My Midterm Project was, to say the very least, chaotic. It fluctuated in form and function across the entirety of the project's life. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to make some kind of robot. My original idea was to take from the interactive toys of my childhood, and create a robot that would react with different emotions based on objects the robot could be presented with, but that idea was set aside due to the realization that there would be no easy way of distinguishing between the different objects. My second idea was to create a robot that could lift things, small things anyway, and could react based on whether it was successful or not. With that idea in mind, I set to work.
My first order of business was to acquire parts. I decided to buy a cheap Dinosaur toy from a nearby pharmacy, with the intention of dissecting it, and using it’s internals for my own purposes (or at least that’s how I like to phrase it for my own amusement). From my “Victim” I was able to harvest a motor, some LEDs, a cute little speaker, as well as an IR system. The dinosaur was originally controlled via a wireless controller, and was able to move via batteries stored in a detachable tail.
My next step was to figure out how to make the robot move in the way I want it to. I was tempted to include the IR controller system from the dinosaur in my project but found the system too complicated to properly mess with. Even so, I closely studied the dinosaur’s movement mechanisms in an attempt to replicate them in my own project. I finally decided on creating a wired controller with which to control the robot. My original idea for this was to have a preset path for the motor to follow with the press of a button, but then I realized that it would take a lot of coding and mechanical trial and error to ensure that the motor would start and stop at the correct position and speed. Instead I decided to make the controller work with manual controls, allowing the arms to move up and down respectively through direct button interaction.
The next step was the design. I used drawing software on my iPad to sketch blueprints for each piece of the robot, including the torso, head, controller case, and both arms. I measured each piece and charted out where the entry holes for supports and wiring would be, and cut out each piece from pieces of cardboard. I even designed paper coverings for the outer cardboard layers to give my robot a more appealing appearance.
It was when I got to this point that I came across some....rather glaring complications. Some involved the way the motor and gears interacted with the cardboard pieces, and others involved the way the motors were coded. It was also at this point that we were sent into quarantine, which severely limited not only my resources, but also my sanity. I tried multiple set-ups and even enlisted the help of a friend who was also a coding student to help me around the coding, but nothing helped. Either way, these complications made the project impossible to complete. I have full documentation of every part of the project from start to end. I submit this as my work.
Through this experience I learned a valuable lesson. Personally, I have a tendency to promise myself much more than is reasonable or feasible out of myself, when it comes to projects. While it's an asset in some cases, as it forces me to push myself and find new solutions. However, in many cases it's a major hindrance, as it can cause me to push myself beyond my limit, and the compromise leaves me feeling inferior and dissatisfied. It’s fun to push the envelope, and come up with ideas that sit on the line of what is possible for me. However, it’s important to remember that I’m only human, and that I can only expect but so much out of myself, and if compromise is required, it’s important to realize that compromise is an important part of the artistic process.
