My ITP Blog

For our first assignment for Sociable Objects, we had to assess a need on the ITP floor and build a small physical computing project to address that concern.  I noticed that there are times when no one is at the front desk, so occasionally there is no one to greet you as you enter the ITP floor.  ITP is a very welcoming place, so I decided to build “The Welcome Robot” which is a small fabric robot who greets passersby at any time of the day.  When you pass by, his arm lowers to reveal a “Welcome to ITP” sign and his green eyes light up.

After drawing a sketch of what I wanted him to look like, I gathered materials for construction of the body.  The body of “The Welcome Robot” is made from assorted colors of felt fabric, with a PC board and resistors used as decoration.  The frame for his body is made with flexi-straws of varying colors, and they are extended upward to serve as his antennae.  Since this was only an exercise, I kept him tethered to my breadboard and Arduino. 

His green eyes are made from 2 SMD (size 1206) leds which I made into “led sequins” (SMD leds soldered to crimp beads) and adhered to his face with conductive thread.  He senses proximity with an Acroname Sharp Infrared Object Detector (GP2Y0A02YK) and the closer the detection, the lower his arm goes.  I made sure to program his arm not to lower past his side.  For class, I will probably demo “The Welcome Robot” with a force sensor embedded in his foot (if you press his foot, his arm will lower) instead of my range finder, since I am currently prototyping another project which uses this sensor.  His arm is powered by a servo.  I ended up leaving my standard servo at school over the holiday weekend, so I had to use my feather servo, the smallest servo made.  It is not really ideal since it is very tiny and not meant for much stress, but since Assignment #1 was a warm-up assignment, the feather servo communicates what I wanted “The Welcome Robot” to do.

Here are some pictures from the process:

(Welcome Robot)

 (design)