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## Final Project Ideas
This week, we were tasked with getting our website up and running and generating final project ideas. I'm coming in to this course interested in space, physics, and puzzles, and would like to have a final project related to one or more of these areas.
#### Puzzles
One project idea is to create a "smart" Rubik's cube. When going through a solve of the cube, the cube would collect data from the solve (time taken to solve, number of moves, turns per second, etc), and be connected wirelessly to an app or website to send, visualize, and store this data. This would be used as a training tool for improving my cubing. This type of project would augment the experience that I have when solving the cube, and would be a very challenging project. One big challenge for this idea is making the cube itself - making a good cube would require very precise machining and quality plastic; and if I use existing cubes, fitting sensors and communication devices into the cube would be a huge challenge. Another knock on this idea is that smart cubes have been made before, so I would want to find more ways to personalize this project.
<img src="/ps70/smartcube.jpeg" alt="smart-cube" width="400" height="225">
Another project idea could serve a more functional use: a visual Rubik's cube stand. I have a lot of puzzles, and they tend to not be very organized. I think creating a cool stand or mechanism for displaying and organizing my cubes could be a fun project, especially if paired with a visual aspect. To accomodate all the different kinds of puzzles I have, I could make a system of rotating shelves, potentially each with their own "charlieplexed" set of LEDs for visual displays. I could even create a 3D array of LEDs (for example, in a cube shape) that could create visual patterns that resemble cube puzzles, cube movements, or visualize sounds (like music).
<img src="/ps70/ledcube.gif" alt="led-gif">
#### Physics/Engineering
I'm also interested in projects related to my engineering interests, such as creating control systems that can do difficult tasks like balancing a ball on a plate, or creating a cube that can balance on one of its corners using internal reaction wheels that applys torque to each axis of the cube. This cube idea could be combined with the idea of charlieplexing LED's on a cube - this balancing cube could also have some sort of charlieplexed display of of LED's that can resemble a Rubik's cube or create visuals based on sounds. This also mimics the attitude control systems on spacecrafts today, making it a very interesting topic for me. This project would include the 3D design of the cube, implementation of control sensors (IMU's), actuators (reaction wheels), control algorithms, and visual displays.
<img src="/ps70/balancing_cube.jpeg" alt="cube_balance" width="640" height="360">
Another possible idea is to mimic sunlight-tracking of solar panels in space, as well as deployable space structures, in one displayable art piece. The idea is to create some sort of intricate, deployable (expandable) kinetic structure (like a Hoberman Sphere). Using sunlight sensors or photodetectors, my system could detect when there is enough sunlight to unfurl the structure, as well as track the sun, mimicing solar panel control on spacecrafts. The focus of this project would be on the implementation of the kinetic sculpture, the control of the orientation of the sculpture, and the aesthetic features.