Erin RobotGrrl discusses using apps to interact with Arduino projects. Apps for Arduino provides a simple framework that allows Arduino hardware to work with computers and iOS devices through software. The apps are open source and action-based rather than pin-based. RobotGrrl also describes her educational robotic pet project called RoboBrrd, which uses lasercut parts, an Arduino brain board, and interactive software to teach programming and electrical concepts to students ages 10-16.

2. Eating Fruit
Combining robots and apps
SecondConf 2012
robotgrrl.com
@RobotGrrl / +Erin RobotGrrl

3. Apps for Arduino
&
RoboBrrd

4. UISlider
IRLSlider

5. MANOI

10. Arduino
• Open source prototyping platform
• Bootloader on ATmega328
• Arduino IDE
• Turn on LEDs, spin motors, sense the
world
• Use it to interact with things around you
• Projects usually use Arduino in
combination with software

11. Apps for Arduino
If hardware is the heart of a
project, then software is its soul

12. Apps for Arduino
• Makes your Arduino work with your
computer and iOS device
• Incredibly simple concepts
• Action based rather than pin based
• Plug it in, add in the code, and it does it
• Open Source Framework: Matatino

13. Matatino
• Connect to a serial device
• Set baud rate, connection, parity, stop bits
• RX & TX
• Wrapper for termios and ioctl commands

14. Baud
speed_t newSpeed = 9600;
ioctl(fileDescriptor, IOSSIOSPEED, &newSpeed);
8
options->c_cflag |= CS8;
N
options->c_cflag &= ~PARENB;
1
options->c_cflag &= ~CSTOPB;

15. io_object_t serialService = IOIteratorNext(serialPortIterator);
! if (serialService != 0) {
! ! CFStringRef modemName =
(CFStringRef)IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(serialService,
CFSTR(kIOTTYDeviceKey), kCFAllocatorDefault, 0);
! ! CFStringRef bsdPath =
(CFStringRef)IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(serialService,
CFSTR(kIOCalloutDeviceKey), kCFAllocatorDefault, 0);
! ! CFStringRef serviceType =
(CFStringRef)IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(serialService,
CFSTR(kIOSerialBSDTypeKey), kCFAllocatorDefault, 0);
}

16. Meters

18. What about iOS?
• MFi? What’s that?
• Redpark apps can’t go into the app store
• Headphone jack is quite slow
• TouchOSC
• Wifi
• BLE didn’t exist in the phones at the time

19. Wijourno
• Wifi with Bonjour & TCP sockets
• Needs app on the computer running
• For many home automation projects,
this isn’t too big of an issue
• No buttons to press to connect
• No IP address to enter to connect
• Zippy

21. Meters iOS

22. Feature Creep
• Many of the Arduino users are quite
technical
• Want lots of features,
customizability
• Turns out lack of feature creep is
our best feature

23. Ideas and Learning
• Users start out using the apps for the
main purpose
• They get ideas about how it can be
extended
• Learn about what all this ‘app stuff’ is all
about
• Eventually implement their idea

24. Open Source
• Entire Arduino community is built around
open source
• Make something cool, tell people about it
• Post the design files / source files
• Help others make it
• So, Apps for Arduino are open source!

25. Contributions
• Spawns new ideas
• Really cool for getting fixes to the code
• People get to add their features that they
needed!

26. Prototypability
• Use software to try out different modules
• Example: Sliding potentiometer
• Handy for trying out more expensive
modules
• Example: speech synthesis

27. Speech
• Some text-to-speech chips out there
• Or, Pre-record phrases and play them
• Make the same functionality in software
• Faster, easier, less expensive
• Try it out with your project first

30. Summary
• Interact with your Arduino projects
• No feature creep
• Actions rather than pins
• Open source
• appsforarduino.com

32. RoboBrrd
Do-it-yourself educational robotic pet

41. RoboBrrd
• Ended up not making that many videos
• People enjoyed how it interacted
• Won WyoLum Open Hardware grant
• Design became smaller, and better each
time

42. Mechanical Design
• Autodesk Inventor 2013
• Free for FIRST Robotics mentors &
students
• Different pieces
• Multiple sub assemblies
• Really cool iPad App

43. Laser Cutting!
• Coolest thing on the planet (in my opinion)
• XYZ table with mirrors
• Laser tubes 45W/60W/100W
• Different sizes of cutting area
• Power, speed, frequency, DPI
• Vector & Raster modes
• Use various materials

44. http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2008/now-thats-an-apple-pie/

47. Electrical Design
• gEDA Suite
• gschem, pcb, gerbv
• Schematics, PCB, Gerber viewer
• Small-run board fab: OSH Park
• High quality boards: purple solder mask & gold
plating

51. RoboBrrd Kit
• Takes too long to build RoboBrrd by hand
• Kit with precut pieces will be easier!
• 15 different laser cut pieces
• 1 RoboBrrd Brain Board (Arduino
compatible)
• Kit version available in upcoming months
• Learn programming, mechanical, and
electrical
• Aimed towards 10-16 year olds interested

53. Hats
• Different hats have different behaviours
• Really fun and simple interaction
• Uses NFC
• Tags on hat, sensor inside robot
• First bytes are different

54. Google+ Hangouts
• Maker Camp on Google+
• Collective action towards a goal
• Press buttons, see RoboBrrd’s actions
• node.js app, with websockets
• Really zippy, lag is hardly noticable
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=mMwNaA3sgsU

55. Food
• RoboBrrd eats virtual food
• Big beak, lots of fruit
• Drag and drop
• See RoboBrrd’s actions in real life

56. Future
• RoboBrrd with Bluetooth Low Energy!
• Interesting uses for education
• Could work with both iOS and Android
• Highly customizable
• Interesting uses for education

57. Summary
• Robots don’t always have to be as they
seem
• Design parametrically for future
modification
• Interaction in different and obvious ways
• Robots with friends is fun!

71. erin@robotgrrl.com @RobotGrrl +Erin RobotGrrl

72. Resources
• robotgrrl.com - my website
• appsforarduino.com - the apps that work
with arduino
• robobrrd.com - robobrrd’s nest on the
web
• arduino.cc - all about the arduino
• blog.makezine.com - cool projects
• evilmadscientist.com - cool projects
• adafruit.com/blog - cool projects