Fluffy the Shoveler_Shelia Xie_ Gottfried Haider

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE

Significance and Improvements

The previous warm-up project “Dragon-Ear Headband” inspired me of the midterm project a lot. Our project utilized two distinct sensors: a servo and a light sensor. Among these, the servo played an important role. Upon learning about how to apply the servo, I was curious about its potential in motion control and considered it as an option for our midterm project. Although we ultimately didn’t incorporate the stepper, its introduction sparked ideas for creating interactive obstacles to engage users in our project.

Getting the user involved by giving them a sense of controlling a part of the project enhances the process and experience of user. The significance of our project compared to others is that the shoveler(small car and the fluffy) is an independent device that moves freely in terms of any direction. In that case, it provides our users more space and freedom to guide the car, enabling them to explore various areas as the project provides.

Moreover, receiving the message of the goal of making this interaction is also important. I found myself asking the creators “What’s the goal of this game?” many times(even someone else ask me) and realized the importance of interpreting the message in terms of purpose of the project. To enhance the experience, I propose a focus on providing feedback when the user accomplishes the designated goal, which is delivering the colorful balls from the pearl room to the processing room without waking the cat up by triggering the light sensor in one minute(Let’s call it cat sensor). In other words, an small area decorated by LEDs and connected with light sensor (could be other sensors) where the user is supposed to put the ball in could be arranged at somewhere in the processing room. Therefore, the user can get a feedback of “success” when triggering the LEDs by putting the balls in the area. What’s more, I would like to move the cat sensor closer to the entrance of this room, where the user may have to get around the obstacle and reach the end.

2. CONCEPTION AND DESIGN

Our original design called “Fluffy the Knight”. We planed to let the user control the car on the designated route, and by controlling the car’s moving speed to avoid certain obstacles to the reach the end. Then we found this process is relatively dull and insufficiently interactive, and it is difficult to ensure that the car will not get stuck because the road is too narrow. Then one day before the user testing, we decided to overturn the previous setting and keep only the controllable car as the core element.

Materials and Element

The “shoveler”:

Cardboard; Two erasers; A small fluffy keychain; wooden sticks; plastic bag from kit
Two 360 servos; Joystick; Breadboard; Arduino; Cables(Both male and female)

The two servos are glued to the bottom cardboard, and a small hole is cut in the cardboard that forms the back of the car body for the cable to pass through. The car has three layers of tires: the first layer is a small round cardboard that connects servo to the big tires. The second and third layers are larger circular cardboard, and the double layer of cardboard makes the car move more firmly. We planned to use the pink plastic tires that were prepared in lab, but we found that the edges were too narrow to support the cables that servo and the car were connected to. In addition, there is a universal tire in front of the bottom cardboard, which is a key step because it largely ensures the smooth progress of the car. Two erasers are placed on top of servo to add weight to the car so that it is less likely to flip over due to unstable center of gravity. The “net” used for shoving small balls is made from a plastic bag containing sensors from the kit, with small wooden sticks supporting the ball-catching net.

The Cat:

Cardboard; Fluffy twistable sticks I bought from Taobao;
Light sensor; Arduino; Breadboard; Cables (Both male and female)

Other materials: Fluffy and twistable stickers; fluffy and tiny balls (All bought from Taobao)

These soft balls are light to push and fit out theme.

3. FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION

The most crucial step in our project was deciding to utilize remote control to enable free movement of the car after altering its basic structure, which we thought difficult with its coding. The car has always been the focal point of our project, but initially, it was controlled by a potentiometer, restricting movement to only forward direction. This constraint posed challenges to the viability of many ideas.

In this project, my role involves both design and hands-on crafting tasks, like creating the cardboard car and designing and setting up basic scenes, along with decoration. Salina, on the other hand, focuses mainly on coding. Our responsibilities are clearly defined, our ideas are pretty much aligned, and we’re both committed to investing time in working on the project. As a result, our collaboration is highly effective, allowing us to swiftly adapt and catch up on progress when big changes to the plan were made.

Code

The Shoveler

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo1;

Servo myservo2;

int val;

int joystickXVal;

int joystickYVal;

void setup() {

myservo1.attach(9);

myservo2.attach(5);

Serial.begin(9600);

}

void loop() {

joystickXVal = analogRead(A1);

joystickYVal = analogRead(A0);

//Serial.print(joystickXVal);

//Serial.print(“,”);

//Serial.println(joystickYVal);

delay(20);

if (joystickYVal < 100) {

Serial.println(“Going forward”);

myservo1.write(110);

myservo2.write(70);

} else if (joystickYVal > 900) {

Serial.println(“Going backward”);

myservo1.write(70);

myservo2.write(110);

} else if (joystickXVal < 100) {

Serial.println(“Going left”);

myservo1.write(-130);

myservo2.write(-90);

} else if (joystickXVal > 900) {

Serial.println(“Going right”);

myservo1.write(130);

myservo2.write(90);

} else {

Serial.println(“Stopping”);

myservo1.write(90);

myservo2.write(90);

}

}

Improvement after User Testing Session

In the process of user testing, we decided to utilize a light sensor as our cat sensor instead of a touch sensor because it is more sensitive, ensuring that the LEDs will be triggered when the shadow of the small car covers it. Apart from the physical improvements, there was a suggestion from Professor Rudy and Professor Gottfried that I find particularly crucial, which pertains to the concept of our project. Originally, the idea was that users could deliver small balls from two rooms. Green balls were worth one point each, while the room with red balls had a light sensor, making them worth three points each. Users could choose to enter their preferred room, bring out the balls within a minute, and score. This constituted a complete interactive game; however, this setup seemed to divide the project into disparate parts, with the two rooms operating independently without connection, and the endpoint being outside the rooms. Moreover, many users assumed that moving balls from one room to another was required at first time. The advice we received was to make the entire project a cohesive “whole” with internal connections. Therefore, we placed all the balls in one room and named it the “pearl room”, while the “processing room” with the light sensor became the endpoint where users placed the balls to make the project more cohesive.

CONCLUSIONS

Our aim was to create an interactive experience where users could control a shoveler to deliver colorful pearls from one room to another while avoiding triggering a light sensor of the sleeping cat. By allowing users to control the car’s movement, we provided them with a sense of agency and involvement in the project. Additionally, the incorporation of the light sensor added an element of challenge and strategy, as users had to navigate the environment carefully to avoid disturbing the “sleeping cat.”

However, during user testing, we realized that some previous setup fragmented the project experience and led to confusion among users . This highlighted the importance of clarity in conveying the project’s goals to users.

Ultimately, our audience interacted with our project by engaging with the controllable car, navigating obstacles, and strategically delivering balls to the designated destination.

As I received some compliments from others on the smooth operation and the decoration of the car I crafted, I experienced great satisfaction. Meanwhile, Salina encountered a lot challenges in terms of the coding, yet through consulting the professor and persistent testing, she figured them all out, which is really amazing. I believe that she finds great joy in this project as well!

Despite encountering setbacks and challenges, we gained valuable insights and skills throughout the process of making our “Fluffy the Shoveler”.