The story of how one user has found an online community during the pandemic.
(Full disclosure: Make: Projects is partially owned by engineering.com.)
With many staying at home to decrease the risk of viral infection, our dynamic society has essentially stopped. As many are stuck indoors, they are unable to feel any type of connection except through the flicker of lights from our screens. The challenge soon becomes how to feel that connection seen at makerspaces, local schools and community clubs virtually. Many people have been flocking to Make: Projects to show the power of 3D printing, AI and machine learning as well as essentially share this excitement with a new online maker community.
Kelvin Tan, one of the many users of Make: Projects as well as an IoT business owner and professor in Singapore, shares a similar story.
“I started to post on the website because I wanted to socialize with a community of people who are sharing the same passion and decided to post it to get like-minded people to connect and share my ideas with,” said Tan. “The reach is much wider because previously my audience was just in Singapore. With Make: Projects, we can reach the entire world and are not just limited to a single country, so I think it’s amazing,” he noted.
Tan says that he got the idea to build a robot that could test a computer’s ability to learn new behaviors using artificial intelligence, similar to the way researchers might test a mouse in a maze in early 2019. He started experimenting with Reinforcement Learning algorithms using the OpenGym virtual environment, but it wasn’t until the pandemic lockdown that he finally had the chance to step away from work and build the physical robot.
“It’s definitely more interesting to see a physical item moving and finding its way out rather than seeing it in a computer screen rendering. So, I decided to make this hardware platform. Because of COVID-19, we had lockdowns and we couldn’t do anything or go out of the house, so I had a little bit more time at home to play around with different experiments and build upon my ideas of the previous year,” explained Tan. “The process required fine shop eyesight and fine motor skills. The software itself is also pretty interesting because it’s something that’s not done before.”
With a strong interest in robotics, IoT and AI, Tan built the Electromechanical Maze for Evaluating Reinforcement Learning Algorithms. Most mazes for algorithm studies use a ball and camera with computer vision; however, this requires sufficient lighting, high contrast and a large working volume. This can be quite computationally demanding. Tan’s system is comprised of a motorized electromechanical stage with magnetic hall sensors that can detect objects. The hall sensors can detect the magnetic flux surrounding the magnetic ball and using gravity and movements can guide the ball to where it needs to go. These tilts and movements are measured through accelerometers and gyroscopes.
AI-powered through an Arduino board helps to strategize the robot’s movements to get the ball to the exit from any starting point within the maze. The Arduino board can process and relay information from the sensor to the edge computer as well as the commands from the computer to the servo motors. It also has Bluetooth 5.0 functionality so the platform can work wirelessly.
Taking inspiration from a documentary about the life of Dr. Claude Shannon, Tan started working with various sensors, controllers and algorithms. The Electromechanical Maze can teach, optimize and evaluate machine learning, feedback control methodologies and algorithms. His final project was completed in October 2020.
“I like to think about different hardware and new sensors or controllers. I’ll try to get my hand to play around with it and learn. I just find joy doing it,” said Tan. “I’ve been participating in Maker Faire Singapore, which started in Singapore in 2012. I had a chance to be one of the first to exhibit at the Maker Faire Singapore. It’s inspired and encouraged people to not just sit on the idea but actually build it up. It’s about turning your passion, hobby, or interest and making it into a reality,” he said.
Maker Faire started as a small fair in 2006, connecting makers of all ages who had the ability to create and learn from other enthusiasts. In 2019, there were 190 Mini Maker Faires and 30 larger ones across the globe. However, this activity has all come to a steaming halt with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Make: Projects now inspires over 25,000 members to build thousands of projects and educate others. Through open community chats, comments and online engagement, the online platform has provided new opportunities for makers to interact and reconnect. The platform is helping many makers like Tan continue their passion of creating and collaborating through Make: Projects while the pandemic continues on.
