A Controller for Robots to Autonomously Control Fog Machine
Keywords: Fog machine controller, augmented reality (AR), robot communication, human-robot interaction (HRI)
Abstract: Typical fog machines need manual activation and human monitoring. This creates a problem that robots cannot interface with those fog machines to autonomously controll it for potential augmented reality (AR) applications, e.g., augmented to a fog screen. To solve this issue, we replaced the fog machine's manual remote with a custom PCB containing an Arduino microcontroller, where we implemented a programming interface that can be used by ROS-enabled robots. Besides Arduino, it has a latching relay and a rectifier circuit. The latching relay effectively ``presses the button" to emit fog, while the rectifier reads the machine's signals to detect when it is hot and ready to use. The electrical design carefully separates high-voltage lines from control signals, and a 3D-printed enclosure keeps everything safe and accessible. For the programmable interface, it allows ROS to control the fog machine seamlessly, letting the robot toggle the fog output automatically. As a result, researchers can quickly adapt an off-the-shelf fog machine for various human-robot interaction studies, especially in settings where traditional projection surfaces are unavailable. The code, 3D models, PCB files, and documentation are available on GitHub at https://bit.ly/4b1Mq8j.
Submission Number: 8
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