At the beginning of week 6, I followed the new found instructions to fix the philo-motion code and download it to the ATmega32 microcontroller. I then disassembled and reassembled the robot redoing the rough calibration with the correct software. Once assembled, I connected the robot to the software on my computer to begin the fine tuning process. Unfortunately, the robot still did not respond to software commands. At this point, I exhausted all my resources to make the robot move and, being in the final week of the project, was left with no time to trouble shoot. To see if it was a possible flaw with the specific ATmega32 I was using, I tested a second one. I still got no response. After reading a few reviews on the RoboPhilo, it became clear that this was not an uncommon problem. Many people stated that although they had followed all the directions correctly, the robot never responded to the software. Unfortunately, this entry level robot was the only robot within our budget. It seems as though, with the included microcontroller, the robot will not work.

During week 5, I attempted to begin the fine tuning of the robot. I am behind, but plan to crash the coding of the walking in the next two weeks. I started by installing the software onto my computer for the RoboPhilo. I then followed the initial instructions for fine tuning, but the robot did not respond to the software. After reading several forums online and scouring the software, I found a file labeled supplementary notes. My notes for this week contain information I found helpful from the forums. The supplementary file contained four pages of edits made to the manual. The main note being that a code file had to be downloaded to the ATmega32 controller before the rough calibration was done. This discovery was made on the last day of the week.

Scanned Notes: Week 5 Notes

The Manual Corrections: Supplementary Notes

The first milestone was to assemble the robot. I chose the RoboPhilo because it seemed to have more lifelike motions as well as being more customizable. I planned on finishing the assembly in the fourth week, but when I received the robot, the rough calibration was not done properly. Upon further inspection, I realized I would have to disassemble and reassemble the robot in order to do the rough calibrations. I did this by following the manual backwards to disassemble it and forward to reassemble and calibrate it. By the end of week 4 I had initially planned to be doing the fine tuning and calibration, but as the week closed I had only just finished the rough calibration and assembly. In addition to working on the robot, I prepared my notes for the Project Proposal Presentation.

Included below is a link to the instruction manual, which was followed for this week as well as the notes for my project proposal.

Scanned notes: Week 4 Notes

Instruction manual: RoboPhilo Manual

In week 3, we discussed the milestones for each of our projects. It was in this week that we determined more realistic goals for our projects given the deadline. The time at which each milestone should be met as well as the amount of work that needed to be done to reach it was also determined. In the second half of week 3, Philip Erb came to our class to give a presentation on how to use our WordPress sites.

Scanned notes: Week 3 Notes

In week 2, the portfolio requirements were discussed. It was detailed what materials would be required to be uploaded to the portfolio by the project deadline (October 3rd). A list of components that would be needed for each of the projects was also made. The components for the physical therapy robot will be contained in the scanned notes. The rest of the week was spent discussing real time systems versus threaded systems and which would be appropriate for each project. It was determined that a threaded system would be more suitable for the physical therapy robot.

Scanned Notes: Week 2 Notes

The first week was dedicated to choosing a project and creating a work breakdown structure (WBS), a Pert chart, and a Gantt chart. These notes will be referred to in the coming weeks to keep track of deadlines and maximize efficiency.

Scanned notes: Week 1 Notes