Awesome Drawing with Doodle Bot

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  Doodle Bot is amazing!

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  Movement in the arms!

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  Nose changes color!

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  A little kid with his own toy The Doodle Bot, together

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  A kid with his own toy, drawing together

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  Drawing made with our awesome friend, The Doodle Bot

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  Adding color in real time

What is Doodle Bot?

Imagine a little kid drawing on cardboard in black and white. With the doodle bot the spaceships, animals, vehicles, and more creatures will have color in a fun and vivid way!

Inspiration

I am not very good at art, however, I am an engineer. Therefore, building a machine that makes art makes me, by definition, an artist!

What it does

Let's imagine we have a drawing on paper with figures in black and white. Now it is time to add some color to the scene. This is where we invite our super cool friend The Doodle Bot. He will help us with coloring the scene while he dances and moves before us! Even his nose glows and changes color!

How it was built

The project came to life after a successful brainstorming session. It uses two 1.5 V DC batteries, one DC motor, one RGB led, two mini servo motors, an Arduino Uno, and a 5 V DC power source (for the Arduino). As for the non-electronics, we can find cardboard, a plastic cup, some LEGO pieces, 4 markers, and some complementary and decorative stuff.

Challenges during the build

First of all, being a solo team. Finding a teammate for hardware projects is not easy in Tree Hacks online events. The coding in Arduino had also its challenges since it runs with a library and many functions. The good news is we can find a lot of information on the internet. Talking about the build, the prototype was quick and dirty, with the components outside the plastic cup. However, getting everything inside the cup, tight and working was a huge effort. Finally, making a video to show the results was a little bit challenging.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We have tackled the challenge of Accessibility. Not everybody is skilled at art or at making friends. This project is useful so little kids and people with autism syndrome can have fun coloring, creating art with a friend! As we know, people with autism syndrome (spectrum) can have a hard time during social interactions. The doodle bot could even be used in therapy as a tool for improving their social skills. We are proud of building a prototype for this initiative.

What we learned

We improved our Arduino programming skills. Our prototyping improved, as well as making a final build with nice, fun, and characteristic looks. The aesthetic's importance was reinforced. Moreover, we learned to build focus in working on an idea from scratch and delivering it in less than 36 h.

What's next for Awesome Drawing with Doodle Bot

We could make a step-by-step tutorial on how to make one so that anyone around the globe can build their own. Furthermore, we could add all the special details to take into account for troubleshooting. Additionally, it seems that the components can be simplified in a small space inside the cup, making it easier to change the markers and the batteries. This robot can be iterated or perfectionated so, eventually, people can buy a bag with all the components and build a Doodle Bot in their houses, just like a LEGO set!

Built With

• arduino