search

PortableBalanceLab / PBL

Learn how to create your own balance lab using python and a Raspberry Pi
4 stars 1 forks source link

readme

Portable Balance Lab (PBL)

Portable Balance Lab course material for students

The Portable Balance Lab (PBL) is a practical course that teaches students how to create their own balance lab from raw components and software. This repository contains all of the learner-facing course material.

🚀 Getting Started

In this course, we will work with Python. To get used to this, all lectures are delivered through Jupyter notebooks. This way, you can view, modify, and run all code samples in the Jupyter viewer (i.e. just like Matlab Livescripts).

To get started, follow these steps:

  1. Download a Copy of this Repository:

    1. Go to the releases page and download a zip of the latest release (unless a specific version is specified)
    2. Unzip the course content somewhere (e.g. on your Desktop)

  2. Get Jupyter:

    1. Download and Install Anaconda: https://www.anaconda.com/products/distribution
    2. Boot the Anaconda Navigator (e.g. via the Start bar)
    3. Boot Jupyter through the navigator UI
    4. This should open Jupyter a browser window. Jupyter notebooks (.ipynb files) can be opened through this UI.

  3. Open a PBL Lecture:

    1. In the Jupyter UI, browse to wherever you unzipped this repository:

      • e.g. #1 click Downloads then pbl-main
      • e.g. #2 click Desktop then pbl-main
      • e.g. #3 click OneDrive then Desktop then pbl-main

    2. Browse to a specific lecture .ipynb file

      • e.g. click PBL start-up session (students) (21-22) then PBL_Lab0_Manual_2022.ipynb

Once you are satisfied that you can load a Jupyter notebook, you can then go through the course materials.

👩‍🏫 Course Materials

The course material is split into lectures (L), sensor practicals (S), and extra content (X):

L: Lectures

It is recommended that you go through all of the lecture material (L1-L3). These ensure you know enough Python to get through the practical material (S1-S5).

⚠️ Warning ⚠️: You should open the lecture's Jupyter notebooks (.ipynb files) in your own local copy of this repository (see: Getting Started). The preview links here don't let you run the example code.

ID Title
L1 Python: Basics
L2 Python: functions, classes, and writing files
L3 Python: GUIs and Hardware Interfacing

S: Sensor Practicals

You will be asigned one of four possible lab practicals (S1-S4). All lab practicals require setting up the Raspberry Pi (S0). After setting up the Raspberry Pi, you only need to use the materials related to the practical you have been assigned (S1-S4).

ID Title Notes
S0 Set up the Raspberry Pi All lab practicals (S1-S4) require doing this first
S1 Pose Estimation
S2 IMU
S3 Force Plate
S4 EMG

X: eXtra Content

These materials are extra notes/examples that parts of the course may refer to.

ID Title Notes
X0 Software Setup Explains how the software used in the PBL course is setup
X1 Writing CSV Files Explains how to write CSV data to a file
X2 Generating Timestamped Filenames Explains how to generate timestamped filenames

F&Q

Where is the Schedule?

This repository only contains core course materials. Schedules should be made available by your teachers via their teaching platform of choice (e.g. in TU Delft, Brightspace).

Acknowledgements

The PBL lab wouldn't be possible without organization and support from a bunch of people. Here's an alphabetical list of some of them: