LLAMA-Q; Controlling robots with math

Virtually Maker Faire 2020

May 22nd-23rd

When you boil robots down to their math, you get the Controlled Robotic Mechanism.
We created the term CRM to describe any robotic mechanism which moves an object, whether it be a pen, a 3D Printer Nozzle, a CNC endmill, a gripper of some sort, or a roll of duct tape and zip ties, through 3D space. We call this end-effector the traveler. All such mechanisms result in giving the traveler a position in 3D space and a heading as a function of its actuator movements -- we format this function and call it the Q-Vector.
There are CRMs all around you. That 3D printer in your school, office, home is a CRM, as is that automated door. Currently, if you were to develop your own CRM, unless it was a standard mechanism (like a cartesian 3D printer), you would have to build the software for it.
LLAMA-Q is a modularized open-source framework that allows users to control their own CRMs no matter the orientation, as long as they input the kinematics of their CRM in the form of the Q-Vector.
The application is split into two parts. The first takes input and translates it. You input your mechanism-specific Q-Vector here, and then whatever input you put in is translated to what we call QCode. QCode is read by the Arduino on the robot, and actuators are moved according to the QCode commands to move your traveler to a desired position and heading.