NCNU 國立暨南國際大學電機工程學系 EE

林容杉 專題研究 6/20/2012

蠍型機器人設計

Design of a BIOLOID Scorpion

姓名：Bruno Chung 鍾正方

學號：98323060

指導老師：Prof. Jung-Shan Lin 林容杉

日期：101年 06月 20日

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Table of Contents

1. Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 3

2. Choosing a Subject ............................................................................................................. 3

3. Purpose ............................................................................................................................... 3

4. BIOLOID Overview ........................................................................................................... 4

5. Approach ............................................................................................................................ 4

6. BIOLOID Creations ........................................................................................................... 5

a. Crocodile Mouth ................................................................................................. 5

b. Attacking Duck ................................................................................................... 5

c. LED Example ..................................................................................................... 6

d. Crossing Gate ..................................................................................................... 7

e. Crossing Gate 1.0 ............................................................................................... 9

f. NASCAR Car ..................................................................................................... 9

g. Excavator .......................................................................................................... 11

h. Scorpion ............................................................................................................ 13

i. Scorpion 1.0 ...................................................................................................... 14

j. Scorpion 2.0 ...................................................................................................... 17

7. Conclusions and Thoughts ............................................................................................... 20

8. Reference .......................................................................................................................... 21

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Table of Figures

FIG. 1 CROCODILE MOUTH ............................................................................................................................................. 5

FIG. 2 ATTACKING DUCK ................................................................................................................................................ 6

FIG. 3 DYNAMIXEL AX-12 .............................................................................................................................................. 6

FIG. 4 AUX LED ON FIG. 5 AUX LED OFF ....................................................................................................... 7

FIG. 6 CROSSING GATE .................................................................................................................................................. 7

FIG. 7 CROSSING GATE PROGRAMMING WITH SPEED CONTROL .............................................................................................. 8

FIG. 8 CROSSING GATE 1.0 ............................................................................................................................................. 9

FIG. 9 NASCAR CAR PROGRAM .................................................................................................................................... 10

FIG. 10 NASCAR CAR ................................................................................................................................................. 10

FIG. 11 EXCAVATOR BASE ............................................................................................................................................. 11

FIG. 12 EXCAVATOR .................................................................................................................................................... 12

FIG. 13 ENRAGED EXCAVATOR SENSING RANGE ................................................................................................................ 12

FIG. 14 THE FIRST SCORPION DESIGN FIG. 15 SCORPION ................................................................. 13

FIG. 16 SCORPION WITHOUT EXTRA LEG FIG. 17 SCORPION WITH EXTRA LEG ............................................................... 14

FIG. 18 TESTING MOTORS ............................................................................................................................................. 15

FIG. 19 SCORPION 1.0 ................................................................................................................................................. 16

FIG. 20 FLOWCHART OF SCORPION 2.0 PROGRAM ............................................................................................................ 17

FIG. 21 SCORPION 2.0 ................................................................................................................................................. 18

FIG. 22 MOTION PICTURE OF THE ATTACK SEQUENCE FROM THE SCORPION 2.0 PROGRAM ........................................................ 19

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1. Abstract

This report is about the use of the BIOLOID kit to build and design a scorpion robot with

a behavior program which is similar to that of an actual scorpion. The focuses on the scorpion

design lead the project to be named “Design of a BIOLOID Scorpion”. The entire process

from learning how to assemble with the kit to finally finish building and programming the

scorpion are discussed along with all issues encountered.

2. Choosing a Subject

The project was going to be based on control systems due to the nature of the advisor’s

specialty. At first a trip was made to the Control Systems Lab to see what materials were

available. Knowing what is available to use gives direction as well as focus to the project and

insight about how to target and approach the designated goals.

In the lab new BIOLOID kits were available, which reminds a lot the more popular

LEGO blocks. The most interesting thing about LEGO blocks is that one single kit allows for

innumerous designs to be made, the only boundary being your own imagination. The only

drawback was that LEGO blocks are mostly stationary, but the BIOLOID kit allows

movement so that now creations can become a moving robot instead of just a stationary model

car. This added feature allows even more constructions to be made, this time with motors to

assist in even more interesting ideas.

Although somewhat similar in concept the BIOLOID kit is still a lot more complex than

LEGO blocks. Instead of fitting pieces together like with the LEGO blocks, the BIOLOID

pieces had to be screwed together. This was a relatively small setback compared to the

benefits of the motors. Now designs could move and be autonomous. The flexibility of the

designs that could be created paired with movements made the BIOLOID kit an easy choice

for a medium to accomplish my goals.

3. Purpose

As previously introduced, the BIOLOID kit is going to be used to attain my goal of

designing a scorpion robot. The purpose of this project is to build and design a scorpion robot

using the BIOLOID kit and create a behavioral program to mimic the movements of an actual

scorpion. The most prominent behaviors from an actual scorpion will first be mimicked like

the tail attacking its prey and escaping afterwards.

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4. BIOLOID Overview

The BIOLOID is an educative all-around robot kit that assists its users in engaging in

creative and scientific creations. It contains many blocks of different shapes allowing easy

assembly of various robots.

Main BIOLOID parts include:

Main controller, CM-5: The main controller of the BIOLOID robot where program

is downloaded to and from.

Robot Actuator, Dynamixel AX-12: Actuator that functions as the joints of the

robot.

Robot Sensor Module, Dynamixel AX-S1: A sensor module that consists of three

pairs of sensors that detect distance, brightness and heat. It can function as sound

detector, remocon transceiver and sound buzzer as well.

Assembly parts: Various frames, cables and bolts that connect CM-5, AX-12 and

AX-S1 to assemble robots.

5. Approach

Although I compared the BIOLOID to the LEGO blocks, they are very different from each

other. LEGO blocks just fit and snap on top of each other whilst the BIOLOID has to be

screwed together. Adding to that LEGO blocks are usually just rectangular in shape, while the

BIOLOID has a lot of different pieces to allow more flexibility in its design. Building a

BIOLOID robot requires careful selection of parts and proper screwing to make a complete

and nicely finished robot.

It is extremely hard to directly start designing a scorpion so being familiar with

assembling with the parts provided is a good first step. To start learning how to assemble, the

“BIOLOID: Quick Start Guide” was used to learn step-by-step how to assemble previously

designed BIOLOID examples. These examples already have their programming finished,

which require a simple download to the main controller (the CM-5) so that the robot can start

moving.

After assembly the next step should be learning how to program. For basic programming

the “BIOLOID: User’s Guide” was used as it explains in a very clear and easy way the

operating principle and the program process of the BIOLOID. Upon learning basic

programming, practice should was done on existing BIOLOID examples. When substantial

assembly and programming skills are acquired, designing the scorpion robot became a lot

easier and fluid. The complexity of the design and programming of the scorpion made

learning how to assemble and program extremely difficult.

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6. BIOLOID Creations

a. Crocodile Mouth

The Crocodile Mouth was the first BIOLOID robot assembled due to its simplicity, while

still learning very basic programming.

Fig. 1 Crocodile Mouth

The Crocodile Mouth program runs as follows. When a center object is sensed the mouth

of the Crocodile Mouth opens and when no object is sensed the mouth closes.

Some issues were encountered while building the Crocodile Mouth, which further

increased my knowledge of how to build with the BIOLOID kit. Each Dynamixel in a

BIOLOID kit is assigned an ID so that the proper joint starts moving at the correct time and

sequence. For the program to successfully be downloaded to the controller all motors used in

the program needs to be connected to it. The issue encountered was the use of the motor with

a wrong ID in the Crocodile Mouth. The proper Dynamixel ID could not be detected by the

main controller CM-5 so the mouth would not open or close. Screws also have their specific

size and proper places to be screwed, where at first was not paid much attention.

b. Attacking Duck

The Attacking Duck was the second robot to be built to further improve my assembling

skills. This example has an increased complexity due to the higher number of motors present.

This example was also chosen due to the similarities to that of a scorpion tail, which could be

embedded on the final scorpion design.

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Fig. 2 Attacking Duck

The program of the Attacking Duck was designed to make it 'attack' just as the name of

the robot implies. When a center object is sensed the robot attacks its front side by reaching

forward. Same happens when a side object is sensed. If the right side sensor senses something

the robot turns 90° to the right and strikes.

Some issues were also encountered in the Attacking Duck.

When running the program the robot was making turns that

were more than 180° instead of the 90° that it should be

doing. Initially it was thought that the problem was the motor

with the wrong ID was used because different IDs were

installed from that of the guide. After considerable time the

issue was found. The Dynamixel AX-12 has a zero point or

default position in which it has to be before assembly or the

robot will not run as intended. The default position is marked

with a small line on both the rotating part and the

non-moving part of the Dynamixel as shown on Fig. 4.

c. LED Example

Programming was an aspect of the project which started slow as to not make any mistakes

in the future. At first a simple program was created for a robot so simple that it did not have

any joints in it. The only part being controlled was the AUX LED on the CM-5. The AUX

LED is the only LED in the CM-5 that can be programmed freely.

Fig. 3 Dynamixel AX-12

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Fig. 4 AUX LED on Fig. 5 AUX LED off

The AUX LED from the CM-5 was programmed to light up when the U or up button is

pressed and to turn off when the D or down button is pressed. Here there were no issues as the

program was relatively simple containing only three command lines.

d. Crossing Gate

In the first attempt of programming only a simple LED was being controlled. LED is

easy to control because it only has two states, 1 and 0 or on and off. To increase the

complexity of the program a Dynamixel AX-12 was controlled instead of a simple LED,

making this the first time a motor is programmed. Using one of the joints, a gate like structure

was built to make the design simulate a more real life application, thus the name Crossing

Gate.

Fig. 6 Crossing Gate

As the name implies, this design was supposed to simulate a gate. The gate was

programmed to open or change to a 90° angle so an object or vehicle of some sort can cross,

and closes down or moves to a 180° where there is no longer anything trying to cross. This is

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controlled through button input on the controller. When the R button is pressed the bridge

moves up to the 90° position and when the L button is pressed the bridge moves to the 180°

position if it is not in that position already. Speed control was also added because the gate

seemed a bit unstable due to the high speed in which it opened and closed. The speed was

changed to 150; by comparison the maximum speed is 1024.

Fig. 7 Crossing Gate programming with speed control

This was the first time programming for a motor. The motor can only move at a 300°,

unless it is initiated as a wheel where it can instead turn at a 360°. To move the motor to a

specific angle for example the command is LOAD DYNAMIXEL 1024 which is the variable

for 300°. The programming has to be between the START and END command, and anything

outside of it is completely ignored. First all DYNAMIXELs, in this case just one, is set to an

initial position of 500. The IF commands sets the condition in which it will run its command if

the condition is met. If the condition is not met the command after IF is ignored and the

program jumps to the next command line. The first IF command calls the up loop where the

gate moves up when the L button is pressed. The lines of commands are applied to the second

condition in which the R button is used and the down command is called. Another important

thing is that the speed of the motor must be set before it LOADs its angle so the motor can set

its speed before moving. These can be seen on Fig. 7 above.

The Crossing Gate was fully my design and not from any of the guides. At first it was

difficult to choose parts that would make the design look more like a real gate. The parts were

finally chosen and the result was previously illustrated in Fig. 6. Program syntaxes were

misused as happens when first trying a new programming language. After a few trial and

errors the gate was successfully designed and programmed.

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e. Crossing Gate 1.0

The objective is to make an autonomous robot and a robot is not really autonomous if it

has to rely on human input to function. The Crossing Gate required someone to be present to

press the appropriate buttons to make it work, but the Crossing Gate can be an autonomous

machine with the simple addition of a Dynamixel AX-S1 or the sensor module. This would

allow the robot to function by itself, making this the next logical improvement.

Fig. 8 Crossing Gate 1.0

The robot was named Crossing Gate 1.0 as it was a revision of the first Crossing Gate.

The sensor was placed at the left side of the bridge and it was assumed that vehicles would

only pass through the gate from the left. When the sensor senses anything ranging from 0 to

15cm from the tip of the sensor it opens the gate and stays open until the object is no longer

sensed, where it will slowly close. In the guide there was a very interesting feature that used

sound detection and an experiment was done on the Crossing Gate 1.0. If three or more claps

are sensed then the gate opens and stays open. If less than three claps are sensed, ranging from

one to two claps, then the Crossing Gate 1.0 closes.

f. NASCAR Car

The Crossing Gate 1.0 was still relatively simple in that it only used one motor. The next

step is to increase complexity by adding more motors to the design. In this case a design from

the guide was used instead of creating a new robot. The example used is called the Obstacle

Detection Car where the car escapes or avoids crashing when a center object is sensed and

escapes to the side when a side object is sensed. This car shape example was chosen because

it could be later used as the scorpion’s main body. It was initially thought that the scorpion

legs would represent a great challenge so at first the objective was to use wheels of the

Obstacle Detection Car to keep the design as realistic as possible.

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A new program was written for the Obstacle Detection Car to apply newly acquired

programming skills. This new program was designed to fit different requirements. The

original program focused on avoiding obstacles so the new program was designed to make the

car perform more like a race car, thus the name “NASCAR Car”, which is a reference to the

popular stock car race.

Fig. 10 NASCAR Car

The Obstacle Detection Car stopped, went backwards and

escaped from the center object that was sensed. The NASCAR

Car instead senses the object at a distance and thus escapes it

or makes a turn to the proper side before being too late escape

it, thus eliminating the needing to stop and go backwards

which would greatly decrease time spent on tracks. The

NASCAR Car also avoids the sides like the Obstacle Detection

Car to keep distance, but the program was changed so that it

could avoid the side when it is much closer or else it would

keep sensing the side walls and reacting accordingly if the way

was too narrow. The speed of the car was also increased from

600 to 900 making the NASCAR Car even faster in completing tracks in wide mazes. The

robot completed the same tracks at an incredibly faster time leading to the name NASCAR

Car.

One issue that came up while building and programming the NASCAR Car was the

reversed sides. The left joints are the exact reverse of the right ones making the assembling

and programming a little confusing. At first this was note taken into account so when a

program was created to make it move forward it instead moved to the left or right. To move

Fig. 9 NASCAR Car

program

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forward the left wheels must be rotating counter-clockwise and the right wheels in the

clockwise direction. Also lack of attention caused me to build three left joints instead of two.

Programming for the NASCAR Car provided a great deal of programming experience as

the program was significantly larger than that of the Crossing Gate 1.0. Refer to Fig. 7 for the

programming of the Crossing Gate 1.0 and Fig. 10 for the NASCAR Car program.

g. Excavator

After the NASCAR car the period of familiarizing with assembly and programming was

about finished. The initial thought was to use the Attacking Duck and join it with the

NASCAR Car to start as the scorpion robot. However when checking the “BIOLOID: Quick

Start Guide” the Excavator was noticed due to its very interesting feature. The Excavator had

four wheels like the NASCAR Car, but it had an additional fifth motor on the middle of the

four as shown in Fig. 11. It was also a good start for the scorpion design as the body was

already done and a simple redesign of its excavating hand can turn it into a scorpion tail.

Fig. 11 Excavator base

The fifth motor on the Excavator base allows the Excavator to rotate its body without

using the wheels. The original programming the Excavator moves forward until it senses an

object in front or on the sides. When an object is sensed on the front it performs a digging

action. If an object is sensed on the right the Excavator stops and instead of the wheels

making the turn the fifth motor rotates the body to the right until it detects the object in front

of it followed by the digging action later escaping to the left side. This feature was very

impressive and one that was added to the first scorpion design.

The Excavator is an intermediate example of the guide unlike the previous robots which

were just beginner examples. The increase in complexity made the assembly a little

challenging and the malfunction of some motors after the completion of the robot was also

frustrating. The whole robot had to be dismantled to replace the faulty motors.

3

4

5 2

1

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Fig. 12 Excavator

The original program for the Excavator was unimpressive as its digging action looked

nothing like a real excavating machine doing some real digging. The main reason for choosing

to build this example was to take advantage of the fifth motor at the base, thus resulting in a

fully rewritten program.

Instead of Excavator the robot was renamed to Enraged Excavator as it better suits the

new programming. In the new program the excavator would move forward at a relatively slow

pace while performing a scanning function in which the body keeps moving at a 70° range

sensing for any close objects. Upon sensing an object on the right it does the same digging

action as the original Excavator, albeit a lot more aggressively, after which it escapes to the

left side and goes back to the scanning loop. The same steps are taken when an object on the

left is sensed.

Fig. 13 Enraged Excavator sensing range

70°

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Without the scanning function the Enraged Excavator would only be able to sense objects

directly in front of the sensor, which is thinner than the robot’s body. This can result in a crash

to the sides of the robot against an object that is slightly to the left or to the right of the

sensor’s range. The scanning functionality can solve this problem without much sacrifice as if

the same were to be done with the wheels the robot would have to move in a zigzag like form.

A great deal of time would be wasted and complexity of the program would greatly increase.

A new programming issue came up when running the Enraged Excavator program, the

Error Code 0009, which is also known as “Call Stack Overflow”. There is a limit of eight

consecutive call commands that can be used on a program and this was easily solved by

changing CALL commands to JUMP commands.

h. Scorpion

Following the assembly and programming for the Excavator the next step was to start

building the Scorpion through the redesign of the Excavator. This was done by redesigning

the excavating hand to look more like a scorpion tail. The tail design was time consuming as

there was no guide for it. The final tail design was reached after many attempts and much

dismantling. After the redesign the tail was attached to the back of the body to mimic a real

scorpion giving a really rough initial scorpion design on Fig. 14.

The design still did not look like a real scorpion with just the tail so the pincers were also

added giving a more convincing scorpion form as shown in Fig. 15. Now programming can

begin with the initial scorpion design.

Fig. 14 The first scorpion design Fig. 15 Scorpion

Programming was similar to the one in the Enraged Excavator where it scans at a 70°

range while moving forward, except that now the excavating hand is a scorpion tail placed at

the back. The values had to be corrected and the pincers accounted for.

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Upon turning on the Scorpion first goes to its initial position. After it reaches its initial

position the Scorpion starts moving forward while scanning for any objects. When an object is

sensed the scorpion stops moving, open and closes both pincers and strikes the object twice in

this sequence. The attack happens in three steps: firstly the tail slowly moves back and

becomes a straight line; secondly the tail strikes reaching the front of the sensor at a much

higher speed, lastly the tail slowly moves back to its original position before the attack. After

the attack the robot escapes to the right if the object was sensed at the left, the same happening

if the object was sensed on the right side. A frame by frame illustration of the attack sequence

will be later shown.

One issue was encountered when programming to the Scorpion. Before running the whole

program the attacking sequence was tested on the robot without the moving forward program.

The body was not heavy enough to sustain the weight of the tail stretching at the back when

preparing for an attack, causing the robot to fall back. This was corrected by adding an extra

leg as shown on Fig. 16 and 17. The extra leg was an easy and quick solution to the problem

until a better solution was thought about.

Fig. 16 Scorpion without extra leg Fig. 17 Scorpion with extra leg

i. Scorpion 1.0

After finishing the Scorpion it was initially thought that the purpose was met to create a

scorpion robot that has a scorpion behavior. The design looks like an actual scorpion when

excluding the wheels that substituted the legs. The scanning function was also a very

interesting implementation that can improve the sensing range of the robot without an

additional sensor. Initially it was thought that changing the wheels into legs would be time

consuming and extremely complex to design and program for. On the other hand the legs

would make the design become more scorpion-like and also make it more stable, thus

eliminating the need for the extra leg on the back of the Scorpion, which was not aesthetically

good. These factors led to the second scorpion design, the Scorpion 1.0

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To avoid any assembling problems like those encountered with the Excavator, where

some motors were discovered to be faulty only after the finishing assembling the robot, all

motors used on the legs were tested before hand as shown in Fig. 18.

Fig. 18 Testing motors

After making sure all Dynamixels were working properly the building started. There were

slight complications in creating a new scorpion design. A real scorpion has eight legs, four in

each side. Building eight legs was easy, but joining the eight legs was going to be very hard so

initially six legs were built and if required two additional legs would be built. On the

excavator the main controller was at a horizontal position where there is little space to attach

the legs, thus the body was rotated to have a vertical position. On this vertical position the six

legs could be attached, but there was not enough room to move so it was pointless. To solve

the assembly problem the rear legs were instead attached to the middle legs instead of body

and the two middle and front legs were attached to the body, but more separately to allow

space for movement. This can be seen on Fig. 19 where the rear legs are in the same position

as the tail and far from the body to allow more space to move the legs. The hands were also

redesigned to save parts that were needed on the legs.

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Fig. 19 Scorpion 1.0

Scorpion 1.0 may seem a like a completely different robot to that of the previous Scorpion

robot, but their programs still remain alike except that the Scorpion 1.0 now lacks the wheels

and the scanning feature found on the Scorpion robot. They are similar because first it goes to

its initial position and initializes its motors and starts moving forward. When moving forward

it also starts sensing for any close objects in front of it. If an object is detected the robot stops

and goes into his attacking position where it crouches or lowers its front and middle legs and

uses the same attacking sequence as the one present on the Scorpion. Following the attack the

scorpion stands up and escapes the object by turning to the right about 80° and then it

continues to move forward and the program runs again in a loop. If the robot detects an object

a second time this time it will escape to the left after the attack, and then to the right if

detected again and so on. This program is represented on the flowchart shown on Fig. 20.

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Fig. 20 Flowchart of Scorpion 2.0 program

j. Scorpion 2.0

It took considerable less time to finish building and programming for the Scorpion 1.0

than initially thought, which gave time to further improve the scorpion design and its

programming. To improve the programming the new robot design should be able to grab or

lock the object on its hand before attacking, which would make the design act even more like

an actual scorpion, thus two additional motors were attached on the pincers to allow

movement since they can only open and close. This led to the design shown on Fig. 21 the

final scorpion design the Scorpion 2.0.

Initial Action

Move Forward

Close Object

Sensed in Front?

No

Crouch and Attack

Yes

Escape

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Fig. 21 Scorpion 2.0

The only difference with this robot is the presence of two additional motors on the pincers

to allow movement and the walking program was refined to make it more stable and allow the

robot to move more quickly. Initially the middle legs moved forward or backwards depending

on the programming, but on the Scorpion 2.0 the middle legs did not move and instead were

used to sustain the scorpion on the appropriate side that the legs were used. On the Scorpion

1.0 the walking program happened in four sequences: first two legs on the left and one on the

right lifts up; secondly one leg on the left and two on the right push the robot forward; thirdly

the two legs on the left and the one on the right that were up now come down; and lastly the

one leg on the left and the two on the right that did the first push will lift. This process is done

twice on both sides to make the robot move forward. The refined walking program on the

Scorpion 2.0 there are only two sequences, making it walk a lot faster. The first and second

step of the walking program in the Scorpion 1.0 happens simultaneously and is followed by

the third and last step, which also happen at the same time. All of this happens while the speed

is increased and the second move starts immediately after the first one finishes. On the

previous program there was about a half second delay before the next move would start.

Even though two more motors were added to increase maneuverability of the pincers it

was extremely hard to apply the grabbing and locking action into the robot without making it

knock down or push the objects away so it was unfortunately taken out. The final program

does not use the two additional motors as there was not enough time to further study a way to

make it function as intended. Thus the final program is the same and just sets the additional

motors to a default stationary position.

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Fig. 22 Motion picture of the attack sequence from the Scorpion 2.0 program

Here is an illustration to visually and more clearly show the attack sequence used on the

scorpion robots. The numbers represent the sequence of events of the attacking action from

the Scorpion 2.0. First picture represents the initial position or the standing position. The

second picture is when the scorpion goes into his attacking position by crouching. After

crouching the robot prepares its attack by slowly lifting its tail as shown on the frames 3, 4

and 5. The strike action takes only one frame and the tail repositions itself to its original

position within two frames. After two attacks the scorpion goes to its initial standing position.

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7. Conclusions and Thoughts

The final scorpion design was really successful in resembling an actual scorpion.

Aesthetically it should be very easy for it to be identified as a scorpion robot if the viewer has

ever seen a picture or a real scorpion beforehand. The program also makes the robot behave

like a real scorpion as it has a very convincing attack when sensing an object. Escaping after

an attack also further makes the robot seem like an actual scorpion. Overall the purpose seems

to have been met and it is safe to say that the project was successful.

This was a very interesting project where a lot was learned. There were no courses

teaching how to use the BIOLOID kit so everything had to be learned through the internet, the

provided guides and examples which were extremely helpful. Every time an issue was

encountered it was solved through own means and sometimes by discussing with other

classmates and the advising professor. The BIOLOID is not a very complex kit, but requires

some knowledge and care to handle it and create own robot designs. An essential factor that

helped make this project as successful as it is was the frequent meetings with the advisor,

which gave me very constructive criticism and suggestions for the next step and how to

approach some issues. These meetings also helped me keep track on what has been done, what

had to be improved and what had to be finished.

A lot of effort was put into this project to make reach the final product. Showing pictures

of the results of individual experiments makes it look easy when in fact assembling a robot

and creating a new design is an extremely time consuming task, but on in where a lot of

experience could be gained to make something more efficient and better every time. For

example in total I had three tail designs before finally building the final one that was used.

Each of the three times the tail had to be completely dismantled. To reach the design that most

suited my needs about four hours were put on trial and error. This was crucial to meet a

satisfying design.

This project course was very helpful in preparing me for a graduate degree as it taught me

how to do my own research and use what was relevant to try an experiment and refine it to

meet my goals. This showed me my capacity of problem solving and even further improved it

while also making me more confident in giving oral presentations. The frequent progress

reports helped me feel comfortable about giving presentations, when before it always made

me feel nervous. I also learned how to accept criticism and learn from it instead of just

avoiding or being afraid of it. This helped me and my projects grow. This course has helped

me gain a lot of experiences and I am very thankful for that.

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8. Reference

ROBOTIS, 2006. BIOLOID: For robotic projects in schools.

<http://www.robotis.com/xe/bioloid_en>

ROBOTIS, 2006. BIOLOID: User’s Guide.

ROBOTIS, 2006. BIOLOID: Quick Start Guide.