Something happens on April 1st every
year. . .
3 years ago, he walked for the first
time
2 years ago, he flew in the sky
1 year ago, he entered elementary
school.
And this year. . .
3月30日
ゴムの楽器
An instrument with this mechanism
might not exist before. The tune is
"When The Saints Go Marching In". (Can
you recognize it?)
The string tension is changed in real
time by the servo motor.
The sound is picked up by the piezo,
then amplified and output from the
speakers.
The sound when the servo moves is
noisy, but since I know when the sound
comes out, it is possible to mute
before it is output from the speaker.
Also, it is expected that playing will
be difficult because of the delay
caused by the rotation of the servo.
On the other hand, it might be no
problem with automatic performance.
For now, this is just a prototype and
I don't intend to go further, but it
seems to work better than I thought.
I am making instruments to be played
by two steampunk robots.
One is a gear-type instrument with
metallophone plates arranged radially,
and the other is a bass with ukulele
strings.
It is not good that the strings are
white, so I will replace them by black
ones.
Celestual Harp was introduced in the
article of Tsukuba Mini Maker Fair
published in monthly "I / O".
This magazine specializes in
microcomputers and electronics.
It is surprising that acoustic
instruments that do not use
electricity at all were introduced.
I am delighted that the design of the
instrument has been praised. I enjoy
the most when I make drawings with
CAD.
I am going to
exhibit this robot at a steampunk
event in Pennsylvania in August.
However, I may not be able to enter
the United States in this condition.
Even if I can enter the United States,
I may not be able to return to Japan.
Or maybe the event will be canceled. .
.
I've
been thinking about adding bass to the
performance of a robot band. I have
devised a ladybug-shaped electronic
instrument to play the bass. It is
still under construction.
Acoustic instruments have a stronger
impact on the exhibition. I was
thinking of an instrument using
ukulele-based strings. I saw a bass
instrument using rubber at the Tsukuba
Mini Maker Fair. I found that good
sound could be produced with rubber.
I am experimenting with different
strings to create bass instruments
that robots play. Robots are better at
tapping than flipping. Metal strings
sound too high. Ukulele-based strings
sound good but costly. After all,
rubber bands may be the best.
3月16日
Steam punk robots
I remade the face of the robot,
steampun-kun. The joint has been
changed from resin to metal. The eyes
have been changed from a normal blue
LED to "Robot Eyes" that can specify
lighting patterns with full color.
"Robot Eyes" was developed by Mr. 山西
一啓 (Kazuhiro Yamanishi) with my
request. The eyes of other robots also
use "Robot Eyes". Equipped with 7
WS2812B, color and blink pattern from
controller such as Arduino
can be controlled. The expression of
the eyes can be made with lighting
patterns as the video shows.
So far, I have created three steampunk-style
robots. The ring LED on the chests are
also NexPixel from WS. Next, I will
make a gear-shaped instrument that
will be played by the robot.
I
visited Mr. Kitajima's Studio (キタジマ
ツトム) on his birthday. He is a
commercial designer and makes some art
works besides work. He is working on a
steampunk style piece for next
exhibition.
The idea is production system of
planets. You may not notice in video
but there are many movements with
detail. For example, the frog in mesh
dome is rotating. This work is made
from scraps of daily life.
The other works are about skyscrapers
of future city. These works are made
with stapler needles. There are also
movements in the details of the work.
Trains and airships are implemented
using a waste clock rotation
mechanism.
He has his original rail transport
modelling in his play room. It is made
in detail and the traffic light
blinks. The sign at the barber shop is
rotating. All of his works have been
made over the years.
Steam-Panda is a steampunk style
robot. So, it is colored brass and
black. It uses brass screws.
It is controlled by music as I shown
in former post. It has ring LEDs at
its chest and eyes.These are
controlled by Arduino pro mini in its
head. They changes color according to
the sound.
It has voltage meter and ampere meter
in its sides. It has some ornamental
gears in its head.
It has ELEGOO UNO R3 and KONDO RCB-4
as a controller on its back. There are
two kinds of servo motors, high torque
and low torque. For walking, the legs
have high torque servo.
This project will be open source. I am
preparing for release. Please wait for
a while.
3月10日
Corona virus
Corona
virus affects the daily lives of
Japanese people. There are lots of
silly rumors and fake news out there.
For example, there is a rumor that
coronavirus is vulnerable to heat, so
drinking plenty of hot water at about
27 degrees Celsius is good for
prevention. Other rumors say that
toilet paper, which is imported from
China using the same raw materials as
masks, will be out of stock.
Coronavirus does not die at 27 degrees
because it grows in the human body at
37 degrees. More than 90% of toilet
paper is produced in Japan, and the
material is completely different from
the mask. Believing in these stories
and acting is as silly as believing
that robots can prevent infection of
computer viruses by wearing masks.
There is a tendency for masks to be
worn no matter what they do, and
ordinary people buy them by forming
long queue. Many people do not
understand the correct usage or
misunderstand the effectiveness. Since
the priorities of who needs them are
not taken into account, healthcare
professionals are unable to secure the
required volumes.
Elementary schools to high schools
throughout Japan are closed. In
addition, most events such as
exhibitions and concerts have been
canceled. This situation is likely to
continue at least two weeks. I don't
have any exhibitions in March, but I'm
grateful to be able to distribute
information about my projects to the
world with internet.
I visited studio of Mr. Kitajima and
took some video and pictures on
Monday.
3月6日
Steam-Panda
Steam-Panda is a panda shpae robot
which is controlled by musical sound.
The robot is inspired by an Indian
snake-charmer who make snakes dancing
with flute.
If you play a musical instrument such
as recorder, Steam-Panda reacts the
sound from it. Each note from recorder
has a unique frequency. For example,
note C (Do) has frequency of 523.3 Hz.
Note D (Re) is 587.3 Hz and E (Mi) is
659.3 Hz.
Steam-Panda has Arduino UNO, Arduino
pro mini, and RCB-4 as conrollers.
Arduino UNO analysis the sound from
front mic and find which note it is.
RCB-4 operates servo motors according
to the detected pitch. Arduino pro
mini operates illumination such as
ring LEDs.
In the video, I make the robot dancing
by playing twinkle-twinkle little
star. (The video is played at double
speed.)
