In short, this development board allows you to interface with the physical world (sensors, actuators) using an Android device as the computational brain. The major improvement between this and the 1st/original IOIO board is that the IOIO-OTG can also interface with your Windows, Linux or OS X machine, and soon with the RaspberryPi (under “Coming Up”).
It’s a rather capable I/O board, featuring:
USB-OTG dual-role (host, device).
Input voltage: 5V-15V, from external source or through USB (when connected to a computer).
Output voltage: 5V, up to 3A (!), 3.3V, up to 500mA.
46 I/O pins (digital I/O), built-in pull-ups / pull-downs / open-drain on all pins.
16 Analog inputs.
9 PWM (for driving servos, DC motors, dimming LEDs, etc).
4 UART.
3 TWI (I2C, SMBUS).
3 SPI.
6 Pulse Input (precise pulse-width / frequency measurement).
USB current limiting when acting as USB host (useful in Android mode).
Switch for forcing host mode (for using non-standard USB cables, which are more common than the standard ones…)
On-board LED under user control.
Here’s everything you need to know:
Ytai Ben-Tsvi: Google employee, lead developer of IOIO
This is a laser pendulum. The motor driving the pendulum turns on when the laser is blocked from contacting photo sensor. Each time the laser hits the sensor the motor switches direction.
cold description: When magnetic sensor on upper arm senses magnet on lower arm, blower is triggered, which inflates prosthetic bicep muscle. When a stretch sensor created with conductive fabric is stretched across the inflating bicep muscle, a sounding pitch becomes lower as the muscle becomes bigger.
warm thoughts: Here, I’m playing with an interest in prostheses. In some ways, robotics (and technology in general) in our everyday lives already act as prosthetics. In this prototype for a 2-sensor 2-actuator system, this symbiotic relationship between humans and robotics technology is (perhaps reversed) and reflected as a non-functional, cosmetic flex of the human muscle. In relation to biomimetic robotics, this set up is somewhat reflective of an ectosymbiotic system.
Reading about robotic gardeners reminded me of my Uncle Rodger. He farms over 80,000 acres out in Kansas and purchases new equipment every few years. Last summer he and I had a conversation about his process and he mentioned various robotic equipment including this combine harvester. The machinery uses GPS and various sensors to guide the combine along the planted rows, turn around, and align itself again harvesting in the opposite direction. An employee still rides along to monitor the behavior of the machine. Rodger said that employing these robots they are able to yield more of the crop otherwise missed by human error. After poking around the web I found this post on arduino forum where a DIY’er modified his combine to behave in the same why with relatively cheap components.
As a child, I remember seeing Sony’s state of the art robot dog in shopping mall demonstrations and thinking it was the epitome of future technology.
The future was a place of prettier consumer products, that emoted freely and replaced problematic institutions such as pets. These were the terms my 10-year-old self thought in. What will I be able to buy in the future? What kind of shopping can we do in a few decades?
The actual significance of the Aibo may have been overlooked by the crowds, who were enchanted with it’s apparent sophistication and futurism. The $2,000 dog for the family that has everything.
What the designers had in mind is still somewhat mysterious to me. Perhaps Sony wanted a platform of obvious and agressive futurism to make the rest of their products seem sophisticated by association.
The “Entertainment Robot” is a strange concept. When examined in the context of the dog, it implies that organic canines are entertainment animals. I would think that dog owners see their furry companions as friends and family members more than entertainment entities. Can a robot, with any degree of verisimilitude, assume the strange and significant role of a pet?
The reading promised a future of such robots by 2025, but I think mankind will resist this notion for a bit longer.
The AIBO was discontinued as Sony restructured in 2006. The folks who run the site, it seems, are upset about this.
I had to start over on a different board after I realized the other one had printed white rectangles encompassing several pin holes meaning that they were connected internally.
Apologies for this bad documentation taken at 1 am, when the sensor was still working.
Cold description: Sharp analog distance sensor as input. Values above 200, or objects close enough to sensor, trigger actuation of blower (via arduino & break out to relay module switching blower power on and off)
Warm description: When Nancy “sees” her own reflection in the mirror, she augments her voluminous hair and lips.
