Project Overview

For this project, we will be moving a magnet through a hydrogel designed to simulate brain tissue.  We will move the magnet in a circular trajectory using an external magnet and motor. To control the motor, we will be using vision from a USB camera to provide feedback and information.

We expect fine control of the position of the magnet to be difficult for a few reasons.  Calculating the strength of the magnetic field to ensure we have the right distance to move the magnet with the resistance of the gel is the primary technical concern.  Other concerns are rotating the gel at the right time to keep the magnet on the right trajectory, giving the Arduino board the information from the camera, and controlling the motors precisely with Arduino.  The major tasks are to create a physical rig to mount the motor, the camera, and the petri dish, to write code that uses the video from the camera to provide information to the Arduino, to use that information to control a motor, and to have the magnet follow the circular trajectory in the gel. The final deliverables will be the robot itself, the physical mounts, the CAD diagrams, and the final code for both Python and Arduino.