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Assignment 0: Final Project Proposal

I started to think about my final project from my personal and academic interest. BB-8 is a small robot, who is also my favorite character in star wars. He is portrayed by a remote-controlled robotic unit and can be regarded as a free moving droid. He processes multiple panels containing various tools or ports. He has three obvious characters: first, he is a free moving ball. Secondly he is important for hiding and storing things (in the movie he helps to save an important USB). And then he can recognize people and deliver things to the right person (reference: wikipedia).

Initial concept

So according to BB-8, I want to make a ball. I would like to call it the "saving droid". On the one hand, it is a small droid which can move and react. On the other hand, it provide space for me to save and hide important private things, such as keys, USBs, cards. It will be opened by the password given by gestures. By the time of shaking hands, the droid will open or keep closed.


3D Model

I designed the sketch for this droid, taking fabrication and joints into consideration, I changed the form of it. Also I adjusted the functions of the small robot. The main important characteristics of it:

My initial sketch:

Sketch after adjustment:

Adjustment and Focus

After several electric weeks, I found that I the multiple functions of this small droid are complicated. I decided to focus on the part I am most interested in: the eye. I want to make a light sensitive eye, which can move according to the light condition surrounding. I came up with the sketch of the final project.

The eye has two axis: one for the eyeball, the vertical axis let the eye ball move towards left or right (look left or look right). Also I want to add an eyelid, to make the eye look ahead or look down. By adding 4 phototransistor to the eye, it can detect the surrounding light environment and move to avoid the brightest point.

Sketch after adjustment: