element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • About Us
  • Community Hub
    Community Hub
    • What's New on element14
    • Feedback and Support
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Personal Blogs
    • Members Area
    • Achievement Levels
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Ask an Expert
    • eBooks
    • element14 presents
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Spotlight
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • Learning Groups
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents Projects
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • Project Groups
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Multicomp Pro
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
  • Settings
PiCasso Design Challenge
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Design Challenges
  • PiCasso Design Challenge
  • More
  • Cancel
PiCasso Design Challenge
Blog PiCasso Design Challenge - Kinetic Art Mobile - Post 1
  • Blog
  • Forum
  • Documents
  • Polls
  • Files
  • Events
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
  • Share
  • More
  • Cancel
Group Actions
  • Group RSS
  • More
  • Cancel
Engagement
  • Author Author: genebren
  • Date Created: 15 Mar 2019 4:03 PM Date Created
  • Views 1149 views
  • Likes 10 likes
  • Comments 7 comments
  • raspberry pi 3 model b+
  • picasso_design_challenge
Related
Recommended

PiCasso Design Challenge - Kinetic Art Mobile - Post 1

genebren
genebren
15 Mar 2019

Introduction:

 

I am an engineer, not an artist.  My daughter is an artist and has caused me to look at the world through her lens by her art.  I have tried my hand at art as a means to connect with her on her ground.

Concept:

I have played with this concept for years, but never actually got this project off the ground.  The idea is a hanging mobile with multiple arms, where the suspended objects are controllable.  At the end of each arm (pivoting around a central shaft) of the mobile would be a object that contains a small electric fan that can provide propulsion, to cause the object to move at varying speeds either clockwise or counter-clockwise around the central shaft).  The object would also contain several RGB LEDs, allowing them to change color.  When I first thought about this, my idea was to have each of the object act out an emotion, i.e  playful, fearful, anger, etc.  The objects could use color and interactions with other objects to express these emotions.  I would plan to use the Raspberry Pi and connected camera (with some image processing to identify the objects) to observe the objects and to provide commands to them so that they could interact with the other objects.

 

Project Plan:

 

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ and the Raspberry Pi camera V2 would be the central controller, mounted at the top of the mobile (ceiling mounted), where it can observe all of the objects below.  I am thinking of using Bluetooth LE as the means of communicating to the objects below.  The camera would be used to track all of the objects and perhaps detect and interact with persons within the image frame.  The main power source and RPi/camera would be contained in a dome-like cover, with mobile's main support shaft hanging below it.

 

The main support shaft would supply power, through slip rings (or maybe a rotary transformer of some sort) to each of the arms, connected to the objects.

 

The rotating objects would be mounted to various length arms, pivoting around the main support shaft, on low friction bearings (slip rings?).  The objects would be encased in plastic (clear or slightly diffused) and have vent openings to allow the fans to blow in either directions to provide propulsion for the objects.  The objects would each contain a bluetooth transceiver in order to communicate to the RPi.  A complement of RGB LEDs would be a arranged to light up the objects.

 

Software - There will be a need for software in both the RPi and the object's controller, to perform the various tasks.  While software is one of my core skills (including image processing by direct pixel manipulation), RPi is a platform that I have zero experience with, so I see this as one of the risk areas of this project. 

 

Summary:

I am well equipped to succeed in bringing this concept to completion and I look forward to opportunity to learn new skills in the process.  I also look forward to reading the updates/blogs of my fellow competitors and learning from them as I explore all that the RPi has to offer.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to join in on this design challenge.

Gene Breniman

  • Sign in to reply

Top Comments

  • three-phase
    three-phase over 6 years ago +3
    This seems quite an ambitious project, look forward to reading your updates. Good luck with it.
  • DAB
    DAB over 6 years ago +3
    Interesting project, I look forward to the build. DAB
  • shabaz
    shabaz over 6 years ago +2
    Hi Gene, It sounds super interesting! If you need any help getting going with the Pi, plenty of us can help : ) You'll be pleasantly surprised, it has a full Linux distribution, not cut-down like older…
  • DAB
    DAB over 6 years ago in reply to genebren

    Hi Gene,

     

    Progress is slow, but then I did not expect immediate miracles. image

     

    DAB

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +2 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • genebren
    genebren over 6 years ago in reply to DAB

    DAB,

     

    Thanks for your interest.  I have started ordering parts and planning the mechanical aspects of the build, so I hopefully will have some interesting details to share soon.

     

    Thanks again,

    Gene

     

    P.S. I hope that your is improving and the your meds and procedures are working as expected.  Take care.

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • genebren
    genebren over 6 years ago in reply to shabaz

    shabaz,

     

    Thanks!  I have started reading up on the steps to setting up a Raspberry Pi (plus there are some nice recent blogs about others journey down this path) so I am feeling like this is going to be doable (still not sure if I am going to go headless or if I want a dedicated monitor to assist with debugging) .  I heard so many people talking about using Python for programming RPi that I was getting a little worried that good old fashion 'c' was not an option, but I am glad to see that will be doable.  I cut my teeth on 'c' back on early Unix systems, so I should not have too much trouble with the tools.

     

    Thanks again,

    Gene

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • genebren
    genebren over 6 years ago in reply to three-phase

    Donald,

     

    Thanks for checking this out.  This is going to be a big undertaking, causing me to try a lot of things that will be new to me.  I am really excited to see where this goes.

     

    Gene

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • shabaz
    shabaz over 6 years ago

    Hi Gene,

     

    It sounds super interesting! If you need any help getting going with the Pi, plenty of us can help : ) You'll be pleasantly surprised, it has a full Linux distribution, not cut-down like older Linux SBCs used to have, so there's lots it can do, and all compiling on-board : )

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +2 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
>
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2025 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube