The Robot is Present: Creative Approaches for Artistic Expression With Robots

There is growing interest in developing creative applications for robots, specifically robots that provide entertainment, companionship, or motivation. Identifying the hallmarks of human creativity and discerning how these processes might be replicated or assisted by robots remain open questions. Transdisciplinary collaborations between artists and engineers can offer insights into how robots might foster creativity for human artists and open up new pathways for designing interactive systems. This paper presents an exploratory research project centered on drawing with robots. Using an arts-led, practice-based methodology, we developed custom hardware and software tools to support collaborative drawing with an industrial robot. A team of artists and engineers collaborated over a 6-month period to investigate the creative potential of collaborative drawing with a robot. The exploratory project focused on identifying creative and collaborative processes in the visual arts, and later on developing tools and features that would allow robots to participate meaningfully in these processes. The outcomes include a custom interface for controlling and programming robot motion (EMCAR) and custom tools for replicating experimental techniques used in visual art. We report on the artistic and technical outcomes and identify key features of process-led (as opposed to outcome-led) approaches for designing collaborative and creative systems. We also consider the value of embodied and tangible interaction for artists working collaboratively with computational systems. Transdisciplinary research can help researchers uncover new approaches for designing interfaces for interacting with machines.

Development of Custom Interface Driver between USRP and SoC devices for SDR Applications

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is used to provide position based on satellite constellation. The GNSS Software defined radio (SDR) is a software approach which is more flexible than Hardware receivers. In GNSS SDR, most of the RF frontends are interfaced with a host-Personal Computer (PC). The host-PC based GNSS-SDR systems suffer from computational complexity and latency between IQ samples of GNSS signals. There are several RF front ends available to capture the real time signals. Among all these, USRP RF frontends are flexible for the prototype development. Earlier the host-PC was interfaced with the USRP device for the SDR implementation. In this work the, USRP N210 is interfaced with Zynq SoC device for GNSS SDR applications. This approach will introduce parallelism, which in turn leads to reduction in latency between IQ samples. A custom Ethernet driver to interface the USRP N210 with Zynq SoC device is proposed. The experimental results showcase that the proposed SoC based approach is suitable for GNSS-SDR prototype

The Influence of Spring Stiffness for a Passive Variable-Pitch Tidal Current Turbine

In this present work, a kind of passive variable-pitch tidal current turbine named spring-control turbine is studied by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation. FLUENT is applied combined with its second developing custom interface-User Define Function (UDF), where torque balanced equation of blade are connected into the fluid conservation equation solver. The variable pitch angle of a single blade of a test model is used as the validation of the numerical model. Considering the variable rules of the torque and power with the pitch angle of a single blade, we find that the bigger spring stiffness is more benefit for energy extraction of a tidal current turbine.

Developing a User-Centered Article Discovery Environment

This chapter discusses the user-focused research conducted at the University of Michigan Library to help make decisions about selecting and implementing a Web-scale article discovery service. A combination of methods—persona analysis, comparative evaluations, surveys, and guerrilla usability tests—were applied to bring a user-centered approach to the article discovery service decision-making process. After the selection of the Serials Solutions®1 Summon™2 service and developing a custom interface to this resource using the Summon™ API, a follow-up user survey was conducted and search log data were analyzed to gauge the impact of the Library’s decisions on users’ research habits and their perceptions of the library. Users reported a high rate of satisfaction with the new article discovery service and, as a result, reported being more likely to use library online resources again.

Recumbent Exercise Bicycle for Low-Impact Rehabilitation of Obese Individuals

It is often difficult for persons who are extremely overweight to find exercise systems that are accessible and safe to use. Seating is required to handle heavier loads of up to 500 lbs. and provide safe access to the exercise unit. Additionally, the exercise should not cause additional pain or possible damage if the person needs to suddenly stop. A multidisciplinary team of undergraduate engineers participated in a training course to interview a non-technical customer to determine design requirements and then underwent a rigorous design process to implement the best solution. Mechanical analysis was performed to determine the best solution for the concept, materials, and resistance. An exercise machine with a rotating chair was selected as the best solution. The chair rotates 90 degrees so that the user can sit down without having to step onto the machine. Once the user sits, the chair can then rotate 90 degrees until the chair is in the exercise position; in either position the chair locks into position for stability. This particular concept uses a bicyle exercise. This exercise minimizes impact on the knees, which is a safety issue for patients with knee problems. A sitting position for this exercise eliminates the stability issue raised with a standing exercise, where there is worry of falling. This exercise is beneficial for cardiovascular exercise. Resistance is implemented using a magnet. Fluid resistance and fly-wheel resistance would create too much momentum which was not desired by the customer. Electrical analysis was performed to determine the best method to sense heart rate, speed, and computer interface. Wired handles were selected to monitor the heart rate. These are hand held and are much easier to use than a chest strap. An optical sensor was used to sense speed. It was placed near the center of the wheel and rotations were indicated by a tab to break the connection in the sensor. This method was selected over a Hall effect sensor because it is a much simpler sensing method that does not require an addition magnetic component that is not too accurate a low speeds. The computer interface was a Motorola HC12s since it had the necessary I/O interfaces and was low cost. A custom interface was created with seven segment displays to show the heart rate and time of exercise. The system was then developed, tested, and delivered to the customer for use. This project was supported by Grant No. 0607883 from the National Science Foundation.

Modernization of the Philips PW1100 single-crystal diffractometer computer control system

Modifications are described to the Philips PW1100 single-crystal diffractometer control system whereby the minicomputer control system and part of its associated hardware interface have been replaced by an IBM AT-compatible computer with a custom interface.