Making Robots with my Arduino

Making Robots with My Arduino
A Music-Video about Robotics Education
set to a Country Western Rock-a-Billy Beat
by T.H. Culhane
copyright 2011 T.H. Culhane
Culbrain Records




Em7b5      A7b5                        Dm7b5      G7 (Slowly, arpeggiated, no beat)
How would you make, (a robot that can make) the world a be-tter place...

(Drums, bass kick in here for 2 bars)


C7      

With my Arduino, you know that I know that I can build one myself
C7
With a couple of sensors and some motors and some servos and some
Bb                                              G7hardware you can buy off the shelf.


C7
With my Arduino, the open source world is open to me
C7
I can program in Python, I can program in Java
             Bb7                                G7
and of course I can program in C

C7
With my arduino...
(It’s almost a cult thing...)



C7        
Putting Lego bricks together makes a Mindstorm of fun
F                                           Fm If you got a lotta money a designer kit’s the one
C7
But if you’re trying to put together a nifty robot on your own
                          F                                       Fm
You wanna make it inexpensive and you want to make it run
C7
using cheap microcontrollers that you can hack ;em all you want
             F                                                          Fm
using open-source programming software you’ll be the savant
        G7
in the avant-garde of the
G#7              G7
Ro-bot van-guard


C7      

With my Arduino, I’m building robots on and under the sea


Using Sea Perch as my base,with this circuit board in place,
            Bb                        G7
I bring autonomy to my ROV
C7

With my Arduino, yeah I can learn to program robots for free
C7
I can make a robot do things that are good for you and me
                        Bb7                         G7
while learning science math and technology

                C7
With my arduino... (It’s kind of a STEM thing...)

Bridge section:
Em7b5      A7b5    Dm7b5      G7
(Boy 1:) You can afford  (Chorus of Girls background vocal: “It’s open source”)
(Boy 1:) This circuit board
( Girl 1:)You won’t get bored (Chorus of Boys working on R2D2 and C3PO background vocal:: Just use the force!)
(Team of girls) We’’ll win awards.... G, G#, G7
                                C7
(All students holding up their micro-controllers):  With our Arduinoooooooos!
Yeeeeha!  (The students do a line dance with a group of robots).

C7  F   G7  G#  G7

(Vocal follows classic Country chicken pickin’ lick:)
C7                                                                                                                                        F
First run a simulation, testing out your new creation, then model it with parts you can afford,
                G7                             
Then you enter a competition, take the software code you’ve written, download it to your Arduino
C7
board.

C7
Make your robot relevant, like, you could save the elephant,
                F7
surveillance and security are two
    G7
of the tasks for which we program, saving people and environments is something we can make
    C7
our robots do.
                               C7
“Build them with:  VEX Robotics, LEGO Mindstorms,  Lynxmotion Erector Sets  and Fischer
                               F7
Teknic, Parallex Boe Bots
    G7                                                                                                               C7
Aldebran and Robosoft and Corobot and Pioneer and Traxter and Create from  IRobot
                                   C7
“There - are -  so -  many options out there, there are robots lurking everywhere, and all you have
                     F7
to do is be a-ware...
G7
Robots are embedded, from the workplace down to Toys are Us, you might find one inside  your
           C7
Teddy bear..”

(Bear says, “yeee-ha!” Getta along there little coder!”)


After country lick part go to walking bass:  C E F F# G  A Bb B C
Voice over:
“The Office of Naval Research and the AUVSI, (the “Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International”) are working with Hollywood technology company Motion Picture Marine and a host of University and Institutional partners to create an international STEM education program that is designed to make robotics engineering affordable, accessible, relevant and FUN for all students.  The program is called “PORPOISE: Precision Oceanographic Robotics Program On and In the Sea Environment” and it’s geared toward mentoring young people from all walks of life to develop robots and prepare for careers that can tackle the biggest challenges confronting their futures:  pollution, oil spills, overfishing, habitat loss, wildlife conservation, coral bleaching, piracy, homeland security, energy security, food security, storm prediction and climate change.  PORPOISE is engineering education with a purpose -- so get involved and join the mission today for a better future tomorrow through robotics that works for everyone!

C7  

So now that we know
 C7
that we can make a robot all on our own
C7
We can run it using windows, using Linux or a Mac,
               Bb7                                             G7
or using bluetooth from our new Android phones
                       C7
Because Arduino,
C7
is agnostic to the platforms we run
Em7b5                                                A7#5
It can be built from scratch by you or me


 Dm7b5                                G7
programmed wireless or by USB
C7                                         Bb7             A7
We're talking black, white, Asian or Latino...



               D7                                    G7
Arduino makes  robotics so much  fun....
                Dm7
and within the reach...
         G6
of eve-ry-one...

                C7                                      
With our Arduino...  
               G7
We can make a better world 
      G#        G                C7
for you....  and .....me...

D.E.M.M.O. Productions Experimetal Class Description for Hollywood High School

D.E.M.M.O. Productions Experimetal Class Description for Hollywood High School, 

By T.H. Culhane, 1995

D.E.M.M.O. Productions (Digital Engineering for Multi-Media Occupations) is an experimental program at Hollywood High School that integrates the technical, technological and vocational areas of students instruction (digital engineering), the academic areas that underpin our multi-media information age (language arts, history, science and math) and career oriented instruction that helps students relate their school experience to the workplace. It conforms to the Perkins 2+2 and 2+4 models that link high school to higher education while allowing students who are not college bound to find their niche in growth industry trades. D.E.M.M.O. Productions conforms to WASC guidelines for school improvement by offering project based/portfolio assessed instruction to its students; the teachers in the program use a coaching model and a product driven curriculum.

The emphases in this program are critical thinking, creative thinking and real world problem solving. The students are nurtured in their ability to "confront the blank page." -- to solve the fundamental problem of how to create something of value where nothing existed before. The class teaches students how to draw on prior knowledge and use what is known and relevant to them as the raw material from which they can fashion new product.

The class helps students overcome writers block, artists block and other creativity blocks such as stage fright, "boredom", circular reasoning and "infinite iteration". It supplies techniques for overcoming fear of censory and criticism -- fear that freeze the mind and shut down higher cortical functions. When fear and low self-esteem do impede student progress and interfere with motivation, the curriculum teaches students how to work with their limbic system and their fight or flight response as tools for focusing and directing creative energy.

D.E.M.M.O. Productions draws on a solid research foundation in "Brain Compatible Learning" and "Multiple Intelligence" Theory and uses the art ,psychology and science of what used to be called "film-making" in order to teach students how to fashion a compelling, engaging and socially useful story out of the uninflected data stream supplied by academic education. The art and science of story-telling through many media then becomes a valuable tool that students can use to order their world and make sense of the vast amounts of information that can be so intimidating and bewildering in our information age.

The program uses all creative and technical arts tools and manipulatives that are available, from pencil and paper to sophisticated multi-media audio-visual computers, video and audio production hardware, musical instrument digital interface technology, clay, paint and paper mache and and electronic test equipment. With guidance from the instructor, students put these tools to use in the creation of multi-media presentations that illustrate and explain concepts drawn from the academic curricula they are confronting in their other classes.

In effect then, D.E.M.M.O. Productions is an "Edu-tainment" class in which students learn how to process and manipulate information and create their own learning materials -- content based, entertaining instructional materials that are "of the students, by the students, and for the students."

Course Description

The major emphasis 0f this course is to develop the student’s ability

to communicate visual ideas using basic filmmaking techniques. Story

writing, story-based display, basic visual composition, and general

reproduction, and skills will be included with camera techniques, animation,

and line action planning.

Representative Objectives

In accordance with his or her ability and capacities, the student grows in ability to:

• Recognize filmmaking as a basic method of communication in our economy.
• Apply the art elements and principles to filmmaking.
• Acknowledge filmmaking as an art form.
• Perceive filmmaking as a medium that unites the visual arts, the literary arts, and the performing arts.
• Recognize the role of film in professions other than entertainment including medicine, education, space exploration, and business.
• Coordinate thinking processes with technical skills.
• Develop objective aesthetic visual criteria related to filmmaking.
• Value experimentation and originality.
• Experiment with light and design as they apply to filmmaking.

Compare the content, intent, and use of different kinds of films including drama, comedy, documentary, and commercial.Assess vocational aptitude and interest in a career in filmmaking or related professions.

Application of Basic Skills

The student will use:

• Language skills related to the preparation of stories and scripts for film.
• Reading and research skills to write a paper on the history of film.
• Appropriate technical vocabulary.
• Reading and conprehension skills in the study of camera and equipment manuals.
• Matematical skills to plan the length of films, and the timing of scenes and actions for animation.
• Organizational skills to plan and produce a film.

Visual discrimination skills through application of the art elements to set design, character, and lighting.

Performance Skills

The student will:

• Research information for media productions.
• Organize work activities to meet project deadlines.
• Funtion as an informed consumer of the visual media.
• Identify the occupations and professions related to the mass media.
• Identify the occupations and professions that use filmaking.
• Communicate an idea using visual symbols.
• Apply the art principles to the design and construction of sets and props.
• Demonstrate basic drawing skills.
• Compare various films made by students and other filmmakers.
• Verbalize personal reactions to a film.
• Write a report on the history of cinema.
• Prepare a script.
• Develop a storyboard.
• Use a camera.

Instructional Units

Topics

Phisical Properties of film and light

History of Cinema

Animation Techniques

Live Action Filming

Preproduction Planning

Camera Techniques

Design Elements in film

Sound

Editing

Lighting

Careers in Film

Set and Prop Design