These Boots is another silly robotics project based off of someone else’s legwork. In its finished form it should be a pair of robots that you can stand in, which propel themselves (and you along with em!) using a number of linkage mechanisms designed to simulate walking.

Linkages are good fun and can produce some really interesting motion patterns from relatively simple underlying geometry. An interesting, if impractical, application of linkages in mobile robotics is for a walking drive mechanism. Instead of wheels or treads like almost every other robot, a linkage can be used to give a motion path to the robots ‘foot’ that slides it backward along the ground, lifts it up, then brings it forward through the air to return to the starting position. If you felt like justifying such a drive mechanism you might say it allows you to step over obstacles that might impede treads or wheels, but you’d be missing the point which is walking robots look hilarious.

I play too much chess. I took up the game about a year ago and have been studying and playing frequently since, exclusively online. I’d like to get used to playing on a real board, but finding a partner is tough. In a moment of maximum introversion, I decided to build a robotic opponent instead of making friends. The tentative project name is Bot-vinnik, in honor of the only former world champion with an easy-to-pun name.

After graduating at UBC I got the opportunity to teach a course called Measurement and Instrumentation, a core 3rd year course in Mechanical Engineering. The course covered all the steps in getting data from a physical system into a computer: sensor selection, analog signal processing, and readout.

As a lab component I supplied students with a PCB (designed by my lab-mate) that spits out data from a 3-axis accelerometer. Their task was to write a driver in Visual C# that let them read in the data, then use the data to do something cool.

In 4th year at Queen’s I built a control system for a double inverted pendulum alongside some of my EngPhys classmates. This is a canonical controls problem, largely because the system is highly unstable and cannot be solved with a PID controller. Since there are three state variables (two joint angles and the position of the base) and only one control input (the force delivered to the base from the motor), you need a more sophisticated controls approach. We used a state-space controller with a full observer and managed to get the apparatus up and balancing in the wee hours of the morning before it was due.