I designed and created my first robotic thing when I was attending art school in Chicago. It was a dancing light bulb flower like the ones you see in the illustration above, made to dance and sway around when it sensed someone was in its vicinity. After I successfully gave my flower life (though it was hardly perfect) I was hooked. If there was nothing to stop me from figuring out how to make one, why not make the environment I envisioned in my art?
Over time I adopted the delta robot type over my original 'light bulb flower' because my design was based more on aesthetics than practicality and as a result was difficult to control. I made many delta prototypes out of found items like tupperware containers, plastic hangers, and anything else I could force into the moving parts for my newest revision.
With help and inspiration I worked the design into what it is today... a hardly little beast powered by servos and held together with minimal hardware, giving it a streamline appearance.
Right now I have a family of six identical deltas : Jeden, Smych, Squanto, Schatze, Santo, and Sznurek. They help me write code and develop new ways of controlling the large collective I will have one day.
...I just need to make a couple hundred more. The easiest way to get my parts produced would be by having an injection mold tooled. However, this process gets expensive fast. Releasing my robot as a kit will also help fund production to this level, and warrant making a higher volume of parts than I need for my installation. So whether you want to see my field of robots a reality, or just want to make your own and hack it, you should support my cause and grab a kit once my Kickstarter is live! |