Sriranjan's Blog

Snake Z-pro

sriranjan — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:07:52 +0000

Its coming…

The 7th Street light..

sriranjan — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:09:22 +0000

“As I walked past the street the street light seemed to look upon me. I could hear the the metal twist and turn, the tiny squeaks which gave me an eary feel. I wondered what could it be. I came past the same street again and again. One day I got the same feeling again that some one was looking onto me. I turned back to see,there was no one. Many days passed by. It was the winter. i could feel the wind blowing across my ear. This time I was determined to find who it was. I took with me a car mirror. Held it hidden in my coat but just enough to get a reflection of things behind me. I was walking now and was looking in the mirror silently. I could see the light change in it slowly as I went past the 7th light. It was the street light;the 7th one. It turned as if it was taken over by a soul that new me….” Contd..

WAY-GO Torch an intelligent robotic flash light

sriranjan — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:18:30 +0000

The WAY-GO torch is an intelligent flash light which can be used for navigation and search and rescue. To do this it uses a GPS, an AHRS and a modifies LCOS pico projector.

The WAY-GO Torch can be operated in
Wander mode
Diagnostic mode
One can set the source and destination
Head lock stabilization mode
Dijkstra path mode
Flash light mode

The idea of using Dikstra with active weights. This torch lights can be used to show different paths during different times of the day.In the morning the path having more tree cover can be given a low weight such that the person walking gets greater protection from sun and in the night the shortest path without tree cover can be chosen. This can be achieved by knowing the GPS time.

By knowing the GPS time one can actively change weights of different paths. Say in the morning a longer path but with more tree cover can be chosen so that the user gets more protection from the sun where as in the night a shorter path with no or less tree cover can be given a smaller weight.

In wander mode one can rome around the campus and the torch light will show you new places as you pass by them .This is especially good if you are new to the campus and just want to explore a bit. You dont need a tour guide, the torch will just show information about the places. Right now it uses GPS and compares it to the previously stored check points of the campus in it.Here in IIIT 24.

Well the idea of video stabilization has been there for a some time now. You can see it in Iphone 4S where the optical flow from the input device your camera is used to stabilize the video feed. One can also use inertial sensors to stabilize the photo taken. But here the stabilization has been implemented on the output device the projector itself. The IMU roll and pitch data is used to move the 2Degree of freedom servo setup to stabilize the projector. We call it the head lock stable projection mode.

For calculating a short path using Dijkstra about 25 GPS waypoints in the campus were noted and stored as a map. An atmega 128 parses the GPS and IMU data and calculates the path real time.

Narration Inspired by Dr.Michio Kaku’s Narration in Big Think Series.

References:

1) Pixar’s Lamp

2) Open source flash light- HexBright

3)The robotic lamp from the MIT media lab (fluid interfaces group)

4)Garmin

5)Microsoft future productivity vision (Aug23rd,2009)

6)Path-Light from Haifa University

7)Bike Light Lane

8)Bike Laser from Emily brighton

9)Path-Light paper in Museums and Web Conf 2011

10)Projecting necessary meta data ,”Sixth sense talk” ,Dr.Pattie Maes

11) Ecco GPS key chain

This project would not have been possible with out the

1)Initial sponsor of LEDs from CREE.

2)Also thank you TI for your free samples.

Media:

Hackaday Article

Discovery Channel Tech Blog

Snake robot new module printed with a rapid prototyper

sriranjan — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:34:48 +0000

To better understand how snakes execute different gait patterns we designed a module which can sense the reaction forces from the ground. This will enable us to understand how the snakes get traction from the ground while they move. Also to bio-mimick the behavior of snakes responding to feeble vibrations and sound we are using a highly sensitive Mems microphone. This should enable us to make the snake robot sense move away from the source of vibrations.

Research freedom

sriranjan — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:01:52 +0000

Well through my few years of doing research I believe students are to be given more freedom, be appreciated and encouraged to come up with newer ideas, build newer systems that change the way we live and improve our quality of life. More freedom in decision making and project execution is required. Freedom to better utilize the resources (though limited) to get the best possible output should be given. Open conversations and free thinking should help students move closer to implementing their ideas. Hierarchical way of control students ideas does not help anyone, neither the science nor humanity. We humans have always been curious since we were born, spirit of experimentation has been genetically coded in us. We always want to build newer systems that make our lives fun,easy and better. The curiosity gene I believe is the mother of invention. You never know what can an inspire a ground breaking idea or what can inspire a person to build a magical new system that no one has ever seen before..

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sriranjan — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:45:29 +0000

Quadruped Static walk with variable phase difference

sriranjan — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:20:39 +0000

Quadruped Stabilization on an Oscillating Platform

sriranjan — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:10:42 +0000

Quadruped Dynamic gait with trot and Jump simulation

sriranjan — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:09:46 +0000

Modular legged locomotion simulation

sriranjan — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:05:04 +0000

The following simulations were done 1 and half years ago.

Chaotic modular locomotion evolution