This is a robotic object which navigates unmapped environments. Its behavior is based on a simple path finding algorithm. It keeps moving until it runs into an obstacle. If this happens it backs up and tries to find another route. Its final goal is to compile a complete map of its environment.

I was researching deformable walls in the context of architecture. This sparked some interest in creating soft objects which are capable of deforming their outer hull. This initial idea transformed into the early sketches of an object that is capable of moving by surface deformations. The simple question that emerged was weather it is possible to deform a cube in a way that it approximates the shape of a quarter wheel along the leading bottom faces. This in in conjunction with continuously decentering the center of gravity should make the cube roll like a wheel. At the same time the cube can be brought into a stable stance by omitting any deformations.

The target audience are the people visiting the show.

There is no direct interaction with any users. The rover is more an object that can be watched as it finds its way through the space. There is potential for a small degree of play as visitors may act as obstacles. In such a case the rover will roll against the person in question, recognize it as some hinderance and will back up and look for a way around.

The rover consists of an inflatable hull and a suspended actuator box in the center of the inflatable structure. By pulling in corners of the cube and shifting the center of gravity the actuator box makes the cube fall over. Continuously repeating this procedure keeps the rover rolling in one direction. The actuators are an array of eight stepper motors. The logic controlling the steppers runs on an AVR chip that also senses the turning rate. turning rate is sensed by a two axis gyro. From this feedback the logic can infer whether the rover ran into an obstacle or not.

The goal for this project is to create a robot-like object that hides the technical parts and has all the properties of a compact soft body.