Fine Motor Control Solution
How It Works
Each of the ten buttons connected to the arm has a color and a label with a number and letter underneath it.
| # | Letter |
| --- | --- |
| 1 | C |
| 2 | L |
| 3 | A |
| 4 | W |
| 5 | P |
| 6 | R |
| 7 | I |
| 8 | Z |
| 9 | E |
| 10 | S |
Inside of the enclosure with the arm are ten plastic containers with little colors slips of paper in them. With two of each color, it's pretty quick to guess/realize you only need one of each. Devising a system to communicate amongst the team is critical to getting the containers. Each of the slips of paper has two number pairs written on it, which are used to transform (shift) the letters on the buttons' labels.
| Color | # |
| --- | --- |
| Red | 1 |
| 6 | -9 |
| Yellow | 2 |
| 7 | 5 |
| Blue | 3 |
| 8 | -25 |
| Green | 4 |
| 9 | 15 |
| White | 5 |
| 10 | -14 |
Shifting the letters on the button labels by the corresponding amount (eg. Z - 25 = A) yields the answer.
Solution
COORDINATE
Design Notes
This was originally designed to use a completely different method to control the arm, but it proved to be too unreliable, so the button scheme was used instead.
Construction Notes
Every component (arms, PCBs, button boxes, enclosures) had to be built/assembled by hand in some way. Building the enclosures alone took about 15 hours over two days and 11 trips to Home Depot to acquire materials.