My name is Paulo Coelho. I am a creative with a Master degree in HCI from Carnegie Mellon University.

I am from Madeira Island, Portugal and my background is in Computer Science.

This portfolio aims not only to show my skills but to share with the world some knowledge. Because of this, I decided to throw some tutorials in the mix too.

paulojtcoelho[at]gmail[dot]com

Bumper Robot

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I’m in a class in CMU, called Making Things Iteractive, where we build projects that are based on arduino boards. Bumper bot was a robot that I’ve built to explore how H-Bridges work and at the same time build something interesting.

The robot’s front bumper is sensitive to which side has bumped into something. When it senses that it reacts by reversing and turning to the opposite side, then it starts going forward again.

On the more technical side: The robot’s front bumper is covered with foil endings connected to +5V. Two wires just behind each ending stand waiting for the bumber to be pushed back and touch them, completing the circuit. The code then interprets this signal and corrects the robot so that it can move on.