Weston Middle School
Technology/EngineeringCourse Materials
Challenge:
Design, build, and program a robotic "2 -1/2-dimensional" sculpture which communicates socially with the viewer.
Challenge: Build a robotic face with moveable parts that will respond to interactions with people. For example, you might have eyes “bug out” or spin around when someone yells or comes too close to it. At the same time, the tongue could be wagging or the ears twitching. Animals, science fiction, or cartoon characters are all acceptable.
Project Ideas: Come up with 2 and choose the one that interests you the most and is workable within the time allowed.
Nova Science Now: Sociable Robotics: Profile of Cynthia Breazel
A daring engineer designs robots to communicate and interact the way people do.
- MIT's MDS Nexi Robot: First Test of Expression
- Kansei Robot- Expressive Robots
- Nexi with kids
- Wall-E Clip
Milestones:
IDEA 1______________________
IDEA 2_______________________
What will
your project do? Describe its actions in the form of a story.
a)___________________________________
b)___________________________________
c)___________________________________
Draw a sketch and label the parts that move:
Requirements: use three motors and at least 2 sensors. Describe the sensor/motor interaction in the diagram below, by drawing a line (wire!) from the sensor to the motor it will activate.
Sensors Motors: Eyes, Nose, etc.
Light Motor
A, controls ____________
Touch Motor B, controls____________
Sound Motor C, controls____________
Ultrasonic
Now you are ready to manage 2 tasks:
1. Play with building mechanisms such as gear trains or cams, etc., that will move the features on the portrait, and play with paper cutouts of features to see if they provide the “look” you are aiming for. When your experiments are over,
2. Draw a life size template for your portrait. Label where all the motors, sensors, and NXT will be placed by tracing them onto your template. This way, you will know that everything will fit before you do any cutting and drilling.
Finally, you are ready to build and program your robot. You will be given the proper materials and demonstrations of cutting, gluing, assembling and trouble shooting.
Good luck!
Above- matching mechanisms with art-layer template
- Build Motor Mechanisms; axles should match sketch locations
- Attach Motor/mechanisms to rear of foamcore chassis layer
- Build front mechanisms( cams, arms, etc.)
- Draw/Print Out face layer picture, mouth, eyebrows, etc.; glue to foamcore; cut out with bandsaw or razor
- Attach Face layer over front mechanisms using standoffs
- Attach moving face features to axles( glue small attachment pieces to face feature)
- Make Cut outs for NxT, sensors in chassis layer and attach
Rear view, showing motors attached to chassis layer
Artbotics Presentations on Vimeo
- Program and test
- Sample Program
Oil Pump Jack- A type of crank
Links