The push for Autonomy continues!<\/p>\n
The plan is that SWARM will be dancing -on its own- at Burning Man at the end of August.<\/p>\n
That means GPS and inertial measurement systems will work with control software and dance software to…. well… DANCE!<\/p>\n
Here’s an abbreviated update that we recently sent to Lady Bee:<\/p>\n
————————————————–
\nLate March:<\/p>\n
Finished design of standalone remote controls and purchased PCBs and parts (and other things like replacement SPU domes). Finished new Illuminator boards: now 4\/Orb (up from 2\/Orb). Retrofitted sound modules with noise reduction and code improvements. Worked on new central computer (7800 model), including kernel and code experiments, daughterboard retrofit. Also some work on Mother Node (central control) software.<\/p>\n
April:<\/p>\n
“Remote party” to finish assembly and programming of six remote controls. New illuminator code: now individually addressable, smoother color fades, hue\/value mode beyond pure RGB. Considerable work on new Aggregator architecture (subsystem that combines GPS location data with incoming control stream).<\/p>\n
Helped to build out electronics lab in the Box Shop so we can geek out amidst the Flaming Lotus grinding and welding. Charlie Gadeken will accept work in lieu of some rent. Also organized gear to some extent, and purchased replacement\/extra tools and consolidated tools\/spare parts in a dedicated toolbox.<\/p>\n
Purchased hardware for, and worked on mounting and integrating inertial navigation units and shaft encoder sensors.<\/p>\n
Installed and tested new illuminators. Final touches on new remote code.
\nInstalled Aggregator on test Orb.<\/p>\n
Major engagements at Yuri’s Night, Coachella Festival and Maker’s Faire:
\ngood gigs for many things. Field-tested new remotes and new Aggregator.
\nGood visibility and substantial funding for project, not to mention very positive team-building experiences! Discovered finite lifetime of steering sensor bearings (will retrofit with new design). These performances were a major incentive towards autonomy: human remote control is only a halfway measure; the Orbs should and will drive themselves.<\/p>\n
Early May:<\/p>\n
Full speed ahead towards autonomy: the long push to give the orbs the ability to follow trajectories (whether pre-choreographed or generated
\nin real time.) Removed old central computers to prepare for upgrade.
\nObtained new DC\/DC converters to power new computers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The push for Autonomy continues! The plan is that SWARM will be dancing -on its own- at Burning Man at the end of August. That means GPS and inertial measurement systems will work with control software and dance software to…. well… DANCE! Here’s an abbreviated update that we recently sent to Lady Bee: ————————————————– Late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":144,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2008\/04\/04\/what-is-swarm\/","url_meta":{"origin":157,"position":0},"title":"What is SWARM?","date":"April 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"SWARM is a kinetic art work consisting of multiple semi-autonomous spherical robots (\"Orbs\") that roll under their own power. Each has a spherical shell 30 inches in diameter: roughly waist high to an adult. Orb shells were computer-designed and cut from a flat plate of aluminum, then welded together to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":75,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2007\/07\/04\/gps-orb-tracks-on-the-playa\/","url_meta":{"origin":157,"position":1},"title":"GPS Orb Tracks On The Playa","date":"July 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The group on the playa sent back some GPS telemetry off of the prototype orb. Matt converted the data to KML format. Here are the first GPS tracks of our prototype orb on the playa! The lines are 3 GPS tracks. The image is from an image Google Earth took\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fun"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":211,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2009\/04\/30\/event-swarm\/","url_meta":{"origin":157,"position":2},"title":"Event SWARM","date":"April 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been lax about posting to the SWARM blog... SWARM gets out way more than you know! Last week the orbs were found dancing and flirting with the laptops at the\u00c2\u00a0Jaunty Jackalope Ubuntu Linux Release party!\u00c2\u00a0(Each orb runs ARM embedded Debian, pretty nerdy, huh?) This Thursday 4-30-09 a cadre of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":97,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2007\/09\/09\/valley-wag-loves-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":157,"position":3},"title":"Valley Wag loves us!","date":"September 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00c2\u00a0\"One of the neatest things I have seen in the self-expressive miasma that is Burning Man, the countercultural arts festival here in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, has been The Orb Swarm, a group of spherical robots designed to roll around the playa and interact with participants with lights, motion and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2007\/06\/26\/orbs-a-go-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":157,"position":4},"title":"Orbs a Go-Go","date":"June 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Lisa, Michael and I have been working on building more orbs. Lisa and I have been working on an aluminum orb with all the welds on the inside; we set it down next to the one with the welds on the outside and there was no question which shows off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35,"url":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/2007\/05\/07\/progress-rolling-along\/","url_meta":{"origin":157,"position":5},"title":"Progress! Rolling along…","date":"May 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"So Mike spent the weekend upgrading the shell and last night we drove it around some more. It's getting there! Much smoother rolling and more robust. It was good to see how well it would stop and start. The drivetrain is working really well, though the steering has some issues.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Progress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5dyZ-2x","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295,"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.orbswarm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}