There are a number of operations this program is capable of: setting up calibration file, creating new actions, using preexisting actions, exporting action files into Arduino code.

1. Setting up calibration file:

As mentioned above, calibrating MicroFOBO manually will never give the most degree of precision. This is why FOBO Poser program comes into the picture which accuracy up to 0.1 degrees. After MicroFOBO is connected to Poser, press the “Move Servos to Home Positions” button.

Figure 2. Home positions.

This will move all servos to their respective home position at 60 degrees. However, because MicroFOBO is not perfectly calibrated, the angles will seem a little off. Select “Add Action” and name this new action “Calibration”. Then, move each servo using the right and left leg servos control panel as seen in the green boxes such that MicroFOBO is perfectly calibrated. Note that these angles might be vary for different setups of MicroFOBO. Select “Add Frame” and “Save Action” as a calibration file.

Figure 3. Setting up calibration file.

Finally, select “Set Calibration File” on the top right of the program to get MicroFOBO calibrated. These offset angles will be automatically applied to the controls and “Home Position” will always set MicroFOBO stand up straight.

2. Creating new actions:

New actions can be created by selecting “Add Action” button. The servos can then be moved around as seen in the green boxes and added as “frames” at the bottom controls. “Move to Frames” can be used to better visualize the actions on MicroFOBO and make any necessary adjustments to the angles of each frame for each individual servo. After creating the action, the action can then be saved as an ACTION file by selecting “Save Action” at the bottom left of the program. Note that you can change the frame delay to better fit your custom action.

Figure 4. Creating new actions.

3. Loading preexisting actions:

To load custom created actions or preexisting actions from the Project Biped website, simply click on “Load Action” at the bottom left of the program and locate the desired ACTION files.

Figure 5. Using saved or downloaded actions.

4. Exporting actions files into Arduino code:

After ACTIONS files are loaded into the program, pressing the “Export Action to Arduino” will generate a simple action code in Arduino IDE. This code can be uploaded directly onto the Arduino UNO and MicroFOBO will execute the according action in loops.

Figure 6. An example of the action frames in Arduino code.

Above is an example of a walk action sequence in a 10×8 matrix. There are 10 frames in this action and 8 values for each servo. The calibration[8] matrix is the calibration offsets set after selecting “Set Calibration File” in the FOBOPoser program.

Figure 7. Declaring action class in Arduino code.

The above figure shows how an action is defined with “myAction([number of key frames],[ total executed frames], [frame delay], [name of action matrix])”.