(1), 31-52. doi:10.1080/13614568.2011.552641
Rafael, U. S. (2010). Parametric performative systems: Designing a bioclimatic responsive skin. International Journal of Architectural Computing, 8(3), 279-300.
Marchal-Crespo, L., Furumasu, J., & Reinkensmeyer, D. J. (2010). A robotic wheelchair trainer: design overview and a feasibility study. Journal of Neuroengineering & Rehabilitation (JNER), 740-51. doi:10.1186/1743-0003-7-40
Arduino AND robotics: in all text, sorted by year alphabetically
Kang, L., I-Ming, C., Song Huat, Y., & Chee Kian, L. (2011). Development of finger-motion capturing device based on optical linear encoder. Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development, 48(1), 69-82. doi:10.1682/JRRD.2010.02.0013
Khoo, C., Salim, F., & Burry, J. (2011). Designing architectural morphing skins with elastic modular systems. International Journal of Architectural Computing, 9(4), 397-420.
Leal, A., Fernandez-Rodrigues, J. Á., & Montero, J. M. (2011). Development of a Wiimote-based gesture recognizer in a microprocessor laboratory course. International Journal of Emerging Technologies In Learning, 6(1), 26-30. doi:10.3991/ijet.v6i1.1521
Nordahl, R., Serafin, S., Turchet, L., & Nilsson, N. C. (2011). A multimodal architecture for simulating natural interactive walking in virtual environments. Psychnology Journal, 9(3), 245-268.
Barakova, E. I., & Lourens, T. (2010). Expressing and interpreting emotional movements in social games with robots. Personal & Ubiquitous Computing, 14(5), 457-467. doi:10.1007/s00779-009-0263-2
Grecu, V. V., & Grecu, L. L. (2010). Design of a training and rehabilitation upper limb orthesis with actuators. Annals of DAAAM & Proceedings, 281-82.
Marti, P. (2010). Perceiving while being perceived. International Journal of Design, 4(2), 27-38.
Partan, S. R., Fulmer, A. G., Gounard, M. M., & Redmond, J. E. (2010). Multimodal alarm behavior in urban and rural gray squirrels studied by means of observation and a mechanical robot. Current Zoology, 56(3), 313-326.
Dann, W., & Cooper, S. (2009). Education Alice 3: Concrete to abstract. Communications of The ACM, 52(8), 27-29.
· The article presents a discussion of the variety of possible pedagogical approaches to the teaching of computer science. It focuses on the lack of diversity among the students who are typically attracted to the field, and the potential of alternative instructional approaches for improving the success of outreach efforts to increase diversity. The "Alice" series of software, which features computer animation designed for classroom manipulation and study, is described in this context. Originally developed as a prototyping method for virtual reality scenarios by Randy Pausch, it has proven to be useful for engaging a diverse range of students in the process of computer programming
Gafurov, D., & Snekkenes, E. (2009). Gait recognition using wearable motion recording sensors. EURASIP Journal on Advances In Signal Processing, 1-16. doi:10.1155/2009/415817
Shaer, O., & Hornecker, E. (2009). Tangible user interfaces: past, present, and future directions. Foundations & Trends in Human-Computer Interaction, 3(1/2), 1-137. doi:10.1561/1100000026
Ok, on to my own lit searches. J
Ceal Craig
Wayne C. Gramlich
On 07/09/2012 08:05 AM, Ceal Craig @ WRRF wrote:
> Regarding Rick�s question:
>
> �Are Robomagellan competitors typically designing their electronics from
> equipment?
> *Now on to the topic at hand*: /Arduino/. Engineering professors at the
> wanting to know more about it, and its idiosyncrasies (I needed spell
> check that one!). In general, the conversation was around using
> Open Source had made its inroads there as well in the dialogues. I
> cannot remember all the university profs/deans that I talked to at WEPAN
> where this came up, though the larger universities, both private and
> public were there.
The Arduino is being used heavily in amateur robotics. If you go to
Amazon and type "Arduino Robotics", you will get many hits. In this
particular area, the academic community appears to be a bit behind the
technology curve.
The strength of the Arduino is that it is a defacto "standard" with a
huge community of users out there. I put "standard" in quotes because
I'm unaware of there being an official document that describes the
"standard".
There are hundreds of shields available for the Arduino:
http://shieldlist.org/
(For the uninitiated, a "shield" is a daughter board that plugs into
an Arduino.) While the mechanical pin placement of shields is pretty
standard, not all shields will work on all versions of the Arduino.
There are electrical pin incompatibilities. Furthermore, there are some
shields (e.g. LCD's, push button arrays, etc.) which must be on top.
I call these "top shields". If you need two top shields for your
project -- too bad.
There has been a small group of HBRC members talking about building an
Arduino that is more extensible. Dave Curtis has coined the name
"BusDuino" and it has kind of stuck. The concept is to have multiple
Arduino's that can easily talk to one another over a bus. It should
not surprise people that the bus under discussion is the RoboBricks
bus (now called Robus) that I have presented at a couple of HBRC
meetings in the past. The BusDuino project is actually pretty far
along in that I have a board that is in pretty final form:
http://gramlich.net/projects/robus/busduino/rev_a/busduino.svg
http://gramlich.net/projects/robus/busduino/rev_a/busduino.png
My vision is that in the not too distant future people will be able
to assemble and develop much more complicated robots, like a
RoboMagellan, using Arduino technology (BusDuinos + Shields) and
not need to do nearly as much custom electronics. Furthermore,
for the people just learning to program, Scratch-like languages
like 12Blocks (http://12blocks.com/) or ModKit (http://www.modk.it/)
will make it easier for younger people to get started.
Regards,
-Wayne
