Stewart Motion Platform Redesign (Table 15 Side R, 10:45 AM-12:00PM)

The University of Maine Virtual Environment and Multimodal Interaction Laboratory (VEMI Lab) houses a currently offline Stewart Motion Platform (SMP). The SMP is a synergistic parallel robot with six axes of movement. The platform is controlled with an Arduino Mega, which in turn is controlled by a PC computer using Python script and a Joystick. Repeated operating system updates over time have rendered the joystick drivers unusable, which in turn have affected the Python script. The proposed project consists in migrating the hardware to a new, durable format, involving reassembly of the control interfaces, and reprogramming. The setup will be reverse engineered and reassembled using 3D printing technologies, forming single-piece, solid, hardwired connections requiring no further modifications to conform to changing standards in computers. Specifically, platform-to-Arduino connections will be replaced with Cat5 cabling and connectors. Thereafter, Python scripted software will be redeveloped using Unity as a control system for the platform. Unity is a mainstream game development engine also used in research with the capacity to render real-time physics, making it highly useful in simulations. Additionally, Unity can interface with an Arduino using Serial Communications, making it an ideal environment for controlling the SMP. The restored platform will inform research design for current and future VEMI projects involving aging and spatial cognition, again and driving, gerontechnology, and the study of multi-level 2D and 3D cognitive maps and aspects of human-computer interaction.

Project Haggis (Table 23 Side L, 9:15AM-10:30AM)

While peers may be invited to provide in-class verbal feedback or critique of student work, formal evaluation of student projects in traditional teacher-centric classrooms is usually reserved to the class instructor. Project Haggis proposes a technological mechanism for expanding formal feedback to include student-peer evaluations, providing quality, timely feedback while involving an entire class in the process of evaluating group projects and individual performance. Haggis offers a web-based service making peer feedback accessible in real time as evaluations are completed. Using an SQL database system and web browser, Haggis is a content management system in which data is captured, stored, and made visually available through built-in and user-formulated queries. APIs let students submit on-site evaluations of project work via smartphone. Students will be required to log on via web-browser to view compiled results and to submit individual performance evaluations. The pilot program will be applied to multiple project assignments within a single Spring 2017 course being offered at University of Maine. The underlying system is generically designed to support any number of courses and assignments within courses. The system could likewise be deployed to increase interactivity of an audience and with producers of materials, e.g. at science fairs or art shows, or with business/organization project teams. The system’s abstract design supports wide-ranging applications conceptually similar to this evaluation pilot program. The objective of this pilot project is to demonstrate the system’s viability and gather initial data for assessing user experience.

Faculty Mentor: Mike Scott

Co-authors: Dylan Landry, Ethan Saville, Brent Wilson, Francis Leith, Jacob Hall