Human Research

This little fella is a toy that responds to voice commands. He's easy to build, so with him I'm going to focus on skinning. The plastic shell that protects his innards should make a good base for me to sculpt a skin on. Since he can climb or walk he should be lots of fun to have around the house. Maybe I'll be able to resign myself to not having a pet if I make tons of pet machines.

This is the BEAM kit I ordered. It requires soldering but not programming. It responds to sunlight and can cover 10 feet in under 40 seconds. It's the BEAM robotics that gave the idea for an armadillo design, since the solar panels visually lend themselves to a scaled hide. The shape of the armadillo is also a good shell that can hide wheels.

Hopefully I can build the first one this weekend and start sculpting his body. I'm fucking stoked to bring these guys to life and to finally spend sometime building. Until now I've just been researching and drooling over the prosthetics extras on the Lord of the Rings and Team America: World Police.

Posted by Merci Victoria Grace at 07:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Goddard technologist Vladimir Lumelsky believes the future of robotics lies with the development of a high-tech, sensor-embedded covering that would be able to sense the environment, much like human skin."

Keywords = Much like human skin. Goddamn right.

Posted by Merci Victoria Grace at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Of building and skinning this guy. Those are sensors, not lights.

Posted by Merci Victoria Grace at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I need to experiment both with building and with skinning movable objects. I think that I'll spend about 40 bucks on this website, they sell BEAM kits and toy kits. They recommend that a beginner use the Solar Speeder 1.1 BEAM Solar Cell Robot Kit. These little dudes are solar-powered little vehicles.

The toy section is also cool and has some simple robots, but the toys are already stylized. I need to learn first how to build from a kit and then how to modify the design so I can make something look more like a creature.

What if an armadillo's hide was composed of solar panels?

Posted by Merci Victoria Grace at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)