Companion Bots Definitely Are The Droids You’re Looking For

January 31, 2020 by Zoe Skyforest 14 Comments

Companion robots are a breed that, heretofore, we’ve primarily seen in cinema. Free from the limits of real-world technology, they manage to be charismatic, cute, and capable in ways that endear them to audiences the world over. Jorvon Moss and Alex Glow decided that this charming technology shouldn’t just live on the silver screen, and have been developing their own companion bots to explore this field. Lucky for us, they came down to Hackaday Superconference to tell us all about it!

The duo use a variety of techniques to build their ‘bots, infusing them with plenty of personality along the way. Jorvon favors the Arduino as the basis of his builds, while Alex has experimented with the Google AIY Vision Kit, BBC Micro:bit, as well as other platforms. Through clever design and careful planning, the two common maker techniques to create their unique builds. Using standard servos, 3D printed body parts, and plenty of LEDs, it’s all stuff that’s readily accessible to the home gamer.

[Alex]’s companion bot, Archimedes, has been through many upgrades to improve functionality. Plus, he’s got a cute hat!

Having built many robots, the different companions have a variety of capabilities in the manner they interact. Alex’s robot owl, Archimedes, uses machine vision to find people, and tries to figure out if they’re happy or sad. If they’re excited enough, it will give the person a small gift. Archimedes mounts on a special harness Alex built out of armature wire, allowing the avian to perch on her shoulder when out and about. Similarly, Jorvon’s Dexter lurks on his back, modeled after a monkey. Featuring an LED matrix for emotive facial expressions, and a touch sensor for high fives, Dexter packs plenty of character into his 3D printed chassis.

Alex and Jorvon also talk about some of the pitfalls and challenges they’ve faced through the development of their respective companion bots. Jorvon defines a companion robot as “any robot that you can take with you, on any type of adventure”. Being out in the real world and getting knocked around means breakages are common, with both of the duo picking up handfuls of smashed plastic and bundles of wires at times. Thankfully, with 3D printing being the tool of the trade, it’s easy to iteratively design new components to better withstand the rough and tumble of daily life out and about. This also feeds into the rest of the design process, with Jorvon giving the example of Dexter’s last minute LED upgrades that were built and fitted while at Supercon.

Develop on companion bots is never really finished. Future work involves integrating Chirp.io data-over-sound communications to allow the bots to talk. There’s been some headaches on the software side, but we look forward to seeing these ‘bots chatting away in their own droid language. While artificial intelligence doesn’t yet have homebrew companion bots matching the wisecracking droids seen in movies, designing lifelike bodies for our digital creations is a big step in that direction. With people like Alex and Jolyon on the case, we’re sure it won’t be long before we’re all walking around with digital pals on our shoulders — and it promises to be fun!

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Alternative Uses For Nuclear Waste

January 29, 2020 by Zoe Skyforest 58 Comments

Nuclear power is great if you want to generate a lot of electricity without releasing lots of CO2 and other harmful pollutants. However, the major bugbear of the technology has always been the problem of waste. Many of the byproducts from the operation of nuclear plants are radioactive, and remain so for thousands of years. Storing this waste in a safe and economical fashion continues to be a problem.

Alternative methods to deal with this waste stream continue to be an active area of research. So what are some of the ways this waste can be diverted or reused?

Fast Breeders Want To Close The Fuel Cycle

The Superphénix reactor in France is one of a handful of operational fast-neutron reactor designs.

One of the primary forms of waste from a typical nuclear light water reactor (LWR) is the spent fuel from the fission reaction. These consist of roughly 3% waste isotopes, 1% plutonium isotopes, and 96% uranium isotopes. This waste is high in transuranic elements, which have half-lives measured in many thousands of years. These pose the biggest problems for storage, as they must be securely kept in a safe location for lengths of time far exceeding the life of any one human society.

The proposed solution to this problem is to instead use fast-neutron reactors, which “breed” non-fissile uranium-238 into plutonium-239 and plutonium-240, which can then be used as fresh fuel. Advanced designs also have the ability to process out other actinides, also using them as fuel in the fission process. These reactors have the benefit of being able to use almost all the energy content in uranium fuel, reducing fuel use by 60 to 100 times compared to conventional methods.

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Robo Pony Greets Hackerspace Visitors

January 24, 2020 by Zoe Skyforest 9 Comments

Robotic animal companions were once all the rage, though their limited personalities and annoying sound effects often relegated them to the bin fairly quickly. This makes them all the more ripe for hacking. [David Bynoe] had a Baby Butterscotch that was in need of a new home, and he decided to put the pony to work at his local hackerspace.

The Baby Butterscotch pony is a charming beast in stock form, yet highly menacing once its skin is removed. Mounted to a plaque, the pony has three PIR sensors that detect movement. These sensors are used to allow the pony to act as a door greeter, waking up when people enter the hackerspace and following them around the room. The additional hardware interfaces with the pony’s stock electronics by using floating capacitors and relays to activate the original capacitive touch sensors. The final piece is finished with a coat of gold paint and some RGB eyes to complete the look.

It’s a fun project that gives Vancouver Hack Space a little personality, and we’re sure it’s enjoyed by the members. We’ve seen other companion toy hacks before, with the Furby always being a ripe target for projects. Video after the break.

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BinDayCator Lets You Know When To Take Out The Trash

January 23, 2020 by Zoe Skyforest 39 Comments

Municipal waste pickup is a wonderful luxury. Typically once a week, large trucks come by and pick up bins of garbage from your residence. All you have to do is remember to put them out! In a uniquely human way, this is very hard to do. Enter the BinDayCator.

The project consists of a 3D printed model of a typical council wheelie-bin. Printed in white filament, the bin is translucent enough to glow when lit by powerful WS2812B LEDs. Having four LEDs both helps fill the entire model with an even light, as well as allows the bin to display multiple colors in different segments. This means that if it’s green bin day, the bin glows green. If it’s the day for the red and blue bins, the indicator will light up segments in red and blue.

Unfortunately there’s no global standard that councils use to serve up bin day data over the Internet, so configuration isn’t as simple as pointing the BinDayCator at your local waste authority’s website. Instead, some Node-RED code is used to scrape the council website once a day and tell the ESP8266 controlling the BinDayCator which bins are due to be placed on the roadside. A later revision has a custom calendar UI that can allow for manual configuration of the relevant days.

The BinDayCator is a cute device, and one that would likely be commercially successful if there were a simple and easy way to configure the necessary data feed. We’d love one by our front door so we didn’t miss another collection day. Visual indicators are always useful, even if its just for checking the mail. Video after the break.

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Spring Clamp Is Completely 3D Printed

January 23, 2020 by Zoe Skyforest 7 Comments

Dual-filament printers may seem like a gimmick to the uninitiated, but they open up some powerful options for advanced designs. [Darren Tarbard] shows this off with a nifty spring clamp that is 3D printed in a single operation.

The clamp is similar to one you’d find at any hardware store. Standard PLA or ABS filaments can be used for the main body of the clamp, which has an integrated hinge. However, instead of having a typical metal spring, the element is instead 3D printed. The spring is created out of TPU filament, and printed in place. Different in-fill percentages on the spring component can vary the characteristics of the spring, making for a softer or firmer grip.

It’s a tidy example of the applications of dual-filament printing – and far more useful than using it to print bi-color Pikachus. 3D printers have much to offer in the world of tooling; they can even turn a bench vice into an effective press brake. Video after the break.

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Scorigami Bot Charts NFL History In The Making

January 22, 2020 by Zoe Skyforest 6 Comments

NFL Football is a curious game to those who live beyond the borders of the continental United States. Its rules are many and complex, and its scoring system is built on arcane magic. This system means that there are many possible final game scores that have never actually happened in practice. For fans keen to hear of any first-time scores as they happen, Scorigami bot is here to help.

Charting and researching these is the practice of Scorigami, an idea first posited by Jon Bois, and is explored in this SB Nation video. It covers the many impossible scores in NFL, such as 1-0 and 1-1, as well as the possible-but-extremely-unlikely, like 6-1. To keep track of the state of Scorigami means following every score of every NFL game as its played. The ‘bot makes this easier; scraping the NFL livescores page with some nifty Javascript, it tracks each game live for potential first-time scores; the most recent as of writing being the Chiefs beating the Texans 51-31. Not only that, but the ‘bot estimates the most likely possible scorigami scores of games in progress, keeping fans on tenterhooks until the final whistle is blown. Or is it a siren in NFL? Inquiring minds need to know.

Code is naturally available on Github if you want to independently audit the Twitter feed; obviously the sanctity of scorigami results is absolutely paramount, and ensuring as such is a community responsibility. We’ve seen other live-score projects before, like this glowing Super Bowl football.

Paper Glows Up With This Origami Wall Piece

January 22, 2020 by Zoe Skyforest 3 Comments

[Charlyn] recently found herself dissatisfied with the blank expanse of her bedroom walls. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, she set out to build this exquisite origami wall sculpture.

The piece was inspired by a work originally created by [Coco Sato], which she saw on Design Sponge. Materials were sourced, and [Charlyn] began the arduous process of cutting and folding the many, many pieces of paper that would make up the final piece. There were some missteps along the way, which served as a lesson to test early and test often, but a cup of tea and perseverance got the job done.

With the paper components completed, she looked to the electronics. Ten Neopixel LEDs were hooked up to a Particle Photon, giving the project easy IoT functionality. Thanks to IFTTT, the display can be controlled via Google Home, either glowing to create a relaxing vibe, or shutting off when it’s time to sleep. There’s also a smattering of flowers decorating the piece, somewhat of a [Charlyn] trademark.

The LEDs shine from behind the paper structure, creating a subtle, attractive glow. We’re big fans of the combination of LEDs with origami, and hope to see more projects using the material as an effective diffuser. You can even experiment with conductive materials to take things further. Video after the break.

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