Storytelling With Robotics

To finish up the project, the first thing I needed to do was find a way to secure the servo to the piece and secure the robot head to the servo. To attach the servo to the PICO, I used a hair tie. This worked well enough but the tension would cause the servo to lean a little bit so I sometimes had to fix it manually. If I had more time I would've definitely used the holes on the servo to screw it into place.  I also decided to use some zip ties to attach the robot head to the servo arm. Even though this connection point was a bit loose, I think it actually added to the piece a little because the more jolty movement was in line with the idea that you had accidentally awoken a long-dormant piece of tech. I also ended up having to re-solder the LEDs in the eyes a few times because the movement of the piece would cause the solder to come undone. I spent a bit of time positioning the wires so that they would experience the least amount of pressure when the robot head rotated.  ...

My project needed two types of electrical components. For the robot's head to be able to move to face you, I needed a servo onto which I could mount the head. And for the eyes to light up, I would need LEDs. I'd also need to solder the LEDs in place because the entire head would be moving.  Some challenges I encountered at this stage were that the servo rotated so fast that it would throw the robot head off the apparatus. This force also caused the servo to not be able to stay on the PICO. Tape wasn't enough to keep the pieces together, and I was hesitant to glue the electronics, so I knew I'd need to find another solution. I also realized I wouldn't have enough time to make the "booting up" sequence because all the LEDs would need to be soldered and then I'd have to write the code with the correct timings. So I focused on getting the LEDs in the eyes to work. 

 For Project 3, we had to make an Emotive Object that would take in sensor data and react in a way that could elicit some kind of emotion. I decided to make a robot that would turn its head if you approached. Here's my sketch from the first day. I wanted to head to turn to face you, and the eyes to light up. I was also interested it the robot having some kind of "boot up" sequence where if you held your hand close to the sensor for long enough, it would be like you were charging the robot and eventually it would come to life.

Project Statement:       The aim of Project 2 was to create a motorized automata - an apparatus that can translate rotational movement from a motor into a small scene that tells a story. My concept from the beginning was a dock scene with a fisherman pulling up a crab pot from the side of the dock, and throughout the project the crab pot became an assortment of garbage to produce an environmentalist message about cleaning up the bay.       With this project, I wanted to challenge myself by designing a custom mechanism that would create the effect of an object on a rope being pulled up by a person and then gravity pulling it back down. This entailed making cams with arms that could push down the rope holder with enough force to lift the weight on the other end. To facilitate the up and down movement of the rope while minimizing lateral movement and friction, I designed a custom rope holder apparatus. The final key parts of the mechanism were the ge...

Once the mechanism was functional, I needed to paint the entire apparatus, attach the wooden boards and pilings, and make the figure standing on the dock.  An important consideration was ensuring that nothing would interfere with the rope. It could only be affected by two sources: the platform being pulled down by the cams, and gravity pulling the weight back down the other direction. To ensure this, I cut one of the planks in half to allow for a hole in the middle of the dock.  For the paint, I did a base coat of brown and then went over some parts later with gray-blue and green to give the wood an aged effect. I also painted the bottom a bluish color to seem like water. The next part was to make the figure. My original prototype was made of aluminum wire, and I had assumed this would be temporary. However, I couldn't really think of a better way to make a movable figure. I thought about 3D printing it, making it out of clay, or fabric, but all of these options either require...

My main focus at this point was finalizing my mechanism. I 3D printed the posts for my rope holder platform as well as a duplicate of the platform itself. One of the platforms would serve as a base with ready-made slots for the posts, and the other would move with the rope. Luckily, the 3D printed posts had much less friction, but still enough integrity to stop the platform from moving left and right or forward and backward. I ended up having to reprint my cams because the arms on the first version snapped off. I added a taper to the arms to increase their strength. I also tried adding set screws, but the holes were too small. The central hole for the shaft on the second version of the cams was also too big, so I tried resin printing some plugs for the cams so that they'd fit on the shaft. This didn't work super great because I had to break the plugs a little to get them to fit, but ultimately it made it possible for the cams to be super glued to the shaft. I also printed and a...