Puppet Master

Inspiration

After brainstorming for possible project ideas, we somehow discussed whether our toes be controlled at will. Unfortunately, none of us can. Therefore we decided to build a project that would help us to gain better control of our toes.

What it does

It is a wearable electronic device that takes input from hand movement and translates it to toe movement.

How we built it

The group started the project by building its physical frame where our devices are attached to. The Arduino Mega was selected due to its accommodation of many PWM ports and analog input ports. The grouped used stretch sensor in a voltage divider to generate output that can be mapped to determine the action of the servo motors. We then programmed the Arduino to provide an interface to the features above. Strings were attached to the foot to manage movement.

Challenges we ran into

To connect the servo motors and the sensors for our design, we ran out of PWM and analog ports on our Arduino. We also didn't want to short our circuit with too many motors. Therefore, we unified the ground so the power is only provided by our external power supply. We also upgraded our Arduino Uno to Mega to fulfill our port demands.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Perfect 90-degree angle of the frame
The toes are controlled separately by different servo motors. Therefore depending on the stretch of the rubber cord, the toes may move separately or together in any order.
We had fun while designing the project. :) ## What we learned The group was able to learn carpentry skills during the process of fabricating wooden frames. We learned how to appropriately use the voltage divider to change the sensitivity of sensors. Each member gained hands-on experience on hardware debugging by utilizing multimeter and serial output. ## What's next for Puppet Master The future for the puppet master project is boundless. The first step is to implement a more precise tracking and faster response time system. The next stage would be to open up more direction of movement such as spreading of the toes with different gap widths in between. The final stage would be allowing finger crossing on one's feet.