Yarn-Bot: Solving a yarn problem with a robot

The problem: To build a tool to help a teacher divide up a ball of yarn to make small samples for students. In this talk, I tell you the four phases I used to create a robot to wind mini-skeins: research, hardware, electronics, and software. I'll show how I broke the problem into small tasks, and highlight the technologies that I used. After solving the physics problem of angular momentum and the "yarn octopus", I built a laser-cut enclosure and aparatus. Next, I developed the software using the Arduino IDE, and "hijacked" a microcontroller built-in to a LED display to be the "brain". Finally, I'll show you my secret trick for controlling both a 7-segment LED and a stepper-motor at the same time through cooperative multi-tasking. I'll wrap up with how I'd improve the design for "Yarn-Bot 2.0".

• Development
• Hardware