Project 3 Statement - Lumina the Ballet Bot

 

    For Project 3 I create Lumina the Ballet Bot. This project was inspired by my mom who was a ballerina. Just like how my mom is always positive shining light into darkness, Lumina dances only when it is dark. This project is dedicated to my mom who through pushes through hard times,  continues to support me, and serves as an inspiration. 

    I used an Arduino micro-controller for this project. Lumina responds to light using a photo-resistor and looks for values < 25. When it is dark, the servo motor spins Lumina, an LED light turns on, and the piezzo buzzer plays Fur Elise. I switched from Ode to Joy to Fur Elise because the original song sounded off and Fur Elise was one of my favorite songs that I used to play on the piano.

A difficulty in this project was having all the components working in parallel when Arduino doesn't "support" parallel programming. After trial and error and playing around with where values are updated in the loop I was able to achieve all the components working in parallel only when the lights are off. I completed this by adding one component at a time and then testing. After enjoying modeling in Project 2, I decided to create the ballerina model by hand. One concern was weight, so I added internal supports to the head and body of the model and then connected it to a wooden dowel before attaching it to he top of the servo. When putting everything in the box, some of the wires disconnected, so I reconnected and made sure they were secure. I was surprised how well the photo-resistor worked and my roses included getting the individual components to work.

If I were to revisit this piece, I would add more LEDs throughout the box. I would also make a wooden box, hide the servo underneath, and better sync the servo to the music. I also would have centered the ballerina, but based on the Arduino and breadboard placement, this was the best slot. I am happy what I accomplished given the timeline.