Gizmo

November 2014 - February 2016

In 2013, my mom told me about one of her co-workers who had connections to Back To Business IT. The company owns a robot that they take to trade shows to grab people's attention. The robot was still working, but they wanted to give it an upgrade. I met with them and took on the project of improving their robot, Gizmo.

He gave me a list of things that he wanted to change, and most of them were accomplished. In the end, I added a Gorgon robot controller as the main controller. The controller connects to a router and receives input from another computer on the network with an Xbox controller attached and the proper software attached to it. The Gorgon then uses that input to control the robot using various solenoid and PWM outputs. I added multi-colored LEDs as eyes and controlled them with three PWM outputs and an amplifier. I also designed a relay board to control the motion of the arms and head. Each appendage was attached to a motor and could move back and forth. A network camera was also attached to his head to relay audio and video to the remote computer. The camera could also play audio from the remote computer through a voice modulator to make it sound more robotic. Gizmo initially had basic motion; the wheels were either forward, backward, or stopped. So instead, I got some speed controllers and set up variable speed wheels controlled by PWM output from the Gorgon. Using the Xbox controller, you could now drive, turn, and move slowly