Mechatronic Droid Character
Meet Carl!
Built over a semester as a course project, Carl is an mechatronic cupcake; equal parts character and technical design. Based on the similar character from the popular Five Nights at Freddy’s horror franchise, lighting, sound, motion, and special gesture subsystems were all integrated to bring this cute, yet somewhat… unnerving robot to life. *
* This project was purely for educational purposes and does not represent or is associated with the property holder.
To accomplish this I designed and wired, sonar sensors, LED lighting controls, drive wheel motor control, audio subsystems, and a servo actuated blinking gesture .
I controlled and programmed all these systems using an Arduino microcontroller and a Bluetooth gaming controller.
The Task
As part of a course project, this robot was built to course-given specifications. The completed droid needed to be able to navigate semi-random courses under both manual and autonomous control, perform a series of character driven autonomous routine, and have at least one articulated gesture. The ultimate goal was to portray a realized character through the use of mechatronic techniques.
Linking all of these electronic components together were additively manufactured structural and mechanical pieces. During the course of this projects, myself and my co-fabricator, Elie Zinsmeister, independently operated these 3D printers ourselves for prototyping and manufacturing.
See Carl Dance!
