Interactive Furry Robots

Fawn Qiu Final Project Proposal

ProposalWe have all played with robots, from furby to Lego Mindstorm, toys are the simplest form of robots. For my final project, I wanted to create a library of small simple robots and put together few instructable.com tutorials to help people make their own toy robots. I think this would be great way for people to experience play, science, and childhood.

Project PlanI want to build off of my Dino-lite project since it is a good starting point to build a more complex robot.

The final project will have more interactivity in each robot.Each robot will also be its own character and combine to create a library of unique characters.

Furry robots will aim to eliminate some of the weakness of existing projects

Although many projects exist already, but they often lack one feature or another that makes robots very inaccessible to the mass population

The robot that I hope to design must have these features: • Affordability - Made from affordable materials• Interactivity - Interact with people, surroundings, and other

robots• Attractive – Cute and fuzzy design• Technology – Use simple technology to demonstrate difficult

electronic concepts

Existing ProductsThere are many DIY projects that I can build off of. Robobrrd is an example of simplified robot toyshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_7sKLHB06Y&feature=player_embedded#!

Existing ProductsMany robot-like toys can also serve as inspiration and learning tools for my own project. My Keepon would be an interesting project to study mechanism and movement in robots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g-yrjh58ms

Existing ProductIn the academic field, MIT has announced in April of 2012 to start a five-year research initiative to let people design personalized robots and have them made with 3-D printers.

The researchers they envision people will be able to design their own robots then bring it to “Robo Kinkos” store to have their customized robot printed.

http://mashable.com/2012/04/04/mit-robots/

Initial Sketches

Here is the rough sketch of the elephant robot that I will create, I listed the types of interactions that I am envisioning for this elephant

Initial Sketches

Here is the brainstorming sketch of the library of characters that I will create

Timeline

Time Goal

Week 1 Brainstorm design, interaction

Week 2 Brainstorm design, interaction

Week 3 Test and prototype interactions

Week 4 Finalize the "look"

Week 5 Finalize interactions