Applications and Implications, Project Development
Week 17 Assignment
1. Applications and Implications
1.1 What will it do?
A desktop assistant for company and everyday help. Final project: Expressive Desktop Companion Robot.
1.2 Who has done what beforehand?
Chassis from sophicar. Arm movement from Elephant Robotics. Look from Pixar’s Luxo Jr.
1.3 What sources will you use?
Datasheets for the materials and parts, test code from earlier weeks, and test files from projects close to this one.
1.4 What will you design?
All 3D designs, including the PCB: the circuit board (Week 6), the robotic arm (Week 2), the arm base, the car chassis, the lamp shade (a cover for the screen), and the interactive web page.
1.5 What materials and components will be used?
Prices are typical Taobao listings, not an order. Quantity is one except the filament. Screen, servo board, and motor board have no model yet, so those three rows are the usual module, not a specific part.
| Item | Qty | Est. | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acrylic sheet, 3 mm, small cut taobao.com | 1 | ¥0 | Already in the lab. Laser-cut car chassis. |
| PLA filament, 1 kg taobao.com | 1 roll | ¥35 | Arm, arm base, lamp shade |
| Dupont wires, 40-pin set taobao.com | 1 | ¥0 | Already in the lab. Board connections. |
| FR-4 copper board, about 10×15 cm taobao.com | 1 | ¥0 | Already in the lab. Milled PCB. |
| Solder, about 50 g taobao.com | 1 | ¥0 | Already in the lab. Board assembly. |
| Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-4, 4-inch screen taobao.com | 1 | ¥159 | Display under the shade. The board includes the ESP32-S3. |
| Seeed XIAO ESP32-C3 taobao.com | 1 | ¥45 | Microcontroller. Listing is about ¥45–49. |
| Sipeed MaixCAM taobao.com | 1 | ¥299 | Camera. Common price for the board, not the Pro. |
| 16-channel servo driver, PCA9685 class taobao.com | 1 | ¥13 | Arm servos. Model not chosen. |
| Dual DC motor driver, L298N class taobao.com | 1 | ¥5 | Car motors. Model not chosen. |
1.6 Where will they come from?
Most parts will be bought on Taobao. Some materials are already in the lab.
1.7 How much will they cost?
About ¥556 to buy: filament ¥35, the 4-inch Waveshare screen ¥159, XIAO ESP32-C3 ¥45, MaixCAM ¥299, the servo board ¥13, and the motor driver ¥5. Acrylic, Dupont wire, the copper board, and solder are already in the lab, so they are ¥0.
1.8 What parts and systems will be made?
Made: robotic arm, arm base, lamp shade, acrylic car chassis, the circuit and the PCB, the control program, the screen display, and the interactive web page. The Week 9 input board and the Week 10 output board stay as the final boards. Most other parts were redesigned.
1.9 What processes will be used?
- 3D design: arm, arm base, lamp shade, car chassis, PCB.
- 3D printing: arm, lamp shade, arm base.
- Laser cutting: acrylic car chassis.
- Electronics design and production: the circuit and the board.
- Programming: control program, screen, interactive web page.
1.10 What questions need to be answered?
How to power the robot. Connecting the supply is still open, and the arm still needs to be made stronger.
1.11 How will it be evaluated?
It recognizes a person’s expression and color, answers with a movement and a face on the screen, and moves around on its own.
2. Project development
2.1 What tasks are done, and what remains?
Most of the project is built. Still open: connecting the power, and making the arm stronger.
2.2 What have you learned?
How to use these skills in a real build, and how to sort out what the project actually needs.
2.3 Summary slide and video
Not answered yet. Required drafts in the site root: presentation.png at 1920×1080, and presentation.mp4 at 1080p, about one minute, under about 25 MB. The files there now are 1024×723 and 640×480.