Week 1:

Principles & Practices

Table of Contents

Assignment

Plan and sketch a potential final project

What I came up with this week

Initial Design Sketch
Initial Design Sketch


This week I worked on coming up with a final project idea and got started with the documentation process.

Idea: PixelFace

My design goal for the a final project is to make a universal head for robots. Why? BECAUSE EVERYTHING LOOKS BETTER WITH A FACE!!

I mean just look at Wildcat with the kawaii face :3


So I decided to take matters into my own hands and designing a head with a “kawaii” face for them.

Goals

  • The head will be interractive; it will react to external stimuli via a proximity sensor and possibly a mic.
  • The head will be able to express basic emotions using emojis displayed on a POV display
  • The head will be easily programmable so it can be interfaced very easily with existing projects.
  • If possible I'd like to add some minimal sentiment analysis capabilities to the head, so it can display emojis accordingly depending on surrounding sound.

Design Abstract


Initial Sketches

Initial Design Sketch
Initial Design Sketch

Input & Output

Input Devices

Right now I am just thinking about a IR proximity sensor. But if I get the chance, I'd like to add voice recognition or sentiment analysis to it. I have some experience working with Jasper with raspberry Pi for home automation projects.

Output Devices

The whole device is apparently an output device. The POV display, if constructed right will provide a full 360 display.

Project Requisites

Skills required

I have a somewhat basic grasp of the electronics skill required for the project but I will need to learn a lot more about mechanical design and additive manufacturing.

And if I get the chance, I would like to try some NLP. IMAGINE HAVING AN ALEXA WITH A FACE! :D

Parts list

  • High RPM motor
  • Quadrature encoders, possibly paired with the motor.
  • Addressable LEDs SK6812/WS2811. Hoping to find some bright ones.
  • Proximity sensor, guessing Sharp IR sensors
  • Any microcontroller that can handle the refresh rate of the display.
  • Enclosure assembly.
  • Power management and other peripheral electronics.
  • A seperate voice recognition unit using a Raspberry Pi and a mic.

Challenges

  • Stopping the device from wobbling due to vibrations.
  • Getting exact positional feedback from the motors via optical encoders and then mapping the pixels for the POV effect
  • Getting the wire connections to the LEDs through the moving axis using 'slip rings'
  • Mapping the 32bit POV effect
  • Making a simplified interfacing option
  • If I do the NLP part.... figuring all that out.

Inspirations

Great Scott’s POV globe

Great Scott's POV globe from Great Scott on Youtube.

viSio’s Volumetric POV display

viSio's volumetric 3D POV display from this random uploader on Youtube.

Shaunta Butler’s Fab Academy project

Shaunta Butler's Final week project which apparently didn't give the intended effect. I'm planning to a similar 32bit RGB POV display.

Learning Outcomes

  • I had a hazy but brief Idea of what I wanted to make, but searching through the fab archive let me know about other volumetric displays and Shaunta Butler's design.
  • I learnt about the mechanical complexities of making the Design.
  • I learnt about slip rings and how they pass a signal through a moving axis.

What I need to explore further

  • Explore the electronics and programming complexities of such a project.

Next Week