One of the recurring themes of science fiction is the robot. From such icons as C-3PO and R2D2 in Star Wars to WALL-E and Eve, robots have always had a certain appeal. Inexpensive microcontrollers like the Arduino have opened up the world of robotics to more people. [JohnFin] has done just this. By linking two Arduinos as the brain, he has created a voice controlled robot he calls S.P.A.R.C. (Sentry/Project Assistant/Robot Companion).
It began when he received a robotic arm for Christmas and was disappointed by it. Instead of simply building a better arm, he got “carried away” and built an entire robot instead. The entire project took three months, most of which he spent learning programming.
SPARC has three sonar sensors for detecting obstacles and movement, an arm and a couple of interchangeable hands for holding objects, and an EasyVR Arduino Shield for the voice control. The robot’s “eyes” are an LED ‘KITT’ scanner and an AN6884 VU meter chip that flashes the “eyes” when the robot speaks. It carries an onboard smartphone to look up weather, play music from the phone’s SD card, and GPS functions.
SPARC can respond to a range of commands and games including “follow me” and “singing.” [JohnFin] has also added a “sequencer” function to record and playback a series of commands. A video of this feature can be found after the break.
I like the slight stubbornness he’s incorperated in the system;
“Sing”
“No”
Yeah, stick it to the man, SPARC!
Are we sure it’s not HAL
Ok. I first thought he meant the SUN microsystems Sparc processor, I have four of those machines, ultra 5/10 and two pizza box type forgot the name/model there parked by my Cromemco s100 system…
Neet project though…
later
SPARC was my introduction to desktop UNIX and the reason I first learned about Linux, back in 1992/3.
Great project!!! I hope you show us more.
Am I the only one who can’t get over the fact that he’s training a baby Cylon?
(c:
This reminds me entirely too much of the Ultimate Dog Tease video…
https://youtu.be/nGeKSiCQkPw
Nice project. I wish I could have built a robot like that when I was a kid in the 70’s & 80’s.
Robotic security sentry? I think I saw that movie already…. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090837/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1