General Resources for Classes

Priorities (learned the hard way)

1. What is the minimum that you need to get done? Get that working first. That way, if it's difficult you have more time to fix it, and if it's impossible, you have more time to change your concept.
   1.1. If this is for a class, what's most of the grade? 1.1. If this is for yourself, what's the minimum you would need to feel proud?
2. In my experience, the mechanical things are the most difficult to get working, because usually most students have the least amount of experience with this. Get the mechanical parts work at least well enough before involving the Arduino and programming. 1.1. If your robot is to be mobile, I would first get the mobility part working 1.1. If your robot has any other moving parts (arms, tentacles, alien appendages, robot grippers) I would try to get at least one of them working.
3. The guiding principle is to do the things that you have the least amount of experience with first And always leave the aesthetic stuff until the very end. It doesn't matter if it looks like a jumble of junk, as long as it works.
   1.1. One exception to the aesthetics is the wiring. As you've probably discovered, a big mess of wires is very hard to debug, so spending time to make the wires tidy can save you a lot of time later when things don't work.

Wisdom

1. MY GUIDING PRINCIPLES AFTER 20 YEARS OF PROGRAMMING Medium Alex Ewerlöf wrote an excellent article about his principles for working with software that I found could also apply to working on mechanical and electrical systems.

Smoothing Readings from Noisy Sensors using Filters

1. Running average, built-in example in Arduino (File -> Examples -> Analog -> Smoothing) tutorial

2. Another explanation of the running average filter

3. Great discussion and comparison of three smoothing methods: basic average, running average, and an exponential filter. The running average is the same as above. The exponential filter can be used by installing the Megunolink library (Sketch -> Include Library -> Manage Libraries, search for Megunolink)

4. Many other filters are available through the library manager. I have not tested these.

Notes

• While the examples above often refer to analog sensors, these methods can be applied to all sensors (e.g. the ultrasonic distance measuring sensor)
• For beginners, I would recommend a basic average or a running average
  • Basic average is faster to respond, but isn't quite as smooth as a running average.
  • In both cases, you will need to experiment with how many samples to take.
    • A few samples responds quickly but won't be as smooth
    • Many samples smooths well but won't respond quickly.
  • You will have balance how much delay you can tolerate vs. how smooth you need the result. Usually it's best to do this by experimentation.

Fabrication

1. Always design easy access for repair or modification. Never put items on top of one another. Assume you will need easy access to each component. Make access doors big so that you can easily put your hands in or bring components out. Make holes for wires big enough that you can get the connector through as well.
2. Make any enclosures at least twice as big as you think you'll need. Until you're extremely experienced, you will underestimate how much room you'll need and forget things like wires, which take up lots of space
3. Make wires longer than necessary, at least long enough that you can remove a module and work on it comfortably (e.g. placing it face down on a surface, not having to hold it at an uncomfortable angle)
4. Always use stranded wire between modules or between components and boards. Solid wire can only be used when both ends are soldered to the same board.
5. Be consistent with colors: red for +5V (or whatever the dominant voltage is), black wires for ground.
6. Don't have wires traverse empty space. Anchor wires to walls or other support structures. Use zipties to bundle them neatly.
7. Whenever possible, once you have finished the prototype transfer your circuit from the solderless breadboard to a soldered board such as a prototyping shield. Abolish all jumpers cables and instead solder extensions as necessary. Use heat-shrink tubing on all solder joints to prevent short circuits.

Theory and critique

1. Robotic Creatures
2. Catalog from Machine Art exhibit, Museum of Modern Art, 1934

Inspiration: Artists, Movies, Projects, etc.

Machine inspiration

• [DIY wire wrapping
• Ghibli Clock also here machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QL1QaIwMwk&t=482s)
• [Astronomical Clock Strasbourg
• Fortnum & Mason store clock Cathedral](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKgZB3P45Kw)
• Series of 15 videos on Mechanical Principles

1. Drawing Machines

   1. 1
   2. 2
   3. 3
   4. 4
   5. 5
   6. 6
   7. 7
   8. 8
   9. 9
   10. 10
   11. 11
   12. 12
   13. The Machine As Artist, an Introduction

2. Marble Machines

   1. 1
   2. 2
   3. 3

3. Didi Vardi's Wonderful Mechamisms

   1. Binary Counter with old computer parts
   2. Machine Animating late 19th century and early 20th century hand tools

4. Musical Machines

   1. Carlos Guedes' wonderful [Phobos, Orquestra Robótica Disfuncional[(https://vimeo.com/235763130)
   2. Sudhu Tewari's Yasmin Electro Mechanical Sequencer
   3. Solenoid tapping wine glasses by Lilliana Matta password 2424

5. List of inspirational movies collected by Barney Haynes (also here) and shown at his Interface classes. In particular

6. Inspirational videos collected by J.D. Zamfirescu

   1. Basic robots
      1. Tree-climbing robot
      2. Self-balancing robot
      3. Insect robot
      4. Treadbot
      5. Velociraptor robot
   2. Installations
      1. The Bay Lights
      2. Murmur Wall
      3. Floating Couch
      4. Wooden Segment Mirror
      5. Generative design
   3. Art & Music bots
      1. Textile weaving
      2. ReacTable
      3. Projection mapping
      4. Laser harp
      5. Cubli: Floating Cube
      6. Arc-o-matic
      7. Robo Faber
      8. Eggbot
   4. Drink-makers
      1. Textspresso
      2. The Inebriator
   5. Computer Numerical Control (CNC)
      1. Shapoko / tinyg
      2. Makerbot Replicator
   6. Vacuuming
      1. Roomba

7. Golan Levin: Art that looks back at you

8. Drawdio

9. Other Projects

   1. Alex Markova's fortune wheel
   2. Claire Neel's reactive eye
   3. Ji Young Kim's map and national anthems
   4. May Baho's campfire

Solderless Breadboards

1. How to Use a Breadboard tutorial by Sparkfun
2. Setting Up a Breadboard lab at NYU ITP

Basic Electronics

1. Basic Electronics tutorial by Sparkfun
2. Electricity: the Basics tutorial at NYU ITP

Data Visualization Examples

1. Ben Fry

2. Aaron Koblin

3. Jer Thorp

   3.1. Just Landed

   3.2. another

   3.3. nytimes top coverage and connections

4. Nicholas Feltron

Mechanical or Primarily Mechanical

1. Survival Research Labs Machine or industrial art

2. Matt Heckert Machine and kinetic art, machine sound art, and creator of many early SRL machines

3. Carl Pisaturo Artist, master machinist, and inventor, Carl documents his process in detail for great learning opportunities. Great examples of complex motions via cables

4. North Pitney North Pitney’s amazing reconfigurable maze is one of my favorite examples of kinetic art.

5. Arthur Ganson makes amazing sculptures using wire gears and mechanisms Making wire gears Sample piece: Meditation #1 Search youTube for many other videos of his work

6. Daniel Rozinin Wooden mirror in which over 800 small blocks of wood are individually rotated slightly to display an image of what the camera captures

7. Theo Jansen Theo Jansen creates new forms of life using plastic tubing as the basic building material. Wind is their "food", and their "stomach" is made of recycled plastic bottles. Theo’s The art of creating creatures presentation at TED in 2006 includes a wonderful video of his work and a live demonstration of portions of his mechanisms. Search youTube for many other videos of his work

8. Del’s Beautiful New Wooden Machine An intricate hand-cranked machine demonstrating many types of simple mechanisms: cranks, gears, chains, sprockets, offset gears to change speed, escapements, conversion of rotary motion to linear motion. Thanks to Tristan for bringing this to my attention.

Basic Arduino Resources from Arduino

1. Getting Started with Arduino / Genuino Uno tutorial

2. Blink tutorial

3. DigitalReadSerial tutorial

4. AnalogReadSerial tutorial

5. Fade tutorial shows how to use the analogWrite() function

Basic Arduino Resources from Other Sources

1. Arduino basics: Intro through Lesson 3 of Adafruit's Arduino tutorial

2. Arduino in a Nutshell

3. Photoresistor Instructables

Sparkfun Inventor's Kit Resources

1. Introduction to the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit for Arduino Experimenter's Guide

2. Experiment 1: Blinking an LED in the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit for Arduino Experimenter's Guide

3. Experiment 2: Reading a Potentiometer in the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit for Arduino Experimenter's Guide

Blink Without Delay Resources

1. Tutorial to Blink Without Delay on the official Arduino website

2. Another explanation of Blink Without Delay recommended by a student

3. The same student recommends that in order to understand Blink Without Delay, it is wise to first understand millis()

4. Very detailed line-by-line explanation of Blink Without Delay, with links to explanations of related concepts every step of the way.

5. A detailed explanation of Blink Without Delay. I don't like the way he does the circuit, but his explanation is good.

Arduino Multitasking Resources

1. Excellent Adafruit Multitasking Tutorial (highly recommended)

2. Play a melody and blink an LED without using delay(): toneMelodyAndBlinkWithoutDelay

3. Flicker (i.e simulate a candle) multiple LEDs without using delay(): flickerMultipleNoDelay

State, state machines, and state change detection (edge detection)

1. State Change Detection

2. A formal State Machine is called a Finite State Machine (FSM). Although you can often get away with being less formal, here is a nice tutorial on FSMs

3. Adafruit tutorial

4. Another edge detection tutorial

Arduino Tone Resources

1. Decent explanation here

2. Using switches to control the tone here

Arduino Sensors Resources

1. Adafruit guide to sensors

Shift Register resources

1. Adafruit Shift Register tutorial

2. Arduino Shift Register tutorial

3. Electronics Tutorials Shift Register tutorial

4. Sparkfun Shift Register tutorial

Communication resources

1. Sparkfun Serial Communication tutorial here

Miscellaneous Electronic resources

1. Sparkfun Logic Level tutorial

Mechatronic Resources

1. Walking boots

2. YouTube playlist of antique (and ancient) counting and calculating devices with a huge variety of mechanisms

3. Ken Shirriff details the intricate mechanical systems of the Globus INK – a gorgeous navigation system for soviet spacecraft. It features a rotating globe inside a metal housing, and let Soyuz cosmonauts see their position above Earth.

4. Simple descriptions of the 6 basic mechanisms

5. Table of Mechanicks [sic]

6. Great book describing how to build Mechanisms

7. How to build a Crank and Slider mechanism

8. Gear generator

9. Pages 272-281 in "Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers" by Igoe/O'Sullivan

10. How To Design And Make Automata by Robert Adams

11. How To Design And Make Simple Automata by Robert Adams (I think this is a different version of the same book above)

12. Different shaped cams provide different types of reciprocating motion

13. A nice overview of making your own gears. Don't worry about the specifics (Inkscape etc.) but get the general concept which can be achieved in many different ways and using different tools.

14. Cardboard Automata pamphlet from The Exploratorium which has a clear diagram of how to use two cams to get alternating rotation

15. "Making Things Move" by Dustyn Roberts

16. Very detailed book on making automata from Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

17. Free plans from Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

18. Instructables tagged with the keyword Automata

19. Nice collection of resources for Cam and Crank toys

20. Free plans to download and other resources from Dug North, a master automata builder

21. How to Make Cardboard Automata article on Make: Projects website (which itself is a great resource for all sorts of projects)

22. Website for an Introduction to Mechanisms course at CMU with a ton of great material

23. Hackaday (articles on mechanisms)[https://hackaday.com/tag/mechanisms/). Very good.

24. YouTube channel illustrating a huge range of mechanisms, many of them quite unusual

25. Twenty different mechanisms demonstrated using Lego

26. THE SECRET LIFE OF COMPONENTS "A series of youtube guides for designers and makers" by Tim Hunkn. Of special interest in this section of the resource guide are Chain, Hinges, Springs, Glue, Bearings, Sensors, Linkages and Mechanisms, Motors, Screw Types, and Prototypes. That's pretty much all of them except for LEDs, Switches, and Connectors.

27. Not exactly a clock, but an interesting article

28. Article in Nature magazine about automata (crosses into robots too)

29. Re-creation of the famous automata duck

30. CBS News on Automaton

31. Inspiration

32. Jigsaw puzzle solving robot with lots of mechanisms

33. Interview with brilliant special effects designer at Industrial Light and Magic

34. Online version of a famous book series called 507 Mechanical Movements

35. Another version of 507 Mechanical Movements

36. CAD designs of the mechanisms in 507 Mechanical Movements

37. I don't remember

38. Making of a animatronic hand for promoting the Netflix series Wednesday

39. Animated linkages

40. A book on Ingenious mechanisms

41. Mechanical Movement for Puppets and Automata by Figures in the Fourth Dimension

42. A particularly nice example from Figures in the Fourth Dimension

43. A linkage simulator, to help you determine the lengths of the elements for achieving particular movements

44. The House of Automata Instagram account

45. Bare walking mechanism from the House of Automata

46. Virtual sphere rolling joint

47. 20 Mechanical Principles combined in a Useless Lego Machine. Nice depiction of each mechanism but I wish they were separate rather than all combined to make them easier to study

48. Engineers Illustrated Thesaurus, a classic reference book

49. Escapement mechanisms: Simple and fascinating

50. Long playlist of videos by animatronic artist Danny Huynh. Some show linkages and placement of servo motors.

Servo Pan and Tilt mechanisms

Also known as gimbals or two degrees of freedom mechanisms, pan-and-tilt mechanisms allow your object (e.g. eyes, a robot head, or a camera) to be rotated in two perpendicular planes: e.g. turning side-to-side, and turning up and down. There are many tutorials for this but I find that they don't give much detail on the mechanical aspects and focus on the electronics and programming, which you really know how to do by now.

(By the way, you can probably see that if you mounted a gimbal inside of another gimbal you would have three degrees of freedom, so you could rotate in the X, Y, and Z planes.)

Here then are some examples of pan/tilt mechanisms and gimbals to give you some ideas:

1. This 3D printed example uses a tricky gear mechanism to rotate the head, which is very cool, but not the critical part of a pan-and-tilt mechanism. The critical component is the large upside-down U shaped bracket which holds the head and allows it to rotate left to right, while the bracket itself rotates up and down. This U-shaped bracket is a common feature of most pan-and-tilt mechanisms.

2. In this tutorial they cut pieces of plastic pipes of different diameters to make the gimbal. You can see again the critical U-shaped bracket in Step 6. A nice feature of this tutorial is the usage of bearings to make an extra smooth gimbal. The motorized weight part of this tutorial is irrelevant for our purposes.

3. This video shows a different way to rotate in two planes using a universal joint or U-joint. If you look carefully at the U-joint at the 0:37 second mark you will see our ubiquitious U-shaped bracket. This video is much more elaborate and in fact is just a teaser for a lesson that they sell, but it gives you some ideas. Built out of metal hardware, this will be much stronger and much more reliable, but also heavier and will require stronger servos.

Github Resources

1. Please don't create documentation in PDF or Word format, as these are not visible directly on Github. Use MarkDown (.md files) as described below.

2. How to create a Github account and your first repository guide

   Your account name should be your name (unless for privacy reasons you'd prefer something else) and your repository name could be the course name.

3. Help! I created my account and repository, but I can't find the button that says "Create new file" or "Upload files". How do I fix this?

   Answer: It sounds like you forgot to create a README.md file when you created the repository. See below.

4. Help! I created a new repository but I forgot to check the box that says "Initialize this repository with a README". How can I create a README file?

   Answer: You can either:

   1. Delete your repository and create a new one, this time with the box checked.

   2. Click where it says "README" and then click "Commit new file" at the bottom of the page that comes up. This will create a "README" file.

5. How to upload a file to Github

   1. Click on "Upload files"

   

6. How to create a folder in Github

   Git doesn't store empty folders, so you can only create a new folder when you have a file to put in it. Also, you can't create a folder when you upload a file. The only way to create a folder is to create a new file, and then to tell Github to put that new file in a new folder:

   1. Go to the folder inside which you want to create another folder.
   2. Click on Create new file.
   3. On the text field for the file name, first write the folder name you want to create, then type / (which creates the new folder) and then the name of the new file you want to create. The name doesn't matter.
   4. Finally, save your new file by pressing the green Commit new file button at the bottom of the page
   5. If you don't need the file, you may delete it now that the folder has been created.

7. How to delete a file

   1. Browse to the file in your repository that you want to delete.
   2. At the top of the file, click the icon of the trash can
   3. Add a short description of why you are deleting this file
   4. Finally, save your changes by pressing the green Commit changes button at the bottom of the page

8. How to upload a code file so that Github formats it as code

   Use the extension along with the file name. Github recognizes that .ino are code files. Github recognizes many other file extensions as code.

9. How to organize folders and files in Github (move and rename)

10. How do I control the appearance of my README.md file?

    There are many guides to Github Markdown. I find this particularly useful.

    Any file that has the .md extension will be interpreted by Github as a markdown file.

11. Github cheatsheet

12. Git and Github resources created by Thais Alvarenga

13. Version Control with Git lessons by Software Carpentry

14. How do I create code blocks within in a markdown (.md) file?

    You can create fenced code blocks by placing triple backticks ``` before and after the code block. We recommend placing a blank line before and after code blocks to make the raw formatting easier to read.

function test() {
  console.log("notice the blank line before this function?");
}

15. Git is best used from the command line. If you're using Mac OS or Linux it's pre-installed. If you're using Windows download the tools from here. You want the 64-bit Git for Windows Setup option. Installation is tricky but this should help. Thanks to Chinonyerem for these!

Making Sounds without Arduino

1. Basic 40106 (hex Schmitt trigger inverter) oscillator
2. Other 40106 ideas

Schematics

1. A great tutorial on schematics

2. There are many different symbols for MOSFETs depending on subtle difference that we won't be concerned with.

   I suggest that you use these symbols:

   

   We have both N-channel and P-channel MOSFETs in the lab, but the ones that we use primarily (and the only ones I've discussed in class) are N-channel enhancement mode MOSFETs

Debouncing

• Arduino tutorial

Debugging

Students often assume that the problem is a bad component (including Arduino) or a problem in their computer. While this is possible, in my experience it is rarely the case. The most likely cause is a mistake in your circuit and/or in your program. Suspect those first.

Arduino upload or connection problems, or not finding the Arduino port

• Check in the tools menu that the correct serial port is selected
• Try uploading again. Sometimes the second or third time works
• Unplug the USB cable from your laptop and plug it in again. Check in the tools menu the serial port again (it might have been reassigned)
• Try a different USB port (if you have any)
• If you are using a USBC to USB-A adapter try a known good adapter, I have seen quite a few adapters simply not work with Arduino
• Disconnect your Arduino entirely from any circuit you have built. If this works it proves there is a problem in your circuit
• Shut down Arduino and restart
• Shut down your laptop and restart
• If none of the above helped, try a known good Arduino

Other problems

In the suggested sequence below, prioritize tests that are easy to do

• If your Arduino power LED (labeled ON on the Uno) does not light up:
  • The most likely cause is a short circuit in your circuit. Remove everything, verify that the LED now does come on, and rebuild your circuit
  • Sometimes the USB cable is bad. This is rare but does happen.

Things that are easy to check:

• Reminder: Including the servo library will disable analogWrite() (PWM) on pins 9 and 10, whether or not there is a servo on those pins.
• Reminder: Using the tone() function will disable analogWrite() (PWM) on pins 3 and 11.
• Check that you have a pinMode(pin, OUTPUT) for any pin you use as a digital output

Suggested debugging ~Sequence

1. Test each component in isolation, preferably with known good code, the best being the built in-examples 1.1. If individual components don't work, remove everything else from your circuit. Once you get that individual component working, add the rest one by one, testing each time 1.1 For motor drivers, test the motor and battery in isolation by connecting the motor directly to the battery

2. If the problem is intermittent, it is very likely caused by a loose connection. Upload a program that tests that component continously, and carefully wiggle each wire looking at the output. If the output starts fluctuating, then you may be close to the intermittent connection

3. Clay Shirky's 4 part video series on debugging

Digital Multimeter (DMM) resources

1. Adafruit Digital Multimeter tutorial

2. Sparkfun Digital Multimeter tutorial

Functions

1. Arduino function reference

2. User contributed Arduino function tutorial

3. Arduino function lesson

Arrays

1. Arduino array reference

2. Arduino array tutorial

3. Another Arduino array tutorial

4. Yet another Arduino array tutorial

5. Yet another Arduino array tutorial

6. Yet another Arduino array tutorial

Processing

1. Hello Processing tutorial

2. Processing Getting Started tutorial

3. Processing Coordinate System and Shapes tutorial

4. Processing Color tutorial

5. Daniel Shiffman's Learning Processing video tutorials

6. Examples from Daniel Shiffman's Learning Processing book (also available on Github

7. Examples from Daniel Shiffman's The Nature of Code book

8. Getting Started with Processing book

9. Pictures made with Processing and the code that made them

NullPointerException

1. Processing Cheat Sheet, thanks to openlab.surattack,com

Classes and Objects

1. Daniel Shiffman’s written tutorial tutorial on objects in Processing

2. Daniel Shiffman's video tutorial on objects in Processing

3. A simple Processing class example

4. "Arduino the Object Oriented way" tutorial

Soldering

1. Adafruit guide to excellent soldering

2. Sparkfun Through Hole Soldering tutorial

3. Best close up I've ever seen on how to solder pins into a circuit board. It's between 0:17 and 0:28 of this video

Solderless Breadboard Resources

1. Sparkfun's How to Use a Breadboard tutorial.

2. Adafruit's Breadboards for Beginners tutorial

Fritzing Resources

1. Download and install Fritzing from fritzing.org

2. Fritzing’s Getting Started

3. Getting started with Fritzing’s Project View

4. Fritzing Designing PCB tutorial

5. My repository of assorted Fritzing projects

Othermill/Bantam Tools Printer Circuit Board mill

1. Getting Started project

Wireless Resources

1. Wifi

   • Hard to use on some networks such as those that require logging in with credentials or those that prevent peer-to-peer communication

   1. Arduino Yun

   2. Arduino MKR1000

2. Bluetooth

   • Reliable
   • Limited to vendor provided phone app unless you know how to write your own
   • Don't solder the module to your project! Add the appropriate header to mate with the module.
   1. Adafruit Bluefruit and Adafruit Motor Shield tutorial

3. Xbee

   • Tricky to configure
   • Very reliable
   1. Sparkfun tutorial

4. 433 MHz

   • Part
   • Library (untested)

Motors Resources

1. Sparkfun Motors and Selecting the Right One tutorial

2. Adafruit Arduino Lesson 13. DC Motors

3. Adafruit Arduino Lesson 14. Servo Motors

4. Adafruit Arduino Lesson 15. DC Motor Reversing

5. Adafruit Arduino Lesson 16. Stepper Motors

6. Adafruit Motor Shield Tutorial

Giant Servo Motors Resources

How to configure the giant servos (ASMC or ASME; so far they all seem to use the same configuration)

These motors are pretty poorly documented; I lifted these pictures from Amazon so the resolution isn't so great.

Basically the motor can be configured to be driven by a standard servo motor signal, just like Arduino delivers. In that mode you can select the direction of rotation and the range of rotation, up to about 300 degrees.

Warnings:

1. You must supply 12V to run this motor. You must connect the polarity correctly or you permanently damage the motor. It's worth double checking with someone else before turning on power
2. This motor is strong, so test it first without anything attached to the shaft while you adjust the direction and range. Stop it in a known location before you attach your object, and think about what direction it's going to move so that you attach it in the correct position.

Transistor Resources

1. Quite decent MOSFET tutorial

2. Quite good MOSFET tutorial and usage guide

Wordpress Resources

1. Creating your first post as a Wordpress author

   1. Visit your blog's administratoin page at blogname/wp-admin e.g. http://intro18fall.nyuad.im/wp-admin. Enter the user name and password that you have been given.

   2. In the left hand toolbar hover over "Posts" and select "Create New"

   3. Give a title to your first post, such as "Introducing Myself"

   4. Write the text of your post in the large box below. You might use this opportunity to experiment with some of the formatting options. You can edit your post now as well as later.

   5. When you are satisfied with your post click "Publish"

   6. It is always wise to make sure you post published correctly and appears how you want it. Hover over the blog name (near the home symbol near the upper left corner) and select "visit site".

   7. If you are not happy with your post you can click in "Edit" and make further changes.

2. Comparison of User Roles

3. Rather than upload a video to a Wordpress blog, it is better to upload video to Vimeo or Youtube and to embed those in your post. Here are instructions.

Laser Cutting Resources

1. Laser cut boxes Gallery of Ideas

2. Laser Cut Like a Boss lecture

3. Laser cut T-Slot picture

4. Laser Cut box notes

5. Detailed instructions for gluing acrylic

6. General tips for [Working with

7. CNC panel joinery ideas acrylic](https://makezine.com/2015/10/29/skill-builder-acrylic/)

Fusion 360 Tutorials

1. Excellent series by Kevin Kennedy
2. Excellent series by NYCCNC
3. Joint tutorial byNYC CNC
4. Joint tutorial by Jason Workshop
5. Another joint tutorial byNYC CNC
6. Joint tutorial by Autodesk
7. HOW and WHY to Fully Constrain Your Sketches

Free CAD models

1. McMaster-Carr
2. Onshape
3. Traceparts
4. Grabcad

CAD Resources

1. Free cloud based simple 2D CAD software Vectr. Somewhat limited but easy to learn quickly from built-in tutorials.

2. Free Open Source 2D CAD software inkscape. Runs on Linux, MacOS, and Windows.

Creativity resources

1. Kermit the Frog at TEDx

CNC supply resources (stores)

1. Inventables

2. Adafruit

3. Servo City

Daniel Shiffman Videos

1. Youtube channel

2. Image and Pixels tutorials

3. Computer Vision tutorials](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRqwX-V7Uu6aG2RJHErXKSWFDXU4qo_ro)

4. 11.4: Introduction to Computer Vision - Processing Tutorial

5. 11.5: Computer Vision: Color Tracking - Processing Tutorial

6. 11.6: Computer Vision: Motion Detection - Processing Tutorial

7. 11.7: Computer Vision: Blob Detection - Processing Tutorial

8. 11.8: Computer Vision: Improved Blob Detection - Processing Tutorial

9. 11.9: Computer Vision: Blob Tracking with Persistence - Processing Tutorial

10. 11.10: Computer Vision: Adding Lifespan to Blobs - Processing Tutorial

How to ask for help, whether from your classmates, professors, or online

The general principles are these:

1. Make it easy to understand what you are doing with clear documentation (well organized schematic or code, good comments etc.)
2. Clearly explain what you think should be happening, and what is happening instead
3. Show that you have seriously tried to solve your problem

More specifically:

1. First, clean up your code, insert meaningful comments, remove unnecessary code, remove unused code that is commented out, indent your code properly, etc. If your code is very long, organize it into functions to make it easier to read. Use meaningful names for functions, variables, and classes. Someone should be able to read your code and understand what it is doing without you having to explain.

2. Explain briefly the overall goal, but don't confuse with unnecessary details.

3. Show that you have exhausted all reasonable attempts to solve this on your own. Provide links to reference pages, tutorials, examples, etc. that you used to develop and in your attempt to debug your project. Provide summaries of any relevant Google searches, or discussions that you found on forums.

4. Explain very clearly the precise steps required to reproduce the problem. Test these instructions yourself before you submit the question.

5. Describe the attempted solutions you already tried, and what the results were. Again, be specific and clear. Give the reason you thought these attempts might work

6. Share error messages, screenshots of the failure, etc. Provide as much information as possible.

7. If your project involves a circuit, share clear photo(s) of your wiring so people can see if you made a mistake.

Critical Making

1. The Role of Critical Making

2. Critical Making by Matt Ratto

3. From Ratto's paper above: Benkler, Y, ‘Freedom in the Commons: Towards a Political Economy of Information’, Duke Law Journal, 52(6), 2003, p. 1245–1277. Agre, P, ‘Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI’, in Bowker, G, Gasser, L, Star, L and Turner, B, eds, Bridging the Great Divide: Social Science, Technical Systems, and Cooperative Work. Erlbaum, 1997. Dourish, P, Finlay, J, Sengers, P, & Wright, P, ‘Reflective HCI: Towards a critical technical practice’, in CHI’04 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, 2004, p. 1727–1728. Friedman, B, ‘Value-sensitive design’, interactions, 3(6), p.16-23. DOI:10.1145/242485.242493. Flanagan, M, Howe, D, & Nissenbaum, H, Embodying Values in Technology: Theory and Practice. 2005 (draft). Dunne, A, & Raby, F, Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects. Birkhäuser Basel, 2001. Papert, S, Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (2nd ed.). Basic Books, 1993. Law, J, After method: mess in social science research. Routledge, 2004. Haraway, D, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (1st ed.). Routledge, 1990. Hayles, N, ‘The Materiality of Informatics’, Configurations, 1(1), 1993, p. 147-170. Hayles, N, How we became posthuman: virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. University of Chicago Press, 1999. Kirschenbaum, M, Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination. The MIT Press, 2008. Lamberty, K, ‘Designing, playing, and learning: sustaining student engagement with a constructionist design tool for craft and math’, in Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Learning sciences, 2004, p. 652. Lamberty, K, ‘Creating mathematical artifacts: extending children’s engagement with math beyond the classroom’, in Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Interaction design and children, 2008 p. 226–233. Ratto, M, ‘Critical Making: conceptual and material studies in technology and social life’, paper for Hybrid Design Practice workshop, Ubicomp 2009, Orlando, Florida. Lewin, K, ‘Action research and minority problems’, J Soc. Issues 2(4), 1946, p. 34-46. Argyris, C, Putnam, R, & Smith, D, Action Science: Concepts, methods and skills for research and intervention. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1985. Gaver, B, Dunne, T, & Pacenti, E, ‘Design: Cultural probes’, interactions, 6(1), p. 21-29. DOI:10.1145/291224.291235. Ratto, M, Hockema, S, ‘Flwr Pwr: Tending the Walled Garden’, in Dekker, A & Wolfsberger A (eds) Walled Garden, Virtueel Platform, The Netherlands, 2009.Ratto, op.cit. Latour, B, ‘A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps toward a Philosophy of Design’, Keynote lecture for the Networks of Design, meeting of the Design History Society, Falmouth, Cornwall, 3rd September 2008.

4. Garnet hertz's zine "critical making" (need to upload)

5. Critical Making website in Holland

Open Source Theory

1. The Cathedral and the Bazaar

2. Open Source Model

3. Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software

Animatronic Resources

1. Animatronics

2. Animatronic courses. Seven day free trial available.

General Robotic Resources

1. INTRODUCTION TO AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS Introduction to Autonomous Robots is an open-access book by Nikolaus Correll, Bradley Hayes, Christoffer Heckman, and Alessandro Roncone. The book focuses on mechanisms, sensors, actuators, and algorithms.

2. ELEMENTS OF ROBOTICS Springer Published in 2018, Elements of Robotics is an open-access textbook by Mordechai Ben-Ari and Francesco Mondada. The book covers sensors, robot motion, state machines, control, navigation, localization, machine learning, and more.

3. FOUNDATIONS OF ROBOTICS This open-access book by Damith Herath and David St-Onge is an introductory text providing a high-level overview of many aspects of robotics.

4. INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS Princeton Anirudha Majumdar teaches this course at Princeton University. The course covers feedback control, motion planning, state estimation, and computer vision and uses a Crazyflie quadrotor throughout the course. On the above page, you will find all course materials.

5. ROBOTICS 501: MATHEMATICS FOR ROBOTICS “ROB 501: Mathematics for Robotics is a graduate-level course at the University of Michigan that introduces applied mathematics for robotics engineers. Topics include vector spaces, orthogonal bases, projection theorem, least squares, matrix factorizations, Kalman filter and underlying probabilistic concepts, norms, convergent sequences, contraction mappings, Newton Raphson algorithm, local vs. global convergence in nonlinear optimization, convexity, linear and quadratic programs”.

Resources for Interactive Media

1. The playful wonderland behind great inventions

2. Where good ideas come from

Resources for Machine Lab

(Actually, topics related to Machine Lab are sprinkled through this document, but I'll try to gather here those particularly relevant to this class)

1. 1940s Vocational Guidance Film: The Machinist and Tool Maker This film is a good overview of some basic machine tools

2. Interesting article about the US machine tool industry, with a great explanation of machine tools and why they are important

3. Wonderful movie from the 1950s demonstrating the Milwaukee-Matic, an early Numerically Controlled (NC) machining center. Great way to understand how machine tools remove metal in order to create the desired shape. (A predecessor to CNC, NC used paper tape or punched cards to control the operations of the machine.)

4. Another great 1950s movie, this one from the Monarch Machine Tool Company. There was a certain style to the music of these films chosen, I suppose, to inspire purchase of their machines.

5. In incredibly detailed (and somewhat tedious) instructional film from the late 40s: Machine Shop Work: An Introduction to Operations on the Vertical Boring Mill. (Sadly no music in this one).

6. Machine Shop Bench Work - Working With Taps and Dies

7. De Re Metallica, a translation of a book in Latin cataloguing the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals, published in 1556

Resources for Performing Robots

New material

1. Storytelling Through Characters at Disney Parks I SXSW 2023

2. Art ex machina article in Wired about AI in art, featuring Merritt Moore dancing with robots

3. Guy Hoffman

4. Noga Erez

5. Amit Dror Monkeys

6. Slides from Tegan's guest lecture on September 30 2020

Robot actors and theatre companies using robots

1. Ullanta Performance Robotics is a theater troupe in which the actors are autonomous robots.

2. Robots and Human Actors Take Bows Together (NYTimes)

3. Oriza Hirata's Robot Theatre: Oriza Hirata is a playwright and director who produced some important and moving plays employing both human and robotic actors. In addition to plays he has written, Hirata has also created android versions of Kenji Miyazawa’s Night on the Galactic Railroad (2013),Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (2014), the Hamburg State Opera’s Stilles Meer (Silent Sea, 2016), and Chekhov’s Three Sisters (2012).

   1. Article about Hirata's Robot Theatre in Theatre Times
   2. Video Article about The Metamorphosis
   3. Article about I, Worker and Sayonara
   4. Publicity video for a showing of I, Worker and Sayonara
   5. Two of Hirata's plays (I, Worker and Sayonara) can be found in this Google Drive folder
   6. Play List of Hirata's theater company Seinendan, which includes the robot plays
   7. One example of Three Sisters (Android version)
   8. Seinendan Theater Company + Osaka University Robot Theater Project

4. Uncanny Valley. A robot actor in a one-person play. Collaboration between Rimini Protokoll and Thomas Melle.

History

1. Karel Čapek. R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

2. Asimov's Runaround

3. a history of cybernetic animals and early robots

Articles

1. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.5772/50644

2. http://www.the-three-sirens.info/intro.html

3. On Stage: Robots as Performers

4. Ontology of Robot Theatre

5. What is Theatre Robotics?

6. Shannon, C. E. (1948). A mathematical theory of communication. The Bell Labs

7. Art and Technology: The Panacea That Failed Jack Burnham, from The Myths of Information edited by Kathleen Woodward, Coda Press, 1980
   System Technical Journal, Vol. 27

8. The Machine as Artist: An Introduction Glenn W. Smith 1 and Frederic Fol Leymarie

9. Survey chapter from "Art and Electronic Media" by Edward A. Shanken

10. A Spectacular Simulacra

11. Cybernetics and Serendipity catalog

12. this

13. Analysis of an interactive autonomous robot.

Artists

1. Michael Candy

2. Simone Giertz

3. Jean Tinguely

4. Kal Spelletich

5. Chico Macmurtrie

6. Matt Heckert

Tangentially related

1. Robot Artist

2. Sudhu's Pinterest

3. Theatre robotics for human technology education

4. Ajay Kapur

Books

1. Japanese robot culture : performance, imagination, and modernity Yuji. Sone New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan 2017

2. Geminoid Studies Science and Technologies for Humanlike Teleoperated Androids Ishiguro, Hiroshi • 2018 Publisher: Springer Singapore ISBN: 9789811087028

3. Essays like Heinrich von Kleist’s “On the Marionette Theater” and Edward Gordon Craig’s “The Actor and the Über-marionette” have suggested that [End Page 400] skillful automata might productively replace and surpass the human actor.

4. Post-human: thinking humanness through robotics Julie-Michelle Morin

5. ** Jennifer Rhee "amigdala"

6. The Glass Bees by Ernst Juenger

7. The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

8. "Art and Electronic Media" Edward A. Shanken (Phaidon)

9. "Book for the Electronic Arts" Arjen Mulder and Maaike Post (de Baile V2)

10. "A Theatre of Machines" A. G. Keller (Macmillan)

11. Escape Velocity Mark Dery

12. "Beyond Modern Sculpture" Jack Burnham (George Braziller)

13. "Edison's Eve" Gaby Wood (Knopf)

14. "High Techne" R. L. Rutsky (University of Minnesota Press)

15. Excellent book to help explain why making is a critical part of learning Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom

16. Rise of the Robots

17. Excellent readings in the humanities regarding machine-inclined thinking: CLAIR, Jean and Harald Szeemann. eds. Le Macchine Celibi / The Bachelor Machines. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1977.9.

18. Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists

19. 507 Mechanical Movements

20. Practical Electronics for Inventors

21. Vehicles; Valentino Braitenberg, 1986 A set of mostly thought experiments starting with what you described as the coffee can robots and working into a real discussion of neural behavior.

22. Systems; Edward A. Shanken (ed), 2015 A large collection of excerpts from articles about Systems and Art. I can heartily recommend anything Ed has written as I think he is one of the few people who 'get' media art. This also holds for articles by Simon Penny (there are a couple in this book), whom I think he is still at UC Irvine but seems to have dropped off the Art Map.

23. Industrial Culture Handbook www.researchpubs.com

24. Pranks www.researchpubs.com

25. Cybernetics Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine

26. Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers by Igoe/O'Sullivan

27. Cabaret Mechanical Movement by Gary Alexander and Aidan Lawrence-Onn ISBN-13: 978-0952872931

28. Making Simple Automata by Robert Race ISBN-13: 978-1847977441

29. "How to Build Simple Automata" book (PDF)

30. "Robots and Art: Exploring an Unlikely Symbiosis" Editors: Herath, Damith, Kroos, Christian, Stelarc (Eds.) ISBN 978-981-10-0319-6

31. "The Future of the Internet and How to Stop it" by Jonathan Zittrain

32. "Robotics: A Very Short Introduction" by Alan Winfield ISBN-13: 978-0199695980 especially pg. 39 and 79

33. "Robo Sapiens: Evolution of a New Species" by Peter Menzel ISBN-13: 978-0262632454

34. "The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet" by Ken Goldberg ISBN-13: 978-0262571548

Notes

1. A robotic performance differs from a robotic installation in that a performance has a beginning and end, and a script

2. A performance is a series of events created to be witnessed

3. When interact with a robot, we have a model of the robot, but the robot has no model of us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind

4. "Robots don't need to feel, they just need to give the impression they do" - Louise Lepage

Questions

1. What is "Automata" vs. "Autonomous beings"?

2. What is interactive?

3. What is a robot? Can a robot be remote controlled or must it be autonomous?

4. What is performance?

5. Will we arrive at a place where the fridge worries when the toaster goes missing?

6. What is it that gives personality? Does a robot need to be anthropomorphic? Consider this

Resources for Robota Psyche

Required textbooks

1. Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology 2nd Edition, Valentino Braitenberg
   ISBN-10 : 0262521121
   ISBN-13 : 978-0262521123

2. Entangled: technology and the transformation of performance, Chris salter
   ISBN-13: 978-0262195881
   ISBN-10: 0262195887

3. The Cybernetic Brain,
   Andrew Pickering
   ISBN-10 : 0226667901
   ISBN-13 : 978-0226667904
   University of Chicago Press; Illustrated Edition (December 15, 2011)

4. The Human Use of Human Beings,
   Norbert Wiener
   ISBN-13 : 978-0306803208
   ISBN-10 : 0306803208
   Da Capo Press; New edition (March 22, 1988)

5. The Living Brain,
   Grey Walter
   ISBN-10 : 0393001539
   ISBN-13 : 978-0393001532
   W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.; Second Edition (May 17, 1963)

6. Complexity, Melanie Mitchell
   ISBN-10 : 0199798109
   ISBN-13 : 978-0199798100
   Oxford University Press; 1st Edition (September 1, 2011)

Optional texts:

1. *Chaos: Making a New Science – Illustrated, *,
   James Gleick
   ISBN-10 : 978-0143113454
   ISBN-13 : 978-0143113454
   Penguin Books; 20th Anniversary ed. Edition (August 26, 2008)

2. Computer Power and Human Reason,
   J Weizenbaum
   ISBN-10 : 0140179119
   ISBN-13 : 978-0140179118
   Penguin Science, January 1, 1984

3. Cybernetics: Second Edition: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine,
   Norbert Wiener
   ISBN-10 : 1614275025
   ISBN-13 : 978-1614275022
   Martino Fine Books; 2nd ed. Edition (October 2, 2013)

4. God and Golem, Inc.,
   Norbert Wiener
   ISBN-10 : 0262730111
   ISBN-13 : 978-0262730112
   The MIT Press; 7th ed. Edition (March 15, 1966)

5. Cyborg Manifesto, In Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature 1st Edition
   Donna Haraway
   ISBN-10 : 0415903874
   ISBN-13 : 978-0415903875
   Routledge; 1st Edition (December 12, 1990)

6. Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams : Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds
   Mitchel Resnick
   in the NYU online library

Links

1. Joanna Bryson studies artificial and natural intelligence. She's working to improve the governance and ethics of digital technology.

To be sorted

1. Machine Art In The Twentieth Century

2. Richard Hamilton

3. Kris Verdonck A Two Dog Company

4. Peter Eckersall CUNY

5. Noh Theatre Samuel Becket Brecht

6. "Hey Joe" actor waits for voiceover to define him Normally, objects represent themselves. With high tech, objects have 2nd agenda

7. ** Marco Donnarumma and Kristina Anderson Can theatre be a site for practice at the future? Kristina (Technical University Eindhoven) This work is situated in a grey zone: academia, art, theatre, music, design Intelligence is a human word and might be inapplicable to machines "Human" and "Machine" are neither defined nor static

8. ** Karen Barad: analyze humanness through robotics (get book) theatre space is perfect for deconstructing Mori's idealized humanness design driven by normative vision of humanness, or can challenge this

The staging of techo-vulnerability Ruowen Xu Utrecht University [email protected] entanglement of critique and technophilia

Chico's broken robots: threatening and strong vs. weak and pathetic Mirja: agent solitude "Human Being at Risk" Mark Coelkelbergh

morse cups

schipp's robot

[email protected] (or is it rav) viewpoints as a vocabulary for robots mary overlie viewpoints viewpoints ai (git) luminos ai (revised)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2t4BALBmxg robotic theatre robot theatre https://www.sau.edu/news_and_events/n170404_robot-theatre.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo-4RQPEHIk https://robohub.org/robots-robotics-in-theatre-film-and-television/ https://theatre.uta.edu/emotional-robotics-living-lab/ https://www.robottheatre.co.uk/publications https://www.robottheatre.co.uk/ http://techandlaw.net/robots-become-art-interview-mr-yi-wei-keng/ robots.ieee.org/robots

1. Thomas Riccio University of Texas, Dallas thomasriccio.com Hanson robotics, creators of Sophia robot personalities viseme frubber in-character responses to failure modes

2. Louise LePage university of york

3. Helen Root

4. Irene Echeverria - Altuna

5. Gobsquat Collective

6. Petra Goyeinboeck Rob Saunders Creative Robotics Lab University of New South Wales University of Sydney

7. Machine Movement Lab Louise Phillippe Deters

8. Tiller Girls "The Performance of Creative Machines" "Accomplice" (knocking robot)

9. "Robots As Media" syllabus from The New School's Peter Asaro

10. Musical robots program at CalArts,

11. Mark Dery - documentary and books

12. ROS, the robot operating system. The ros runs on arduinos and pis. It takes care of all the painful details. The ROS site has a lot of robot platforms that might be good for starter projects.

13. analysis of "Feeling Abandoned"

14. Directions in Kinetic Sculpture; Peter Selz, 1966 The catalog of a show at the UC Berkeley art museum from that year. "I found some copies on sale at the museum a couple years ago. It is fascinating, both for what was being done and shown here -- dating from the early 20th century to the 60's -- and for wondering why it was not being done and shown in the late 20th century..."

15. Working Conditions; Hans Haake (Alexander Alberro, ed), 2016 Collected writings of Mr. Haacke. Not so much an art/tech guy but wider in scope with much interesting social commentary. He did kinetic-ish stuff in the 60s and then switched to social systems in 1970. His piece Blue Sail

16. Gil Weinberg's work on robot musicianship at Georgia Tech.

17. Heather Knight who is studying with Wendy Ju and is working on robots and theater.

18. Leonardo magazine

19. Guy Debord

20. Jean Baudrillard

21. Grey Walter

22. History of Technology