Three weeks ago, Graham Firman posted on BellBoard and YouTube about a handbell-ringing robot he has made. Subsequently he has written an article for the Ringing World about its construction, including the fact that it is controlled from Abel (I didn't know it, but apparently Abel can send signals on an output port when it is ringing the computer-generated bells).

We've got a couple of programmable Lego sets, so I thought of trying to build something similar. I got as far as finding a Python interface to the programmable Lego Mindstorms system, and thinking a little bit about how to attach the microbells to the motors, but didn't follow through (concentrating instead on publishing the handbell book).

However, this week Dorothy told me that she had to do a STEM project for school and she wanted to finish the Lego ringing robot. So I spent part of the day helping her, and we ended up with something that can ring the microbells.

There's a BellBoard report of Plain Hunting on Six here, and a YouTube video here. I must confess that I hard-coded plain hunting on six, rather than writing something general that will ring any method from place notation. That can be a project for the weekend. Also I think the timing needs a bit of work. Clearly the whole thing is less robust than Graham's robot, but on the positive side, it only took half a day to get it working reasonably well.