RETRACTED: An Ultrasonic Positioning Control System for Snake Arm (Retracted Article)

A base and glove pair that triangulates the position of the glove in 3D space using ultrasonic pulses is put forward in order to use as a control system for the CU Snake Arm. By having three points on a base, the system calculates position by the distance from each point on the base to the glove. These distances are found by the time it takes for the ultrasonic pulse to get to each point and multiplying by the speed of sound. Then by sending position coordinates over the serial port, it is theoretically able to, and will eventually, control the arm using 3D reverse kinematics code that the CS subteam is working on. This code allows input in positions to be converted to motor commands that puts the arm into the desired position, with the "head" of the arm at the point corresponding to the glove's position. this goal was just to track position and allow the program on the computer to calculate how to get to that position.