Truc Designs

Design Student @ AHO Interactive products 2015

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Master and Apprentice

Now that I have the controller and both robots in place, I could finally get the game tested by a lot of people at the exhibition. The feedback I got, which I knew that I would get, was that the Master was to fast. I think that a “teacher demonstration” button that is slower will help and of course labeling the controller so that people know what the buttons do. After some button pressing the testers figured out how the controller worked and wanted to try to copy the master, but he was still too fast for anyone to follow (yes even for me).

This is what it will look like when the player presses the finish button to see the result of their combos. When I fix the code and add the slower teacher mode I will have to give it another test to see if it give me a result that kind of look like this video. Even though I have had my presentation and delivery, I still feel that this “game” is far from finished and it was only a little part of the game that I actually wanted to make, which was a fencing game between two robots. But now that I have a good start I feel that I have to keep going and finish what I started, when I will get to finish it I do not know, hopefully soon.

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Not exactly nsync

Instead of having the player input the combo that they wanted to do with the potentiometers and buttons, I switched the potentiometers back to buttons only and I made it possible to see the moves instantly when you pushed a button, and the “go” button will now save the position that the robots have at that moment instead of showing you the move that you just guessed you did, the “go” button is now the “save position” button. With this controller I think that I finally found the right type of controller that the game needs. But these changes made the arduino slower because it had to check if a bunch of boolean statements were true or not. To fix this I will have to recode some of the functions in my code. Or maybe the skynet code and Asimov's three laws of robotics is mucking up the robots?

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Controller for the presentation

This is the controller I had when I had my presentation. I attached potentiometers at the shoulders and at the hand, just like where the servos are on the robot. The feedback I got from Hans Gerrard helped alot, he said that when he used to play pong, he thought that it was fascinating that the paddle would move by turning the knob clockwise or counterclockwise. So when you have a controller that looks like the thing that you are controlling it would not feel like something special. I hoped that this controller would make it easier for the player to understand, and it was, so that they could focus on the pattern that they had to remember, but it lost some of its playfulness.

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Almost time for delivery

As deadline is creeping closer and closer I had to make a decision, continue trying to make the fencing work or use what I had to make something a bit different but still kept the theme of the game.

I decided to make this simon says type game, simon says is a memory game that uses buttons that light up and sounds that the players had to remember and press in the right order as long as they could. With this concept I would abandon the fencing concept, but I thought about how this could be some kind of tutorial for the players to teach them how the controller and how the robot's movements was. Some might say that I copped out but I had to do the best I could with what I had at the moment and have something that people could test without me worrying about the robot ripping each other apart after a few demonstrations at the exhibition on friday. Although this will only be a little part of the game I think this would add depth to the game if I ever get to finish the it someday. 

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Mind cleanse

Yet again I had to keep my mind busy while I tried to figure out how to solve the snagging problem so I made these figure that I will attach the servos to.

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Sword fight!

Now that I felt that I had a controller that would work, I tested how the fencing was with another player. I quickly found out that in order to hit the head of the robots I had to put the robots close to each other, but if I did that the robots would snag each other on the servos and any straight angled edge. When I tested the robots by myself with carefully calculated moves I managed to avoid snagging and cut the robots head off, but after a few repetitions of the same moves (I hit the replay button several times after replacing the head) it would still snag itself to the other robot (unfortunately I did not record this when I tested it).

Trym (@instatrym​) and I tested this and found it quite fun, so the concept worked, but I don’t think that the robots would last longer than a couple of rounds before they got broken, and as I predicted they broke while we were testing it. I tried placing the robots farther apart but they still snagged each other on the edges. At this moment I will not be able to figure out the kinks before delivery or our exhibition on friday.

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Controller iteration #2

With this iteration I used only potentiometer for the movements of the robot, I switched the button for the sword with a potentiometer with the knob shaped as a sword. With this setup I felt that I could easily control the robot as I wanted and when I tested it on new tester, they understood what the different potentiometers did. 

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Hopefully a step closer

Sketches for the controller

With the potentiometer button combo working so well I made this controller with the illustrations on each button and potentiometer. I tested this on a few people and they seem to understand what the different things do but was a bit confused about the combo thing and how the sword button worked.

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Complicating things

I thought adding this replay function would be an extra bonus for the players when they were done fighting each other. I already had a small part of the code done for the combo sequence so adding this replay function would not take that long and since I needed more foam core (kappa?) and the stores are closed, I went ahead and implemented it in the robots.

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Controller logic change test

With this mockup I added the combo concept that i tried with the buttons earlier. With this controller I felt like I had more control and it was a bit easier to predict how far the arm would move by turning the knobs on the potentiometers. So if  I could make illustrations that showed the players which potentiometers did what might be a good way to control the robots in this simultaneous combo fencing game.

I found it quite helpful to use my whiteboard to write down all the logic that I have to implement and how the different buttons and potentiometers should behave and work.

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Potentiometers and buttons controller

This time with the theme in place (samurais) I tried combining the potentiometers with buttons, works well but not for fencing, well not real time fencing anyway.

This is a close up view of the controls.

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Creative reset

With me stuck in controller hell, I decided that I need to focus on something else and then maybe I will find a way to control these fencing robots. While I was working on the controllers I thought about how the player would win the game. I was thinking about real fencing and thought if I got hit for real, I probably would get hurt, so if I made something that allow the players to keep track of how many wounds they had it would make it easier to know when a player wins. 

With that in mind I thought about if the robots where samurais, a samurai with high sword skills would be able to kill their opponent with only one strike of the sword, so if I made a weak point that the players could hit only once, they would win, and since the head is quite well protected behind the arms when they are raised but open on the side the players could hit the head if they planned their moves right. With some magnets and two strips of aluminium tape I made a button with one magnet closing the circuit while the head is on, but open the circuit when it falls off or moves indicating a hit to the head. The magnets did not move when the robots were moving, only when it was hit, so it will work perfect as an indicator for a hit and if I take the head off during the demonstration I think that it will be a bit easier to understand that you have to hit the head to win because, if the players have to put the heads on the robots in order to initiate them it would be logical to cut the head off to win, hopefully.

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Two robots fencing

Finally testing out two robots fencing against each other with the button controller that I tested before with a twist, the player inputs their three  move combo and then saves it to be played simultaneously with the other player with a press of a button.

This input is very difficult to control because while the arms move at a specific amount each time you press a button, you can’t see how far it will move until both players have committed to their combos and initiated the battle sequence. This means that I have to go back to the drawing board with the controller yet again.

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Controller test continued

Since tilt switches act like momentary switches/buttons I thought that it could be a good way to introduce the more arcadey feel to the game that I was looking for.

I attached the tilt switches to some gloves to make it easier and quicker to put on the controller.

In this iteration I hot glued the tilt switches to the glove because the gaffers tape kept falling off the gloves, this worked very well and now I can control it pretty precisely.

This version of the tilt glove was made to accommodate for different hand sizes, since I have smaller than normal man hands, I was pretty much the only one that could test the glove comfortably and accurately because of the placement of the tilt switches.

To take the whole hand size problem out of the equation I made this sword with the tilt switches inside it.

These tilt switch controllers was, according to testers, too hard to learn and I can agree because the tilt switches need very precise movements that I had to learn and after a while learned during the construction of the controllers, so for me it is a bit easier to control these robot arms than other non-robot people (Yes I am saying that I am a robot... blip blop blip). I think I have to rethink this controller or focus on how the game is played.

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Last minute panic

As a last minute panic I came up with this worm looking thing that I thought would be fun to control with the controllers that I have tested in the robot fencing game. But since the finish of the product isn't the main focus I can now go back to my robot fencing game. Honestly, I am relieved that I can still work on the robot fencing game since it of the two concepts is the most interesting and fun to work with.

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Controller testing

These are some controller tests that I have to see what the movements will be like and how I can design the game based on the outputs I get from the robot arm

A smaller and easier controller to use than the one above.

At this moment I feel that I am going the wrong direction with the controller, if the game is going to have an arcade like feel, it needs more predictability than what I have at this moment. These controllers feel good and precise but they are too slow in a high speed game like fencing.

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Fencing robot

Now I have the robot servo arm hooked up to three potentiometer for each of the servos, as a result I get a very precise control of the robot arm. It might be too slow to put in a arcady game that I want.

This is the same arm but beefier, robot arm v0.2

Joystick like controller that looks similar to the robot arm. This controller is a lot of fun to control compared to just turning some knobs.

Controller strapped to the hand and wrist. This controller, although very fun to control it requires too much rotation of the wrist and hand that it would be very tiring to control for the duration of the game and I think you might get carpal tunnel syndrome after a while.

This is what the controller looks like not strapped to the wrist.