Oh my goodness! As an Engineering student I'm slackjawed at your work because I know all the time and effort you all had to put into it. Congratulations on that. Great job.
I'd beg to differ. trial and error would take forever for this and the precision it has in the video is not something i'd expect to see from trial and error. Depending how many variables were factored in (thing like intertia of the ball, inertia of the platform, damping constant of actuators, etc.) the math can get quite heavy when designing PID controllers. Programming is just controlling the servos and running the control algorithms, the algorithms are doing the heavy lifting. You have to remember that there are also 6 degrees of freedom which means there are 18 parameters to tune and if you have ever tuned PIDs before you'll know that its not such an easy task
function86 well, if you already modeled the dynamics and have a MIMO system you'd most likely not use a PID I imagine, but go the extra mile and dive into state space controls
Anywhere you have an adjustable system and a sensor, you can implement a pid controller. Whether it be an altimeter in a drone to maintain altitude, a thermistor in an ac system to adjust to the temperature of your thermostat, or cruise control in your car to maintain speed pid controllers are everywhere.
so cool... shocking how many people are saying its "the most useless machine ever"... reverse it... use it as a cup/phone holder in cars strap it on a torso... use it for a steady cam operator slow it down a bit and put it in a sound proof box... sell it as office decore like those pendulum balls, but one that you can actually interact with and program to move in set patterns... this thing is amazing as it is. people need to stop hating on other people's ideas... contribute or gtfo
This is awesome. I went to your site and i got to say that simulator is pretty bad ass. If that ever went into a commercial market i bet you could make good bank.
If balls are equal if will move to get center symmetry between balls. After they will react the same. If balls are different weight distance to center will be inversely proportional to it's weight. But line connecting two balls will always cross center of the plate in initial position.
I'm guessing that the convulsions it goes into when you remove the ball are intentional - if there's a dead spot on the touch panel, this will give the ball a kick to clean it. One of the difficult things about building robust servo systems is having them still work when the feedback sensor is noisy or the loop opens for any reason.
First of all, absolutely amazing and the best part was you were using a nunchuck as your joystick! Second, as I understand it, the top of your platform is like a touch screen? I have a GLCD that uses a touch screen that looks like what you have on the top of your platform and I was wondering if someone or you could tell me exactly what it is.
I was wondering if they were using optical vision like the other version I saw, of if maybe they were magical enough to just determine all this by the force the servos measured (Can they even do that?). But your hypothesis seems a lot more likely.
It uses a resistive touchscreen panel as input for the position of the ball. I assume when the ball is lifted the algorithm goes apeshit until it realizes it's just missing the ball, at which point it self-centers and waits for input again. Far off +Full Motion Dynamics ?
This is great! Can you do some videos showing what high P gain vs high I gain looks like, and same with low P and I and the the effect D gain has on them? That would be soooo awesome, im always trying to explain PIDs to people to tune a rc helicopter or multirotor but if you made those videos it would be so much easier.
Well the 6DOF platform was for a separate project, and it took a few months to get all the kinks worked out with the kinematics for controlling the platform. The ball balancing portion took a few weeks to figure out and another week to tune.
Hello: I would like to do this project. I clicked the link to your webpage, but it is no longer there. I was wondering if you had the list of materials, and some suggestions on how I can proceed with making this. I think it would be great for me to do at school for my final project. The deadline is in 3 just over 3 months. I would like to get started on it sooner, rather than later. Thank you.
It's cool. I'm finding a topic of my making project. I'll copy this project in 2015. If I get it done, I probably understand how to control drone's position in the air.
"...that uses a resistive touch panel mounted on the platform as input." One of the problems keeping the drone in one spot so accurately is probably to have very accurate position measurement, GPS is pretty noisy. Maybe some form of differential GPS is better.
hi such a very good project have a doubt are using a PID system and if so use of sensor element to the table understand that the bearing moves in place and do not let fall off the table
Great project! Do you have a part list for just this device? Your website has the part list for the 1:1 scale platform, but I'd like to tinker with this instead.
Athus Vieira PID tuning can be done without finding the transfer function of a system, or by assuming a linear gain from PWM to angle and doing simple system identification.
+Xiangbao Song Can you please specify what kind of servos and servos control board you have used for this project. Great help if you can. The PID I'm using gives lot of noise and I found it hard to tune. Is there any way i can improve.
Why the instability when the ball is removed? It seems like it would be simple to prevent, just by nulling the servo when no ball is detected on the plate. On the other hand, it is a pretty good demonstrator of the bandwidth. I did some servos for a some FLIR/mm wave radar gimbals on a fused sensor system, and the boss asked for a dynamic demo to run for a dog and pony. We set up what we called the washing machine scan, where it just randomly scanned to just shy of the limit sensors. He didn't like it, and asked for a bar scan instead...how boring and predictable can you get??? :-P What we really should have done was some cueing from the radar gimbal to the FLIR gimbal, as one scenario that would have occurred in operation, but very few attending the "show" would have understood it anyway. Such is life.
I'm impressed by the quality of this project. This video also is the first time that I've seen what appear to be a lot of posts made to reddit. Did Google just do a cross-platform with them?
chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hide-fedora/acjgabfifnnmmlckmnijdbijgbfpedde?hl=en-US is your friend. Basically anything that gets big on reddit, attracts a group of satiracle "comedians" who post obnoxious comments to make fun of whatever they feel like at the time (whether it be feminism, racial rights, or reddit itself)
I like to think the machine has a mechanical heart attack of not knowing what to do when you take the ball off, poor lil thing.
***** Um...what
Justinian Snow LOL!!!
***** A bit too obvious bro. Try a bit harder otherwise we will have to fail you this semester for the trolling class
***** RELAX MY FRIEND
Draegast?!!! Oh boi! Dude I love your videos! I watch them every time a new one comes out!!
Oh my goodness! As an Engineering student I'm slackjawed at your work because I know all the time and effort you all had to put into it. Congratulations on that. Great job.
the amount of math that probably went into the control algorithms is probably enormous. I'd be terrified to even attempt this
function86 it's more trial and error and programming, I don't think there was that much "math"
I'd beg to differ. trial and error would take forever for this and the precision it has in the video is not something i'd expect to see from trial and error. Depending how many variables were factored in (thing like intertia of the ball, inertia of the platform, damping constant of actuators, etc.) the math can get quite heavy when designing PID controllers. Programming is just controlling the servos and running the control algorithms, the algorithms are doing the heavy lifting. You have to remember that there are also 6 degrees of freedom which means there are 18 parameters to tune and if you have ever tuned PIDs before you'll know that its not such an easy task
function86 well, if you already modeled the dynamics and have a MIMO system you'd most likely not use a PID I imagine, but go the extra mile and dive into state space controls
ahahahahahahha
Make one hell of an office desk toy.
Productivity might go low though..
Not after an hour.
Ok challenge accepted, I made it : ua-cam.com/video/57DbEEBF7sE/v-deo.html
This is one of the coolest projects I've seen in a long time!
This is amazing. I was smiling the whole time!.
This is awesome, I always wondered how PID controllers could be implemented into the real world since taking Control Theory. Thanks for the post.
There are 100's of applications one can list as you gain experience.
Anywhere you have an adjustable system and a sensor, you can implement a pid controller. Whether it be an altimeter in a drone to maintain altitude, a thermistor in an ac system to adjust to the temperature of your thermostat, or cruise control in your car to maintain speed pid controllers are everywhere.
Balls have gotten really advanced with recent manufacturing. I remember the days they used to roll off tables.
Every now and then I get amazed. This is one of them!
Anyone else think the way it trembles is hella creepy?
***** g8 b8 m8
I report them each and every fucking time. I hope Google takes it seriously and removes them. Spoiling other people's fun is how I get off.
***** actually thought the wild shaking when they took the ball off was kinda cute ^u^ it gave it some personality..
Yes, totally! It seems like it's pissed off at you for moving the ball...
Reminds me of pee-shivers.
so cool... shocking how many people are saying its "the most useless machine ever"...
reverse it... use it as a cup/phone holder in cars
strap it on a torso... use it for a steady cam operator
slow it down a bit and put it in a sound proof box... sell it as office decore like those pendulum balls, but one that you can actually interact with and program to move in set patterns...
this thing is amazing as it is. people need to stop hating on other people's ideas... contribute or gtfo
This will probably be the coolest PID demo I will ever see.
This is awesome. I went to your site and i got to say that simulator is pretty bad ass. If that ever went into a commercial market i bet you could make good bank.
what happens if you put 2 balls?
Then that would be public indecency... seriously tho why would you wanna rub your nut bag all over it.
I think It would explode
your profile pictures matches this comment so well
Nord Deus LOL!!!
If balls are equal if will move to get center symmetry between balls. After they will react the same. If balls are different weight distance to center will be inversely proportional to it's weight. But line connecting two balls will always cross center of the plate in initial position.
I'm guessing that the convulsions it goes into when you remove the ball are intentional - if there's a dead spot on the touch panel, this will give the ball a kick to clean it. One of the difficult things about building robust servo systems is having them still work when the feedback sensor is noisy or the loop opens for any reason.
Great show! Long life for Arduino.Congratulations by your project.
i am also a student as SJSU, i am very impressed!
First of all, absolutely amazing and the best part was you were using a nunchuck as your joystick! Second, as I understand it, the top of your platform is like a touch screen? I have a GLCD that uses a touch screen that looks like what you have on the top of your platform and I was wondering if someone or you could tell me exactly what it is.
I was wondering if they were using optical vision like the other version I saw, of if maybe they were magical enough to just determine all this by the force the servos measured (Can they even do that?). But your hypothesis seems a lot more likely.
It also says so in the description..
I did that with a camera on top and labview. LQR control gives better result than PID
This is a really awesome piece of innovation. I 'd like to know what comes next.
I love that you're using a nunchuck.
When you take the ball away, the shaking makes it look like it's mad. "Fucker took my ball! Give it back!"
I'm just satisfied with the ball ending up perfectly in the middle just when the video ends. I can rest peacefully now :)
it has a seizure when you pick the ball up
It uses a resistive touchscreen panel as input for the position of the ball. I assume when the ball is lifted the algorithm goes apeshit until it realizes it's just missing the ball, at which point it self-centers and waits for input again. Far off +Full Motion Dynamics ?
It worries where the ball went hehehe
the BAaAAaaaAALL
Replace those servos with KST DS115MG servos, and they'll be quieter, smoother, and way more accurate
The old site is not working, I wanted to build a project like this for myself, where can I find the project?
This is great! Can you do some videos showing what high P gain vs high I gain looks like, and same with low P and I and the the effect D gain has on them? That would be soooo awesome, im always trying to explain PIDs to people to tune a rc helicopter or multirotor but if you made those videos it would be so much easier.
Project website no longer up. 😢
Well the 6DOF platform was for a separate project, and it took a few months to get all the kinks worked out with the kinematics for controlling the platform. The ball balancing portion took a few weeks to figure out and another week to tune.
I have no idea what I just watched but that was super hella cool, if only I could design things that sweet.
Beautiful little mechanism
Hello:
I would like to do this project. I clicked the link to your webpage, but it is no longer there. I was wondering if you had the list of materials, and some suggestions on how I can proceed with making this. I think it would be great for me to do at school for my final project. The deadline is in 3 just over 3 months. I would like to get started on it sooner, rather than later. Thank you.
very cool - from a fellow SJSU alumni
My heart is racing from the shaking of the plate
Amazing Control Job you guys... with proyects like this I'm falling in love with Control :V
Amazing work! Congratulations!
thought it was the jumping one but this is amazing too, beautiful
It's cool. I'm finding a topic of my making project. I'll copy this project in 2015. If I get it done, I probably understand how to control drone's position in the air.
"...that uses a resistive touch panel mounted on the platform as input." One of the problems keeping the drone in one spot so accurately is probably to have very accurate position measurement, GPS is pretty noisy. Maybe some form of differential GPS is better.
sigh.. I didn't read description yet. need to rely on gyrometer but latency might be significant.
That is really a great project...such a clever implementation!! 😍
Looks like a wii nunchuck. Really amazing control
This is wonderful! Please fix the jittery movement when you remove the ball (it should be pretty easy) and it will be fantastic!
Put a top on it , one of those childrens battling ones with erratic spins...please! Cool vid@ FMD
hi such a very good project have a doubt are using a PID system and if so use of sensor element to the table understand that the bearing moves in place and do not let fall off the table
This is fucking amazing.. I took nonlinear control systems and I know how hard is this shit... really amazing.
It took balls to take this on as a semester project
Next semester project - robotic arm with gentle touch.
Nice... Same thing that's in a quadcopter. What the gyro does in self leveling modes. Pretty cool
very cool idea and nicely realised! Congrats!
Quite Interesting! A touch screen, very cool
Where can i find the servo arm extensions? I have been looking for days and can still not find them. What are these called?
Useful as a table aboard ships and Planes !
The shaking it does when it has no ball, it's like a crack addict... god man I needs a fix. I needs the ball man!
Hello!
You made me feel happy, excellent work. Cheers....
this is mind bending
the future is upon us!
Great project! Do you have a part list for just this device? Your website has the part list for the 1:1 scale platform, but I'd like to tinker with this instead.
It would be great to see this on a boat or plane, keeping the ball still in the middle. Very cool
This is absurdly good.
holy shit, i can only imagine the work that was put into it >.>
What electrocal components you use in there? I am making the almost the same, but the motor keep revving up. It won't stop at my desire angle...
I am proud to be a Control Engineering student.
Very well designed. Impressive.
which microcontroller handled to do this amazing job?
Brilliant idea to use RT panel :)
What happen when you put there 2 balls?
Technology is bloody awesome!
To control the servos by finding the PID parameters, did you have to find the servo transfer function?
Athus Vieira PID tuning can be done without finding the transfer function of a system, or by assuming a linear gain from PWM to angle and doing simple system identification.
wooow super cool. do you think that maybe later you can make a tutorial explaining the basics of how it works ?
thanks
what is the type of microcontroller used here ( Arduino, raspberry or ...) and which one is suggested to use ?
wow, this is just perfect! Nice work!
It sounds like it's angry when you remove the ball
may i ask u a question? how do you get the posion of the ball from the plate? is there any pressure sensor on the board？thanks.
Is it possibile to have a BOM of the project? I find it very interesting. At least is is possible to know how you find ball position?
+Xiangbao Song Can you please specify what kind of servos and servos control board you have used for this project. Great help if you can. The PID I'm using gives lot of noise and I found it hard to tune. Is there any way i can improve.
Why the instability when the ball is removed? It seems like it would be simple to prevent, just by nulling the servo when no ball is detected on the plate. On the other hand, it is a pretty good demonstrator of the bandwidth. I did some servos for a some FLIR/mm wave radar gimbals on a fused sensor system, and the boss asked for a dynamic demo to run for a dog and pony. We set up what we called the washing machine scan, where it just randomly scanned to just shy of the limit sensors. He didn't like it, and asked for a bar scan instead...how boring and predictable can you get??? :-P What we really should have done was some cueing from the radar gimbal to the FLIR gimbal, as one scenario that would have occurred in operation, but very few attending the "show" would have understood it anyway. Such is life.
These would make great DIY build kits...
Using a touch panel is genious.
Which resistive touch screen sensor did you use? What are the dimensions of the plate? Where to get a metalic ball and what weight it has to be?
This is really cool. It kinda reminds me of a racing driver correcting oversteer lol
Mr Wang... Stop wasting ur time and get back to work
is it possible to get the code for this ball on plate balancing and schematic?
FMD sir what sensor did u guys use to detect the ball weight or location? is it that pad? can u please tell us what kind of pad is that?
Hi sir, it is posible to make DOF of game simulator sir??
hiii
i want to know where did you buy components for this project??
Is it able to design such a thing with 6DOF IMU (accelerometer and gyro) as an input to the system?
how did you tune your pid coefficients?
Congratulations. Great work
is it using a resistive touch screen pad to determine were the ball is?
How would it handle a ball with some wobble, like a half-full ping pong ball?
offers a visual feast perfect project
Very nice. How did you tune it?
what is the sensor that you use?
Where did you get the resistive touch panel that supports Arduino UNO?
How did you connect the servos with the platform?
I'm impressed by the quality of this project.
This video also is the first time that I've seen what appear to be a lot of posts made to reddit. Did Google just do a cross-platform with them?
Somebody linked it in /r/videos (one of the biggest subs) and it reached the frontpage.
chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hide-fedora/acjgabfifnnmmlckmnijdbijgbfpedde?hl=en-US is your friend. Basically anything that gets big on reddit, attracts a group of satiracle "comedians" who post obnoxious comments to make fun of whatever they feel like at the time (whether it be feminism, racial rights, or reddit itself)
can i know what are the components you used to build these project ????
how many inches is the touch screen? thank you
Guys how did you tune PID so good? Could you please share some sourses?
What is the model of your servomotor? thanks
How does it sense the location of the ball?
Would it be possible for one to purchase one of these...
Can you tell us how did you do it, step by step?
Can you share some data about this project?
I'm interested in this project
What kind of feedback system is used ?
Good Job !!
Is there a very weak magnet in the center?
Touch screen through decoder onto servos. Nice one.