Tag: open source softwar

OSHWA Trailblazer Blog Post 9: Reflection on my Year

First of all I would be remiss if I did not thank the Open-Source Hardware Association and the Sloan Foundation for selecting me to be an Open-Source Hardware Trailblazer Fellow. The year went by so quickly and I cannot belive I’m one month from the end. I never imagined that the work that I naturally do to normalize and amplify seeing Black people doing STEM in order to diversify the profession would grant me such an awesome opportunity. Robotics For the Streets is all about increasing visibility of and access to STEM for minoritized, marginalized and under resourced communities.

I also need to thank all of the great support from Alicia Gibb, Lecia Ductan, Lee Wilkins and the other trailblazer fellows. Also my students: Alex, Katie, Josiah, and Sean and the Rose-Hulman ECE staff: Gary, Mark, Jack, and Ashley.

When I started this journey, I just wanted to design and build my robots and share them with professional community and social media STEM enthusiasts. Then when I needed evaluators my goal was simply to find ten people to give me feedback on the utility of the platform for academics to engage in service, teaching and research. Therefore, imagine my surprise when I had 44 requests for robots and shipped some as far away as Kenya, Turkey, and Colombia.

Although, I was not able to meet all of my initial goals, I am still very proud of what I was able to accomplishment. One of my proudest moments was presenting the results of my work as the keynote speaker at the Open Hardware Summit at NYU Law In Manhattan, NY on Friday, 4/28/23. I met some of the most awesome people and participated in some great workshops, demos and networking sessions.

I will say that although the grant ends on 5/31/23, this is only the beginning. My work will continue, the spark has been lit for open-source robotics and it will not stop. Here is just a sample of the things to come:

    • Present paper on Flower∞Bots at Frontiers In Education Conference 
    • Publish article about Flower∞Bots in IEEE Transactions on Education Journal
    • Document, document and document the entry points for the Flower∞Bots including assembly, programming and basic movement and sensing and control. Refine the design for Rosie∞Bot and present some use cases.
    • Create more curriculum and activities for Flower∞Bots (YouTube, HacksterIO, Instructables, GitHub)
    • Support several faculty planning to use robots for research, class, and summer programs
    • Launch KickStarter to garner support for Flower∞Bots
    • Sell robots on DFRobot.com
    • Collaborate with Arduino and Viam Robotics on robotics education projects

Thank you for sharing with me on this journey. 🙏🏾👩🏾‍🏫👩🏾‍🎓👷🏾‍♀️👩🏾‍💻

OSHWA Trailblazer Blog Post 8: Flower∞Bots Learning Road Map

As my year as an Open-source Hardware Trailblazer comes to an end, I am so appreciative for this opportunity. I have learned so much along this journey, including the proper way to document my project, that there is no such thing as too many resources and that I need to make an entry point for different types of users. Based upon this, I have created a learning road map so that people can determine their entry point for open-source robotics. A novice would start with Lily∞Bot and the top row on the road map. An intermediate user would start with Daisy∞Bot and the middle row on the road map. Finally an expert user would star with Rosie∞Bot and the bottom row on the road map. Therefore, although I include educational levels at the bottom of the chart, it is just as legitimate to use the novice, intermediate, expert levels instead of the school years. I hope you enjoy this journey as I continue to post learning materials to help you grow in robotics and also eventually post the kit and curriculum for sell on a website.

FlowerBots Road Map

OSHWA Trailblazer Blog Post 7: Lily∞Bot Version 2 is ready for action

Open Source Hardware Association and Sloan Foundation Logos

I have been just as busy with my research students working on refining the design of the Flower∞bots since the school year began. It is just more difficult to find the time to keep moving forward but we are making progress. To help with that, I have added more student workers to the team including Alex, Katie, and Sean. They picked up the mantle to continue where my summer students, Josiah and Murari left off.

Goal

We still have a goal to send out at least 10 Flower∞bots out to academics by the end of February 2023. They will build, program and test them out and then complete a survey for the viability of using them for teaching, research and service. We will continue to generate learning materials and activities that they can use for their evaluation. The responses to the survey will be used to complete the final report at the conclusion of my one-year as journey as an Open-Source Hardware Trailblazer fellow.

Research Team

Katie is a sophomore computer engineering major in charge of building, programming and testing the Flower∞bots. Alex is a junior mechanical engineering in charge of 3d printing and design revisions on the robots. Sean is junior computer engineering major designing the graphical programming for Arduion and also the proof of concept activities. These activities will be used for the ROSE-BUD SPARK! design competition on April 1, 2023. This is our outreach event where we will test out using the robots with high school students.

Lily∞Bot Version 2

Lily∞Bot Version 2 is now ready for action and available on GITHUB. The changes include the following

      • cinch strap instead of  dual lock for the battery holder to make it easier to change out the batteries on the bottom chassis
      • redesign of motor and sensor mounts so that that they twist in an dfit more securely in the robot
      • Check out Alex detailing all the changes in the new assembly video.

Lily∞Bot Version 2 assembly

Coming Soon