How can we make people conscious of the kinetic movements we take for granted?

Through the use of a mechanical arm and a drawing tablet and by skewing a person’s proprioception (the ability to know where your limbs are without looking). We believe we can make people aware of the difficulties certain people may face when attempting to functionally take advantage of the movements the arms and legs have to offer.

                It is important to bring proprioception, an often misunderstood or completely unheard-of sense, into the spotlight. It is often hard to sympathize with a person with proprioceptive disorders. Additionally, it is important to achieve a deeper understanding of how humans can mold and change their own proprioception. Doctors performing laparoscopic-robotic surgery are required to understand the movement and control of their surgery robots on a level deeper than conscious, much like we understand our own bodies.  

                The exhibit includes a Wacom drawing tablet connected to a computer, and an Arduino. The Arduino uses pulse width modulation to control the angles of two servo motors acting as arm joints. Code converts the X and Y coordinates input from the Wacom tablet to two angles to be written to the servos. In a previous model, Bike chain connects and turns the second “elbow” joint from a motor located at the first joint (the shoulder).  Far too late, however, that the stepper motors could not turn the chain or the whole assembly,  so the project now consists of two servo motors and connecting Popsicle sticks. 

                The main goals of the project were to create something interactive yet engaging, and challenging yet intuitive. The ideal interaction between the robotic arm and a user might look something like: The user walks up to the drawing pad with the pen; he/she touches the pen to the pad; the arm moves somewhere; the user tries to move the pen and finds that it does not move the way they wanted; maybe they will give up and think the arm doesn’t work, but more persistent users may try again in a different way. Hopefully, after trial and error most people will be able to figure out how to draw what they want. Through this experience of learning to use a new device, he/she may receive a greater appreciation for proprioception.