2011 – Guilherme Martins

SapoBot

SapoBot is a robot that wonders through spaces avoiding obstacles detects holes on the ground, follow walls and follow lines, to change between behaviors you only need to press the shell, and when he detects a collision gives a frog sound. This project was comissioned by Sapo, means frog in portuguese.

This bots were made with a Farrusco chassis and Motoruino and once again with the great IDMind hardware and electronics skills, all the credits for the eyes mechanics and all the rest of the hardware upgrade goes to them.

The shell was made by Fernando and Margarida Antunes, don’t forget to check their amazing art work at http://margaridantunes.weebly.com.

This is a Farrusco on steroids!! Only the pins 0 and 1 for serial communication are free, all the other pins are taken for a considerable amount of sensors and actuators: 3 infrared sensors to measure distances on the front, 3 infra red sensors facing the ground, a speaker, 1 RGB LED, 1 servo motor, 2 dc motors and 2 bumper micro-switches to detect collisions.

The eyes are meant to give some human expression to the bot, they turn organically to both sides according the direction that the robot takes.

We coded an application in Processing to check all the sensors and actuators, allowing to save settings on the microcontroller EEPROM. This code will be available on Artica’s github soon.

Time to drink some juice :]

And the result is a happy family!

Einstein VideoPlayer

Einstein VideoPlayer is a project that I initiated during a dance performance entitled “Einstein Dreams” created by Rui Horta. All this took place at Göteborg Opera in Sweden, September of 2010.

Einstein is not just a tool to play videos, it allows anyone to play a list of videos, cross fading between them, with the possibility to adjust the video output to many kinds of surfaces.

“Content is king”, I believe that this tool can be an ice breaker to anyone that intends to playback videos in thousands of different manners.

This is the first public release, however this will always be a work in progress project, and being open source we intend that you use, modify, hack and share this tool.

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Link to Artica’s Github

DIRECT DOWNLOAD EINSTEIN v1

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CLICK THE IMAGE TO SEE IN FULL RESOLUTION

List of features available ATM:
– playlist with file names;
– parametric crossfade between videos;
– parametric fade in and out to black and/or white;
– keystone / corner-pin adjustment;
– record and load custom presets.

Future versions will include:

– mask overlay with a PNG with transparency;
– independent multiplayer system (optional);
– one player as Master and the other player as Slave (optional);
– customization for several outputs;
– edge-blend;
– subtitle overlay;
– Improve modularity for fast prototyping and custom projects;
– Improve performance;
– Create the same GUI paradigm to control audio and light;
– Cue list to control everything;
– MIDI, DMX and OSC protocol to control Einstein, and to be controlled by Einstein.

Continue reading Einstein VideoPlayer

Júlio de Matos

“Júlio de Matos” is a comedy performed by Joaquim Monchique. The set has a non-conventional projection zone, and I had to adapt all the contents to it. I invited David Rebordão to help me with video capture and editing. David is a promising Movie Director and Producer, check out what it is the most watched portuguese film ever made: A Curva.

The video below is just a sneak peak of what you might expect if you dare to watch the show.

O Tempo, by Adriana Queiroz

Adriana Queiroz is a talented singer and dancer, and she wanted to include a visual component on her set, we talked a lot on how could we achieve a good result and IMHO I love it. André Almeida designed the lights setup integrated all the set, lights and shadows in a beautiful engagement!

This is just samples of my visual work:

ICU2

I SEE YOU TOO, is the 2nd version of the original ICU

This version gained an upgrade in both hardware and software.

The hardware is mostly based on servocity.com pan and tilt systems.

This is a work in progress, until now what is implemented is Face Detect with the openCV library for Processing.
Next stage is to implement a more robust face and emotions detection and this will run on top of an inverse kinematics algorithm. What we want the most is ICU2 to be a living organism, with a complex behavior tree system.

Magabot

Magabot is an open hardware and software robotics platform designed to stimulate creative minds.

Any robot with a computer is a very powerfull robot, and because all laptops have a camera, a screen, speakers, microphone, batteries and usb interfaces, your robotics experience will be empowered with Magabot.

This project is being developed in a partnership with IDMind, Artica and with the participation of Francisco Dias.

The Software:

Many applications are being developed right now, follow colors, wall follower, face detection, among many others.

We will provide interfaces for VisualStudio, .NET, c#, c++, openFrameWorks, Processing, Arduino, Flash, Unity3D, MAXMSP, PD and if you feel like you want to develop your own interface you will be welcome too, we give full credits on everything.

You will be able to download apps for the Magabot, to develop your own apps, and if you feel they deserve money, you will be able to sell them too.

The hardware:

The hardware is made with rigid PVC and a differential drive chassis with highly precise encoders on both motors at the commands of an Arduino and a customized shield. You’re completely invited to change and adapt it to your needs.

The basic setup integrates:
– PVC chassis with DC motors with encoders;
– Three Infrared-sensors on the bottom to detect stairs or lines;
– Two bumpers on the front to detect collisions;
– Three RGB leds if you are in the mood for some tuning;
– A battery sensor to know how if it is in the need for some juice;
– I2C bus on top to connect any I2C devices;
– A 7.2v battery and a charger.

Add-ons built at the moment:
– Pack of 5 Maxbotix sonar sensors with PVC supports to connect to the upper I2C BUS;
– Other add-ons are beeing developet at the moment.

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We lauched the magabot.cc site today, this website will be a repository for informatiom, source code, apps, hacks, support forum, and a place to buy Magabots.

Magabot is a protoproduct, we are commercializing our open source and open hardware best prototype at a low cost:

If you buy one you will automatically enter on our beta test program, we invite you to share your experiences and to post your results, we will also provide you with support for you to be able to use it, change it, and play with it.

The current price for the platform wthout the sonar kit is 250€ plus VAT.

The current price for the sonars kit is 100€ plus VAT.

If you need more information please contact us: info [at] magabot [dot] cc

Artica @ TEDxEdges

This TEDxEdges was a huge event, and Artica marked its presence on stage with the Einstein VideoPlayer adapted to play the videos between the talks, and with a video mapping system to display the data captured by biometric PLUX sensors.

There were 4 gloves on the room, and each person wearing a glove would be able to send its emotions to the assigned ‘TEDx’ letter.

I went to stage with André to briefly present Artica’s presence on the event, they mentioned the Farruscos playing sumo, the Magabot in telepresence mode being driven by Francisco Dias and finally what was behind the ‘TEDx’ letters.

In the foyer there were an arsenal of 5 Magabots all available to be remotelly controlled in Telepresence. This system is made with Skype and simple interface running on the robot side. So all you need is a Skype account and nothing more.

Gareth, Voodoobot, Birdmun and Ro-Bot-X from LetsMakeRobots were very present on the site, some of them even went outdoors and had a couple of adventures!! :)

This video shows an Avatar to Avatar encounter!!! Its me and Gareth giving a kiss.. lol

This is another view of the Foyer:

Then there were a troop of 10 Farruscos, Francisco Dias coded two of them to play sumo, and they are really fun to watch!!

Farruscos did made the day of kids! They were completly stunned with the little bots!

Artica’s team having lunch, the bests!! :) Fernando Gomes, André Almeida, Francisco Dias, Gonçalo Lopes and Guilherme Martins.

Artica’s founders, Guilherme Martins and André Almeida:

“É Como Diz o Outro”, the post

“É Como Diz o Outro” is a comedy performed by Miguel Guilherme and Bruno Nogueira, directed by Tiago Guedes and produced by UAU. Our commitment was to create a video scene with a street landscape and a building front. This video started early in the morning and went through several stages during a normal work day ending in the evening.

Video after the break:

Our software “EinsteinVideoPlayer” evolved a lot with this creation, edge-blend was implemented and now can be controlled by the Light Mixer via DMX.

The projection rig can be seen on the top, two projectors filled the scene front.

É Como Diz o Outro

Artica was invited by UAU.PT to create a video and light design for a comedy performance with Miguel Guilherme and Bruno Nogueira directed by Tiago Guedes. This has been another creative and artistic challenge, don’t miss the premiere at 6th of September!

Motoruino and Motors – Workshop @ ALTLAB

Last Wednesday Artica lectured a Motoruino workshop at AltLab.
Beside all the participants there were more than a hundred watching a live stream on Ustream, people from Viseu, Guimarães, Porto, Évora, Madrid and many more places I believe.

The central theme was Motoruino and motors such as Servos, DC motors, Steppers and Linear actuators.

In the end we had Farrusco working in Obstacle Avoidance and Following Light mode.

Video streaming by Ustream