Tangible User Interfaces - Fall 2011

By John and Ankita

Description 

We wanted to make a boat, with oars propelling the boat forward. We used 2 servo motors, 2 potentiometers to control the oar-like motion and devised our oars from wood sticks.

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S0uAauomWc

Components

This week, Martin and Kilian created the shaky whacky pencil dog.

It uses two servos to generate a forward and upward movement to simulate an actual dog's walk.
Please find a video of the dog here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYTv6OPAzto

Description

I wanted to make as simple a crawler as possible, and also have two legs to propel it, rather than just one. I decided to position the servo vertically, and found a way to add some simple legs with rubber bands to add friction, that slowly propelled the servo. video: http://youtu.be/dcUrFgvbeiA

Components

• servo
• pot
• balsa wood
• rubber bands
• pins

Arduino Code

Just used the original code.

Description:

I played around with some configurations using binder clips and rubber bands, and created a crawling creature that kind of wiggles forward (like when you try to move a large box) so that the left and right edge catch on the ground alternatively.  Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHe6EP92ZCY.

Materials:

• Servo motor
• Rubber bands
• Binder clips
• Square cap from container

Description

Not so much a crawler but more along the lines of a possessed hand, controlled by a potentiometer,  made from fabric, cotton balls, and wire. Spooky! Scare your friends! 

Materials

1 Servo motor

1 Potentiometer 

Fabric

Cotton balls

Wire

Arduino Code

Elements

1 POT

1 Servo

1 toy car

Code

Created a mechanism to help the motor crawl by putting it on its side and adjusting for weight differential!

Here's the code:

Using the code from class I made some adaptive legs for my creepy crawler and created a make shift device that moves. The motion is somewhat limping and not fluid or graceful.

I was able to better control the motion by changing the length of the arms and adjusting the distances so that they were unequal.

I also experimented with different substances on the bottom. I needed something that would provide resistance so that the servo motor would not move with small adjustments, and yet something that did not provide too much friction.

This week, Martin and Kilian created the shaky whacky pencil dog.
It uses two servos to generate a forward and upward movement to simulate an actual dog's walk.
Please find a video of the dog here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYTv6OPAzto

Materials used:
- two servos
- two plastic forks (rear feet)
- two pencils with rubber capes (front feet)
- lots of elastic tape
- drawing of a dog face

Here's the code:

Description: