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Principles, Practices and Project Management
============================================
(old)
##### Week of 29 January 2020
##### Principles and Practices - [notes](https://fabacademy.org/2020/labs/barcelona/local/#material/week01/) + [video](https://vimeo.com/388191611)
##### Project Management - [notes](http://academy.cba.mit.edu/classes/project_management/index.html) + [video](https://vimeo.com/388201669)
make making easier > tool / machine > robotic arm? > infinite axes > modular
I'm interested in making a robot of some kind. A machine that does a specific series of tasks. I read about kinds of [robots](https://wiki.fablabbcn.org/Category:Robotic) according to [application](https://robots.ieee.org/learn/types-of-robots/), [geometry/axes](https://robots.ieee.org/learn/types-of-robots/). Instead of having limited axes for movement. I wondered if the arm could be modular and move in any direction possible. That's how I came to the idea of having robotic modules, that can be versatile for functions.
References
----------
* [Cubelets: Modular Robot Cube Toys](http://hight3ch.com/cubelets-modular-robot-cube-toys/)
I found some projects that have done this in different ways. Many of them are educational toys for kids - meant to learn programming/ coding.
* [Mabot by bellrobot](https://www.bellrobot.com/mabot.html)
* [Project Bloks](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/28168150/mabot-teach-kids-robotics-and-programming)
* [Cubroid Coding Blocks](http://codingblocks.cubroid.com/)
* [Sphero's Spark](https://www.sphero.com/sphero-sprk-plus)
* [Sphero's Spark](https://www.robospace.cc/tacobot-en/)
* [Tern by TUFTS](http://hci.cs.tufts.edu/tern/) programming with wooden Blocks
Some projects that do this in different ways:
[Mblocks](https://interestingengineering.com/m-blocks-robotic-cubes-that-can-build-themselves) and [Mblocks 2.0](https://www.slashgear.com/m-blocks-2-0-revealed-now-these-cube-robots-can-collaborate-30597942/): are self-assembly cubes
[Cubli](https://idsc.ethz.ch/research-dandrea/research-projects/archive/cubli.html) can balance on it's edge and corner
[Topobo by Tangible media, MIT](https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/topobo/), has kinetic memory. It can record and playback physical motion.
I read about [self-reconfiguring robots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-reconfiguring_modular_robot), and discovered that while a cube can be combined with other cubes according to functions, the same cube cannot do multiple functions. Therefore, I want to design a cube that does multiple functions, that can be modified by chaning faces or edges or corners of the cube.
The modular approach that [Machines that make](http://mtm.cba.mit.edu/) project takes, so the application is up to the user is what I want to follow while making this robotic cube.
Maybe make a flying one? Like a ball drone?
2\. Project management
======================
This week I learned about version control, web development using SSGs, and sketched out an initial final project idea.
Git
---
I've used git a little for my Master's documentation. But till now, just used some basic commands like:
`git init` to initialise a new repo
`git status` to check what's happening with the current directory
`git add .` to add all changes from the working directory to the staging area
`git commit -m "action msg"` to commit changes from the staging area to the local repo
`git push` to push changes from the local repo to the remote repo
`git pull` to pull files from the remote repo to the local repo
I find this diagram very helpful to visualise the directory structure:
To learn more about branching, merging and other actions, I did a tutorial:[](http...)
Found my existing SSH key using `~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`
Copied and added it to my FabCloud account.
Then I cloned the default repository to a local folder using:`git clone git@gitlab.fabcloud.org:academany/fabacademy/2020/labs/barcelona/students/mitalee-parikh.git`
Web Development
---------------
I recently learned how to make a website using HTML, CSS with a Bootstrap framework. To develop my webpage, I wanted to explore different Static Site Generators before fixing on one. So I started by setting up both Mkdocs and Jekyll. Hugo was another option I want to look into in the coming weeks.
Setting up jekyll
-----------------
I followed this [Jekyll tutorial](https://jekyll.org) by [Giraffe Academy](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLAZ4kZ9dFpOPV5C5Ay0pHaa0RJFhcmcB). Before installing jekyll, I checked if I had these supporting things, and updated them:
1\. **Homebrew:** to easily install software packages
2\. **Ruby:** programming language that jekyll is written in
3\. **RubyGems:** package manager for ruby
4\. **Bundler:** to track and install gems and versions in a group, for jekyll themes
Homebrew, Ruby and Gem were all pre-installed.
So I checked versions using
`ruby -v` and `gem -v`
I installed bundler with `gem install jekyll bundler`, but got a permissions error msg.
So, I tried it with sudo like so: `sudo gem install jekyll bundler` and it worked.
And then to make sure checked version: `gem install jekyll bundler`
To view the changes on my local server `http://localhost:4000` I used `bundle exec jekyll serve` the first time and `jekyll serve` everytime after.
### Setting up Mkdocs
Setting up Mkdocs was a similar process. Intalling and upgrading package manager pip `pip install --upgrade pip` to install mkdocs: `pip install mkdocs`
To view the changes on my local server `http://127.0.0.1:8000` I used `mkdocs serve`
### Themes
I tried to clone and modify some jekyll themes I downloaded from [rubygems.org](https://rubygems.org/). While pushing it to gitlab, I wasn't sure what files to keep from the default fabcloud repo. So I replaced them all, but there was an issue with my pipeline. I think it has something to do with the config.yml file. While I figure that out, I'm using this default template to document my process.
### Useful links
* [Jekyll](http://jekyll.org) [tutorial by Giraffe Academy](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLAZ4kZ9dFpOPV5C5Ay0pHaa0RJFhcmcB)
* [Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) [basic tutorial](https://www.markdowntutorial.com/)
* [Mkdocs guidelines](https://www.mkdocs.org/)
### Misc Practices
Before pushing, I used `ncdu` to check sizes of files. To compress my images I installed and used [ImageMagick](https://imagemagick.org/index.php). I found it very efficient to quickly convert or compress images for the web, and also to make quick GIFs.
After some trial and error, i figureed these basic commands and settings I can use for my workflow:
To compress photos taken from my phone:
`convert IMGname.HEIC -resize 25% -quality 50% -density 72 jpg:extent=300kb IMGnewname.jpg`
To compress images taken as screenshot from my computer:
`convert Screenshot\ 2020-02-18\ at\ 10.54.27\ AM.png -resize 50% -quality 50% -density 72 jpg:extent=300kb newname.jpg`
To make a quick GIF:
`convert -resize 25% -delay 15 -loop 0 IMG_1380.HEIC IMG_1381.HEIC IMG_1382.HEIC IMG_1386.HEIC IMG_1387.HEIC IMG_1388.HEIC animation.gif`
And to check the existing properties of an image:
`magick identify -verbose focus.gif`
I also check individual file sizes by changing current directory in terminal and using `du -sh *|sort -n`