skyeleefmp

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Research

Unthemed

Puppets

A look at how pupets were made and how puppetry is being developed for the digital space.

Military Robots

Bomb disposal, drones, gun turrets, the uses of robots in the army is never ending. armed with sensors, servos and lead robots can perform more tasks than humans, dont need to be fed or rest, and most importantly cant die because they are robots. 

More Simone

Journey to creating shitty robots

Furby

Good god there things and puppets are terrifying under the skin. Furbys are childs toys that are mass produced, meaning that they must be relatively simple to make. This gives me hope for what i could do with my project.

Aibo

Its only a small toy, and obviously inst anything like a real pet dog, but it is interesting to think about how they could become a pet. people with allergies or without enough space in their houses, maybe overpopulation forces us in to crowded cities . Maybe this is the dog of the future.

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Arduino Projects

Some interesting uses of the arduino and other hardware like it. 

Raspberry Pi

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Research

Walk Cycles

The way in which something moves is the key to getting people to believe that something is alive. if its not moving then it is probably dead.

Walking

1. Back leg is the first to move

2. As the back leg comes forward, the front leg starts to move

3. The legs on the other side push the dog forward as the legs on the first side move forward

4. As the front leg comes down the back leg on the adjacent side comes up

5. cycle starts again on the other side

Jogging

This is like the walking cycle but happens faster, which makes a front leg and the opposite back leg move in sync

1. these legs move in sync

2. They leave the ground and move forward

3. same as 2

4. Legs start to come down and stabilize

5.legs that were on the ground will now start to move - repeat process 

Sprinting

1. Back legs touch down

2.. Leaping through the air

3. same as 2

4. Back legs start to come forward

5. Front legs come down first and support as the back legs move forward

6. Back legs go past the front legs and touch down - cycle starts again

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Final Designs

Yellow is a bold striking colour used to catch the attention of other animals and say, ‘hey, im here and dangerous’, just like what we use yellow for in out human society.

And uses of yellow in the context of my FMP robot

Links to the best of the mood board

Michael Fichtenmayer (Fitchenfoo)

Making models of worker robots working. some intricately designed robots that i should take some design tips from.

http://fichtenfoo.net/blog/model-gallery/

Ian Mcque

He designs things to look like they came from and 80s space film. they're cool looking

http://mcqueconcept.blogspot.com/

simon stålenhag

He takes normal objects and turns them in to cool looking robots. He also puts space ships in our world surroundings, making landscapes look more sci-fi

http://www.simonstalenhag.se/

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Display

The stand was also construction themed, with a big red button for people to press. On display one side was what it would look like on the outside, and one side was showing how it would work.

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Robot Shell

Small squares glued to the inside to attach the shell to the rest of the body.

So i had to go for a worn out look

first coat of yellow paint. I thought that giving it multiple layers would sort out the uneven surfaces, but it didnt

And cut out

Straight off the vacuum former 

The finished mold

Using the model to find how big the mold should be

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The Little Robot That Could

the whole time whilst making the robot i felt a little lost with how i wanted things to work and what designs to go with. i don’t like to work on things that don’t have a story, because i have nothing to expand upon and develop. but, after making the majority of my project first, i looked at the shape of my robot and the way that it moved and realised that this may possibly be the most useless design of a robot. it has a triangle face, legs that move how a dog runs in its sleep, and looks unable to support its weight. so what purpose would this useless robot serve other than a useless purpose. i liked the idea of robots being designed to have purpose in construction, so i put my robot in that construction. But what job could a useless robot do on a construction other than be a door stop. and then i realised that this was the only job that it would be good at, on which i based the backstory for my work:

This little construction robot who’s sole purpose was to hold open doors for those who were unable to hold them open. days of doing the same thing and unable to open any doors for himself, he dreams of a day in which he will be able to run free across the open fields.

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Research

Screen Robots

Cool looking robots that i could get ideas from

Black Mirror - Metal Head

Kind of like a dog, kind of like a flea

Silent Runnings

Looking as though they were taken straight out of the kitchen of a home from the 1950s. 

Interstellar

The way in which these nove is also quite interesting. They've taken a simple shape and made a robot that has many purposeful functionalities, all in one cuboid object. 

Forbidden Planet

Where as i could see most of these other robots being made, this is someones crazy idea of futuristic robots. Funny how its supposed to be an advanced future robot, but its design is clearly dated back to the 50s.

The Surge

This is a world in which there have been many robots built to work on construction and other purposes like that, and the designs of them looks practical for its uses, some of them dont really seem like they would have a purpose and were just put in the game to be a really annoying boss *cough cough*firebug*cough cough*

Horizon: Zero Dawn

There are some really cool looking robot dinosaurs in this game, and it is quite interesting how different robot parts have been used to create features that you would find in animals. for example the grazers are based off of a deer type creature, and instead of grazing on grass for food, they have grinders for horns to resource materials.

Half life

Looks like a robot made out of spare parts, but still looks functional

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Making The Moves

Once the Robot had been assembled, it was time to wire it up. I only have the bread board and arduino strapped to the bottom of it because i wanted to test the circuit without there being long wires dangling everywhere.

It is designed exactly the same on both sides, just one of the sides wont work

Looking down you can see how the motors spin the legs. its nothing fancy, just some elastic bands around the motor (which is wrapped in masking tape to give it some grip) and wrapped around the spinner.

the bands couldn’t be too tight or they would have pulled too much force and stopped the motor. They also couldnt have been too loose because other wise the would not have gripped any surface.

I had to place a motor at the back as its original spot was too close to the spinny thing for any band to not be too loose.

also it has lights.

Button

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Research

Behind Closed Doors

a Selection of examples that encapsulate the secrecy that could be hidden right under our noses.

They Live

though its plot may sound like something form a conspirators fever dream, They live was actually about Reaganomics, the Economics of America under Reagan. A secret society that was controlling humanity through consumerism and reaping all of its benifits for themselves, all happening right under everyones noses.

Toy Story

What really happens when we leave a room? does it stop existing? or do things come alive to live a secret life when were not looking? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it does it make a noise? So many questions, so few answers...

Men In Black

Sort of like the premise of ‘They live’ but this time the aliens are her to like normalilives. Holding people and things under a new examinatory light to reveal the hidden lives of creatures we didnt even know were there. if only the sequel didnt ruin it.

Fargo

Fargo takes a sleepy town and places multiple grizzly murders against its friendly neighbor setting. what runs through all of Fargo (whether its the film or TV series) is that people will have secrets, some of them dark secrets that are hidden under the neighborly persona.

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Research

Robot revolution

Boston Dynamics

they are on a mission to make robots that can walk and keep themselves stable. they have made countless 4 legged robots, two legged robots, robots with wheels, they’re pretty much the ones who will be responsible for when the robots become sentient and can teach any human hiding in any part of the globe. and form Boston dynamics excessive abuse, they’ll definitely hold resentment towards their human creators.

Honda Robotics

this is a machine that can not only stabilise its self but; have 57 degrees of freedom, watch your every move from its camera eyes, and has an artificial intelligence built in to communicate and understand human speech and movement. Now robot domination is only a hop skip and jump away from happening, all of which have been programmed in to these bots.

Robotwars

Oh great, not only are they agile and smart, the also have the capability to kill, maim and destroy.

Simone Giertz

Thank god some robots are terrible.

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Research

Old school

Clocks

Clocks have been around for hundreds of years, and they will probably still be around for hundreds more. they will be useful until the day that humans no longer need them because humanity has been uploaded to the Matrix. It really is a testament to how well they could engineer thing back then. Phones are impressive, but in 100 years time do you think that your smart phone is sill going to be running? There are made with a complex amounts of gears and countless other mechanisms, all working with precision to keep these ticking along.

Mechanical calculator

They really were quite creative with the things that they tried to do, even though circuit boards were a distant concept. again, these were a complex series of mechanisms, to come up with these and make them you would have had to have an immense amount of knowledge of mechanics and physics. Calculators are pocket sized now and weigh so little.

Difference engine

This is the mechanical calculator on steroids, capable of doing complex mathematical questions. I’m not even going to explain because i don’t understand, so i’ll let computerhistory.org explain: ‘Babbage’s calculating engines are decimal digital machines. They are decimal in that they use the familiar ten numbers ‘0’ to '9’ and they are digital in the sense that only whole numbers are recognized as valid. Number values are represented by gear wheels and each digit of a number has its own wheel. If a wheel comes to rest in a position intermediate between whole number values, the value is regarded as indeterminate and the engine is designed to jam to indicate that the integrity of the calculation has been compromised. Jamming is a form of error-detection.Babbage considered using number systems other than decimal including binary as well as number bases 3, 4, 5, 12, 16 and 100. He settled for decimal out of engineering efficiency - to reduce the number of moving parts - as well as for their everyday familiarity.’

Da Vinci

We really did think that we could do anything with man power and cogs. This is thought to have been the first concept of the modern helicopter, and, though it most likely would not have been able to generate enough power with four men turning cranks, there is good science behind how it would work.

Aviation

The industrial revolution saw the invention of the combustion engine, which opened up even more possibilities for invention. The wright brothers were the first to have achieved controlled powered flight, flying for a stunning 59 seconds in 1903. thanks to the revolution, it also meant that inventors could expand and improve on their work in incredibly short amounts of time. by the time war came round in 1914, the plane was able to fly across countries and house heavy loads of bombs.

Electricity

Nikola Tesla is most well known for his invention of alterating current electricity, the rival to direct current sported by Thomas Edison. but realy he did so many things that there is a video explaining his inventions, because if i was to sit here and type them all out i would probably be here for a day

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Research

Swarm theory

Whats better than one giant destruction robot? thousands of tiny killer robots. its possible to make things smaller and smaller, and science has some use for robots on a nano level. whether thats of medical or construction reasons, its had to say that they would not be benificial. but what happens when they go bad …..

Not the Beeees

The swarm works in a hive mind, all for the benefit of their one queen. bees and other insects are naturally hard wired like this. You know what else can be hard wired? Robots, the answer is always robots. what else would it have been.

Nano-machines

the uses of nano-machines in media is endless. they can augment humans, they flow in blood streams, they can repair damaged buildings and ships. they can also be used to kill. for the amount of purposes they have for good, there are always ways in which they can malfunction. start acting rogue and work on their own agenda, or be programmed by suspect individuals.  Also i couldn’t find a good picture on google, every time i searched nano-machines MGS memes were the only result, so i made my own artists portrayal.

Grey Goo

Prey serves as another cautionary tale by Michael Crichton. This time it is about the use of nano bots and when they escape. when they escape they are found to be able to adapt and replicate. A Grey goo Scenario is an end of the world situation in which this happens, and they are able to eradicate humanity.

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Moodboards

Bunker

deep underground where survival is looking bleak, but at least its safe.............. or is it...

no, its not

Tea party 

Tea boats and petticoats. is 12 am and thats probably as sophisticated as my words will get

Behind Closed Doors 

The idea that not all is what it seems to be on the outside, that in isolation we are different people

Creature ideas

These were initial ideas to help with thinking about what sort of thing i wanted to create, a robot or an animal. and what could i do with it under the title ‘Behind closed doors’

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Research

In motion

For my FMP motion will be a key part to giving my work the feeling of life, and to understand how to do it for my work, i look at others who have created movement, of captured movement in special ways

Theo Jansen

Deep in the depths of the ocean there are weird creatures. Its quite appropriate that Jansens creations are shown off on the beach. not only do his designs work with the power of wind, which you get a lot of at the beach, but they look like they just crawled out of the ocean in the way that they move. The way in which their legs move, and that there’s so many legs, make it seem like a crustacean from the depths of the sea.

Rebecca Horn

Its all about expectation. We expect the Piano to to fall and break in to 1 million pieces. instead, it is frozen in the air. we can perceive the motion of the piano, event though it is stationary.

Louise Bourgeois

Though it is just a statue, its the was in which the weird blob spider is designed. if it could move, the way in which its legs are all unevenly curved and bent gives the impression that it s movement would be erratic and look very unnatural. 

Eadweard Muybridge

Muybridge documented the movement cycles of many different animals, using bright lighting and quick exposure times, he was able to document the patterns in nature, break them down in to a series of images so that we can understand the way in which things move in great detail.

Gjon Mili

Gjon Mili is a photographer who Implements the stroboscopic effect in their photographs; like is a series of images from Eadweard Muybridge were all collated in to one image. with this you can see the ebb and flow of movements, like ripples in water.

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3D printing

Measurements

These were the measurements that i was working with. In the design process i didnt follow them exactly but they were the starting point for my design.

This is what i came up with in Cinema 4D, and what it should look like once it is 3D printed and all put together.

Body

3D printing the part - printing for around 8 hours

Fully printed body

Legs

3D print process

As i said in the video, these are not the legs that i use, these ones i throw away in disappointment. However, i forgot to take a picture of the redesigned legs, so you can get the idea of what the shape of the legs are.

Also i end up snapping the bit that sticks up of the lower legs off