todocono/plobot

Ed-tech based robot

ATTENTION: Files here are deprecated

Plobot is a project started in 2015 by Camilo Parra Palacios and Rodolfo Cossovich. The project website is hosted at http://plobot.com

This repository had various contributors, mainly Sean, Ivan and Arlen. I moved files for maintenance to the repositories:

https://github.com/todocono/Plobot-PCB https://github.com/todocono/Plobot-ID https://github.com/todocono/Plobot-soft

plobot's Issues

Optional - Sinusoidal sounds

Stops reading cards

The plobot keeps glowing but it stops reading cards. We will need the same reproduction steps in order to be able to track it down.

Pause and wait for clap

Battery completely depleted by accidental press of ON button

It happened several times to have the plobots ON when moving them around. The reason is that the ON switch gets pressed when something touches the back.

It is suspected that this triggered some batteries to get too depleted. In two cases, the charger burnt. In one at least the battery died and could not be recharged.

Forever Card

Forever Card modifies whatever command goes before it and repeats that command forever.

For example: Forward + Forever + Go would make Plobot move forward forever

Also modifies other commands as well, Function (or Repeat, or whatever the name is) + Forever + Go would repeat whatever commands were saved in the Function

Dance mode card

• Faster blink
• Little jingle + dance on engage

Victory Music

Robot with blue sticky note doesn't move ("twitches")

Slight glitch in glow while using repeat

Noticed a flicker, usually at the end of a sequence.

Reset during note playing

Increase clap sensitivity

Interrupt with pause, not just reset

Allow reset, pause to continue from where you were, go to start from the beginning.

Indicate pause mode with fast glow.

Musical Notes Workshop - Change Purple Mode

[ ] -look for reset card between execution of actions (same as white mode)

Original comment from Britannica WKS3 Report:

1. -Plobot constant listening on mic was a big problem with programming songs because kids are used to hitting the Plobot with the cards hard enough to trigger, I think we need to use Play card to put Plobot in listening or “touching” mode, some kids were pretty frustrated with Plobot going into execute mode without them really meaning to (by scanning cards too hard)"
2. Once the Plobot was playing song/dancing there was no way to have it stop so we’d have to wait for the whole song to finish before we could synchronizing again

Power ramp to avoid stalls

Musical Notes Workshop - Change Green Mode

• -look for reset card between execution of actions (same as white mode)

Original comment from Britannica WKS3 Report:

1. -Plobot constant listening on mic was a big problem with programming songs because kids are used to hitting the Plobot with the cards hard enough to trigger, I think we need to use Play card to put Plobot in listening or “touching” mode, some kids were pretty frustrated with Plobot going into execute mode without them really meaning to (by scanning cards too hard)"
2. Once the Plobot was playing song/dancing there was no way to have it stop so we’d have to wait for the whole song to finish before we could synchronizing again

Musical Notes Workshop - Change Red Mode

• Make Red mode same as default White Mode

Red Mode needs the following changes:

-turn multiplexer back on
-turn programming back on
-execute program when play card is played
-look for reset card between notes or movement execution

Pause between movements

The speed of the Plobot could be improved but all kids seem to get impatient when waiting for Plobot after it finishes a movement and starts another one.

Dance mode movements all short, not just with notes

Dance mode doesn't reset after Reset card is used

Plobot stays in dance programming mode even after a reset card is used - should go back to default programming mode

Battery depletion

Need to implement a software fix that checks the battery level at runtime in order to avoid battery level depletion to the point of failure

Store card blocks reset

Reset is not useful if an open reset was left open. This happens most of the time when a lot confuses reset with store.

Color should be different.

Software should allow that with reset, everything starts over, never mind open stores or not.

Repeat card implementation

Repeat card would be used similarly to "Dance" card.
Repeat card would be scanned to indicate the beginning of actions to be repeated - lights on plobot would start blinking same as for Dance mode initiation
Then some cards would be scanned (movement, sound, etc)
Then Repeat card would be scanned again to indicate end of loop - lights on plobot would go to blinking at normal rate

then repeat card could be used to "play" the loop

For example, lets say I want to move Plobot Left + Forward 16 times I would:

1. Scan Repeat card (plobot light blink rapidly)
2. Scan Left card
3. Scan Forward card
4. Scan Repeat card (lights go back to normal)
5. Scan Repat card 16 times

If loop condition is terminated with no actions scanned in between (lets say I just scan repeat 2 x on a rebooted Plobot) the Plobot should make some error sound (I think?) to indicate that the loop is empty.

Not sure if this makes sense, can't think straight right now, see workshop 5 slides for description of workshop`

Stop here and delete the rest of the program

Sequence of Cards to Test 1

Function = Repeat

Sequence of Cards to test:
Function + Pause + forward + bump + left + left + Function + Function + Forever

Expected behavior = Plobot goes forward until it bumps into something then it turns around and "comes back"

Bump Card

Bump card works like Listen card - modifies (and only works after) Pause

We’ll be using Accelerometer for this workshop so we need to make sure that PLobots running into things will register, and also if one Plobot runs into another, the stationary Plobot should be able to register the bump same as the running one. (Next weeks group exercises are about Plobots setting each other off like dominos)

Sensor on bottom not to fall from tables

Inconsistent when scanning Pause or Reset card while Plobot is playing notes, even with a pause every 4 notes

Make more consistent

Make the long reset pause every measure (4 notes)

Have Plobot detect when its hit hard and play an angry sound

I'm thinking that we can let kids know that Plobots don't like being hit too hard (by using accelerometer) and emitting a signal that it doesn't like it.

Although I am a bit worried that kids would just keep hitting it - so then we would need like a 3 strike rule (or something similar) where the Plobot would lock up for a minute or two.

Which also means that that would have to persist even if it was hard rebooted?

Initial starting time

The kids have a blast switching on/off continuously because the servo moves. But it is pretty annoying and I suspect it will bring some unexpected failure (button may be?).

I don't have good ideas about how to solve this, but the combination of that excitement to turn on/off for hundreds of times plus the long time to start made it an obstacle. We got two different kids saying that the Plobot was not working because it takes several seconds to turn on.

May be when we move to a transistor switch we can have a delay in there?

Pause + Command + Sensor

Everything between Pause + modifier (Bump or Listen) will be done "forever"

For example: Pause + Forward + Bump = Plobot moves forward forever (after go card is used) until it bumps into something.

General - Add a Debugging Mode

Where kids can erase last command used (or step through commands) and erase + replace, this will speed up iteration of program development.

Original Comment from Britannica WKS3 report:
"kids were frustrated with making one mistake and having to do the song over, maybe we need to have a debugging mode where they can erase last command one by one, this will help them iterate faster"

Issue with straight movement

2 Plobots among the 16 have a problem that makes them drift some 5cm to the right when 4 steps move. No mechanical reasons were apparent.

Workshop 6

Workshop 6 Writeup.docx

Strange behavior

We saw twice during the classes that instead of executing the whole sequence ordered ( 6 forwards, left, 4 forwards, left, 6 forwards) it was only executing half of it. This happen after a lot of free play and it was not repeated after a hard power on/off. We will keep an eye on this happening again

Musical Notes Workshop - Change Blue Mode

[ ] -look for reset card between execution of actions (same as white mode)

Original comment from Britannica WKS3 Report:

1. -Plobot constant listening on mic was a big problem with programming songs because kids are used to hitting the Plobot with the cards hard enough to trigger, I think we need to use Play card to put Plobot in listening or “touching” mode, some kids were pretty frustrated with Plobot going into execute mode without them really meaning to (by scanning cards too hard)"
2. Once the Plobot was playing song/dancing there was no way to have it stop so we’d have to wait for the whole song to finish before we could synchronizing again

Use accelerometer to make drawing work, remove static friction from wheels

Use gyro to make forward/back always straight, even with slip

Sequence of Cards to Test 2

Sequence of Cards to test:
Function + Pause + Forward + Left + Bump

Expected behavior = Plobot moves in a square until it bumps something and then stops

Sequence of Cards to Test 3

Sequence of Cards to test:
Function + Pause + Forward + Left + Bump + Dance + Backwards + Dance + Left + Function + Function + Forever

Expected behavior = Plobot forward until it hits something, then it backs up a little bit + turns fully left and continues moving forward