Hours: 4 hours (12 noon to 4pm)
-------------------
1) Inertia experiments (12 to 2 pm)
2) Preparing for presentation ( 2 to 3pm)
3) Meeting (3 to 4pm)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) We finally managed to test the robot to measure inertia values - with the hip-motor powered on, and adjusting of the gain on its torque controller we were able to get steady oscillations for particular gains, so we could
2) I realized I had considered the higher pair of hip springs to be on the outer leg in all my previous calculations - after correcting for this error, it turns out the second battery has to be slightly lower down (12 cm, as compared to 1.5 cm before, in the erroneous solution and the hip springs need to be moved up by about 12 cm (instead of 9 cm before, in the previous solution).
December 6, 2007
December 2, 2007
11/30, Rohit Hippalgaonkar
Thursday: 10.30 pm to 1 am
Friday: 10.30 am to 1 pm
1. Worked on presentation supposed to be given on 11/30
Friday: 10.30 am to 1 pm
1. Worked on presentation supposed to be given on 11/30
December 1, 2007
12/01/07 Yingyi Tan
1.00pm - 3.15pm
1. Tied strings to hold the robot's shoulder pads down. (1h 10 min)
2. Attached limit cable to middle hip box (5 min)
--------------------
1. Andy suggested using a bowline knot and another removable knot to tie the strings together instead of the usual dead knot. Searched online for the name of the removable knot - sheet bend knot. Went to you tube to learn how to tie the knots. Tied a bowline knot on one end of the string, put electrical tape on the string where it would be cutting into the edge of the shoulder pad and used heat shrink to cover the tape. Placed the strings through the holes of the robot's shoulder pads, tied one end around the leg and used the sheet bend knot to tie the other end to the hoop of the bowline knot. Repeated the process for the other shoulder pad.
2. The cable at the back of the robot which limits how far the middle leg swings out had been removed from the center hip box. Used a 6-32 screw and some washers to reattach the cable to the center box.
1. Tied strings to hold the robot's shoulder pads down. (1h 10 min)
2. Attached limit cable to middle hip box (5 min)
--------------------
1. Andy suggested using a bowline knot and another removable knot to tie the strings together instead of the usual dead knot. Searched online for the name of the removable knot - sheet bend knot. Went to you tube to learn how to tie the knots. Tied a bowline knot on one end of the string, put electrical tape on the string where it would be cutting into the edge of the shoulder pad and used heat shrink to cover the tape. Placed the strings through the holes of the robot's shoulder pads, tied one end around the leg and used the sheet bend knot to tie the other end to the hoop of the bowline knot. Repeated the process for the other shoulder pad.
2. The cable at the back of the robot which limits how far the middle leg swings out had been removed from the center hip box. Used a 6-32 screw and some washers to reattach the cable to the center box.
November 29, 2007
11/29 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
Hours : 7.15pm to 8.45 pm ( 1.5 hrs)
1. Replacing hip springs (1 hour 15 mins)
2. Set-up for outer leg inertia measurement (15 mins)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Helped James out with removing the heavy pair of hip-springs (used on the inner leg) and replacing them with a lighter pair of springs (identical to the ones already on the outer leg). A bit of a tedious procedure with all the strings and wires around the ankle area of the robot, near which we had worked.
2. Needed to bore a few more holes deeper than they were - once the hip-motor can be powered on, this set-up is ready to use (for clamping the inner leg and measuring outer leg inertia).
1. Replacing hip springs (1 hour 15 mins)
2. Set-up for outer leg inertia measurement (15 mins)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Helped James out with removing the heavy pair of hip-springs (used on the inner leg) and replacing them with a lighter pair of springs (identical to the ones already on the outer leg). A bit of a tedious procedure with all the strings and wires around the ankle area of the robot, near which we had worked.
2. Needed to bore a few more holes deeper than they were - once the hip-motor can be powered on, this set-up is ready to use (for clamping the inner leg and measuring outer leg inertia).
11/29/07 Gregory Falco
1:30-2:30PM
1. Web requisition (.5 hrs)
2. Lab Presentation prep (.5 hrs)
3. blog, labeling and microwave (1 hr)
---------------------------------------------
1. I made a price requisition for Carol Moss so that we can buy the lab Camcorder
2. I arranged to have Thurston 201- the bigger of Thurston 204 and 201, as the room we will have the lab publicity presentation in. It will take place on Thursday January 24 at 5:30 PM
3. Corrected the few organizational errors on blog (labels) and continued working on SMD organizational binder. I also put a final coat of paint on the microwave support
1. Web requisition (.5 hrs)
2. Lab Presentation prep (.5 hrs)
3. blog, labeling and microwave (1 hr)
---------------------------------------------
1. I made a price requisition for Carol Moss so that we can buy the lab Camcorder
2. I arranged to have Thurston 201- the bigger of Thurston 204 and 201, as the room we will have the lab publicity presentation in. It will take place on Thursday January 24 at 5:30 PM
3. Corrected the few organizational errors on blog (labels) and continued working on SMD organizational binder. I also put a final coat of paint on the microwave support
November 28, 2007
11/28 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
10.15am - 12.45pm (2.5 hours)
1. Modifying set-up to measure inertia of outer legs
-------------------------------------------------------
1. The set-up that was used to clamp the inner leg, so as to allow measurement of inertia of the outer legs, had to be modified as the computer box added onto the inner leg (which was done after the last time that measurements were made on the robot) interfered with the set-up.
A couple of wooden boards were added onto the set-up using wood screws so that the set-up now has sufficient clearance from the computer box.
1. Modifying set-up to measure inertia of outer legs
-------------------------------------------------------
1. The set-up that was used to clamp the inner leg, so as to allow measurement of inertia of the outer legs, had to be modified as the computer box added onto the inner leg (which was done after the last time that measurements were made on the robot) interfered with the set-up.
A couple of wooden boards were added onto the set-up using wood screws so that the set-up now has sufficient clearance from the computer box.
November 27, 2007
11/27/07 Stephane Constantin
5:30 t0 8:30 pm
1) Video
Wrote the recording program. User-controlled start and stop of recording. Writes the recorded video to an avi file.
Worked on making the video displya follow the graph vertical cursor when user wants to jump the vertical cursor to another value.
Worked on timing issues: Should the increments follow the 16ms period of the data input or the 67ms period of the camera frame rate (15 fps for now). Option between the two. What accuracy is lost in rounding numbers?
Also fixed the memory problem during recording. I tested the recording for 1 hour and it properly saved the video avi file of 500MB. It however took forever (not practical) to load back to memory for reading.
1) Video
Wrote the recording program. User-controlled start and stop of recording. Writes the recorded video to an avi file.
Worked on making the video displya follow the graph vertical cursor when user wants to jump the vertical cursor to another value.
Worked on timing issues: Should the increments follow the 16ms period of the data input or the 67ms period of the camera frame rate (15 fps for now). Option between the two. What accuracy is lost in rounding numbers?
Also fixed the memory problem during recording. I tested the recording for 1 hour and it properly saved the video avi file of 500MB. It however took forever (not practical) to load back to memory for reading.
11/27/07 Kevin Ullmann
3:30 - 5:00 PM (1.5 hrs from home)
1. Combined figure windows into one figure
1. Because the codes for video and graphing were created seperately and then combined, the video and graphs appeared in seperate figures. I put everything into one figure, for simplicity and aesthetics. I arranged the buttons within a panel on the left of the figure, so they are no longer floating in the figure randomly, and are no longer blocking the view of the video. I also have been trying to make the figure appear already maximized, and have experimented with setting it to the screen size. This approach doesn't work though, the figure appears oddly positioned and somewhere off the screen. Unfortunately the video still will not work on my laptop, so I also spent some time trying to fix that.
1. Combined figure windows into one figure
1. Because the codes for video and graphing were created seperately and then combined, the video and graphs appeared in seperate figures. I put everything into one figure, for simplicity and aesthetics. I arranged the buttons within a panel on the left of the figure, so they are no longer floating in the figure randomly, and are no longer blocking the view of the video. I also have been trying to make the figure appear already maximized, and have experimented with setting it to the screen size. This approach doesn't work though, the figure appears oddly positioned and somewhere off the screen. Unfortunately the video still will not work on my laptop, so I also spent some time trying to fix that.
11/26/07 Kevin Ullmann
4:00 - 5:00 (at home 1 hr)
1. Got Stephane's code running on my laptop (.2 hrs)
2. Tried to get the correct decompressor to view avi files in Matlab (.8 hrs)
1. Stephane assimilated the current versions of the programs for graphing and for viewing video. He emailed this code to me and I got it running on my computer so that I can work on it.
2. For some reason Matlab won't play the videos on my laptop, saying that it cannot locate the correct decompressor. I spent the rest of the hour trying to fix this problem by playing around with the files and looking on the internet to see if I could download a decompressor somewhere. The video code works on my laptop with only one video. I used Matlab's aviinfo function to try to explain this. It seems that the other avi files have different properties that confuses Matlab.
1. Got Stephane's code running on my laptop (.2 hrs)
2. Tried to get the correct decompressor to view avi files in Matlab (.8 hrs)
1. Stephane assimilated the current versions of the programs for graphing and for viewing video. He emailed this code to me and I got it running on my computer so that I can work on it.
2. For some reason Matlab won't play the videos on my laptop, saying that it cannot locate the correct decompressor. I spent the rest of the hour trying to fix this problem by playing around with the files and looking on the internet to see if I could download a decompressor somewhere. The video code works on my laptop with only one video. I used Matlab's aviinfo function to try to explain this. It seems that the other avi files have different properties that confuses Matlab.
11/27/07 Gregory Falco
1;00-3:00PM
1.Label SMD (1.5 hrs)
2. Paint (1 hr)
------------------------
1. Labeled and began to reorganize SMD binder with new components
2. Painted another coat on the board for the microwave
1.Label SMD (1.5 hrs)
2. Paint (1 hr)
------------------------
1. Labeled and began to reorganize SMD binder with new components
2. Painted another coat on the board for the microwave
November 26, 2007
11/26/'07 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
5 pm to 9 pm (worked from home)
1. Mass-distribution recommendation for symmetry
------------------------------------------------
1. Once the heavier pair of springs on the inner leg
is replaced (please refer last post for details of why
they need to be replaced), I plan to move the whole hip-spring
assembly up by about 9cm from the current configuration.
* We also want to add the IMU just below the computer box
on the inner leg (I assumed a mass of 60gms and a y-distance of
about 22cm from the hip axis).
* The new pair of batteries can be added at y = 1.5 cm,
z = 4.5 cm (with a total mass of 750 gms) on the
outer legs.
With this configuration the differences in the 3 mass properties,
are really small:
The new inner leg measurents are:
[m*y: 66.72450 kg.cm m*z: 4.17000 kg.cm I: 4485.40 kg.cm^2]
[m*y: 0.03650 kg.cm m*z: 0.15500 kg.cm I: -11.87000 kg.cm^2]
where positive sign means inner leg value is greater than
corresponding outer leg value. Note that the differences, even
though non-zero, are really small percentages of individual
values.
Note that all these values were calculated by extrapolations
based on data that was taken sometime back - quite a few changes
have occurred on the robot since we last measured the relevant
mass properties (e.g. computer boxes added, James' hip spring
assembly moved downwards).
November 20, 2007
11/20/07 Gregory Falco
12:15- 1:30, 2:00- 3:15
1. Painted Plank (45min)
2. SMD organization (1 hr 15 min)
3. Second coat of paint for plank (30 min)
-------------------------------------
1. Painted wooden plank that will be used for the microwave
2. Organized and began labeling the new SMD parts for the organizational binder.
3. Added a second coat of paint to the side of the board painted yesterday.
1. Painted Plank (45min)
2. SMD organization (1 hr 15 min)
3. Second coat of paint for plank (30 min)
-------------------------------------
1. Painted wooden plank that will be used for the microwave
2. Organized and began labeling the new SMD parts for the organizational binder.
3. Added a second coat of paint to the side of the board painted yesterday.
11/19/07 Gregory Falco
1:00-4:30PM
1.Microwave (3.5 hrs)
------------------------
1. Drilled holes for microwave above sink. Discovered that the brackets for the shelf are just a littttttttle bit different in size than they need to be. We will need to buy different sized brackets or shelving. I also painted one side of the plank that the microwave will rest on.
1.Microwave (3.5 hrs)
------------------------
1. Drilled holes for microwave above sink. Discovered that the brackets for the shelf are just a littttttttle bit different in size than they need to be. We will need to buy different sized brackets or shelving. I also painted one side of the plank that the microwave will rest on.
November 19, 2007
11/19/07 Yingyi Tan
7.00pm - 9.15pm
1. Rewired wires in right hip box.
---------------
1. The wires from the receiver and servo motor had been removed from the board at the bottom of the right hip box. The voltage would now be supplied from the satellite boards in the satellite box under the hip box. Hence the servo motor and receiver wires had to be cut, and resoldered to the wires from the satellite board.
1. Rewired wires in right hip box.
---------------
1. The wires from the receiver and servo motor had been removed from the board at the bottom of the right hip box. The voltage would now be supplied from the satellite boards in the satellite box under the hip box. Hence the servo motor and receiver wires had to be cut, and resoldered to the wires from the satellite board.
11/19 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
hours : Monday 11.15 to 1.15
1. Recommendation on mass distribution for symmetry (2 hours)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discussed my solution with Jason - we decided that we should have a battery (split in equal halves) on the outer box, a little further out from the plane of the robot. This would serve to equalize the m*z values of the legs, without adding any more masses that are sticking out of the plane of the robot. One pair of springs that James has been using is really heavy, and given the fact that both pairs have almost the same spring constant we decided that we could do away with the heavier spring. This would also help in reducing the disparity in the inertia of the two legs.
1. Recommendation on mass distribution for symmetry (2 hours)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discussed my solution with Jason - we decided that we should have a battery (split in equal halves) on the outer box, a little further out from the plane of the robot. This would serve to equalize the m*z values of the legs, without adding any more masses that are sticking out of the plane of the robot. One pair of springs that James has been using is really heavy, and given the fact that both pairs have almost the same spring constant we decided that we could do away with the heavier spring. This would also help in reducing the disparity in the inertia of the two legs.
11/19 Stephane Constantin
10:30 to 1pm
1) Merging graphs and video
I succeeded in merging the graphing and video playing parts of the project. I can now play frame by frame of video and the graphs cursor simultaneously moves right or left. However, this can only be done (so far) by dropping the arrow keys and using a screen button.
1) Merging graphs and video
I succeeded in merging the graphing and video playing parts of the project. I can now play frame by frame of video and the graphs cursor simultaneously moves right or left. However, this can only be done (so far) by dropping the arrow keys and using a screen button.
11/18 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
Hours:
-------
Sunday - 3.15 to 6.15 pm
- 10 to 2 pm
1. Tried to measure the relevant mass properties of the robot again (~3 hours)
2. Recommendation on mass distribution in new configuration. (~4 hours, from home)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. James' project required the hip spring to be lowered (he lowered the whole assembly by about 31 cm). I set about trying to measure inertia and m*y values again - other than the change above, we also hadn't measured since the computer boxes had been put on. So I thought it'd be better to measure again rather than extrapolate for two big changes, such as those above.
The computer box came in the way of the assembly that was used to clamp the inner leg while measuring outer leg inertia - spent quite a while trying to diassemble this set-up and make it right. When I finally did set it up, the system had much higher damping (I forgot the hip had been coupled with the hip motor and gearbox!) - since the conditions varied in a large way from last time, I thought it best to extrapolate for the new values of inertia, m*y and m*z for each leg based on the new locations of the springs, etc.
2. The inertia of the inner leg now exceeds that of the outer leg (due to the change that James made). I have a possible mass distribution for this, with a second battery added (in two halves on each side of the outer leg), and the old battery being moved in closer to the plane of the box. In the final configuration, with both legs 'equal', the inertia of the inner leg increases only by 60 kg.cm^2 (without adding any masses, it was 4831.4 kg.cm^2).
-------
Sunday - 3.15 to 6.15 pm
- 10 to 2 pm
1. Tried to measure the relevant mass properties of the robot again (~3 hours)
2. Recommendation on mass distribution in new configuration. (~4 hours, from home)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. James' project required the hip spring to be lowered (he lowered the whole assembly by about 31 cm). I set about trying to measure inertia and m*y values again - other than the change above, we also hadn't measured since the computer boxes had been put on. So I thought it'd be better to measure again rather than extrapolate for two big changes, such as those above.
The computer box came in the way of the assembly that was used to clamp the inner leg while measuring outer leg inertia - spent quite a while trying to diassemble this set-up and make it right. When I finally did set it up, the system had much higher damping (I forgot the hip had been coupled with the hip motor and gearbox!) - since the conditions varied in a large way from last time, I thought it best to extrapolate for the new values of inertia, m*y and m*z for each leg based on the new locations of the springs, etc.
2. The inertia of the inner leg now exceeds that of the outer leg (due to the change that James made). I have a possible mass distribution for this, with a second battery added (in two halves on each side of the outer leg), and the old battery being moved in closer to the plane of the box. In the final configuration, with both legs 'equal', the inertia of the inner leg increases only by 60 kg.cm^2 (without adding any masses, it was 4831.4 kg.cm^2).
November 17, 2007
11/17/07 Yingyi Tan
11.00am - 6.00pm
1. Glued two surfboards to the satellite boxes. (0.5h)
2. Created holder for LED of main PC (4 h)
3. Glued LED light and surfboard to holder (0.5h)
4. Extended wires of LED for 4th board (1h)
-------------------------
1. The surfboards for the LEDs had to be glued onto the satellite boxes using epoxy.
2. The last LED had to be held to the frame of the left hip box using a piece of aluminum. This aluminum would be screwed to the frame. A hole had to be drilled through the aluminum for the LED to pass through. A corresponding hole was drilled through the face of the hip box. This would allow the LED to be seen.
3. The LED light was soldered onto the surfboard and the surfboard was glued onto the piece of aluminum. The aluminum had to be first "roughened" using the dremel tool in order for the epoxy to work well.
4. The ribbon cable from the surfboard was not long enough. Another piece of ribbon cable was attached to the original piece and soldered together. Heat shrink was used to insulate the wires.
1. Glued two surfboards to the satellite boxes. (0.5h)
2. Created holder for LED of main PC (4 h)
3. Glued LED light and surfboard to holder (0.5h)
4. Extended wires of LED for 4th board (1h)
-------------------------
1. The surfboards for the LEDs had to be glued onto the satellite boxes using epoxy.
2. The last LED had to be held to the frame of the left hip box using a piece of aluminum. This aluminum would be screwed to the frame. A hole had to be drilled through the aluminum for the LED to pass through. A corresponding hole was drilled through the face of the hip box. This would allow the LED to be seen.
3. The LED light was soldered onto the surfboard and the surfboard was glued onto the piece of aluminum. The aluminum had to be first "roughened" using the dremel tool in order for the epoxy to work well.
4. The ribbon cable from the surfboard was not long enough. Another piece of ribbon cable was attached to the original piece and soldered together. Heat shrink was used to insulate the wires.
November 16, 2007
11/15 Stephane Constantin
4 to 5:30
1)Merging Video and graphs
Kevin and I attempted to merge the graphing matlab program with the one that plays video framewise. The issues in this task is the blocking function in the graphing script "ginput". We decided that we will try to remove that function, and therefore use graphical buttons instead of keyboard entries to facilitate this merging.
1)Merging Video and graphs
Kevin and I attempted to merge the graphing matlab program with the one that plays video framewise. The issues in this task is the blocking function in the graphing script "ginput". We decided that we will try to remove that function, and therefore use graphical buttons instead of keyboard entries to facilitate this merging.
11/16/07 Yingyi Tan
4.00pm - 5.30pm, 6.00pm - 8.00pm
1. Soldered 4th surfboard for the new LED that will be connected to the main PC board. (1.5h)
2. Re-soldered lose resistors on two boards (2h)
--------------
1. Soldered a ribbon cable to the 4th surfboard. Soldered 2 300 ohm resistors to the board for the green and blue light. Soldered 2 1000 ohm resistors in parallel for the red light since we were out of 300 ohm resistors
2. When we tried to test the boards with the LEDs, we realized that some of the resistors were not soldered properly, hence not all the colors of the LED would light up. Used the odometer to find the loose connections and re-soldered them.
1. Soldered 4th surfboard for the new LED that will be connected to the main PC board. (1.5h)
2. Re-soldered lose resistors on two boards (2h)
--------------
1. Soldered a ribbon cable to the 4th surfboard. Soldered 2 300 ohm resistors to the board for the green and blue light. Soldered 2 1000 ohm resistors in parallel for the red light since we were out of 300 ohm resistors
2. When we tried to test the boards with the LEDs, we realized that some of the resistors were not soldered properly, hence not all the colors of the LED would light up. Used the odometer to find the loose connections and re-soldered them.
11/16/07 Gregory Falco
1:00PM-4:30PM
1. Dismantled 2x4 (1.5 hrs)
2. Meeting (1.5 hrs)
3. Devised plan for microwave (.5 hrs)
---------------------------------------
1. Dismantled old student project and put remaining parts in machine shop
2. Attended and took notes for lab meeting
3. Devised a plan of action on how I will mount the microwave above the sink. I will be using shelf beams and this other cool gadget I found.
1. Dismantled 2x4 (1.5 hrs)
2. Meeting (1.5 hrs)
3. Devised plan for microwave (.5 hrs)
---------------------------------------
1. Dismantled old student project and put remaining parts in machine shop
2. Attended and took notes for lab meeting
3. Devised a plan of action on how I will mount the microwave above the sink. I will be using shelf beams and this other cool gadget I found.
11/16/'07, Rohit Hippalgaonkar
Hours :
Monday - 3. 30 pm to 5.5 pm
Tuesday - 2 pm to 4 pm
Friday - 1 . 5 hours (meetings)
1. More testing with code
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems that one cannot balance the relevant mass properties without adding to the inertia of the outer leg (we want to keep this at a minimum, since it is already large, and considerably greater than the inertia of the inner leg). Another constraint is that we want the second battery to be added, and preferably all 600 gm of this second battery (i.e 2 pieces of 300 gms each) should be at the same place - this is from the point of view of ease of addition of masses.
Am currently trying to work out which of the following configurations will be better with respect to minimization of outer leg inertia -
a) adding the second battery to the inner leg in the motor box (~ 13cm to 16 cm from the hip)
b) adding the to the inner leg somewhere lower down (between 25 cm to 45 cm)
I think it is a) but not sure yet - am working on a piece of code
c) yet another config. would be to split the second battery on the outer legs but this would be really hard to implement and also dangerous (according to Jason) - so I'm not working on this config.
Monday - 3. 30 pm to 5.5 pm
Tuesday - 2 pm to 4 pm
Friday - 1 . 5 hours (meetings)
1. More testing with code
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems that one cannot balance the relevant mass properties without adding to the inertia of the outer leg (we want to keep this at a minimum, since it is already large, and considerably greater than the inertia of the inner leg). Another constraint is that we want the second battery to be added, and preferably all 600 gm of this second battery (i.e 2 pieces of 300 gms each) should be at the same place - this is from the point of view of ease of addition of masses.
Am currently trying to work out which of the following configurations will be better with respect to minimization of outer leg inertia -
a) adding the second battery to the inner leg in the motor box (~ 13cm to 16 cm from the hip)
b) adding the to the inner leg somewhere lower down (between 25 cm to 45 cm)
I think it is a) but not sure yet - am working on a piece of code
c) yet another config. would be to split the second battery on the outer legs but this would be really hard to implement and also dangerous (according to Jason) - so I'm not working on this config.
November 15, 2007
11/15/07 Yingyi Tan
4.30-5.30pm
1. Soldered wires and resistors onto the new surf board for LED
----------------------------
1. The new surf boards came in. I soldered a ribbon cable to the surf board and soldered 300 ohm resistors to the board for the LED on the satellite boxes. The green and blue light required 300 ohm resistance but the red light required approximately 500 ohms. Hence a pair of resistors were soldered in parallel which together with a 3rd 300 ohm resistor in series created the necessary resistance for the red light.
1. Soldered wires and resistors onto the new surf board for LED
----------------------------
1. The new surf boards came in. I soldered a ribbon cable to the surf board and soldered 300 ohm resistors to the board for the LED on the satellite boxes. The green and blue light required 300 ohm resistance but the red light required approximately 500 ohms. Hence a pair of resistors were soldered in parallel which together with a 3rd 300 ohm resistor in series created the necessary resistance for the red light.
11/15/07 Gregory Falco
1:30-4:00PM
1. E-mailed lab ~15 min
2. Checked and repackaged Monitor (30 min)
3. Debugged website (1 hr 45 min)
---------------------------
1. I e-mailed the lab regarding the GANTT information needed for the blog. Another friendly reminder.
2. Monitor has an internal scratch on it. We repackaged it up and I sent an e-mail inquiring about a refund for the product.
3. I debugged the website, there were many dead links--- I am still not sure why. I am currently working on one link to a sound clip that will not work.
1. E-mailed lab ~15 min
2. Checked and repackaged Monitor (30 min)
3. Debugged website (1 hr 45 min)
---------------------------
1. I e-mailed the lab regarding the GANTT information needed for the blog. Another friendly reminder.
2. Monitor has an internal scratch on it. We repackaged it up and I sent an e-mail inquiring about a refund for the product.
3. I debugged the website, there were many dead links--- I am still not sure why. I am currently working on one link to a sound clip that will not work.
Carlos Arango, 11/15/07
Projects:
Ankle Sensors- Test and Calibrate
Satellite Processor Daughter Board-Connect IMU
Dependencies:
My first project (Test and calibrate ankle sensors) depends on lines 27 and 35
Also, the expected time for this project is 1 day not 2
Ankle Sensors- Test and Calibrate
Satellite Processor Daughter Board-Connect IMU
Dependencies:
My first project (Test and calibrate ankle sensors) depends on lines 27 and 35
Also, the expected time for this project is 1 day not 2
November 14, 2007
11/14/07 Hajime Furukawa
2:15 - 4:45, 6:00 - 7:30
1) Removed old connectors and added new connectors on the plug a pods (4h)
----------------------------------------------------------------
1) De-soldered old connectors from the plug a pods and soldered in ribbon cables in place of them. Then added connectors to the other end of the ribbon cables so that they could be accessed from outside the plug a pod boxes. Had to be very careful throughout the whole process.
1) Removed old connectors and added new connectors on the plug a pods (4h)
----------------------------------------------------------------
1) De-soldered old connectors from the plug a pods and soldered in ribbon cables in place of them. Then added connectors to the other end of the ribbon cables so that they could be accessed from outside the plug a pod boxes. Had to be very careful throughout the whole process.
11/14/07 Kevin Ullmann
4:00 - 5:30 PM (1 hr at home)
1. Continued researching/working with arrow key problem
1. Stephane emailed me that a possible solution to this problem is using a uicontrol instead of ginput. I need to find out from him how he implemented uicontrol because the hour and a half that worked was spent on trying to create and implement a uicontrol with a keypressfcn whose callback would control all the key events that we so far handle in the graphs function. Unfortunately I was unable to replace ginput, although I was able to create and manipulate (to a certain extent) the uicontrol object.
1. Continued researching/working with arrow key problem
1. Stephane emailed me that a possible solution to this problem is using a uicontrol instead of ginput. I need to find out from him how he implemented uicontrol because the hour and a half that worked was spent on trying to create and implement a uicontrol with a keypressfcn whose callback would control all the key events that we so far handle in the graphs function. Unfortunately I was unable to replace ginput, although I was able to create and manipulate (to a certain extent) the uicontrol object.
Hajime Furukawa 11/14/07
24: Test board functions - Voltage regulator test complete. Jason has taken over rest of testing.
32, 33: Cut and drill boxes for boards and wiring; Install, adusting as needed - Are correct.
32, 33: Cut and drill boxes for boards and wiring; Install, adusting as needed - Are correct.
November 13, 2007
11/13/07 Kevin Ullmann
8:30 - 9:45 PM (1.25 hrs, at home)
1. Researched/experimented with solutions to dynamic cursor movement
1. I looked online and within Matlab for possible ways to get and use the mouse location. I first tried to look into the way the function mplay works to find a solution but I can't find the right m-files. I then succesfully changed the WindowButtonMotionFunction (which is called whenever the user moves the mouse) to read the pointer's location in the current axis. Unfortunately there seems to be no way to use this information, only display it. I was looking into mouse motion as an alternative solution to the 'machine gun key' problem (the window cannot handle rapid key presses.)
1. Researched/experimented with solutions to dynamic cursor movement
1. I looked online and within Matlab for possible ways to get and use the mouse location. I first tried to look into the way the function mplay works to find a solution but I can't find the right m-files. I then succesfully changed the WindowButtonMotionFunction (which is called whenever the user moves the mouse) to read the pointer's location in the current axis. Unfortunately there seems to be no way to use this information, only display it. I was looking into mouse motion as an alternative solution to the 'machine gun key' problem (the window cannot handle rapid key presses.)
11/13/07 Gregory Falco
12:30-5:00
1.Lab Publicity (2.5 hrs)
2. Accounts (.5 hrs)
3. MSDS website (1.5 hrs)
-------------
1. Included all media files into the lab publicity website. It's ready to get onto the server!
2. Spoke to Ms. Smiley about why my accounts disappeared. Seems like i was deauthorized by management... whatever that means. They told me that after speaking to Andy Ruina they may reinstate my privileges.
3. Created a description and instructions for the MSDS website. I created one for the lab and one for the Machine Shop. They are all ready to go too!
1.Lab Publicity (2.5 hrs)
2. Accounts (.5 hrs)
3. MSDS website (1.5 hrs)
-------------
1. Included all media files into the lab publicity website. It's ready to get onto the server!
2. Spoke to Ms. Smiley about why my accounts disappeared. Seems like i was deauthorized by management... whatever that means. They told me that after speaking to Andy Ruina they may reinstate my privileges.
3. Created a description and instructions for the MSDS website. I created one for the lab and one for the Machine Shop. They are all ready to go too!
11/13/07 John Buzzi
1:45pm-5:00pm
1) Made holes in the processor boxes for wires to enter (1 hr 30 min)
2) Made a hole in the body for wires to pass through (1hr 30 min)
--------------------------
1) In order for the appropriate wires to pass into the satellite processor boxes many holes need to be made in various locations in the box. I made 2 holes in each of the boxes using a drill, dremmel tool, and files.
2) Those same wires mentioned above also need to pass through the body of the robot. therefor material needed to be removed in order for them to fit appropriately. A dremmel tool was used for this job. a file was also used to clean things up a bit.
1) Made holes in the processor boxes for wires to enter (1 hr 30 min)
2) Made a hole in the body for wires to pass through (1hr 30 min)
--------------------------
1) In order for the appropriate wires to pass into the satellite processor boxes many holes need to be made in various locations in the box. I made 2 holes in each of the boxes using a drill, dremmel tool, and files.
2) Those same wires mentioned above also need to pass through the body of the robot. therefor material needed to be removed in order for them to fit appropriately. A dremmel tool was used for this job. a file was also used to clean things up a bit.
11/12/07 John Buzzi
5:00pm-6:30pm
1) drilled and tapped the right leg for the processor box (1hr 15 min)
------------------------------
1) In order to fit some of the electrical components in the right leg (when viewed from the front) it was necessary to have the screws that mounted the sattelite processor box thread into the body of the robot. I first spotted the holes carefully and then drilled the holes slowly so that when i made it through i did not contact any of the components inside. After the holes were drilled i carefully tapped them.
1) drilled and tapped the right leg for the processor box (1hr 15 min)
------------------------------
1) In order to fit some of the electrical components in the right leg (when viewed from the front) it was necessary to have the screws that mounted the sattelite processor box thread into the body of the robot. I first spotted the holes carefully and then drilled the holes slowly so that when i made it through i did not contact any of the components inside. After the holes were drilled i carefully tapped them.
11/12 Stephane Constantin
7 to 9 pm (at home)
We were having trouble to efficiently read keyboard instructions from the user because the function that we use for that task "ginput" is a blocking function, meaning that the program is stuck in that function until the user pressed a key or cliked. This is not good for displaying video frame by frame as the user presses the arrow key. I believe that this problem can be solved by replacing "ginput" with a GUI control "uicontrol" which is not a blocking function. I modified the video part of the program with that function and I got good results. This function will allow an easier and clearer merging of the graphs part and the video part.
We were having trouble to efficiently read keyboard instructions from the user because the function that we use for that task "ginput" is a blocking function, meaning that the program is stuck in that function until the user pressed a key or cliked. This is not good for displaying video frame by frame as the user presses the arrow key. I believe that this problem can be solved by replacing "ginput" with a GUI control "uicontrol" which is not a blocking function. I modified the video part of the program with that function and I got good results. This function will allow an easier and clearer merging of the graphs part and the video part.
11/9 Stephane Constantin
4:00 t0 5:30 pm
Showed Kevin my progress on the video part of the project, so that he could start to get involved in that part of the project. Discussed issues such as controlling frame rate, memory issue, and brainstormed possibilites towards solutions. Also showed him the matlab mplay application that could be useful and we explored how we could modify it for our purposes.
Showed Kevin my progress on the video part of the project, so that he could start to get involved in that part of the project. Discussed issues such as controlling frame rate, memory issue, and brainstormed possibilites towards solutions. Also showed him the matlab mplay application that could be useful and we explored how we could modify it for our purposes.
11/12/07 Lee Sam
Time in 9:30am
Time out 3pm
1)Managed to get the Direct Memory Access (DMA) for LPC3180 to work for receiving data from the MAC7111.
Time out 3pm
1)Managed to get the Direct Memory Access (DMA) for LPC3180 to work for receiving data from the MAC7111.
- First issue: the Data Register for the SPI on the LPC3180 when receiving will send the clock signal to the slave when the register is both written or read. this would cause the slave to send data to LPC3180. the code has to take this into account.
- Second issue: the MAC7111 runs at a much slower frequency than the LPC3180. Hence without the DMA on the LPC3180 implemented, it is unable to handle the rate in which the LPC3180 is able to receive data and it polls for the data. THe lpc3180 dma receiving also assumes that data is always received when it requests for the data. the register for the lpc3180 spi data also does not clear the last remaining data in the FIFO queue and it will result in erronous data being recorded as received from the slave. this problem could potentially go away when DMA is implemented on the MAC7111
2) Coding and Testing the DMA for MAC7111
November 12, 2007
11/12/07 Yingyi Tan
5.30pm - 9.15pm
1. Drilled holes and soldered resistors to "surf" board for LED light.
-------------
1. Drilled holes in two small "surf" boards for the LED lights that would be fixed on the outside of the satellite boxes. In order for the right current to be delivered to the LED lights, I soldered small 330 ohm resistors onto the board. Each board had a total of 5 resistors. Some had to be in parallel to each other. I also soldered a ribbon cable to the "surf" boards.
1. Drilled holes and soldered resistors to "surf" board for LED light.
-------------
1. Drilled holes in two small "surf" boards for the LED lights that would be fixed on the outside of the satellite boxes. In order for the right current to be delivered to the LED lights, I soldered small 330 ohm resistors onto the board. Each board had a total of 5 resistors. Some had to be in parallel to each other. I also soldered a ribbon cable to the "surf" boards.
11/12/07 Gregory Falco
12:45-4:15 PM
1. Bought Monitor (1 hr)
2. Worked On MSDS Website (.5 hrs)
3. Added Extra Publicity to Publicity Site (2 hrs)
-----------------
1. Purchased Acer Computer Monitor for $100 on Ebay- was shipped today and will arrive by midweek
2. Finished labeling MSDS Website, i still have to add a title and directions section to the site
3. Added video and radio lab publicity to site. I have 10 more PDFs to attach and then it can be uploaded to the server.
1. Bought Monitor (1 hr)
2. Worked On MSDS Website (.5 hrs)
3. Added Extra Publicity to Publicity Site (2 hrs)
-----------------
1. Purchased Acer Computer Monitor for $100 on Ebay- was shipped today and will arrive by midweek
2. Finished labeling MSDS Website, i still have to add a title and directions section to the site
3. Added video and radio lab publicity to site. I have 10 more PDFs to attach and then it can be uploaded to the server.
11/12/'07
For 11/5- 11/11
---------------
Tuesday 11/6 - 1.30 pm to 4 pm (2.5 hours)
Wednesday 11/7 - 10.30 am to 1pm (2.5 hours)
Sunday 11/11 - 8 pm to 11pm (3 hours, from home)
Monday - 11 am to 12.30 am (1.5 hours, from home)
1. Further testing on MATLAB code
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. We decided sometime during the middle of the week where the 'computer boxes' will go on the robot. Also decided was that another battery had to be placed somewhere on the robot. We first tried adding the battery (a 600 gm unit) inside the box that contained the motor and the electronics.
The MATLAB program that we had been using -which outputs masses to be added, given the locations of the masses, while making all the relevant mass properties equal - isn't too useful in this case. I tried solving by-hand and tried 4 or 5 different 'types' of solutions to the above problem and I feel that a practically realizable solution was not possible in this case.
So I tried to solve for the problem by keeping the location of the battery variable, and have arrived at a practical solution which still requires some tuning.
---------------
Tuesday 11/6 - 1.30 pm to 4 pm (2.5 hours)
Wednesday 11/7 - 10.30 am to 1pm (2.5 hours)
Sunday 11/11 - 8 pm to 11pm (3 hours, from home)
Monday - 11 am to 12.30 am (1.5 hours, from home)
1. Further testing on MATLAB code
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. We decided sometime during the middle of the week where the 'computer boxes' will go on the robot. Also decided was that another battery had to be placed somewhere on the robot. We first tried adding the battery (a 600 gm unit) inside the box that contained the motor and the electronics.
The MATLAB program that we had been using -which outputs masses to be added, given the locations of the masses, while making all the relevant mass properties equal - isn't too useful in this case. I tried solving by-hand and tried 4 or 5 different 'types' of solutions to the above problem and I feel that a practically realizable solution was not possible in this case.
So I tried to solve for the problem by keeping the location of the battery variable, and have arrived at a practical solution which still requires some tuning.
11/10/07 John Buzzi
7:15pm-9:30pm
1) prepared the microprocessor boxes for mounting (1 hr)
2) helped Haji with connecting and taping ribon cables to legs (15 min)
3) began creating slot for new electrical connector location (1 hr)
--------------------------------------------------------------
1) In order to mount the microprocessor boxes to the bottom of the robot a few tasks still needed to be completed. First, the holes where the screws go through the box to attach it to the robot itself needed to be countersunk so that the top of the screw heads will sit flush against the inside of the box. This is so that they will not be protruding into the area where the microprocessor will be installed. I accomplished this task on the milling machine. I then cut the screws to the appropriate length for mounting using the screw cutting device.
2) I helped haji install the ribon cables that run from the ankle sensors up the back of the robots legs and into the robot itself. The cables were secured to the leg using electrical tape and it was necessary to make it look neat because this is a very visible part of the robot.
3) In order to mount the satellite processor boxes in the mannor we have decided on, it was necessary to move many components that protruded from the bottom of the robot to new locations. One such component is an electrical connector that we decided to move to the back of the robot. I used a drill, a dremmel tool, and a file to begin creating the slot. Some more work still remains before this task is fully completed.
1) prepared the microprocessor boxes for mounting (1 hr)
2) helped Haji with connecting and taping ribon cables to legs (15 min)
3) began creating slot for new electrical connector location (1 hr)
--------------------------------------------------------------
1) In order to mount the microprocessor boxes to the bottom of the robot a few tasks still needed to be completed. First, the holes where the screws go through the box to attach it to the robot itself needed to be countersunk so that the top of the screw heads will sit flush against the inside of the box. This is so that they will not be protruding into the area where the microprocessor will be installed. I accomplished this task on the milling machine. I then cut the screws to the appropriate length for mounting using the screw cutting device.
2) I helped haji install the ribon cables that run from the ankle sensors up the back of the robots legs and into the robot itself. The cables were secured to the leg using electrical tape and it was necessary to make it look neat because this is a very visible part of the robot.
3) In order to mount the satellite processor boxes in the mannor we have decided on, it was necessary to move many components that protruded from the bottom of the robot to new locations. One such component is an electrical connector that we decided to move to the back of the robot. I used a drill, a dremmel tool, and a file to begin creating the slot. Some more work still remains before this task is fully completed.
November 11, 2007
Rohit Hippalgaonkar, 11/11
Inner / Outer leg symmetry Project
------------------------------------
* Currently working on tasks 62 and 65 together, as on GANTT chart.
* The way our project has proceeded, we have had to consult with James and John, who have each had their parts being added / modified.
- Usually we keep track of changes by measuring the relevant mass properties of the robot every time something is modified on the robot.
- So we then recommend a new mass distribution for symmetry every time someone added a mass on to the robot - except now, with the computer boxes being added, getting symmetry seems a harder problem and is taking more time.
Don't know how you will make changes onto the GANTT chart because this is about the third time we are going in the 62-63-65 cycle of tasks.
Battery Mounting project
--------------------------
* have not started work on this yet.
------------------------------------
* Currently working on tasks 62 and 65 together, as on GANTT chart.
* The way our project has proceeded, we have had to consult with James and John, who have each had their parts being added / modified.
- Usually we keep track of changes by measuring the relevant mass properties of the robot every time something is modified on the robot.
- So we then recommend a new mass distribution for symmetry every time someone added a mass on to the robot - except now, with the computer boxes being added, getting symmetry seems a harder problem and is taking more time.
Don't know how you will make changes onto the GANTT chart because this is about the third time we are going in the 62-63-65 cycle of tasks.
Battery Mounting project
--------------------------
* have not started work on this yet.
11/10/07 Hajime Furukawa
5:45 - 8:45
1) Worked on putting the Robot back together (3h)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Added a slot in each of the boxes that will hold the plug a pod satellite processor so that a connector can be accessed on the outside of the box. Smoothed the metal part by the ankle sensor, drilled a larger whole in said metal part, and routed some ribbon wire up the legs.
1) Worked on putting the Robot back together (3h)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Added a slot in each of the boxes that will hold the plug a pod satellite processor so that a connector can be accessed on the outside of the box. Smoothed the metal part by the ankle sensor, drilled a larger whole in said metal part, and routed some ribbon wire up the legs.
November 10, 2007
Kevin Ullmann 11/10/07
83 (Buy video camera) is done.
Data display user interface 80
Test, improve data display 82
Video acquisition, synchronization 84 (does not depend on 81)
Data display user interface 80
Test, improve data display 82
Video acquisition, synchronization 84 (does not depend on 81)
11/09/07 Lee Sam
Time in 9am
Time out 3pm
1) Managed to make the LPC3180 (Master) and the MAC7111 (Slave) to communicate via SPI on both directions - one direction at a time. No external hardware is used, but the Slave Select line for the MAC7111 is generated using a GPIO pin on the LPC3180 and toggled only once every couple of SPI data transfers, to syncronize the transfer process.
2) DMA code for the LPC3180 to send data to the MAC7111 is written and verified working. The code is tested for multiple size of DMA transfers, from 1 byte to 50bytes.
Time out 3pm
1) Managed to make the LPC3180 (Master) and the MAC7111 (Slave) to communicate via SPI on both directions - one direction at a time. No external hardware is used, but the Slave Select line for the MAC7111 is generated using a GPIO pin on the LPC3180 and toggled only once every couple of SPI data transfers, to syncronize the transfer process.
2) DMA code for the LPC3180 to send data to the MAC7111 is written and verified working. The code is tested for multiple size of DMA transfers, from 1 byte to 50bytes.
November 9, 2007
Yingyi Tan 11/9/07
Completed projects:
task 14
Dependencies:
12 depends on 11
14 depends on 12
13 depends on 14
Current projects:
Helping to install the satellite boxes (drilling holes in robot). I believe is under task 27.
task 14
Dependencies:
12 depends on 11
14 depends on 12
13 depends on 14
Current projects:
Helping to install the satellite boxes (drilling holes in robot). I believe is under task 27.
11/09/07 Ullmann Kevin
4:00 - 5:45 PM (1.75 hrs)
1. Worked with Stephane on video (~1.2 hrs)
2. Photoshoot (~.55 hrs)
1. Stephane showed me what he has been doing with the video part of the graphics program. After he gave me a basic understanding of how everything works, we discussed various ideas for improvements and possible solutions to problems, including tie-ins to the current program.
2. Due to the pretty shirt I was wearing I was chosen to be submitted to a long period of squating, during which I accidentally knocked over the robot. We should definitely give the robot a name so that for that last sentence I could have said, 'I accidentally knocked over (Jimmy)' Jimmy of course is just a placeholder name.
1. Worked with Stephane on video (~1.2 hrs)
2. Photoshoot (~.55 hrs)
1. Stephane showed me what he has been doing with the video part of the graphics program. After he gave me a basic understanding of how everything works, we discussed various ideas for improvements and possible solutions to problems, including tie-ins to the current program.
2. Due to the pretty shirt I was wearing I was chosen to be submitted to a long period of squating, during which I accidentally knocked over the robot. We should definitely give the robot a name so that for that last sentence I could have said, 'I accidentally knocked over (Jimmy)' Jimmy of course is just a placeholder name.
11/9/07 Gregory Falco
1:15-2:45PM
1. Article Found (30 min)
2. Fixed Blog (15 min)
3. Lab Meeting (45 min)
-----------------------------------
1. I found Three Uses for Springs in Legged Locomotion on a internet service called Sage. I created a trial subscription that will last until Nov. 30 2007 so if anyone needs an obscure Mechanics article, I can get it for you.
2. I did some blog maintanance- ie. corrected formatting and forgotten labels
3. Took notes on meeting- will arrange for lab info session where members and prospective members will get to hear about the history and future of the Biorobotics lab.
1. Article Found (30 min)
2. Fixed Blog (15 min)
3. Lab Meeting (45 min)
-----------------------------------
1. I found Three Uses for Springs in Legged Locomotion on a internet service called Sage. I created a trial subscription that will last until Nov. 30 2007 so if anyone needs an obscure Mechanics article, I can get it for you.
2. I did some blog maintanance- ie. corrected formatting and forgotten labels
3. Took notes on meeting- will arrange for lab info session where members and prospective members will get to hear about the history and future of the Biorobotics lab.
11/08/07 Sam Lee
Time in 2pm
Time out 5:30pm
1) Worked with Jason to better understand the SPI problems and to sort out remaining compatibility issues. We suspect that we might actually be able to get away without generating our own slave select - which might make things alot easier
2) for the receving and sending data in the slave (MAC7111) the slave select seems to only be need to be asserted the whole time - ie there is no need to toggle between frames. this is beneficial as we can use a GPIO pin to toggle in software after each block of DMA transfers.
Time out 5:30pm
1) Worked with Jason to better understand the SPI problems and to sort out remaining compatibility issues. We suspect that we might actually be able to get away without generating our own slave select - which might make things alot easier
2) for the receving and sending data in the slave (MAC7111) the slave select seems to only be need to be asserted the whole time - ie there is no need to toggle between frames. this is beneficial as we can use a GPIO pin to toggle in software after each block of DMA transfers.
11/08/07 John Buzzi
1:00pm-2:30pm
1)Finished machining the satellite processor boxes (1hr 15 min)
-------------------------------------------
1) The microprocessor mounting boards were nearly done by the end of my previous session however holes still needed to be drilled in the last two boxes. Using the same method of centering each half of the box individually and drilling holes in specific locations I was able to finish the boxes. Drilling the mounting holes in the robot itself is the next step in the process.
1)Finished machining the satellite processor boxes (1hr 15 min)
-------------------------------------------
1) The microprocessor mounting boards were nearly done by the end of my previous session however holes still needed to be drilled in the last two boxes. Using the same method of centering each half of the box individually and drilling holes in specific locations I was able to finish the boxes. Drilling the mounting holes in the robot itself is the next step in the process.
11/06/07 John Buzzi
*Note: I havn't had a chance to write my blogs after i worked this week so i am catching up.
2:00pm-5:00 pm
1) Further discussed the satellite processor mounting with jason (45min)
2) Machined the processor boxes (2 hrs)
-------------------------------------------------------
1) Jason and i decided that it was necessary to remove all material that wasn't structural from inside of the sattelite processor mounting boxes. Also it was decided where to drill the mounting holes that will attach these boxes to the robot. We also concluded that in order to attach the top and bottom of the boxes as well as hold the processors in place we would need to use a system of screws and standoffs. This also meant additional holes needed to be drilled for this purpose as well.
2) I used the mill to first go through each half of the boxes individually and remove all excess plastic that was not structurally necessary. The boxes also needed mounting holes to attach to the robot as well as holes so that one half of the box will be able to attach to its other half and not fall apart. This process involved centering the mill over the box using the edge finder and then drilling holes at the appropriate locations.
2:00pm-5:00 pm
1) Further discussed the satellite processor mounting with jason (45min)
2) Machined the processor boxes (2 hrs)
-------------------------------------------------------
1) Jason and i decided that it was necessary to remove all material that wasn't structural from inside of the sattelite processor mounting boxes. Also it was decided where to drill the mounting holes that will attach these boxes to the robot. We also concluded that in order to attach the top and bottom of the boxes as well as hold the processors in place we would need to use a system of screws and standoffs. This also meant additional holes needed to be drilled for this purpose as well.
2) I used the mill to first go through each half of the boxes individually and remove all excess plastic that was not structurally necessary. The boxes also needed mounting holes to attach to the robot as well as holes so that one half of the box will be able to attach to its other half and not fall apart. This process involved centering the mill over the box using the edge finder and then drilling holes at the appropriate locations.
11/05/07 John Buzzi
*Note: I havn't had a chance to write my blogs after i worked this week so i am catching up.
12:30-1:30
1)Discussed satellite processor mounting options and battery mounting with jason. (1hr)
-----------------------------------------------------
1) We went through each of the 3 sections of the robots body and determined how to mount the satellite processor boxes. The plan was similar to the one i developed on my own however we thought of a modular system for mounting the battery packs on the nose of the robot.
12:30-1:30
1)Discussed satellite processor mounting options and battery mounting with jason. (1hr)
-----------------------------------------------------
1) We went through each of the 3 sections of the robots body and determined how to mount the satellite processor boxes. The plan was similar to the one i developed on my own however we thought of a modular system for mounting the battery packs on the nose of the robot.
November 8, 2007
11/08/07 Ullmann Kevin
8:30 - 10:00PM (1.5 hrs)
1. Adding functionality to changing variables (.5 hrs)
2. Researching 'machine gun problem' (1 hrs)
1. I made it so that when the user wants to change the variables that the list of variables and their respective indices also appears. This took me longer than expected because the window would freeze; I was able to resolve this problem by making the the msgbox 'modal'.
2. I searched online and within Matlab help to try and fix the problem of too-rapid key presses not functioning properly. I was not able to find much useful information. I am currently looking into the function ginput to see if I can alter it so that the CPU does not wait for user input to continue running the function.
1. Adding functionality to changing variables (.5 hrs)
2. Researching 'machine gun problem' (1 hrs)
1. I made it so that when the user wants to change the variables that the list of variables and their respective indices also appears. This took me longer than expected because the window would freeze; I was able to resolve this problem by making the the msgbox 'modal'.
2. I searched online and within Matlab help to try and fix the problem of too-rapid key presses not functioning properly. I was not able to find much useful information. I am currently looking into the function ginput to see if I can alter it so that the CPU does not wait for user input to continue running the function.
11/09/07 Yingyi Tan
5.00pm - 6.15pm
1. Re-soldered ribbon cable to sensor board (0.75h)
2. Assembled robot back together (0.5h)
---------------------------
1. The previous ribbon cable was not cut to the right length. As a result, it was tilted to one side. Also some parts of the insulation was broken and a piece of electrical tape had been used to cover the exposure. The old cable was removed and a new one soldered on. Each wire was of a different length to allow the ribbon cable to lie flat against the board.
2. The coupling between the right hip box and the center box was put back on to the robot. Loctitde was used on all screws to ensure they stayed in place. All parts of the robot was pieced together.
1. Re-soldered ribbon cable to sensor board (0.75h)
2. Assembled robot back together (0.5h)
---------------------------
1. The previous ribbon cable was not cut to the right length. As a result, it was tilted to one side. Also some parts of the insulation was broken and a piece of electrical tape had been used to cover the exposure. The old cable was removed and a new one soldered on. Each wire was of a different length to allow the ribbon cable to lie flat against the board.
2. The coupling between the right hip box and the center box was put back on to the robot. Loctitde was used on all screws to ensure they stayed in place. All parts of the robot was pieced together.
11/08/07 Hajime Furukawa
4:30 - 5:30
1)Board Modification and Mounting overhead (1h)
---------------------------
0) Sensor boards are plugged into the plug-a-pods. I believe some of the functionality is being tested with the sensors currently.
1) Discussed and thought of what to do next, which is mount the boards to the boxes. To do so, we must take out the connector on the side of the plugapod and instead connect a ribbon cable that spot. This is so that the mounting holes on the sensor board can be used. Then connectors will connect to the end of the ribbon cables.
1)Board Modification and Mounting overhead (1h)
---------------------------
0) Sensor boards are plugged into the plug-a-pods. I believe some of the functionality is being tested with the sensors currently.
1) Discussed and thought of what to do next, which is mount the boards to the boxes. To do so, we must take out the connector on the side of the plugapod and instead connect a ribbon cable that spot. This is so that the mounting holes on the sensor board can be used. Then connectors will connect to the end of the ribbon cables.
11/8/07 Gregory Falco
1:45-2:45PM
1. Corrected Blog (20 min)
2. Corrected Accounts (40 min)
----------------------------------------------
Several lab blog entries lack labels therefore are not capable of being tracked. I assigned proper titles and labels to those that lacked them.
There have been several late updates to the account info on webfinancials. They don't seem to update it at the end of each month and there is significant lag so I included recent charges for our account summary.
1. Corrected Blog (20 min)
2. Corrected Accounts (40 min)
----------------------------------------------
Several lab blog entries lack labels therefore are not capable of being tracked. I assigned proper titles and labels to those that lacked them.
There have been several late updates to the account info on webfinancials. They don't seem to update it at the end of each month and there is significant lag so I included recent charges for our account summary.
11/07/07 Lee Sam
Time in 9am
Time out 3pm
1) Narrowed down the problem of data being received by the slave - the infomation is going into the receive FIFO, however, it is not triggering the interupts. this problem is mostly a coding error - working to solve this.
Time out 3pm
1) Narrowed down the problem of data being received by the slave - the infomation is going into the receive FIFO, however, it is not triggering the interupts. this problem is mostly a coding error - working to solve this.
11/8/07: Ruina comments
Dear lab: Nov 7, 2007
Here are comments to all of you on your google blog entries. All of you should
glance at all of this
Generally most of you need a few more words and phrases so that someone reading your blogs
can know what you are talking about. Especially if this is supposed to serve, possibly,
as long term documentation.
Most especially, your entries from Tuesday night before a pay period ends should
be especially clear. Those are what I read first.
%%%%%%
About Carlos Arango:
I played with the IMU also. Fun. I recommend playing with it to everyone.
I am not convinced that the excursions you see on the angular velocity plots
are not real signal. I think you might be seeing real features of the leg motions.
Some suggestions:
1) Plot pitch angle (not angular rate) to get a better sense of the actual motion.
2) Compare with output from the motion capture equipment (in the lab
directly under the machine shop, contact Madhu
(madhusudhan Venkadesan) about using it.
On 11/5/07 you wrote about CAN bus code. CAN bus on what device? Whose buffer read
function? Where is this work documented?
On 11/2/07 you refer to “the code”. What code? On what sensor? Where is that code
stored? Where are your changes documented?
%%%%%%%%
About John Buzzi:
The Gant chart is great. Some things we need to fix/notate:
a) one person can’t do two one day tasks in one day.
b) What are the blue check marks at left column, “done”?
c) How to make clear non-critical paths (tasks that are on-going
like making the mass distribution symmetric)
d) Need a separate sheet with a list of names, for each name we need
the tasks that person is responsible for or working on.
You should get people to give you the data for that sheet.
About the new electical boxes, when you say “right side” is that the robot’s
right or your right when looking at the front of the robot? Please be clear.
%%%%%%%%
About Stephan Constantin:
Much more detail would be nice. For example, what looks promising, or not,
about mplay? Does it cost money? How much work might it take to get it
to do what? What are the alternatives that you know about? How did you
find it?
You might look into borrowing a camera from the motion capture system
in the IGERT LAB (see Madhu contact information above).
%%%%%%%%
About James Doehring:
Max and Rohit are also doing experiments on the legs and so on? Do you
use each other’s knowledge and experience about how to hold the robot in
such experiments?
When you say “match theoretical predictions” you need to be clear that you
mean that your torque data now well matches your predictions for torque based
on measurements you made of spring constants, lengths, and rest lengths.
What was your previous error that prevented such agreement? How did you find that?
For sure you should be talking with Rohit or Pranav about predicitons of
leg swing motion.
YOu should give about a 5 minute clear presentation at our coming meeting.
You should see if anyone in the lab can read your item 1 from 10/26/07 and
understand what you did. I think you could have made it understandable with
just a few more well-chosen words.
%%%%%%%%
About Greg Falco:
We still need the data sheet www pages for the lab chemicals
When you say “a specific account” why not just say which one?
When you say “Andy” do you mean Andy Ruina or Andy Vail?
I’d like to see that publicity www site you now have, and install it on
the lab www site.
What “wooden structures”? Unscrewed what? Why?
About cameras: I will buy one. Right now I am bidding for a Canon A560.
%%%%%%%
About Hajime Furukawa:
Overall I couldn’t tell if your boards are totally ready to plug on to the plug a pods
and use, or not.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
About Rohit Hippalgaonkar:
Please update more frequently (approximately each day you work).
When you say “experimental results” you need to say what was measured.
When you say “error” it is not clear what two things you are comparing.
%%%%%%
About Avtar Khalsa:
Should be clear about what “code”. Do we have a system set up or planned for
the sattelite processors?
Also, have you thought about how we keep track of the legs and state of the
machine? Do we keep track of the stance leg and swing leg or of the inner leg
and outer leg? I think we actually need to be able to do things either way
depending on instantaneous desires and needs.
There is no good text search for finding declarations?
Also, Sam and Jason seem to have ideas about how to deal with the declarations.
Somehow we should figure out how not to disrupt the whole modularity
by this kind of thing.
%%%%%%
About Sam Lee:
About once a week or so could you put in a summary in language that
the rest of us (or me, anyway) can understand? I see you in the lab working hard,
but I’d like some kind of general sense of what you are stuck on and
what you are making progress on.
%%%%%%
About YIngyi Tan:
Overall could you report on the status of the hip sensor. I think you
have it all working, right? Great. Can you give a presentation on
it on Friday (5-10 min).
%%%%%%
About Kevin Ullmann:
Please say what program rather than “the program”. In this case I
know what you mean, but some context is needed for the quick readers.
Your data-graphing program is getting to a point that I think it will be
great to use. Especially with video.
For example, if we had it working with video it would have been good to use
just in the past day or so to help figure out if the new IMU (Inertial
Measurement unit) was giving sensible data on the old (chain powered) robot.
%%%%%%
About Max Wasserman:
Seems like you guys are pretty much done on the analysis side of this
project. You should write up, with good illustrations of your
methods (and photos of various experimental details, that which you have.
Here are comments to all of you on your google blog entries. All of you should
glance at all of this
Generally most of you need a few more words and phrases so that someone reading your blogs
can know what you are talking about. Especially if this is supposed to serve, possibly,
as long term documentation.
Most especially, your entries from Tuesday night before a pay period ends should
be especially clear. Those are what I read first.
%%%%%%
About Carlos Arango:
I played with the IMU also. Fun. I recommend playing with it to everyone.
I am not convinced that the excursions you see on the angular velocity plots
are not real signal. I think you might be seeing real features of the leg motions.
Some suggestions:
1) Plot pitch angle (not angular rate) to get a better sense of the actual motion.
2) Compare with output from the motion capture equipment (in the lab
directly under the machine shop, contact Madhu
(madhusudhan Venkadesan
On 11/5/07 you wrote about CAN bus code. CAN bus on what device? Whose buffer read
function? Where is this work documented?
On 11/2/07 you refer to “the code”. What code? On what sensor? Where is that code
stored? Where are your changes documented?
%%%%%%%%
About John Buzzi:
The Gant chart is great. Some things we need to fix/notate:
a) one person can’t do two one day tasks in one day.
b) What are the blue check marks at left column, “done”?
c) How to make clear non-critical paths (tasks that are on-going
like making the mass distribution symmetric)
d) Need a separate sheet with a list of names, for each name we need
the tasks that person is responsible for or working on.
You should get people to give you the data for that sheet.
About the new electical boxes, when you say “right side” is that the robot’s
right or your right when looking at the front of the robot? Please be clear.
%%%%%%%%
About Stephan Constantin:
Much more detail would be nice. For example, what looks promising, or not,
about mplay? Does it cost money? How much work might it take to get it
to do what? What are the alternatives that you know about? How did you
find it?
You might look into borrowing a camera from the motion capture system
in the IGERT LAB (see Madhu contact information above).
%%%%%%%%
About James Doehring:
Max and Rohit are also doing experiments on the legs and so on? Do you
use each other’s knowledge and experience about how to hold the robot in
such experiments?
When you say “match theoretical predictions” you need to be clear that you
mean that your torque data now well matches your predictions for torque based
on measurements you made of spring constants, lengths, and rest lengths.
What was your previous error that prevented such agreement? How did you find that?
For sure you should be talking with Rohit or Pranav about predicitons of
leg swing motion.
YOu should give about a 5 minute clear presentation at our coming meeting.
You should see if anyone in the lab can read your item 1 from 10/26/07 and
understand what you did. I think you could have made it understandable with
just a few more well-chosen words.
%%%%%%%%
About Greg Falco:
We still need the data sheet www pages for the lab chemicals
When you say “a specific account” why not just say which one?
When you say “Andy” do you mean Andy Ruina or Andy Vail?
I’d like to see that publicity www site you now have, and install it on
the lab www site.
What “wooden structures”? Unscrewed what? Why?
About cameras: I will buy one. Right now I am bidding for a Canon A560.
%%%%%%%
About Hajime Furukawa:
Overall I couldn’t tell if your boards are totally ready to plug on to the plug a pods
and use, or not.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
About Rohit Hippalgaonkar:
Please update more frequently (approximately each day you work).
When you say “experimental results” you need to say what was measured.
When you say “error” it is not clear what two things you are comparing.
%%%%%%
About Avtar Khalsa:
Should be clear about what “code”. Do we have a system set up or planned for
the sattelite processors?
Also, have you thought about how we keep track of the legs and state of the
machine? Do we keep track of the stance leg and swing leg or of the inner leg
and outer leg? I think we actually need to be able to do things either way
depending on instantaneous desires and needs.
There is no good text search for finding declarations?
Also, Sam and Jason seem to have ideas about how to deal with the declarations.
Somehow we should figure out how not to disrupt the whole modularity
by this kind of thing.
%%%%%%
About Sam Lee:
About once a week or so could you put in a summary in language that
the rest of us (or me, anyway) can understand? I see you in the lab working hard,
but I’d like some kind of general sense of what you are stuck on and
what you are making progress on.
%%%%%%
About YIngyi Tan:
Overall could you report on the status of the hip sensor. I think you
have it all working, right? Great. Can you give a presentation on
it on Friday (5-10 min).
%%%%%%
About Kevin Ullmann:
Please say what program rather than “the program”. In this case I
know what you mean, but some context is needed for the quick readers.
Your data-graphing program is getting to a point that I think it will be
great to use. Especially with video.
For example, if we had it working with video it would have been good to use
just in the past day or so to help figure out if the new IMU (Inertial
Measurement unit) was giving sensible data on the old (chain powered) robot.
%%%%%%
About Max Wasserman:
Seems like you guys are pretty much done on the analysis side of this
project. You should write up, with good illustrations of your
methods (and photos of various experimental details, that which you have.
November 7, 2007
11/6/07 Avtar Khalsa
7:30 - 11:30
1. Continued working on the code. -4 hrs
The issue that I'm presently stuck on has to do with declarations. I have to move all of them to the header file to make this work correctly. Unfortunately, tracking them all down in several thousand lines of code is somewhat tedious, especially when they are in multiple files themselves. I also spent some time looking into linker order issues. CodeWarrior allows you to set the order that the files are linked in. Most linkers handle this automatically. I'm still trying to figure out what the order should be in this case
1. Continued working on the code. -4 hrs
The issue that I'm presently stuck on has to do with declarations. I have to move all of them to the header file to make this work correctly. Unfortunately, tracking them all down in several thousand lines of code is somewhat tedious, especially when they are in multiple files themselves. I also spent some time looking into linker order issues. CodeWarrior allows you to set the order that the files are linked in. Most linkers handle this automatically. I'm still trying to figure out what the order should be in this case
11/6/07 Avtar Khalsa
3:30 - 5:30
1. Worked on correcting errors in the split up code -2 hrs
The initial splitting of the code turned out to generate over 100 errors. The problem was that not all the declarations had been moved. Additionally there was code in a second file that I didn't realize initially that needed to be both modified and moved to make it compile.
1. Worked on correcting errors in the split up code -2 hrs
The initial splitting of the code turned out to generate over 100 errors. The problem was that not all the declarations had been moved. Additionally there was code in a second file that I didn't realize initially that needed to be both modified and moved to make it compile.
11/7/07 Stephane Constantin
10 to 11 am
1) Finished drawing the schematic for the CAN bus transceiver adaptor
1) Finished drawing the schematic for the CAN bus transceiver adaptor
11/6/07 Stephane Constantin
8pm - 9:30pm (at home)
1) Video capture
I found and explored a matlab application called 'mplay' that could be adapted for our purposes.
1) Video capture
I found and explored a matlab application called 'mplay' that could be adapted for our purposes.
11/3/2007 Max Wasserman
12:00 noon-1:00 pm (Saturday)
1. Inertial Property Testing
----------------------------------------------------------
1. Rohit and I re-tested the inertial properties of the outer legs to see what had changed since the new masses were added.
1. Inertial Property Testing
----------------------------------------------------------
1. Rohit and I re-tested the inertial properties of the outer legs to see what had changed since the new masses were added.
November 6, 2007
11/05/07 Hajime Furukawa
3:00PM - 4:00 PM
1) Tested Boards (1h)
--------------------------------------------------------------
1)Tested the second the third sensor boards' voltage regulators. Measured the output voltage and the power efficency of both to make sure they were acceptable (and they were!).
1) Tested Boards (1h)
--------------------------------------------------------------
1)Tested the second the third sensor boards' voltage regulators. Measured the output voltage and the power efficency of both to make sure they were acceptable (and they were!).
11/6/07 Ullmann Kevin
11:00AM - 1:00PM (2 hrs, from home)
1. Debugging (45 minutes)
2. Fixed resize problem (45 minutes)
3. Commented code (30 minutes)
1. I ran the program many times and tested it under various conditions to try to iron out some bugs.
2. I fixed the resize problem; previously if a user chose a new data file to work with, the figure window would revert to its original size and position, now when a user resizes the window, it will stay that way regardless of whether they choose a new data file.
3. I added comments to many lines of code so that it is easier to understand.
1. Debugging (45 minutes)
2. Fixed resize problem (45 minutes)
3. Commented code (30 minutes)
1. I ran the program many times and tested it under various conditions to try to iron out some bugs.
2. I fixed the resize problem; previously if a user chose a new data file to work with, the figure window would revert to its original size and position, now when a user resizes the window, it will stay that way regardless of whether they choose a new data file.
3. I added comments to many lines of code so that it is easier to understand.
11/06/07 Yingyi Tan
5.00pm - 6.30pm
1. Connected the wires to the battery charger connector clip (0.25h)
2. Drilled holes in the robot to attach the satellite box to bottom of robot (1.25h)
----------------
1. Jason attached the wire that had come off its header to a new header. Had to insert the wires according to previous diagram I made into a new battery charging connector.
2. John prepared the boxes to hold the satellite boards. I drilled the holes in the bottom of the robot's center box to attach these boxes to the robot.
1. Connected the wires to the battery charger connector clip (0.25h)
2. Drilled holes in the robot to attach the satellite box to bottom of robot (1.25h)
----------------
1. Jason attached the wire that had come off its header to a new header. Had to insert the wires according to previous diagram I made into a new battery charging connector.
2. John prepared the boxes to hold the satellite boards. I drilled the holes in the bottom of the robot's center box to attach these boxes to the robot.
11/6/07 Carlos Arango
3:10-4:40pm
1. Acquired data from IMU and then discussed it with Jason
-----------------------------------
1. I attached the IMU to the old robot again and showed the data to Jason. He was disappointed because it shows the same amount of noise we got from our previous sensors. Under his suggestion, I padded the IMU with memory foam and got new measurements. I then plotted both sets in Excel; the foam does not seem to help much. Lastly, I tried holding the IMU to my thigh as I walked and looked at the data: there was a lot of noise because it was not attached rigidly, but the data exhibited the same characteristics as that from the robot (mainly heel-strike spikes, even when I walked "smoothly")
1. Acquired data from IMU and then discussed it with Jason
-----------------------------------
1. I attached the IMU to the old robot again and showed the data to Jason. He was disappointed because it shows the same amount of noise we got from our previous sensors. Under his suggestion, I padded the IMU with memory foam and got new measurements. I then plotted both sets in Excel; the foam does not seem to help much. Lastly, I tried holding the IMU to my thigh as I walked and looked at the data: there was a lot of noise because it was not attached rigidly, but the data exhibited the same characteristics as that from the robot (mainly heel-strike spikes, even when I walked "smoothly")
11/6/07 Gregory Falco
3:30-4:00
1. MSDS (30 min)
-------------------------
Assigned names to each number corresponding with chemicals on the to-be website. Still needs some fixing up before publishing.
1. MSDS (30 min)
-------------------------
Assigned names to each number corresponding with chemicals on the to-be website. Still needs some fixing up before publishing.
11/6/07 Gregory Falco
12:00-2:00PM
1. Accounts (2 hrs)
-------------------------------------
Today I found a discrepency of $2,423.75 dollars in our accounts. We do not have receipts for these charges so I have reason to believe they are mistakes by accounting. Also, there were three overhead charges applied to a specific account that should not be there. Finally, we still do not have an account for the NSF grant which was promised to us earlier in the semester. My next steps include discussing this with accounting after confirming charges with Andy.
1. Accounts (2 hrs)
-------------------------------------
Today I found a discrepency of $2,423.75 dollars in our accounts. We do not have receipts for these charges so I have reason to believe they are mistakes by accounting. Also, there were three overhead charges applied to a specific account that should not be there. Finally, we still do not have an account for the NSF grant which was promised to us earlier in the semester. My next steps include discussing this with accounting after confirming charges with Andy.
11/6/07 Avtar Khalsa
12:30AM - 2:00AM
1. Finished splitting up code ~2 Hrs
---------------------------------------------
1. I finished the first attempt at splitting the code up. If this Kobrain code works, the next step is to try to split it into many more files, instead of just being in 3 files like it is now. If that works, the next step is to do the same thing with the actual ranger code.
1. Finished splitting up code ~2 Hrs
---------------------------------------------
1. I finished the first attempt at splitting the code up. If this Kobrain code works, the next step is to try to split it into many more files, instead of just being in 3 files like it is now. If that works, the next step is to do the same thing with the actual ranger code.
11/05/07 Avtar Khalsa
4:30PM to 6:30PM
1. Worked on Splitting up the code ~2 hrs
---------------------------------------
I started splitting up the kobrain code into multiple files. The idea being that its much easier to edit and handle code in general with it split into many files. In this case, we can test if its working very easily by splitting up what is effectively working code, and seeing if anything changes when we run it. If nothing does, then splitting it up was successful. If it starts working any differently, then something went wrong.
1. Worked on Splitting up the code ~2 hrs
---------------------------------------
I started splitting up the kobrain code into multiple files. The idea being that its much easier to edit and handle code in general with it split into many files. In this case, we can test if its working very easily by splitting up what is effectively working code, and seeing if anything changes when we run it. If nothing does, then splitting it up was successful. If it starts working any differently, then something went wrong.
11/05/07 Lee Sam
Time in 10am
Time out 4pm
1) Manged to get SPI to communicate from the Master(3180) to Slave(MAC7111) - data sent from the master to the slave
2) data from the slave to the master is still not working - nothing is being received or the interupts are just not triggering
3) External Circuit seem to be working well under the testing conditions
4) SPI_B for the MAC7111 low cost evaluation board seem to be probably wired to other pins that is not listed in the schematic, hence we would only us SPI_A for testing purposes.
Time out 4pm
1) Manged to get SPI to communicate from the Master(3180) to Slave(MAC7111) - data sent from the master to the slave
2) data from the slave to the master is still not working - nothing is being received or the interupts are just not triggering
3) External Circuit seem to be working well under the testing conditions
4) SPI_B for the MAC7111 low cost evaluation board seem to be probably wired to other pins that is not listed in the schematic, hence we would only us SPI_A for testing purposes.
November 5, 2007
11/05/07 Yingyi Tan
5.00pm - 7.30pm
1. updated CAD drawings of hip insert part based on actual parts in robot (0.5h)
2. Removed switch and battery plug from back of robot and took out the connector (2.5h)
-----------------------
1. The actual parts in the robot are slightly different from those in the drawings. Updated the CAD drawings so the dimensions are of the same size as the actual parts. Made an assembly in CAD of the entire hip encolder assembly.
2. In order to place the satellite boxes, the switch and battery charging connector had to be removed from the back of the robot. However, the connector was too large to fit through the holes in the bottom of the box. I had to cut apart the connector. This involved using a dremel tool to remove the plastic covers, cutting with a wire cutter and finally pulling the wires out of the holes in the connector.
1. updated CAD drawings of hip insert part based on actual parts in robot (0.5h)
2. Removed switch and battery plug from back of robot and took out the connector (2.5h)
-----------------------
1. The actual parts in the robot are slightly different from those in the drawings. Updated the CAD drawings so the dimensions are of the same size as the actual parts. Made an assembly in CAD of the entire hip encolder assembly.
2. In order to place the satellite boxes, the switch and battery charging connector had to be removed from the back of the robot. However, the connector was too large to fit through the holes in the bottom of the box. I had to cut apart the connector. This involved using a dremel tool to remove the plastic covers, cutting with a wire cutter and finally pulling the wires out of the holes in the connector.
11/5/07 Gregory Falco
1:00-5:00PM
1. Publicity website (3 hrs)
2. Lab Accounts (1 hr)
-----------------------------------------
1. I found that the website I had created had many broken links on it. In order to fix them I had to remake each file in order to connect to its predecessor and store it in a new folder. Now, there is a website for each general topic that leads to a list of sources (ie. magazines) which contain the articles.
2. I worked on all the financial account info for the month of October and found a large discrepancy between the Sept. accounts and October ones. Also, i cannot find out NSF super account. I plan on speaking to you or Jason about this and then work with accounting to see where our money is going.
1. Publicity website (3 hrs)
2. Lab Accounts (1 hr)
-----------------------------------------
1. I found that the website I had created had many broken links on it. In order to fix them I had to remake each file in order to connect to its predecessor and store it in a new folder. Now, there is a website for each general topic that leads to a list of sources (ie. magazines) which contain the articles.
2. I worked on all the financial account info for the month of October and found a large discrepancy between the Sept. accounts and October ones. Also, i cannot find out NSF super account. I plan on speaking to you or Jason about this and then work with accounting to see where our money is going.
11/5/07 Ullmann Kevin
3:30 - 4:30PM (1 hr)
1. Spoke to Andy about current version of graphics program (20 minutes)
2. Minor changes to program (10 minutes)
3. Fixed data path issue (30 minutes)
1. I showed the current version of the graphics program to Andy, he gave me some suggestions.
2. I fixed small issues that he noticed, such as mislabeling "t" as "x" in the max/min select window.
3. I changed the program so that when the user selects a data file, the path will be saved so that when they want to select another data file, the default directory will be the one that the previous file was saved in. This saves the user the trouble of searching through their directories every time they want to select a file.
1. Spoke to Andy about current version of graphics program (20 minutes)
2. Minor changes to program (10 minutes)
3. Fixed data path issue (30 minutes)
1. I showed the current version of the graphics program to Andy, he gave me some suggestions.
2. I fixed small issues that he noticed, such as mislabeling "t" as "x" in the max/min select window.
3. I changed the program so that when the user selects a data file, the path will be saved so that when they want to select another data file, the default directory will be the one that the previous file was saved in. This saves the user the trouble of searching through their directories every time they want to select a file.
11/05/07 John Buzzi
10:30am-12:20pm
1) Updated GANTT Chart (1hr 30 min)
2:15pm-4:00pm
2) Printed and assembled GANTT (20 min)
3) Developed a tentative plan for satellite processor box mounting (1 hr 15 min)
------------------------
1) After our meeting this friday i reviewed and made sense of the necessary updates to the GANTT chart. I went to upson computer lab in order to acess the microsoft project software. I spent my time filling in the various catagories of information for each of the project tasks.
2) In the lab i printed the newly updated GANTT chart and combined the six pages into one large chart. The chart is currently poseted on the wall to the right as you enter the lab. If you are reading this please review this chart and make necessary changes regarding your portion of the project.
3) The satellite processors are to be mounted in these gray plastic boxes that will hang under each of the 3 parts of the body of the robot. I spent my time planning how to make these boxes actually fit there since there are currently multiple components obstructing this placement. For the right side box, all that needs to be done for mounting is to move the electrical components temporarily while the box is placed. For the middle box the battery wires can be re-routed through the back of the bot so the box will fit. The left side is most difficult because the beeper, wireless antenna, and the serial port adapter will need to be moved.
1) Updated GANTT Chart (1hr 30 min)
2:15pm-4:00pm
2) Printed and assembled GANTT (20 min)
3) Developed a tentative plan for satellite processor box mounting (1 hr 15 min)
------------------------
1) After our meeting this friday i reviewed and made sense of the necessary updates to the GANTT chart. I went to upson computer lab in order to acess the microsoft project software. I spent my time filling in the various catagories of information for each of the project tasks.
2) In the lab i printed the newly updated GANTT chart and combined the six pages into one large chart. The chart is currently poseted on the wall to the right as you enter the lab. If you are reading this please review this chart and make necessary changes regarding your portion of the project.
3) The satellite processors are to be mounted in these gray plastic boxes that will hang under each of the 3 parts of the body of the robot. I spent my time planning how to make these boxes actually fit there since there are currently multiple components obstructing this placement. For the right side box, all that needs to be done for mounting is to move the electrical components temporarily while the box is placed. For the middle box the battery wires can be re-routed through the back of the bot so the box will fit. The left side is most difficult because the beeper, wireless antenna, and the serial port adapter will need to be moved.
11/5/07 Carlos Arango
12:45-3:15 pm
1. Debugged part of the CAN bus code (1.5 hr)
2. Installed and tested comercial IMU software on old robot (1 hr)
--------------------------------------------------
1. The buffer read function had some copy-paste errors. I went through and, enabling one buffer at a time, found and fixed their individual bugs. This took so long because there are 15 working buffers
2. The IMU comes with a LabView program that reads its output and displays it in useful plots. Sam and I installed this software on the programming laptop. We then mounted the IMU on the older 2D biped and got some data to see the effects of foot impact. Sam believes the noise is not so great that we can't compensate for it with software "tricks"
1. Debugged part of the CAN bus code (1.5 hr)
2. Installed and tested comercial IMU software on old robot (1 hr)
--------------------------------------------------
1. The buffer read function had some copy-paste errors. I went through and, enabling one buffer at a time, found and fixed their individual bugs. This took so long because there are 15 working buffers
2. The IMU comes with a LabView program that reads its output and displays it in useful plots. Sam and I installed this software on the programming laptop. We then mounted the IMU on the older 2D biped and got some data to see the effects of foot impact. Sam believes the noise is not so great that we can't compensate for it with software "tricks"
November 4, 2007
10/31 thru' 11/05 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
Hours:
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Wednesday 10/31 - 3 pm to 4.30 pm (worked from home)
Thursday 1/11 - 4 pm to 5.30 pm
Friday 2/11 - 9.45 am to 12.15 pm, 1 pm to 4.30 pm
Saturday 3/11 - 11 am to 3 pm
Sunday 4/11 - 4.30 pm to 7pm
1. Experiments to account for added masses (3 hours)
2. Testing on code with new results (5.5 hours)
3. Accounting for effect of friction in experiments (3.5 hours)
4. Meetings (2 hours)
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1. Measured the inertia and mass-moment values of both legs once again - to account for change in values due to James' springs and John Buzzi's replacement bar on the inner leg.
Surprisingly the values of the 3 relevant mass properties of the inner leg are now all greater than the corresponding values of the outer leg. The m*y values being very close together while the m*z and inertia values show a big difference. Extrapolations using data from the old experiments (done without the added masses) and the mass and location values supplied by James and John predict the experimental results to a satisfactory degree.
2. Tested once more with the new experimental values - with the consideration that we might want to add another battery.
3. Finally got MATLAB to solve the solid friction problem - used smoothing function from Manoj Srinivasan's thesis to model solid friction at omega = 0. Error due to simplifying approximations is less than 2% - that is, error in natural frequency values, with and without having a friction term in the governing ODE. It seems one must neglect the periodic force applied, and say it doesn't make much difference as we cannot model that force.
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Wednesday 10/31 - 3 pm to 4.30 pm (worked from home)
Thursday 1/11 - 4 pm to 5.30 pm
Friday 2/11 - 9.45 am to 12.15 pm, 1 pm to 4.30 pm
Saturday 3/11 - 11 am to 3 pm
Sunday 4/11 - 4.30 pm to 7pm
1. Experiments to account for added masses (3 hours)
2. Testing on code with new results (5.5 hours)
3. Accounting for effect of friction in experiments (3.5 hours)
4. Meetings (2 hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Measured the inertia and mass-moment values of both legs once again - to account for change in values due to James' springs and John Buzzi's replacement bar on the inner leg.
Surprisingly the values of the 3 relevant mass properties of the inner leg are now all greater than the corresponding values of the outer leg. The m*y values being very close together while the m*z and inertia values show a big difference. Extrapolations using data from the old experiments (done without the added masses) and the mass and location values supplied by James and John predict the experimental results to a satisfactory degree.
2. Tested once more with the new experimental values - with the consideration that we might want to add another battery.
3. Finally got MATLAB to solve the solid friction problem - used smoothing function from Manoj Srinivasan's thesis to model solid friction at omega = 0. Error due to simplifying approximations is less than 2% - that is, error in natural frequency values, with and without having a friction term in the governing ODE. It seems one must neglect the periodic force applied, and say it doesn't make much difference as we cannot model that force.
11/02/07 Yingyi Tan
1:00 - 6:00pm
1. Soldered ribbon cable to sensor board (1.5h)
2. lab meeting (1.5h)
3. Installed magnet into hip insert and zeroed it (2h)
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1. Soldered a ribbon cable to the sensor board based on the data sheet and the wiring position given by Jason.
2. Lab meeting.
3. Had to use silicon to glue the magnet into to the hip insert. Connected the sensor board to a satellite board and connected it to the computer. There was no response. Used a multimeter to test the wires on the sensor board. They were all working fine. Then took the sensor board out and placed a magnet in front of it. The sensor produced a response. Concluded that the magnet was too far away from the sensor in the robot. Took the magnet out and tested with the sensor to find the right angle the magnet had to be at in order to produce a good range of values when the robot walked. Made a marking on the robot and magnet. Used a piece of cable tie to fit into the hip insert. Then used silicon to put the magnet over the cable tie. Retested the whole set-up which produced a reading.
1. Soldered ribbon cable to sensor board (1.5h)
2. lab meeting (1.5h)
3. Installed magnet into hip insert and zeroed it (2h)
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1. Soldered a ribbon cable to the sensor board based on the data sheet and the wiring position given by Jason.
2. Lab meeting.
3. Had to use silicon to glue the magnet into to the hip insert. Connected the sensor board to a satellite board and connected it to the computer. There was no response. Used a multimeter to test the wires on the sensor board. They were all working fine. Then took the sensor board out and placed a magnet in front of it. The sensor produced a response. Concluded that the magnet was too far away from the sensor in the robot. Took the magnet out and tested with the sensor to find the right angle the magnet had to be at in order to produce a good range of values when the robot walked. Made a marking on the robot and magnet. Used a piece of cable tie to fit into the hip insert. Then used silicon to put the magnet over the cable tie. Retested the whole set-up which produced a reading.
November 2, 2007
11/02/07 Lee Sam
Time in 9am
Time out 4pm
Time out 4pm
- Continued work on the MAC7111 SPI.
- SPI-A is working when the S_out is hooked up to the S_in (similar to a Loop Back Mode)
- SPI-B not working. SPI-B is the port that had to be soldered connections from. Perhaps problem due to the soldering or other connections.
- Attended meeting from 2:00pm to 3:30pm
11/2/07 Max Wasserman
3:00-5:30
1. Programming
______________________________________
1. I spend my time in lab writing a new MATLAB program to better fit with our objectives. This one takes masses and locations as inputs and tells the user how that additional mass will change the relative inertial properties of the two legs. This change will better help us adapt to the constant addition of new masses to the robot so that we can keep up with how the inertial properties change without having to re-do the testing.
1. Programming
______________________________________
1. I spend my time in lab writing a new MATLAB program to better fit with our objectives. This one takes masses and locations as inputs and tells the user how that additional mass will change the relative inertial properties of the two legs. This change will better help us adapt to the constant addition of new masses to the robot so that we can keep up with how the inertial properties change without having to re-do the testing.
Nov 2 Stephane Constantin
2:00 - 5:30
1) Lab Meeting
2) Test video acquisition matlab code with Panasonic firewire camera
2) The same code that reads video streams from my USB webcam can also read video from the lab's panasonic firewire camera.
1) Lab Meeting
2) Test video acquisition matlab code with Panasonic firewire camera
2) The same code that reads video streams from my USB webcam can also read video from the lab's panasonic firewire camera.
11/2/07 Carlos Arango
2:00pm-3:15pm again 4:30-6:15pm
1. Attended weekly lab meeting (1.25 hr)
2. Initiated calibration procedure for ankle sensors (20 min)
3. Switched to helping Ying Yi with her sensor calibration (1.25 hr)
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1. Self-explanatory
2. While Ying Yi was setting up the magnet in the hip sensor, I took a couple of readings with a connected ankle sensor to get the value of the gain and offset we will need to calibrate the sensors. I have implemented the value of the gain into the code, but I have to take further readings to make sure the offset is correct for that sensor.
3. Because Ying Yi's project has higher priority, I have switched to helping her calibrate her sensor, as we can't both use the computer at the same time.
1. Attended weekly lab meeting (1.25 hr)
2. Initiated calibration procedure for ankle sensors (20 min)
3. Switched to helping Ying Yi with her sensor calibration (1.25 hr)
----------------------------------------
1. Self-explanatory
2. While Ying Yi was setting up the magnet in the hip sensor, I took a couple of readings with a connected ankle sensor to get the value of the gain and offset we will need to calibrate the sensors. I have implemented the value of the gain into the code, but I have to take further readings to make sure the offset is correct for that sensor.
3. Because Ying Yi's project has higher priority, I have switched to helping her calibrate her sensor, as we can't both use the computer at the same time.
11/2/07 Ullmann Kevin
3:30 - 4:30 (1 hrs)
1. Discussed options for video with Stephane (.5 hrs)
2. Wrote user manual for graphics program (.5 hrs)
1. We discussed issues that Stephane has been facing in his attempt to create the video component of the graphics program. Mainly the issue of ginput waiting for a key press, thus halting execution of the program. We believe that this problem can be solved using threading, or perhaps would be easier to work with in LabView.
2. I created a concise user manual for the current version of the graphics program, so that anyone may use the program with ease.
1. Discussed options for video with Stephane (.5 hrs)
2. Wrote user manual for graphics program (.5 hrs)
1. We discussed issues that Stephane has been facing in his attempt to create the video component of the graphics program. Mainly the issue of ginput waiting for a key press, thus halting execution of the program. We believe that this problem can be solved using threading, or perhaps would be easier to work with in LabView.
2. I created a concise user manual for the current version of the graphics program, so that anyone may use the program with ease.
11/02/07 Hajime Furukawa
12:00 -6:00
1) Built 2 sensor boards. (6h)
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1) Added Voltage regulator, connectors, Muxes, OP amps, and all other components to two sensor boards.
1) Built 2 sensor boards. (6h)
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1) Added Voltage regulator, connectors, Muxes, OP amps, and all other components to two sensor boards.
November 1, 2007
11/1/07 Kevin Ullmann
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM (2 hrs)
1) Created initialization process (1 hr)
2) Fixed help display (10 minutes)
3) Testing and research (50 minutes)
1) I created an initialization process to streamline the task of running the graphics program. Now the user simply has to run a script and will be prompted for the necessary inputs, including the data file and the desired variables.
2) I altered the help display message to be more readable and user friendly.
3) I tested the graphics program and corrected some minor bugs, and I researched the task of aquiring the mouse position for use with the vertical cursor. I am still working on this issue.
1) Created initialization process (1 hr)
2) Fixed help display (10 minutes)
3) Testing and research (50 minutes)
1) I created an initialization process to streamline the task of running the graphics program. Now the user simply has to run a script and will be prompted for the necessary inputs, including the data file and the desired variables.
2) I altered the help display message to be more readable and user friendly.
3) I tested the graphics program and corrected some minor bugs, and I researched the task of aquiring the mouse position for use with the vertical cursor. I am still working on this issue.
11/01/07 Yingyi Tan
11.00 am - 1.45pm, 4.00pm -6.00pm
1. Moved motor in left hip box 2 mm to the left. (1.5h)
2. Milled away material on clamps holding leg to box (0.25h)
3. Helped Jason enlarge the hole for the cable in the left hip box (0.25h)
4. Helped Jason drill and tap hole to hold the bottom of the left hip box (0.25h)
5. Drilled holes to hold the hip encolder spring to the robot (0.25h)
6. Fit everything together. (0.25h)
7. Put electronics and clamps back into hip box (1h)
8. Labelled the extra allen wrenches (1h)
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1. After putting the sensor board with the pins into the leg, we found that there was no clearance between the motor and the pins for the spring. Decided to move the motor to the left. however, the cables were rubbing against the clamp holding the leg to the box. Had to remove the clamp which was obstructed by the metal sheet holding the microcontroller board to the robot. Removed the board then removed the clamps.
2. Used the end mill to remove the material above the top hole in the clamps.
3. The cable was also unable to move further left as the hole on the bottom of the left hip box was not wide enough. Jason enlarged this hole with a dremel tool. I had to vacuum the robot while he drilled to prevent the metal shreds from touching the electronics.
4. Enlarging the hole in the above step removed the weld that was holding the bottom of the box to the box itself. Had to drill and tap a hole through the bottom and the box to hold the two pieces together. Once again, I helped Jason by using the vaccuum cleaner to prevent the shards from touching the electronics. However, the process took much longer than expected as there was insufficient room to put the hand drill. Had to improversie and make our own dril bit extender with screwdrivers.
5. Used the hand drill to drill two holes in the robot to hold the hip encolder spring to the box.
6. Put everything together (hip encolder housing, spring, sensor board and pins)
7. Screwed the clamps back to the box with loctide. Screwed the microcontroller boards back to the robot.
8. Measured the unlabelled allan wrenches and labelled them using heat shrink. The wrenches were color coded depending on whether they were english or metric sizes.
1. Moved motor in left hip box 2 mm to the left. (1.5h)
2. Milled away material on clamps holding leg to box (0.25h)
3. Helped Jason enlarge the hole for the cable in the left hip box (0.25h)
4. Helped Jason drill and tap hole to hold the bottom of the left hip box (0.25h)
5. Drilled holes to hold the hip encolder spring to the robot (0.25h)
6. Fit everything together. (0.25h)
7. Put electronics and clamps back into hip box (1h)
8. Labelled the extra allen wrenches (1h)
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1. After putting the sensor board with the pins into the leg, we found that there was no clearance between the motor and the pins for the spring. Decided to move the motor to the left. however, the cables were rubbing against the clamp holding the leg to the box. Had to remove the clamp which was obstructed by the metal sheet holding the microcontroller board to the robot. Removed the board then removed the clamps.
2. Used the end mill to remove the material above the top hole in the clamps.
3. The cable was also unable to move further left as the hole on the bottom of the left hip box was not wide enough. Jason enlarged this hole with a dremel tool. I had to vacuum the robot while he drilled to prevent the metal shreds from touching the electronics.
4. Enlarging the hole in the above step removed the weld that was holding the bottom of the box to the box itself. Had to drill and tap a hole through the bottom and the box to hold the two pieces together. Once again, I helped Jason by using the vaccuum cleaner to prevent the shards from touching the electronics. However, the process took much longer than expected as there was insufficient room to put the hand drill. Had to improversie and make our own dril bit extender with screwdrivers.
5. Used the hand drill to drill two holes in the robot to hold the hip encolder spring to the box.
6. Put everything together (hip encolder housing, spring, sensor board and pins)
7. Screwed the clamps back to the box with loctide. Screwed the microcontroller boards back to the robot.
8. Measured the unlabelled allan wrenches and labelled them using heat shrink. The wrenches were color coded depending on whether they were english or metric sizes.
11/1/07 Carlos Arango
12:10-1:10 pm and again 2:45-5:10 pm
0. Looked for assembled sensor cables (15 min)
1. Routed 1 sensor cable up the leg to test cable mounting bracket (15 min)
2. Filed mounting brackets to ensure they are safe when cable is attached (30 min)
3. Worked with Jason debugging code for the satellite sensor board (1.5 hrs)
4. Read through sensor input code to gain understanding of its workings (25 min)
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0. The individual who constructed the sensor cables forgot to mention where he had stored them upon completion. Turns out they were in his work bin
1. Attached the sensor cable to the mounting bracket and leg of the robot with cable ties. I made sure to be liberal on the cable tie use to allow others to work on the legs after my cable was mounted.
2. Jason pointed out that the mounting brackets still have sharp edges. I carefully went through and filed those off. Since the brackets were already mounted, this took a lot longer since care was needed
3. I was invited to help Jason debug code that allows the sensor board to communicate with the main processor board.
4. My next task will be to test out the ankle encoders with the code Jason has written. To do this I felt it was necessary I first understand the inner workings of this code
0. Looked for assembled sensor cables (15 min)
1. Routed 1 sensor cable up the leg to test cable mounting bracket (15 min)
2. Filed mounting brackets to ensure they are safe when cable is attached (30 min)
3. Worked with Jason debugging code for the satellite sensor board (1.5 hrs)
4. Read through sensor input code to gain understanding of its workings (25 min)
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0. The individual who constructed the sensor cables forgot to mention where he had stored them upon completion. Turns out they were in his work bin
1. Attached the sensor cable to the mounting bracket and leg of the robot with cable ties. I made sure to be liberal on the cable tie use to allow others to work on the legs after my cable was mounted.
2. Jason pointed out that the mounting brackets still have sharp edges. I carefully went through and filed those off. Since the brackets were already mounted, this took a lot longer since care was needed
3. I was invited to help Jason debug code that allows the sensor board to communicate with the main processor board.
4. My next task will be to test out the ankle encoders with the code Jason has written. To do this I felt it was necessary I first understand the inner workings of this code
11/1/07 Gregory Falco
1:30-4:30PM
1. Created website for publicity
2. Fixed up original copies
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1. Created a website using word that links all publicity files to one page. I am still creating links from the general file to the article titles.
2. Wrote down page numbers on all original publicity and dog-eared pages.
1. Created website for publicity
2. Fixed up original copies
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1. Created a website using word that links all publicity files to one page. I am still creating links from the general file to the article titles.
2. Wrote down page numbers on all original publicity and dog-eared pages.
10/30/07 Gregory Falco
12:00PM-5:00PM
1. MSDS (4.5 hrs)
2. Unscrewed Wooden Structures (.5 hrs)
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1. Finished Material Safety Data Sheets for the lab and machine shop and created a draft for website on MSDS. Now there is a physical and virtual set of MSDS for both the lab and machine shop.
2. I dismantled one of the wood structures that was outside of the professor's office and put the scrap in the machine shop.
1. MSDS (4.5 hrs)
2. Unscrewed Wooden Structures (.5 hrs)
_________________
1. Finished Material Safety Data Sheets for the lab and machine shop and created a draft for website on MSDS. Now there is a physical and virtual set of MSDS for both the lab and machine shop.
2. I dismantled one of the wood structures that was outside of the professor's office and put the scrap in the machine shop.
October 31, 2007
10/31/07 Lee Sam
Time in 9am
Time out 2pm
1)Rewire SPI port for the MAC7111 - wires got snaged un handling
2)Wires super-glued and soldered in place to prevent repeat of problem.
3)Tested outputs from SPI ports on oscilloscope and outputs appear ok.
Time out 2pm
1)Rewire SPI port for the MAC7111 - wires got snaged un handling
2)Wires super-glued and soldered in place to prevent repeat of problem.
3)Tested outputs from SPI ports on oscilloscope and outputs appear ok.
10/31/07 John Buzzi
4:30-7:30
1) Successully getting microsoft project working in Upson (30 min)
2)Use Project to develop a network diagram and GANTT Chart for the Walker (2 hr 30 min)
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1) I found that the upson computer lab has Microsoft Project on the computers. The purpose of Microsoft Project is to help visualize and organize a project plan, in our case we want to see what needs to be done before the Walker is complete. However the versions installed in the lab aren't working properly. It took about 30 minutes of switching computers and clicking on error messages to get the software to open somewhat properly. Then once i completed a few steps and clicked save...it deleted everything i had done.
2) Once project was up again and working slightly better than before I began work on the GANTT chart. A GANTT chart is basically a timeline of tasks in a project going from start to finish. Data input for each task includes, task name, names of people working on it, which tasks must be completed before the task at hand is completed, and the duration of the task at hand. I used Jason's power point slides to gather the necessary information. Also once all the data was input a "network diagram" is automatically generated which is a better way of seeing dependencies, however much formatting had to be done in order to make it of any use.
1) Successully getting microsoft project working in Upson (30 min)
2)Use Project to develop a network diagram and GANTT Chart for the Walker (2 hr 30 min)
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1) I found that the upson computer lab has Microsoft Project on the computers. The purpose of Microsoft Project is to help visualize and organize a project plan, in our case we want to see what needs to be done before the Walker is complete. However the versions installed in the lab aren't working properly. It took about 30 minutes of switching computers and clicking on error messages to get the software to open somewhat properly. Then once i completed a few steps and clicked save...it deleted everything i had done.
2) Once project was up again and working slightly better than before I began work on the GANTT chart. A GANTT chart is basically a timeline of tasks in a project going from start to finish. Data input for each task includes, task name, names of people working on it, which tasks must be completed before the task at hand is completed, and the duration of the task at hand. I used Jason's power point slides to gather the necessary information. Also once all the data was input a "network diagram" is automatically generated which is a better way of seeing dependencies, however much formatting had to be done in order to make it of any use.
10/31/07 Max Wasserman
1:40 pm - 5:10 pm
1. MATLAB Testing
2. Inertial Property Testing
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1. I continued using the MATLAB Program to determine the optimal points on which to add more mass. However, that data will have to be altered based on the values obtained from how I spent the rest of my lab time.
1 hour
2. Rohit and I re-tested some of the inertial properties of the robot, as since several masses had been added since our last test. We only tested the inner legs as they are where most of the new added mass is located. We did the swinging test to determine moment of inertia about the him and determined the angle of the center of mass and the value of m*r.
2 hours, 30 minutes
1. MATLAB Testing
2. Inertial Property Testing
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1. I continued using the MATLAB Program to determine the optimal points on which to add more mass. However, that data will have to be altered based on the values obtained from how I spent the rest of my lab time.
1 hour
2. Rohit and I re-tested some of the inertial properties of the robot, as since several masses had been added since our last test. We only tested the inner legs as they are where most of the new added mass is located. We did the swinging test to determine moment of inertia about the him and determined the angle of the center of mass and the value of m*r.
2 hours, 30 minutes
10/31 Stephane Constantin
10:30 to 2:30 at home
1. Reading video for graphing tool
I continued to explore how to capture video frames from a webcam and save the video framesto an AVI file using Matlab. I pretty much have this part working now. I also started to explore how to read that AVI file and display desired frames accordingly. This feature will be used to target which frame we want to seeaccording to at what time stamp the graph vertical cursor is.
10/29/07 Lee Sam
Time in 9am
Time out 2pm
Time out 2pm
- Tried to get the 2 SPI on the MAC7111 to communicate with one another, currently still unsuccessful.
- Looked at the signals coming out of the 4 leads on the SPI master and verified correct.
- Tested soldered connection and soldered pins - the correct pins were soldered and the connection between the pin and the soldered wire-warp. No problems found in this area.
- When a test code is run, the program steps through the portion of the code that sends the data - and recognises it as sent (the transfer counter is incremented), but the other SPI on the receiving end does not receive it.
- Currently unsure of what problem is preventing the 2 SPI from communicating, will continue to troubleshoot.
October 30, 2007
10/30/07
5.30 - 7.00pm
1. Re-machined the conical pin (1.5h)
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1. The brass conical pin was too large to fit into the hole on the sensor board. I originally filed it down but this resulted in the pin no longer being circular. Hence a new pin was machined with the lathe.
1. Re-machined the conical pin (1.5h)
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1. The brass conical pin was too large to fit into the hole on the sensor board. I originally filed it down but this resulted in the pin no longer being circular. Hence a new pin was machined with the lathe.
10/30 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
Hours : 10.45 - 11.45 am
2 pm to 4 pm
1. More refinements to results from code. (2.5 hours)
2. Finding appropriate blocks of scrap etc that can be added (0.5 hours!)
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1.
Discussed results with Pranav and Jason. We were able to further reduce the sum of masses to be added to 0.65 kg. Besides, this time the masses were tried in locations that could actually be used on the robot (for e.g. a battery near the joining bar on the inner leg, a controller in a plastic box just below the aluminium box on the outer leg)
Example case:
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If we place the mass I (ref. in last post) as far down below as 75cm from hip axis on inner leg, with mass III located 6cm out at the hip axis (same as last post), and mass II just below the box on the outer leg (12 cm) and about 5 cm out from the plane of the robot the masses are:
I. 0.29 kg, II. 0.165 kg, III. 0.17kg.
Note that mass II must be split equally on the 2 outer legs.
2.
This took a while, candidate pieces of scrap found for I and III and one flimsy piece of wood for mass II found after much searching!
2 pm to 4 pm
1. More refinements to results from code. (2.5 hours)
2. Finding appropriate blocks of scrap etc that can be added (0.5 hours!)
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1.
Discussed results with Pranav and Jason. We were able to further reduce the sum of masses to be added to 0.65 kg. Besides, this time the masses were tried in locations that could actually be used on the robot (for e.g. a battery near the joining bar on the inner leg, a controller in a plastic box just below the aluminium box on the outer leg)
Example case:
-----------------
If we place the mass I (ref. in last post) as far down below as 75cm from hip axis on inner leg, with mass III located 6cm out at the hip axis (same as last post), and mass II just below the box on the outer leg (12 cm) and about 5 cm out from the plane of the robot the masses are:
I. 0.29 kg, II. 0.165 kg, III. 0.17kg.
Note that mass II must be split equally on the 2 outer legs.
2.
This took a while, candidate pieces of scrap found for I and III and one flimsy piece of wood for mass II found after much searching!
10/29/07 Yingyi Tan
5.30pm - 8.30pm
1. Drilled a larger hole in the hip shaft (0.5h)
2. Sandpapered hip shaft (0.25h)
3. Fit assembly together on robot(0.25h)
4. Re-machined the hip spring and brass pin. (2h)
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1. In order to create more wobble room for the hip insert, we drilled a larger hole where the top portion of the threaded hole used to be. This allowed the hip insert to fit into the hip shaft.
2. Checked that the hip insert was flushed with the hip shaft. To ensure that the hip insert was completely smooth at the contact point with the hip encolder housing, I used the microscope and sandpaper to file out any parts that were sticking out.
3. Put the middle leg back on the robot and fit the assembly together on the robot.
4. The hip spring was too narrow. It was difficult to put the screws in as the motor was blocking access to the screws. The old hip spring had two holes for the pins connecting the sensor board. The new hip spring only had one hole. The screw holes were made into slots to allow for horizontal movement. The original pins were made of aluminum. Jason commented that this might cause the aluminum pin to bind with the aluminum hip spring. A more suitable material would be brass. A new conical pin made of brass was machined using the lathe.
1. Drilled a larger hole in the hip shaft (0.5h)
2. Sandpapered hip shaft (0.25h)
3. Fit assembly together on robot(0.25h)
4. Re-machined the hip spring and brass pin. (2h)
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1. In order to create more wobble room for the hip insert, we drilled a larger hole where the top portion of the threaded hole used to be. This allowed the hip insert to fit into the hip shaft.
2. Checked that the hip insert was flushed with the hip shaft. To ensure that the hip insert was completely smooth at the contact point with the hip encolder housing, I used the microscope and sandpaper to file out any parts that were sticking out.
3. Put the middle leg back on the robot and fit the assembly together on the robot.
4. The hip spring was too narrow. It was difficult to put the screws in as the motor was blocking access to the screws. The old hip spring had two holes for the pins connecting the sensor board. The new hip spring only had one hole. The screw holes were made into slots to allow for horizontal movement. The original pins were made of aluminum. Jason commented that this might cause the aluminum pin to bind with the aluminum hip spring. A more suitable material would be brass. A new conical pin made of brass was machined using the lathe.
October 29, 2007
10/29 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
Worked from home - 4pm to 8pm
1. More testing on code - drew some conclusions (2 hours)
2. Further work on program to calculate effect of solid friction (~1 hr)
3. Updating blog (45 mins)
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1.
Problem
Of the 3 mass properties to be equalized for the 2 legs currently, the inertias (about hip) and m*y have large differences (~1600 kg.cm^2 and ~20 kg.cm), compared to the differences in m*z (~ 2 kg.cm). Hence either the input distance(s) to the program must be large (to get reasonably low masses to be added ), or we should expect high masses to be returned by the program for location inputs that are all close to the hip axis.
Approach
I wanted to keep it simple -> The analysis is for the case of 3 masses to be added. We would have a simple (linear) system with 3 equations and 3 unknowns. Importantly, we always get the new differences in the 3 mass properties to be exactly equal to zero.
I) Now, to equalise 'm*z' (which is low) I only added a mass on the outer leg that is off-plane but has no y-moment. This is the only mass with a z-moment.
II) Similarly to equalize the large difference in inertias we will have a second mass far away from the hip-axis but without a z-moment.
III) I arbitrarily chose a y-location for the the third mass but again this has no z-moment (could be on either leg, we just get negative values with the same magnitude).
This simplicity in the location of masses helps in drawing conclusions, I feel. Also this may help in actually adding the masses as well.
Results
If the second mass is kept at distances less than 35 cm (below hip axis), we get large values for sum of masses (6.1 kg and higher). With y = 40 cm for the second mass and varying location of the third mass (10,15, 20, 25, 30) the sum of masses is 3.2 kg. Simliarly y = 45 cm, y = 50 cm, y = 55 cm were tried and this further reduces the sum to as low as 1.7kg (y = 55cm). For all the above locations, the sum was least (and more or less constant) when the third mass was kept between 20 - 25 cm.
Consequences
* large y-moment of second mass about the hip axis leading to :
a) greater influence on the motion of the outer leg when it is the stance leg.
b) helps in swing of inner leg for first half of the motion (until vertical), and opposes motion for the second half.
c) reduces opposing moment when the inner leg is stance leg, as the second mas is closer to the ground.
At any rate I feel adding the second mass below the hip-axis is better than adding it above it - this would really increase opposing torque when the inner leg is stance leg.
Possible Refinements
Further reduction in sum of masses could possibly be achieved by adding a z-distance to the second and/or third masses or a y-distance for the 1st mass.
2. Program still not running, apparently MATLAB has problems with Coloumbic friction models.
1. More testing on code - drew some conclusions (2 hours)
2. Further work on program to calculate effect of solid friction (~1 hr)
3. Updating blog (45 mins)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Problem
Of the 3 mass properties to be equalized for the 2 legs currently, the inertias (about hip) and m*y have large differences (~1600 kg.cm^2 and ~20 kg.cm), compared to the differences in m*z (~ 2 kg.cm). Hence either the input distance(s) to the program must be large (to get reasonably low masses to be added ), or we should expect high masses to be returned by the program for location inputs that are all close to the hip axis.
Approach
I wanted to keep it simple -> The analysis is for the case of 3 masses to be added. We would have a simple (linear) system with 3 equations and 3 unknowns. Importantly, we always get the new differences in the 3 mass properties to be exactly equal to zero.
I) Now, to equalise 'm*z' (which is low) I only added a mass on the outer leg that is off-plane but has no y-moment. This is the only mass with a z-moment.
II) Similarly to equalize the large difference in inertias we will have a second mass far away from the hip-axis but without a z-moment.
III) I arbitrarily chose a y-location for the the third mass but again this has no z-moment (could be on either leg, we just get negative values with the same magnitude).
This simplicity in the location of masses helps in drawing conclusions, I feel. Also this may help in actually adding the masses as well.
Results
If the second mass is kept at distances less than 35 cm (below hip axis), we get large values for sum of masses (6.1 kg and higher). With y = 40 cm for the second mass and varying location of the third mass (10,15, 20, 25, 30) the sum of masses is 3.2 kg. Simliarly y = 45 cm, y = 50 cm, y = 55 cm were tried and this further reduces the sum to as low as 1.7kg (y = 55cm). For all the above locations, the sum was least (and more or less constant) when the third mass was kept between 20 - 25 cm.
Consequences
* large y-moment of second mass about the hip axis leading to :
a) greater influence on the motion of the outer leg when it is the stance leg.
b) helps in swing of inner leg for first half of the motion (until vertical), and opposes motion for the second half.
c) reduces opposing moment when the inner leg is stance leg, as the second mas is closer to the ground.
At any rate I feel adding the second mass below the hip-axis is better than adding it above it - this would really increase opposing torque when the inner leg is stance leg.
Possible Refinements
Further reduction in sum of masses could possibly be achieved by adding a z-distance to the second and/or third masses or a y-distance for the 1st mass.
2. Program still not running, apparently MATLAB has problems with Coloumbic friction models.
10/29/2007 Kevin Ullmann
3:30 - 5:00 PM (1.5 hrs)
1. Fixing small problems (1.5 hrs)
1. Today I worked on touch ups to the graphics program including removing the "y=" from the value labels, adding a "Press H for help" line to the top of the window, fixing small bugs, and adding the variable numbers to the y labels.
1. Fixing small problems (1.5 hrs)
1. Today I worked on touch ups to the graphics program including removing the "y=" from the value labels, adding a "Press H for help" line to the top of the window, fixing small bugs, and adding the variable numbers to the y labels.
10/29/07 Gregory Falco
12:30PM-5:00PM
1. MSDS (4 hrs)
2. Rectifying Dealtree Refund (.25 hours)
3. Blog maintenance(.25 hrs)
---------------
1. Created Labels for each chemical and began attaching them to each hazardous material we have in the lab.
2. Found old e-mail confirming camera (dealtree) transaction that had not been successfully sent to Ms. Moss. The account had never been charged due to this so i resent all necessary e-mails and hopefully cleared up the potential issue.
3. Fixed up blog so that everyone's entries are uniform
1. MSDS (4 hrs)
2. Rectifying Dealtree Refund (.25 hours)
3. Blog maintenance(.25 hrs)
---------------
1. Created Labels for each chemical and began attaching them to each hazardous material we have in the lab.
2. Found old e-mail confirming camera (dealtree) transaction that had not been successfully sent to Ms. Moss. The account had never been charged due to this so i resent all necessary e-mails and hopefully cleared up the potential issue.
3. Fixed up blog so that everyone's entries are uniform
10/29/07 Avtar Khalsa
12:30Pm to 2:45PM
1. Used Code warrior simulator to make sure that we could break code into smaller files for projects. Did this with sample code -hour and a half
2. Looked at Jason's attempt to break up actual ranger code to try and see what the problem was. -45 minutes
1. I used a code warrior sample code for our microprocessor and broke it up into three different files. It needed a header file, and implementation file, and a main file. Then I used the simulator to make sure that the code still worked. It seemed to continue working correctly from which, I concluded that it was definitely possible to break up the code like we planned.
2. Jason had previously attempted to break the code up into many files but was unsuccessful. I spent about 45 minutes scanning over what he had done trying to find what the problem was. It is very difficult though because there isn't really any way to test it until the robot is put back together.
1. Used Code warrior simulator to make sure that we could break code into smaller files for projects. Did this with sample code -hour and a half
2. Looked at Jason's attempt to break up actual ranger code to try and see what the problem was. -45 minutes
1. I used a code warrior sample code for our microprocessor and broke it up into three different files. It needed a header file, and implementation file, and a main file. Then I used the simulator to make sure that the code still worked. It seemed to continue working correctly from which, I concluded that it was definitely possible to break up the code like we planned.
2. Jason had previously attempted to break the code up into many files but was unsuccessful. I spent about 45 minutes scanning over what he had done trying to find what the problem was. It is very difficult though because there isn't really any way to test it until the robot is put back together.
10/29 Stephane Constantin
10:00 - 12:00
1) Made connectors for ankle sensors to satellites
2) CAN tranceiver adapter documentation
1) Made connectors for ankle sensors to satellites
2) CAN tranceiver adapter documentation
10/28 Rohit Hippalgaonkar (for 10/25 through 10/28)
Hours : 10/25 - Thursday 10 .15 am to 11.15 am
10/26 - Friday 10.30 am to 12.15 pm
10/28 - Sunday 10 pm to 1am
1) Mainly, further testing on the code. (3 hours)
2) started writing programs to see the effect of (solid) friction on i) natural frequency, ii) resonant frequency of each leg. (.5 hours)
3) Helped out Stephane with wiring for a bit and listened in on the theoretical issues with James' project when Prof Ruina was talkig about it. (~ 45 mins overall)
4) some time spent discussing TAM 570 HW with David Blocher next door on Thursday, and Controls HW with Pranav (1.5 hrs)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Seems best to add three masses on the robot - i) one mass off-plane on the outer leg at the same height as the hip, ii) one mass at a large distance below the hip on the inner leg and the iii) third mass at an intermediate distance to be placed on the inner leg (the last 2 masses both being in the plane of the leg).
Minimum value for total mass to be added seems to vary between 2.15 kg to 3.2kg depending on where we place a mass on the inner leg (tried for a range of 40 cm -50cm which has least sums). Details of analysis and approach used to arrive at a good solution will follow in next post.
Will actually add masses Tuesday.
2) MATLAB gets stuck when trying to solve with solid friction. Running this program is important to our project, since it will give us an idea of the accuracy of the approximations made while calculating inertias from experimental frequencies observed (especially in the case of outer leg, as it had high friction while swinging - coming to a stop in just 5 cycles).
10/26 - Friday 10.30 am to 12.15 pm
10/28 - Sunday 10 pm to 1am
1) Mainly, further testing on the code. (3 hours)
2) started writing programs to see the effect of (solid) friction on i) natural frequency, ii) resonant frequency of each leg. (.5 hours)
3) Helped out Stephane with wiring for a bit and listened in on the theoretical issues with James' project when Prof Ruina was talkig about it. (~ 45 mins overall)
4) some time spent discussing TAM 570 HW with David Blocher next door on Thursday, and Controls HW with Pranav (1.5 hrs)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Seems best to add three masses on the robot - i) one mass off-plane on the outer leg at the same height as the hip, ii) one mass at a large distance below the hip on the inner leg and the iii) third mass at an intermediate distance to be placed on the inner leg (the last 2 masses both being in the plane of the leg).
Minimum value for total mass to be added seems to vary between 2.15 kg to 3.2kg depending on where we place a mass on the inner leg (tried for a range of 40 cm -50cm which has least sums). Details of analysis and approach used to arrive at a good solution will follow in next post.
Will actually add masses Tuesday.
2) MATLAB gets stuck when trying to solve with solid friction. Running this program is important to our project, since it will give us an idea of the accuracy of the approximations made while calculating inertias from experimental frequencies observed (especially in the case of outer leg, as it had high friction while swinging - coming to a stop in just 5 cycles).
October 28, 2007
10/28/07 Yingyi Tan
3:30 pm -8:00 pm
1. Continued filing the hip insert to fit into the hole in the hip shaft. (1h)
2. Discussed ways to make the insert fit into the hole without anymore filing (0.5h)
3. Made a new hip insert for the hole (2h)
4. Tried to fit the new insert into the hole (0.5h)
5. Made the screwdriver slots in the insert (0.5h)
-------------------
1. Used the CNC machine to grip the insert while sand-papering the outside.
2. Jason commented that sandpapering the insert any further will cause the hip insert to wobble and the whole assembly will no longer be centered. We discussed ways to make the insert fit into the hole. This included shaving off the threads, hamering the insert, cutting the threaded portion off. Concluded that the best method may be to make another hip insert. This time ensuring the insert does not bend.
3. Made a new hip insert using the lathe machine.
4. The new insert was still unable to fit into the hole. We tried hammering on the insert, hoping to bend it to fit the hole. Concluded that the pre-existing threaded-hole may not have been centered. We then tried shaving off the threaded portion and hand-drilling a slightly larger hole in the shaft. However, the insert could not fit in all the way. We decided to hold the robot in the milling vice and drill using the mill tomorrow.
5. Made the slots in the hip insert for the screw driver using the mill. Had to screw the insert into an aluminum piece to secure it tightly.
1. Continued filing the hip insert to fit into the hole in the hip shaft. (1h)
2. Discussed ways to make the insert fit into the hole without anymore filing (0.5h)
3. Made a new hip insert for the hole (2h)
4. Tried to fit the new insert into the hole (0.5h)
5. Made the screwdriver slots in the insert (0.5h)
-------------------
1. Used the CNC machine to grip the insert while sand-papering the outside.
2. Jason commented that sandpapering the insert any further will cause the hip insert to wobble and the whole assembly will no longer be centered. We discussed ways to make the insert fit into the hole. This included shaving off the threads, hamering the insert, cutting the threaded portion off. Concluded that the best method may be to make another hip insert. This time ensuring the insert does not bend.
3. Made a new hip insert using the lathe machine.
4. The new insert was still unable to fit into the hole. We tried hammering on the insert, hoping to bend it to fit the hole. Concluded that the pre-existing threaded-hole may not have been centered. We then tried shaving off the threaded portion and hand-drilling a slightly larger hole in the shaft. However, the insert could not fit in all the way. We decided to hold the robot in the milling vice and drill using the mill tomorrow.
5. Made the slots in the hip insert for the screw driver using the mill. Had to screw the insert into an aluminum piece to secure it tightly.
October 27, 2007
10/27/07 Hajime Furukawa
4:30 - 5:30
1) Finished building sensor board (1h)
---------------------------------------------
1) Added the connectors that will connect to the satellite processor board, and the sensors.
1) Finished building sensor board (1h)
---------------------------------------------
1) Added the connectors that will connect to the satellite processor board, and the sensors.
10/26/07 Gregory Falco
12:45-1:15 and 1:30-3:30
1. Labeling MSDS (30 min)
2. Lab Meeting (2 hrs)
---------------
1. Began creating computer labels for the numbers for MSDS
2. Took notes on salient points for each presenter and took notes on what to improve for each student project
1. Labeling MSDS (30 min)
2. Lab Meeting (2 hrs)
---------------
1. Began creating computer labels for the numbers for MSDS
2. Took notes on salient points for each presenter and took notes on what to improve for each student project
10/25/07 Gregory Falco
3:00PM-4:00PM
1. E-mailed Dealtree (15 min)
2. Got T&AM Timeslot( 15min)
3. E-mailed Lab (5 min)
4. Blog Fix(25 min)
--------------
1. E-mailed Dealtree to request confirmation of receipt of package and request that shipping be refunded as well
2. Researched which classes students take and work in the lab in order to arrange for a Friday 2:30-3:30 timeslot. I proceeded to correspond with Cindy to ensure that this will be listed when enrolled in course.
3. Told lab that the room was changed for Friday meeting
4. People seem to forget to put the labels on their blogs so I went through them all and assigned labels to them so that they are not "lost" in our organization.
1. E-mailed Dealtree (15 min)
2. Got T&AM Timeslot( 15min)
3. E-mailed Lab (5 min)
4. Blog Fix(25 min)
--------------
1. E-mailed Dealtree to request confirmation of receipt of package and request that shipping be refunded as well
2. Researched which classes students take and work in the lab in order to arrange for a Friday 2:30-3:30 timeslot. I proceeded to correspond with Cindy to ensure that this will be listed when enrolled in course.
3. Told lab that the room was changed for Friday meeting
4. People seem to forget to put the labels on their blogs so I went through them all and assigned labels to them so that they are not "lost" in our organization.
10/26/07 Hajime Furukawa
3:30 - 7:00PM
1) Worked on constructing the sensor board (3.5h)
-------------------------------------------------------
1) Added all remaining components except for the connectors. This includes the resistors, capacitors, muxes, and opamps.
1) Worked on constructing the sensor board (3.5h)
-------------------------------------------------------
1) Added all remaining components except for the connectors. This includes the resistors, capacitors, muxes, and opamps.
10/26/07 Yingyi Tan
3:45 - 6:00 pm
1. Tapped the hole in the hip shaft (0.25h)
2. File the hip insert to fit into hole (2h)
-----------------
1. Helped Jason to tap the hole in the hip shaft. The hole had not been tapped completely so the hip insert could not fit in all the way.
2. The threaded portion of the hip insert was slightly bent. The rest of the hip insert could not fit into the hole. Had to file the insert to a smaller diameter. However, sand paper was used as a file would destroy the smooth circular outside diameter that was required.
1. Tapped the hole in the hip shaft (0.25h)
2. File the hip insert to fit into hole (2h)
-----------------
1. Helped Jason to tap the hole in the hip shaft. The hole had not been tapped completely so the hip insert could not fit in all the way.
2. The threaded portion of the hip insert was slightly bent. The rest of the hip insert could not fit into the hole. Had to file the insert to a smaller diameter. However, sand paper was used as a file would destroy the smooth circular outside diameter that was required.
October 26, 2007
10/26/07 Kevin Ullmann
3:00 - 4:30 (1.5 hrs)
1. Researched/Fixed Importing New Data Problem (1 hour)
2. Added Dynamic Importing to Graphics Program
1. I continued to research ways to import numerical data from a text file, and I was able to find a way to do so using the function fscanf.
2. I implemented this technique into the program code so that the user may now press the R key to bring up a file selection window to dynamically view a seperate data file. This eliminates the confusing/tedious process of closing the program and manually importing another data file using Matlab's Import Wizard. It is unfortunate that I finished this task basically right after I presented the program in the lab meeting :( but at least now it works :)
1. Researched/Fixed Importing New Data Problem (1 hour)
2. Added Dynamic Importing to Graphics Program
1. I continued to research ways to import numerical data from a text file, and I was able to find a way to do so using the function fscanf.
2. I implemented this technique into the program code so that the user may now press the R key to bring up a file selection window to dynamically view a seperate data file. This eliminates the confusing/tedious process of closing the program and manually importing another data file using Matlab's Import Wizard. It is unfortunate that I finished this task basically right after I presented the program in the lab meeting :( but at least now it works :)
10/26/07 John Buzzi
3:30-6:00
1) Removed excess material from satellite processor holding boxes(~30 min)
2) Prepared satellite processor boxes for mounting (~1 hr 45 min)
----------------------------------
1) We purchased 3 boxes for the purpose of containing and mounting the satellite processor boards that are soon to be added to the robot. One box will be located on the back left side of the robot, one on the back right, and one attached on the back in the center. Before mounting the boxes or fitting the processors into the boxes, multiple areas of unnecessary plastic had to be removed so that everything will fit properly. In order to accomplish this task i used the mill.
2) In order to mount the boxes flush against the back of the robot as desired, holes needed to be drilled in locations on the box to allow mounting screws from other components to protrude into the boxes. Since it was difficult to find the location of the screws relative to one another accurately I decided to use a pencil and paper to map the locations. I coated the screw heads with graphite and pressed the paper against the back to get a pattern from which to work with on the paper. I did the same thing on the back of the plastic box as well to spot the holes. I then used the drill press to make the holes. After this i had to file the holes until everything fit properly.
1) Removed excess material from satellite processor holding boxes(~30 min)
2) Prepared satellite processor boxes for mounting (~1 hr 45 min)
----------------------------------
1) We purchased 3 boxes for the purpose of containing and mounting the satellite processor boards that are soon to be added to the robot. One box will be located on the back left side of the robot, one on the back right, and one attached on the back in the center. Before mounting the boxes or fitting the processors into the boxes, multiple areas of unnecessary plastic had to be removed so that everything will fit properly. In order to accomplish this task i used the mill.
2) In order to mount the boxes flush against the back of the robot as desired, holes needed to be drilled in locations on the box to allow mounting screws from other components to protrude into the boxes. Since it was difficult to find the location of the screws relative to one another accurately I decided to use a pencil and paper to map the locations. I coated the screw heads with graphite and pressed the paper against the back to get a pattern from which to work with on the paper. I did the same thing on the back of the plastic box as well to spot the holes. I then used the drill press to make the holes. After this i had to file the holes until everything fit properly.
10/26/07 Carlos Arango
3:30-5:00 pm
1. Modified the cable holder on the back of the ankles
-------------
1.I manufactured two more cable brackets to attache the cable coming out of the ankle sensors in a manner that does not obstruct foot movement. I also added notches on the sides of the brackets to ensure secure placement of cable ties
1. Modified the cable holder on the back of the ankles
-------------
1.I manufactured two more cable brackets to attache the cable coming out of the ankle sensors in a manner that does not obstruct foot movement. I also added notches on the sides of the brackets to ensure secure placement of cable ties
October 25, 2007
10/25/07 Hajime Furukawa
9:30AM - 10:00AM, 11:30AM - 1:00PM, 3:30PM- 7:00PM
1) Constructing Board (4h)
2)Testing Board (1h)
3)Composing Test Results (.5)
--------------
1)Started to solder components onto the sensor board that will attach to the satellite processor board . Finished adding the components that make up the voltage regulator.
2) Tested the voltage regulator with two different load resistors, while sweeping the input voltage.
3)Wrote up the results and made a graph for the test.
1) Constructing Board (4h)
2)Testing Board (1h)
3)Composing Test Results (.5)
--------------
1)Started to solder components onto the sensor board that will attach to the satellite processor board . Finished adding the components that make up the voltage regulator.
2) Tested the voltage regulator with two different load resistors, while sweeping the input voltage.
3)Wrote up the results and made a graph for the test.
10/25/07 Yingyi Tan
5:00pm - 6.45pm
1. Machined slot for screwdriver in hip insert. (1.25h)
2. Filed spring to fit pins (0.5h)
------------------
1. Discussed creating a slot for the screwdriver with Jason. Decided to create slots on inside with end-mill cutter. Had to find a way to clamp piece down. Drilled and tapped into an aluminum piece to hold the insert before cutting slots.
2. The holes on the spring were not aligned with the pins through the sensor board. Filed the holes. Tried fitting the insert into the shaft of the robot. Realized the hole in the shaft was not tapped all the way. Will tap the hole with Jason tomorrow.
1. Machined slot for screwdriver in hip insert. (1.25h)
2. Filed spring to fit pins (0.5h)
------------------
1. Discussed creating a slot for the screwdriver with Jason. Decided to create slots on inside with end-mill cutter. Had to find a way to clamp piece down. Drilled and tapped into an aluminum piece to hold the insert before cutting slots.
2. The holes on the spring were not aligned with the pins through the sensor board. Filed the holes. Tried fitting the insert into the shaft of the robot. Realized the hole in the shaft was not tapped all the way. Will tap the hole with Jason tomorrow.
10/25/07 Max Wasserman
Entered 3:20, Exited 5:40
1) MATLAB Coding/Testing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) I perfected the MATLAB code so that now, when given four or more input points, the program determines the combination of masses that (a) when placed at those input points, equalizes the inertial properties of the robot, and (b) accomplishes this while adding the least amount of total mass possible to the robot. Also, the program will no longer return negative mass as an output.
1) MATLAB Coding/Testing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) I perfected the MATLAB code so that now, when given four or more input points, the program determines the combination of masses that (a) when placed at those input points, equalizes the inertial properties of the robot, and (b) accomplishes this while adding the least amount of total mass possible to the robot. Also, the program will no longer return negative mass as an output.
10/25/07 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM
1. Fixed the phone - .5 hours
2. Worked on splitting the code into modules 1.5 hours
1. I found a new transformer and replaced the old one that was blown out on the phone. I covered the connections individually with shrink wrap, off set them from each other, and then covered the whole thing in electrical tape.
2. I also worked on setting up the code so it could be in modules. I began by setting up a stripped down version that was similar to code that I had used on a microcontroller in the past so that it would hopefully work.
2. Worked on splitting the code into modules 1.5 hours
1. I found a new transformer and replaced the old one that was blown out on the phone. I covered the connections individually with shrink wrap, off set them from each other, and then covered the whole thing in electrical tape.
2. I also worked on setting up the code so it could be in modules. I began by setting up a stripped down version that was similar to code that I had used on a microcontroller in the past so that it would hopefully work.
10/24/07 Yingyi Tan
3:15pm-5:00pm, 8:15pm - 10:00pm
1. Remachined a new hip insert. (1.5 h)
2. The hip machine in 1 broke. Machined another part. (1.5h)
--------
1. The hip insert was dented on the outside surface. It had to be perfectly smooth in order to rotate smoothly in the bearing, so a new part had to be machined.
2. The hip insert broke in the lathe machine. Another hip insert had to be machined.
1. Remachined a new hip insert. (1.5 h)
2. The hip machine in 1 broke. Machined another part. (1.5h)
--------
1. The hip insert was dented on the outside surface. It had to be perfectly smooth in order to rotate smoothly in the bearing, so a new part had to be machined.
2. The hip insert broke in the lathe machine. Another hip insert had to be machined.
October 24, 2007
10/24/07 Lee Sam
Time in : 9:30am
Time out: 2pm
Prepared the MAC7111LCEVB to support 2 SPI ports. Used Dremel tool to disconnect a trace to free up a SPI pin. Soldered wire-wrap wire to the individual SPI pins on the chip to allow for access to second SPI interface.
Time out: 2pm
Prepared the MAC7111LCEVB to support 2 SPI ports. Used Dremel tool to disconnect a trace to free up a SPI pin. Soldered wire-wrap wire to the individual SPI pins on the chip to allow for access to second SPI interface.
10/24/07 Stephane Constantin
10:00 to 12:30
1) Explored camera standards and video capture approaches
2) Programmed matlab to display live video from camera/webcam
Explored options of overall applications:
Live Streaming v/s Save to a file
Matlab: Easy to use Image Capture Toolbox --> Versatile to various video formats
OPTION 1 (Live Streaming - Camera attached to computer)
Have Matlab tell LabView to start recording Data and at the same time start video recording in matlab.
Results would be:
One video file from matlab
One Data file from Labview
(synchronized within program response time)
Easier to play with video file since it is already in matlab environment
OPTION 2 (Live Streaming - Camera attached to Computer)
Have Labview do both data capture and video capture. Then Matlab uses those two files.
Harder to interface video file from Labview to Matlab
OPTION 3 (Free moving camera)
Blinking LED on robot to synchronize video.
Robot records when the LEd blinks in data.
1) Explored camera standards and video capture approaches
2) Programmed matlab to display live video from camera/webcam
Explored options of overall applications:
Live Streaming v/s Save to a file
Matlab: Easy to use Image Capture Toolbox --> Versatile to various video formats
OPTION 1 (Live Streaming - Camera attached to computer)
Have Matlab tell LabView to start recording Data and at the same time start video recording in matlab.
Results would be:
One video file from matlab
One Data file from Labview
(synchronized within program response time)
Easier to play with video file since it is already in matlab environment
OPTION 2 (Live Streaming - Camera attached to Computer)
Have Labview do both data capture and video capture. Then Matlab uses those two files.
Harder to interface video file from Labview to Matlab
OPTION 3 (Free moving camera)
Blinking LED on robot to synchronize video.
Robot records when the LEd blinks in data.
October 23, 2007
10/23 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
Hours : 3.30 pm to 5.30 pm
-----------------------------
* Further work on 'inverse' code - i.e. a program that determines locations given the no. and values of masses to be added. Abandoned on Andy's advice as it was not worth it spending the effort on this problem, a much tougher problem than the inverse problem which is linear (1 hour - 1hr 45 mins)
* Went through Max's code - minor refinements. (30 - 45 mins)
-----------------------------
* Further work on 'inverse' code - i.e. a program that determines locations given the no. and values of masses to be added. Abandoned on Andy's advice as it was not worth it spending the effort on this problem, a much tougher problem than the inverse problem which is linear (1 hour - 1hr 45 mins)
* Went through Max's code - minor refinements. (30 - 45 mins)
10/23/07 Kevin Ullmann
11:00 - 1:00 (in lab) 8:00 - 9:00 (at home)
1.Worked on reading text data without re-importing (2 hrs)
2. Worked on reading numerical data without re-importing (1 hr)
1. I looked at and experimented with many different methods of doing this, inclucing fscanf, strread, textread, textscan, fgetl, and sscanf. None of these functions really did what I wanted them to do. I ended up using fgetl, which reads a single line from the data file, and parsing it with strtok in a loop to get the individual column headers.
2. I looked at many of the same methods for numerical reading as well, and I also re-looked into load. I have not found a workable solution to this problem yet.
1.Worked on reading text data without re-importing (2 hrs)
2. Worked on reading numerical data without re-importing (1 hr)
1. I looked at and experimented with many different methods of doing this, inclucing fscanf, strread, textread, textscan, fgetl, and sscanf. None of these functions really did what I wanted them to do. I ended up using fgetl, which reads a single line from the data file, and parsing it with strtok in a loop to get the individual column headers.
2. I looked at many of the same methods for numerical reading as well, and I also re-looked into load. I have not found a workable solution to this problem yet.
10/23/07 Yingyi Tan
4.00pm - 8.30pm
1. Helped Jason with drilling the robot (1 h)
2. Removed epoxy on robot (1h)
3. Redesigned hip insert (0.5h)
4. Machined hip insert (2h)
-------------------
1. The hip shaft connecting the 3 boxes of the robot had to be drilled. Aided Jason with drilling the hole and ensuring the hole was at the right dimensions.
2. The base of the robot's left box was uneven due to epoxy from the shaft mount. Used a chisel and hammer to scrape off the epoxy so that the hip spring could be flushed with the bottom of the box.
3. The hip insert had to be redesigned. The existing hole in the hip shaft was larger than the threaded portion of the insert.
4. Machined a new hip insert according to the new design. Filed away additional material so everything fit in place.
1. Helped Jason with drilling the robot (1 h)
2. Removed epoxy on robot (1h)
3. Redesigned hip insert (0.5h)
4. Machined hip insert (2h)
-------------------
1. The hip shaft connecting the 3 boxes of the robot had to be drilled. Aided Jason with drilling the hole and ensuring the hole was at the right dimensions.
2. The base of the robot's left box was uneven due to epoxy from the shaft mount. Used a chisel and hammer to scrape off the epoxy so that the hip spring could be flushed with the bottom of the box.
3. The hip insert had to be redesigned. The existing hole in the hip shaft was larger than the threaded portion of the insert.
4. Machined a new hip insert according to the new design. Filed away additional material so everything fit in place.
10/23/07 John Buzzi
4:00-5:45
1) Aided with drilling a larger hole into the hip axle (~45 min)
2) Removed the epoxy from near the hip axle inside the robot (~1 hr)
----------------------------------
1) The hip axle needed to be drilled out so that components that Yingyi created can be properly fit into place for the hip sensor. So i aided with this process by helping level and center the entire inner leg on the mill machine.
2) In order for the hip spring that i made yesterday to be installed, a large amount of epoxy had to be removed from the inside of the robot using a dremel tool, a chisel, and needle files.
1) Aided with drilling a larger hole into the hip axle (~45 min)
2) Removed the epoxy from near the hip axle inside the robot (~1 hr)
----------------------------------
1) The hip axle needed to be drilled out so that components that Yingyi created can be properly fit into place for the hip sensor. So i aided with this process by helping level and center the entire inner leg on the mill machine.
2) In order for the hip spring that i made yesterday to be installed, a large amount of epoxy had to be removed from the inside of the robot using a dremel tool, a chisel, and needle files.
10/23/07 Max Wasserman
3:10-5:10
1. Coding
2. Testing
-------------------------------------------------
1. Continuing with what I started last week, I finished coding the new program. The new program takes points on the robot (i.e. x- and y- distance from the hip axis) and determines the exact amount of mass that should be placed at each of those points to equalize the inertial properties. (Note: I also worked on this program for two hours on Friday last week.)
1 hour, 30 minutes
2. I also tested the new program briefly. I learned that it still needs to be adjusted for the case that more than four points are inputted, as that leads to an infinite number of possible answers. This can be taken care of quickly the next time I'm in lab (either Wednesday or Thursday).
30 minutes
1. Coding
2. Testing
-------------------------------------------------
1. Continuing with what I started last week, I finished coding the new program. The new program takes points on the robot (i.e. x- and y- distance from the hip axis) and determines the exact amount of mass that should be placed at each of those points to equalize the inertial properties. (Note: I also worked on this program for two hours on Friday last week.)
1 hour, 30 minutes
2. I also tested the new program briefly. I learned that it still needs to be adjusted for the case that more than four points are inputted, as that leads to an infinite number of possible answers. This can be taken care of quickly the next time I'm in lab (either Wednesday or Thursday).
30 minutes
10/23/07 Carlos Arango
3:30pm - 5:10 pm
1. Finished attaching the sensors and sensor cases to the feet
2. Discussed forms of routing sensor cables up the robot legs with Jason, particularly past the back of the feet
3. Created a prototype for getting cables past thefeet
----------------------------------
1. I had one sensor left to attach from last time, so I quickly did that. I had to take it off once because it was too "wobbly" so I added another washer in the casing to give more tension to the spring washer
2. Ideas included adding a piece of plastic to the stop screw that sticks out, using stiff wire, and using sheet metal. For now we have decided on the sheet metal with insulation.
3. I constructed a bracket out of sheet metal. This involved cutting the metal with the lab shears (ouch), drilling a hole in it, bending it to shape, and finally filing to fit.
1. Finished attaching the sensors and sensor cases to the feet
2. Discussed forms of routing sensor cables up the robot legs with Jason, particularly past the back of the feet
3. Created a prototype for getting cables past thefeet
----------------------------------
1. I had one sensor left to attach from last time, so I quickly did that. I had to take it off once because it was too "wobbly" so I added another washer in the casing to give more tension to the spring washer
2. Ideas included adding a piece of plastic to the stop screw that sticks out, using stiff wire, and using sheet metal. For now we have decided on the sheet metal with insulation.
3. I constructed a bracket out of sheet metal. This involved cutting the metal with the lab shears (ouch), drilling a hole in it, bending it to shape, and finally filing to fit.
10/23/07 Gregory Falco
1:15PM - 4:45PM
1. Class time on schedule
2. Booked Thurston 204
3. MSDS
----------------------------------------
1. Went to registrar for M&AE to register M&AE 429 as a class that meets Fridays 2:30PM -3:30PM at Thurston 204
2. Booked Thurston 204 at 2:30PM for next semester
3. Finished finding all MSDS for lab and machine shop. In the process of organizing files so they are easy to find in an emergency.
1. Class time on schedule
2. Booked Thurston 204
3. MSDS
----------------------------------------
1. Went to registrar for M&AE to register M&AE 429 as a class that meets Fridays 2:30PM -3:30PM at Thurston 204
2. Booked Thurston 204 at 2:30PM for next semester
3. Finished finding all MSDS for lab and machine shop. In the process of organizing files so they are easy to find in an emergency.
10/21 Rohit Hippalgaonkar
Hours : Monday 22nd October - 10.45am to 12.15pm, 3.15 pm to 5.15 pm
Sunday 21st October - 4.30 pm to 6pm, 7 pm to 10 pm, 11 pm to 12.30 am
* Checked experimental values obtained and made calculations necessary for program that equalizes relevant mass properties (30 - 45 mins)
* Discussed / brainstormed with Manoj and Pranav how and whether to account for friction in the experiments to determine moment of inertia of each leg about hip (45 mins to 1hr)
* Started work on a MATLAB program that arrives at the conditions necessary for identical mass properties using computer algebra. (A complete waste of time realised on Monday that this should have been done on Maple, as Matlab kept getting stuck) - 4.5 hrs
* Started work on Matlab program that computes locations at which masses are to be added if only 2 mases are to be added (3.5 hours), and plots the errors in the quantities versus the masses added (output should be a 3-D plot) - this does the inverse of Max's code, which computes the masses after user inputs locations. (3 hours)
Sunday 21st October - 4.30 pm to 6pm, 7 pm to 10 pm, 11 pm to 12.30 am
* Checked experimental values obtained and made calculations necessary for program that equalizes relevant mass properties (30 - 45 mins)
* Discussed / brainstormed with Manoj and Pranav how and whether to account for friction in the experiments to determine moment of inertia of each leg about hip (45 mins to 1hr)
* Started work on a MATLAB program that arrives at the conditions necessary for identical mass properties using computer algebra. (A complete waste of time realised on Monday that this should have been done on Maple, as Matlab kept getting stuck) - 4.5 hrs
* Started work on Matlab program that computes locations at which masses are to be added if only 2 mases are to be added (3.5 hours), and plots the errors in the quantities versus the masses added (output should be a 3-D plot) - this does the inverse of Max's code, which computes the masses after user inputs locations. (3 hours)
October 22, 2007
10/22/2007 Kevin Ullmann
8:00 - 9:00 PM (from home)
1. Continued work on listbox
1. I continued to research listbox properties and tried to work with the listbox that has parameters. Unfortunately I am having difficulties positioning the listbox relative to its parent figure, since resizing the figure will not move the listbox. I think I am going to abandon work on this feature to focus on importing new data dynamically.
1. Continued work on listbox
1. I continued to research listbox properties and tried to work with the listbox that has parameters. Unfortunately I am having difficulties positioning the listbox relative to its parent figure, since resizing the figure will not move the listbox. I think I am going to abandon work on this feature to focus on importing new data dynamically.
10/22/07 Yingyi Tan
4.15pm - 6.45pm
1. Machined the two pins to connect the board to the spring (2h)
2. Filed the pins and holder assembly so everything fits together (0.5h)
------------
1. Used the lathe to machine two pins out of aluminum. One was conical shaped, the other shaped like a cross.
2. Filed away extra material on the pins so they would fit easily into the spring and assembly without force. Filed away additional material on the assembly so that it does not rest on the leads of the chip on the sensor board.
1. Machined the two pins to connect the board to the spring (2h)
2. Filed the pins and holder assembly so everything fits together (0.5h)
------------
1. Used the lathe to machine two pins out of aluminum. One was conical shaped, the other shaped like a cross.
2. Filed away extra material on the pins so they would fit easily into the spring and assembly without force. Filed away additional material on the assembly so that it does not rest on the leads of the chip on the sensor board.
10/22/07 John Buzzi
2:00pm-5:00pm
1) Created the spring device for Yingyi's hip sensor (2.5 hours)
-------------
1) In order to hold certain components of the hip sensor device in the appropriate position i made a spring device out of sheet metal to satisfy this requirement. I spent my time printing out the drawings, measuring and cutting the sheet metal, bending it to the appropriate shape, carefully measuring the locations for the holes to be drilled, editing the location of the two mounting holes , and finally drilling the holes into the sheet metal using the drill press. I also had to make temporary fixtures out of wood in order to properly hold the small sheet metal part in the right place on the drill press.
1) Created the spring device for Yingyi's hip sensor (2.5 hours)
-------------
1) In order to hold certain components of the hip sensor device in the appropriate position i made a spring device out of sheet metal to satisfy this requirement. I spent my time printing out the drawings, measuring and cutting the sheet metal, bending it to the appropriate shape, carefully measuring the locations for the holes to be drilled, editing the location of the two mounting holes , and finally drilling the holes into the sheet metal using the drill press. I also had to make temporary fixtures out of wood in order to properly hold the small sheet metal part in the right place on the drill press.
10/22/07 Gregory Falco
1:20PM - 4:50PM
1. MSDS
2. Blog
---------------------------------
- Continued to find MSDS for the lab. Will be done next time.
-Maintained Blog and fixed user errors (corrected formatting for labels)
1. MSDS
2. Blog
---------------------------------
- Continued to find MSDS for the lab. Will be done next time.
-Maintained Blog and fixed user errors (corrected formatting for labels)
10/22/07 Carlos Arango
1:40pm-4:20pm
1. Machined slots into spacers for new stop screws
2. Re-machined bearing surface of sensor mounts
--------------
1. The foot stop screws have been extended in order to protect the ankle encoders. The extension requires that a spacer be used to keep the stop spring in the correct position, so I had to cut a groove into each spacer so I could attach the spring of the ankle sensors in the same manner it was previously attached to the screw heads.
2. Jason and I noticed that the bearing (back) surfaces of the encoder cases were concave due to a machining error. I have corrected this error using the fly cutter and being very careful with the clamp
1. Machined slots into spacers for new stop screws
2. Re-machined bearing surface of sensor mounts
--------------
1. The foot stop screws have been extended in order to protect the ankle encoders. The extension requires that a spacer be used to keep the stop spring in the correct position, so I had to cut a groove into each spacer so I could attach the spring of the ankle sensors in the same manner it was previously attached to the screw heads.
2. Jason and I noticed that the bearing (back) surfaces of the encoder cases were concave due to a machining error. I have corrected this error using the fly cutter and being very careful with the clamp
10/22/2007 Stephane Constantin
10:00 - 12:30
1) CAN transceiver adapter
Soldered connections and IC.
Ready to be plugged in.
1) CAN transceiver adapter
Soldered connections and IC.
Ready to be plugged in.
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