Robots and Physical Computing

Speech Recognition in Scratch 3 - turning Hello into Bonjour! The Raspberry Pi Foundation recently released a programming activity Alien Language , with support Dale from Machine Learning for Kids , tha... PS3 Controller to move a USB Robot Arm Guest Blogger Hiren Mistry, Nuffield Research Placement Student working at the University of Northampton. How to use a PS3 Controller to... Scratch Robot Arm It is not physical but CBiS Education have release a free robot arm simulator for Scratch.  Downloadable from their site  http://w... Tinkercad and Microbit: To make a neuron The free online CAD (and so much more) package Tinkercad  https://www.tinkercad.com/ under circuits; now has microbits as part of the list ... Escape the Maze with a VR robot - Vex VR You don't need to buy a robot to get programming a robot, now there are a range of free and relatively simple to start with robot simula... Easy, Free and no markers Augmented Reality - location based AR For a few years...

The last of the posts on the Hug avoider and the 4Tronix's Eggbit 4Tronix's Eggbit (in fact I bought three of them  https://shop.4tronix.co.uk/collections/bbc-micro-bit/products/eggbit-three-pack-special   :-) recently) is a cute add-on for the microbit. In three previous posts I looked at eggbit using microcode to  produce a hug avoider - warns when people at too close. - https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2021/12/hug-avoider-2-4tronix-eggbit.html -  4tronix Eggbit - cute and wearable - hug avoider Hug Avoider 3 - experiments with Python and 4Tronix Eggbit In this post using the buttons and adding (via Microbit V2 with its speaker) simple speech 1. Buttons Pins for the buttons pin8 - Green button pin12 - Red button pin14 - Yellow button pin`6 - Blue button     if pin12.read_digital()==1:         #Red Button         blank_it()     if pin8.read_digital()==1:         #Green but...

via GIPHY 4Tronix's Eggbit (in fact I bought three of them  https://shop.4tronix.co.uk/collections/bbc-micro-bit/products/eggbit-three-pack-special   :-) recently) is a cute add-on for the microbit (see above).  In two previous posts I looked at eggbit using microcode to  produce a hug avoider - warns when people at too close. - https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2021/12/hug-avoider-2-4tronix-eggbit.html -  4tronix Eggbit - cute and wearable - hug avoider This post replicates  some of this, but this time using Python and shows the stages of the build Get the ultrasound to find the distance; Produce smile and surprise on the eggbit's 'mouth'; Produce rainbow on the neopixels or all the pixels turning red; Bring it all together so if the person is too close, less than 30cm it reacts.   1. Ultrasonic detection Probably the most challenging bit of this was getting the ultrasonic distance measrement working. It actually is not that difficult; e...

/ The ever-brilliant 4tronix have produced Eggbit https://shop.4tronix.co.uk/collections/microbit-accessories/products/eggbit;  a cute, wearable device, with ultrasonic sensors, buttons and LEDs for the microbit - I couldn't resist. Programming is through Makecode and an extension is available, to download and install. To use the extension, at the time of writing this, go through the add extension option and use the search box to add it  from  https://github.com/4tronix/EggBi t So what to do with it? Inspired by social distancing  (or not being a 'hugger')  created it so that when people get too close the RGB LEDs go out - simple but fun. The distance is set at 20cm for testing. The code is shown below. It was fun to do and perhaps swapping the settings around so the lights come on when people at too close might be more fun or using sound. This is a lovely device to play with and the look encourages play - just look how cute it is! The price is reasonable and th...

I have recently been playing with Edublocks ( edublocks.org ) and the 4tronix's Microbit Playground (the appropriately named Super Kit)  controlling programmable pixels/neopixels   and a servo . Recently a beta version of the Edublocks (see above) has become available ( https://app.edublocks.org/ ) so I wanted to play with it a bit and, at the same time, combine control the servo motor and neopixels together via a potentiometer (see below). The block version of the code is shown below: The python version np = None port1 = None pot2 = None port3 = None from microbit import * import neopixel np = neopixel.NeoPixel(pin0, 8) pin2.set_analog_period(20)# your own code while True:   port1 = pin1.read_analog()   pot2 = port1//128   port3 = port1//8   np[pot2] = (255, 0, 128)   np.show()   pin2.write_analog(port3)   sleep(250)   np.clear() To see it action via GIPHY A few thoughts on the be...

In a previous post Micro:bit and Cube:bit 'says' Hello  I introduced the start of me playing with the  4tronix Cube:bit . One of the things I want to try is get the cube to react to music, based around the accelerometers in a micro:bit picking up vibrations.  Luckily, in an earlier post, I had done something similar for the  Proto-Pic Micro:pixel  (see  Dancing Pixels  for more details).  Essentially the idea is  the vibrations from the music shake the micro:bit enough to give measurable changes in three axis, and these values are used to change the pixel's colour - in fact five pixels at a time. The code shown below is all that was needed: from microbit import * import neopixel, random np = neopixel.NeoPixel(pin0, 125) while True:     for pxl in range (2,125, 5):         rd=int(abs(accelerometer.get_x())/20)         gr=int(abs(accelerometer.get_y())/20)   ...

Since seeing pictures of the 4tronix Cube:bit I have intrigued by it and now I have one. So what is it? It is a 3D array of neopixel-style LEDs, or another way of describing it a programmable box of LEDs (or just good fun). The option I went for the 5x5x5 array (125 LEDs) controlling it with a micro:bit, and the base for mounting and powering the grid. Instructions for putting it together can be found at  https://4tronix.co.uk/blog/?p=1770 . My main bit of advice is read the instructions carefully especially if you go for the 5x5 options, at the time of writing, you need to move a standoff around but it is all in the instructions. Admittedly I missed this step initially.  So to playtime, using a microbit I wanted to spell-out HELLO across the grid using the Micro:Bit JavaScript Blocks/MakeCode Editor. Basically, my solution revolved around creating two JavaScript functions to produce vertical and horizontal patterns on the grid (sounds good saying that -...

This year the Computing team has been fortunate enough to host three Nuffield Research Placement students ( https://www.nuffieldresearchplacements.org/ ) all working with Dr Scott Turner. Michael Welsh Michael has been working on using a  micro:bit based bitbot from 4tronix  to produce a potential teaching tool; an example of artificial neurons used control a robot. The aim is for this tool to be used with 3rd-year Undergraduates, as part of a module on Artificial Intelligence. Michael's solution was to use the computer to run and train a single neuron; then for the robot to send values from the line sensors back to the program running on a Computer and receive control signals.  Sounds easy? No really, in the end, the software running on the computer had to also send and receive the data through a microbit (via USB) and then use radio to communicate with the bit:bot robot. All the various developed part...