Storytelling With Robotics

 For this project, I wanted to create a sense of surprise in the viewer. I chose to make a robot head that, when approached, quickly whips around to look at the viewer, and has eyes that light up. Since this is an electronics project triggered by human interaction, my goal was to explore the moment when something inanimate becomes animate. The scene I created in my head was one where you are exploring an old abandoned room full of dusty electronics. Suddenly, you see motion out of the corner of your eye and you realize you've awoken something that was asleep for a long time. To build this small project, I used a servo motor and two LEDs. I mounted the head onto the PICO without an enclosing box because I liked the technological aesthetic and the idea that the head was just sitting in a pile of junk, perhaps detached from its body for a long time.  An important aspect of this project was the LED eyes. Since the LEDs needed to be within the head, I needed to solder the connections be

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.