Spyrograph

Step: 1 Program Requirements

The robot must be able to hold a marker and must move around in a circular manner to create a picture using mathematical patterns in the style of a Spirograph. Our current plan is to have it draw circles while moving around to get a cool effect that will, hopefully, imitate a Spirograph accurately.

The robot will need to have a few motors to control the movement and it will also need to be built to hold a marker. It’s possible that we will need to add a medium motor to lift the marker off the the page. We are assuming that the robot will be able to turn at the right angles to make it look good.

Step 2: Pseudocode

Start loop

1. Start motors turning at a curve

2. Stop

3. Rotate ~60 degrees

Exit loop after n times

Step 3 : Reflection

In this challenge we had to make a robot that drew a picture that was reminiscent of a Spirograph. It was actually simpler than I thought it would be to make this program. It was simpler because the program itself was a lot shorter than I expected. This is a screenshot of the program.

The robot made quite a beautiful picture. Here is a picture of the final copy:

You can find the video of the robot in action on Levi's website here:

http://screaming-goat-studios.tumblr.com/

In this challenge I learned that not all code need to be super long to fulfill its task. What we could've done differently is make the actual robot hold the marker better because it would often slip out of place. A goal for next time is to complete all the steps and not skip out on any.