The Central Illinois Robotics Club was invited to demonstrate at the Illini Boy Scout Jamboree event on September 12th and I wanted to make something special for the scouts to play with. Based upon previous demonstrations our club has done in the past, I knew that a hands-on project would be very popular with visitors and I began brainstorming ideas and decided upon an accelerometer-controlled marble maze.
Accelerometers can be demonstrated in many exciting ways and kids will likely be drawn to a demo considering the similarity to popular applications such as the Nintendo Wii. The goal of this project was to create an exciting game visitors can play while learning about sensors, microcontrollers, and hobby robotics. Looking ahead, I also have ambitions of one day incorporating vision software and equipment to allow the maze to solve itself.
Check out the webpage below for a complete description of this project including pictures, useful links, videos, and the Basic Atom Pro code currently being used.
I think this is a really cool project! For those who didn’t click through this is a 2 DOF tilting table that uses a Bot Board II, Atom Pro and a 2DOF accelerometer with 2 servos to actuate the table. Here’s a pic:
I’ve made some progress on the marble maze, namely fabrication and installation of the maze itself. Check out the link below for pictures and more information:
Very cool. Everything is well made. The performance is very good also. It would be interesting to see how much performance you can squeeze out of the already solid performance. The tables look to have quite a bit of leverage on the servo axis. Perhaps IK could be used to improve the performance, but that stuff is a little over my head.
I recently completed my first version of the marble maze just in time for the 2009 Illini Boy Scout Jamboree. The Central Illinois Robotics Club was invited to demonstrate robotics and our display was surrounded by scouts all day. The maze was very popular and continued to be used non-stop for 5 hours.
Since my last posting the most significant update I’ve made was completion of the custom controller which I’ve documented here:
I hope to upload video soon showing the maze being used at the event. You’ll see that the Basic Atom Pro and Bot Board II provided a reliable and powerful solution that enabled the maze to be very responsive and operate smoothly.
The next step for this project is to incorporate sensors to detect when the marble reaches the end of the maze as well as a timer system so the maze will function more as a true “game”. I’d also like to add a candy dispenser which will be automatically triggered if the player reaches the end in time.
Dan Toborowski
President
Central Illinois Robotics Club circ.mtco.com
I made the stickers myself. I cropped out the high-res logo from one of the Lynxmotion fliers and printed it on clear adhesive inkjet vinyl. You can find these at most craft/hobby stores that sell items for scrapbooking.
I also used this material to make the controller graphics. If you mirror your graphic before printing you can adhere the sticker to the inside surface of a clear material such as polycarbonate. This helps to protect the graphics from damage and looks pretty cool.
Dan Toborowski
President
Central Illinois Robotics Club circ.mtco.com
This past weekend I attended the iHobby Expo in Chicago to demonstrate my Marble Maze, our club’s RoboMagellan bot, and a few other robots for event visitors. The maze was a big hit with kids especially since I added an automatic gumball dispenser that awards the player with candy if they successfully navigate the maze. I’ve uploaded several pictures from the event to the following link:
Also in attendance at the expo was Trossen Robotics, Fingertech Robotics, ROBOTIS, and the publishers of ROBOT magazine. ChiBots hosted their annual ChiBotica competition which included all types of line following and sumo events as well as humanoid robot challenges. CRCA was also there hosting 150 gram, 1lb, and 3lb combat robot battles. I entered my Marble Maze in ChiBots’ “Robot Talent Show” competition and won first place!
I’ll be updating my website over the next week or two with updated information and videos showing the completely operational maze. It now incorporates lights, sounds, and buttons and I have plans to add even more.
I had a blast at this event and look forward to next year’s expo. I hope to return with an improved and even better marble maze. Thanks again to Jim and Lynxmotion for helping out with this project!
I finally got my hands on a new cell phone capable of recording decent video and sound so I put together a video of the complete Marble Maze as it was presented at the iHobby Expo.
Extra Credit: Can you identify the victory song played when the marble reaches the end of the maze?
I ran into a few problems at the expo with the ambient light sensor and gumball dispenser but plan to make several changes. I didn’t get many opportunities to walk away and see the rest of the expo and other competitions since it required occasional maintenance. My goal is to improve the maze’s reliability so that all I’ll need to do for future events is occasionally refill the gumball dispenser.
I’ve also updated the webpage with the most recent version of the code. You’ll see two programs are listed because I used a separate Basic Stamp 2 for the tri-color LEDs in the gumball dispenser base. I wasn’t able to find a way to accomplish this function on the Basic Atom along with the rest of the operations.
The true power of the internet never fails to amaze me. After posting my latest video to a few robotics forums, my project was featured on several DIY electronics hobbyists websites leading to over 13,000 views on YouTube! I read the comments people left on each website and have decided to make a few changes and upgrades to the marble maze.
One suggestion I saw from multiple people was that the gumball should serve as the marble itself. When you begin the game the gumball would be loaded into the maze and when the gumball reaches the end it would fall through the hole and roll to a dispensing area for the player to collect their prize. I had considered this briefly during the build but was concerned about a few things.
My primary concern was the cleanliness of the maze itself and the possible health hazards of possibly rolling the gumball through dust, glue, and paint. Anytime you hand out food to event visitors it is imperative that there be no health concerns with food contamination. My other worry is that most gumballs aren’t perfectly round. This would make it difficult to navigate the maze if the gumball does not roll straight.
Despite these concerns I was very intrigued by the possibilities and have decided to pursue this design to see if I can make it work. I recently ordered an AL5A robot arm kit which I plan to use for loading the gumballs into the maze. I plan to built a gravity-fed gumball dispenser which the AL5A will grab a single gumball from then place it at the maze’s beginning position. I think this will add a lot to the excitement of the maze by incorporating even more mechanics and motion.
I also plan to build a new maze from translucent plastic which should be more sanitary and help shorter players see the location of the marble at all times. I might also add LEDs to illuminate the walls by dispersing their light through the clear plastic. The new maze will also have a clear top to prevent dust and debris from collecting on the surface.
My first goal is to assemble and test the AL5A arm. Then I’ll manufacture the gravity-fed gumball dispenser and search for a supply of gumballs that are closer to being truly spherical. After that I’ll build the new maze.
You might add some LED sensors in the maze that trigger the usual arcade bell/buzzer sounds when the marble rolls past and breaks the light beam (maybe use a chip from the toy cell phones at the dollar store). Adding flippers and such would also jazz it up.
Sneak peak at the new upgraded Marble Maze! The updates include the addition of an AL5A robotic arm, a vacuum system, automatic gumball dispenser jamming avoidance system (AGDJAS?), LCD screen, and tons of MicroRAX! More pictures and video will be posted at the end of this month.
I took the new and improved Marble Maze to the iHobby Expo on October 23rd and 24th and it was very popular with the show visitors! It’s performance was not quite perfect all the time but the reliability (and coolness factor) continue to improve after each revision. I hoped to have pictures and video posted last week but I was forced to recently replace my camera so here are some pictures for now and video should follow this weekend…hopefully
I was wondering if you had a 1:1 ratio between the tilt angle from the Wii Controller to the tilt angle of the platform? Was there always a 1:1 ratio? If not, how did you improve it?
