Final Project Requirements

This week we were tasked with an individual set of activities. For our individual activities this week we were tasked with documenting our final project and preparing for our final presentation.

Final Project Documentation Question 1

Document a final project masterpiece that integrates the range of units covered, answering:

What does it do?

This is a ball jointed doll that incorporates a brain system in the head portion of the doll. The doll includes a variety of input devices such as touch sensors, magnetic sensors, microphone, an accelerometer, etc. The doll also includes a variety of output devices such as an LCD/OLED screen and a speaker. With the combination of these sensors and devices alongside a custom virtual assistant setup, my traditional art doll becomes a true desk buddy who can sit, stand, and interact with myself and the world around her.

Final Project Documentation Questions 2

Who's done what beforehand?

Articulated dolls have been around since 200BCE. The modern ball jointed doll was popularized in the 19th century. The modernized Asian Ball Jointed Doll, which my doll design is based off of, was popularized in 1999 by Volks with the Super Dollfie Line. The modern ball jointed doll is a collectable art doll with prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

My doll is based off of the ⅙ barbie scale size which equates to about ⅙ standard human size or around 12inches in height. Commonly ball jointed dolls would be made of resin or porcelain and hand crafted then mold and casted.

There are currently no ball jointed style dolls which integrate electronics or circuits to truly bring them to life as a desk companion. In the doll world, the closest similarities to my project would be interactive play dolls with speakers and buttons, the 1990’s Furbies by Hasbro, the mind 2000’s internet connected My Friend Cayla/Teddy Doll by Genesis Dolls, and the new Hello Barbie AI integrated play doll.

In the robot and desk pet world, the closest similarities to my project would be a standard desk pet companion like Eilike by Energizer Labs, EMO by Living AI, and Ortomi.

Final Project Documentation Question 3

What did you design?

In my project, I designed a custom 3D printed doll body based off a traditional ball jointed doll design. I added a robot theme to the body sculpt and incorporated a movable heart into the torso while being able to maintain the elastic stringing system needed to assemble the ball jointed doll.

I also designed a custom pcb using a microcontroller and my connected input and output devices to act as the “brain” for my doll. This is encased in the slightly oversized head of my doll.

In addition to the doll and the custom electronics, I created a wireless charging system integrated in the doll and a custom chair for the doll to sit in for charging. Hidden inside the chair is also a raspberry pi, which has a custom server set up, using Home Assistant, that communicates with my microcontroller to act as a custom virtual assistant robot. I trained my robot to have a custom wake up command using my robot's name: Triss.

Final Project Documentation Question 4

What sources did you use?

I used a variety of resources throughout this program to assist me with different parts of my project. Some examples of sources I used were youtube videos, blogs, and people. Each week at the top of my weekly page is a section called Resources and Helpful Links. This section shows all of the resources and tools I have used throuhghout Fab Academy 2026. Their is also an additional resources section on my Final Project page that are resources and helpful links specific to my final project.

Final Project Documentation Questions 5

What materials and components were used?

Final Project Documentation Question 6

Where did they come from?

Final Project Documentation Question 7

How much did they cost?

Final Project Documentation Questions 8

What parts and systems were made?

• The Doll Body - 3D printed
• The Doll Head - 3D Printed
• The Doll Brain Board - Designed in KiCAD, Milled on a Carvera CNC, Soldered by hand
• The Input and Sensor Boards - Designed in KiCAD, Milled on a Carvera CNC, Soldered by hand
• The Wooden Charging Chair - Designed in Blender, Modified in CorelDraw, Cut on an Epilog Laser Cutter, Assembled by hand
• The Dolls Emotion and Animation System for the Screen - Simulated in Processing IDE, Ported into PlatformIO, Programmed onto the Doll Brain Board
• The Pogo Style Magnetic Charging System - Designed by me, Soldered by hand, Assembled by hand
• Custom WakeWord - Training Model created in Python by me with the help of ChatGPT, Model trained using approximately 500 clips of my voice
• WakeWord Detection Program - Created in Python by me with the help of ChatGPT
  
  

Final Project Documentation Question 9

What processes were used?

• 3D Printing/CAD - Doll Head and Body
• Electronics Design and Production - PCB Design of Brain and Sensor Boards
• Laser Cutting - Charging Chair
• Networking - Brain Board, Sensor Boards, and Screen Board communication
• Embedded Programming - Emotion and Animation System, Custom WakeWord Training and Detection
  
  

Final Project Documentation Question 10

What questions were answered?

• What features is Triss missing to make her feel more alive? - More interactive features and more emotions/animations would make her feel more alive.
• Is Triss more desirable in the Ball Jointed Community as just the BJD or with the embedded electronics? - In the BJD community, Triss is more desirable without the electronics.
• Will I have time in the future to add in the other features I envisioned? Not answered yet, but I hope so!
• Can I fit a rechargable battery of some sort into the chest cavity to make her more portable? - As opf right now, the answer is no, but I am going to keep trying to find a way to make this work!
• What is next for Triss? - Right away? Nothing, because I need a break, but in the future I want to add more interactive features, more emotions/animations, make her have more 3D printed robotic deisgn features, and eventually add in a language model so I can have actual conversations with her!
• Should I add sound effects or a speach system? - The screen board came with a speaker and the ability to set it up, but I am hesitant to add sound effects as that could become distracting. If I do add sounds, the first sound I would add is an alarm sound for the timers in focus mode.
• What other inputs can I add to make Triss more interactable? - Not answered yet.
• How do I get rid of the screen flicker in the eyes!? - At this time, I have no idea but I did managed to get it minized so for now it stays.
• What emotions or effects should I add next? - I haven't thought about this one yet.
• Does my Pogo pin connection work reliably? - I will find out in a couple days when I put it all together.
• Can I make her better balanced? - I don't know yet, but I did stablize her sitting ability when I added in the spaces for the charging magnets in her butt.
• Should I print a version of her using Resin printing since that is closer to traditional BJD material? - Yes, but also it's expensive so I probably won't any time soon.
  
  

Final Project Documentation Question 11

What worked? What didn’t?

Final Project Documentation Question 12

How was it evaluated?

Functionality Testing

• Does the heart or sparkle animation appear on wakeword detection?
  I spoke the wakewords "Hi Triss" into the Hi.Triss.detection.py program. This sent send a signal through serial connection to the brain board telling it that the wake word has been detected. The brain board should have then sent the screen board through UART conenction the wake word command of sparkle. The screen board shows it recieved the sparkle command, but it did not run the sparkle animation. I think the layering in my program is off, causing the screen to remain as the face and not show sparkles.
• Does the emotion system properly work based off of touch and button sensors?
  After assembling the brain board, screen board, and sensor boards, I tested a single push. The push button sent a signal to the brain board that a button was pressed. The brain board then sent the screen board a siugnal stating that a button was pressed. The screen board did not recieve the button signal to run the blink effect. I am still trouble shooting this connection.
  
  Final Overall evaluation: Am I happy with how she looks and interacts? I LOVE the way she looks in both the non electornic tiny form and the larger electornic version. I was also complimented on her design by people in the doll community, which tells me that I designed a great looking doll!
  
  

Final Project Documentation Question 13

What are the implications?

Implecations of what? I dont understand what this question is asking.