The goal of this project is to develop the Tangible Experience Design course here at RIT to better enable Industrial Design students to grasp real-world programming techniques by controlling a microcontroller and sensors and actuators. The task that I, the electronics specialist, must do is to design the base for students to work on, removing some of the engineering aspects to allow the students to focus on control through programming.
The Arduino Duemilanove ATmega328 Starter Kit was chosen to be the central microcontroller board, with sensors and actuators plugging into a daughter board, electrically connected to either the Analog inputs or the Digital outputs. Some simple "glue" circuitry will be required to interface all the sensors to the microcontroller's inputs.
Arduino
From http://www.sparkfun.com
Starter Kit for Arduino - Flex (DEV-09905) 1 @ $59.95
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9905
Not all of the components seen in the picture will be used for this project, but I'm not setting boundaries at this point.
Development Requirements
Transparency – able to see inside enclosure
Easy connect/disconnect of sensors, actuators
Students won't be building on breadboard, just plugging components into a shield (daughter board)
120VAC Plugs + relay contained/shielded for safety
SSR Relay – AC plug unit
Easy connections for sensors + actuators
Sensors
Pressure (Analog)
Flex sensor (Analog)
Photoresistor (Analog)
Thermistor (Analog)
Switches (Digital)
IR Rangers (Digital?)
Potentiometers (Analog)
Actuators
Speaker (Digital, PWM)
Vibe motors (opt) (Digital, PWM)
LEDs (Digital, PWM)
SSR + wall plug (Digital, PWM)
The current collection of sensors and other assorted materials is shown in the picture below. What these are to do is still up in the air. Also, a rough sketch of the Arduino board with a daughter board on top (usually called a shield, for some odd reason), with an idea of the interconnect to sensors/actuators.
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