Cup Stacking Arm

Project Summary

Our final project is the cup stacking program. We tried to stack six mini cups to make a cup tower. We used the EvoArmMini334 to grab the cups and place them correctly to build the tower. Our inspiration for this project is the cup tower challenge for the kids which teach them the design skills and promote creativity. With this project we want to prove that robots can do the tasks like human does. This project is great for community demonstration, as other people can see how the EvoArm creates the cup tower. The robot is controlled by a Python program which has the command tell it what to do while building the tower, so it can create the cup tower without any human interference. Based on this project, we can program the robot's arm to grab any object to achieve the task that we want. The EvoArm has a gripper which can grab the mini cups, we programed it to make it only grabs one cup at a time and placed it in the right position. After coding and testing process, we have the robot to build the cup perfectly and have a video of it.

Project Implementation Details

First, outline all steps one must take to run your project, including any needed installations. Then describe all steps you took to implement the task, including all non-technical and technical details. Please include references (links are okay) to all resources you have used.

In order to run this project one must:

1. Obtain the required Evoarmminni from the Allegheny ALIC Lab (or obtain and build a new Evoarm Mini Model)

2. Plug in the robot to a reliable outlet

   • making sure that all of the wiring is set up correctly as the 334 model has the tendency to have wires that disconnect.
   • If the robot is working appropriately it will give you an indication that it is on and all the wires are working correctly. (usually this is some form of motion that gets it to its home position).

3. Now you should connect your laptop to the robot wifi connection

   • Turn the wifi on your computer off and back on (just to give it the chance to detect new networks).
   • look for a wifi connection called Evoarmmini334 or Evoarmmini### with the hashtags representing the number of your evoarm.
   • click on that wifi connection and give it a few second to fully connect
   • Once connected it should say something like: No internet, secured

4. Now you can connect to the robot's online interface by typing this in your browser http://10.10.0.1:9072/

5. From there an interface should pop up that allows you to manually drive the robot along with several other tabs along the top of the screen.

6. Type on the Apps tab and you will notice that a list of different applications for running the evoarm come up.

7. For one of these apps (preferably one written in python) scroll to the far right hand side of the screen and click on the little box that says edit.

8. Once you're there you will see a box that says name Rename the task to CupStacking.py and click either save or save a copy. This will create a new document back on the apps screen that you can edit.

9. Click on the same edit button for CupStacking and clear whatever is in the contents section of the app.

   • make sure that this is a python file

10. Paste this code block into the section that you just cleared:

#example
#populate the sequence array with the commands you want in your sequence
#each entry must have a "command" value
#copy this script from the Apps screen to make your own python apps

sequence = [
     { "command": "d:-15","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "a:+32","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "x:+30","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-25","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "e:-74","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "y:+55","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "a:-50","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "f:+15","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-90","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "e:+55","delay": 2.0  },

     { "command": "y:+75","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "a:+52","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-55","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "e:-72","delay": 2.0  }, 
     { "command": "y:+75","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "a:-66","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "f:+15","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "x:-10","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "y:-90","delay": 3.0  },
     { "command": "e:+7","delay": 2.0   },

     { "command": "y:+75","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "e:+50","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "a:+64","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "x:+10","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-80","delay": 3.0  },
     { "command": "e:-80","delay": 3.0  }, 
     { "command": "y:+75","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "a:-35","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "f:+15","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-95","delay": 3.0  },
     { "command": "x:+10","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "e:+7","delay": 3.0   },
     { "command": "e:+55","delay": 1.0  },

     { "command": "y:+90","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "a:+34","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-95","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "e:-75","delay": 2.0  }, 
     { "command": "y:+75","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "a:-43","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "x:-10","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "f:+15","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-75","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "e:+60","delay": 1.0  },

     { "command": "y:+80","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "a:+45","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "x:+15","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "y:-85","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "e:-70","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "y:+100","delay": 2.0 },
     { "command": "a:-61","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "x:-10","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "f:+15","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-77","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "e:+7","delay": 1.0   }, 
     { "command": "y:+85","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "e:+45","delay": 1.0  },

     { "command": "a:+61","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-113","delay": 1.0 },
     { "command": "x:+5","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "e:-90","delay": 3.0  },
     { "command": "y:+113","delay": 2.0 },
     { "command": "a:-55","delay": 1.0  },
     { "command": "y:-50","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "e:+60","delay": 2.0  },
     { "command": "y:+60","delay": 1.0  }
]

1. From here you should be able to press the home button to make sure that the robot is in its home position and then run the code using the play button in the top left corner.

2. Things to note:

   • Due to the hardware being inconsistent, you may have to make adjustments to the code.
   • When we did this project, we decided to cut out little circles of cardboard so that the cups wouldn't shift around as they landed. We also decided to prop the cup stack on a box because the robot arm wasn't able to move all the way to the ground to place the cups.

3. Happy Cup Stacking!

Experimental Results

Our cup tower is made of total six cups. The cups tower has 3 layers which are the bottom layer: 3 cups, the middle layer: 2 cups and the top layer: 1 cup. First, we code some commands for the robot to make the first layer. The robot picks up the first cup on the cup stack and moves to the tower position. Then, the first cup of the bottom layer is placed in the middle of the tower position. After that, the robot move back to the cup stack and pick up the second cup. This time the arm moves further to place the second cup at the right of the first cup. And the third cup is placed at the left of the first cup. Now, we have the first layer. For the second layer, we need to placed two cups. The EvoArm grabs the cup from the cup stack and places the left and right cup respectively. After placed the cups the Arm goes up to make sure it does not touch any cups next to it. Finally, the EvoArm places the last cup on top of the two cups in the middle layers, and we have the cup tower that we want to.

Ethical Implications

1. Who would typically make the technology of the similar type as your project? Why?

• I think a factory might use code similar to this with a robotic arm if they were trying to stack certain materials or blocks in a pyramid for shipment or storage. They might not have the robot stack things in this way, but the similarities are still present.

2. Who are the intended users of this robotic application? How does this technology benefit them?

• I think the intended users of this application could honestly be children. The code is complex, but it would be a really great way to get them to experience robotics in a way that shows something familiar to them (I know that I did a lot of cup stacking when I was little). However, like I said in the previous question, I do think that this application has a lot of potential for factory implementation because it would allow them to stack things in an organized way.

3. Who is not supposed to use this technology? Why?

• I don't think there is anyone that shouldn't use this technology. It is meant to be more of a fun game than anything else and I think that that is something that everyone should be allowed to experience, but I also think that if factories were to start using this code, they should consider how their materials would be effected by it and how it would effect those materials to be stacked in a tower-like structure instead of however they were to usually package it.

4. How can the type of robotic application implemented in your project cause harm?

• I think that it could cause harm in factories if it took away jobs. I also think it could potentially harm materials or people if it was used in a factory setting and not adjusted for that factory's specific needs.

5. What solutions can be developed to avoid the harm caused by this type of technology or to fix the harm?

• I think that in order to fix the problem of this technology, new jobs need to be created that are things that only humans can do. That or I think this robot implementation should only be used if there are no people willing to do that labor-intensive job anymore. I also think that making sure that this technology is altered for each specific factory environment is very important because it would help to keep safety and efficiency levels in a good place.