Blue Wants to Win

Inspiration

We were inspired by the extensive prize list and our desire to win one, so we set out to do exactly that. Blue, short for Varsity Blues, is designed to GUARANTEE that our project will win the competion.

What it does

Blue is programmed to identify judges using a complex vision system. Once it has identified a judge, it engages complex social interaction algorithms to convince the judge to give it the highest possible marks. These algorithms leverage judges' desire for monetary gain, offering increasing sums of money for a good score. If the judge refuses, Blue will keep upping the ante, even offering the judge a new identity.

How I built it

Blue is constructed out of laser-cut plywood, augmented with six servos to actuate money drawers and arms. To make his enchanting glowy eyes, we added individually addressable RGB LEDs, giving him nearly infinite emotional range. Finally, to give Blue a voice, we attached a speaker and employed festival, a text-to-speech engine with a charmingly robotic drawl.

Challenges I ran into

We had some trouble designing a speaker amplifier circuit since Blue has to run off of a 5V USB power supply which couldn't supply enough power to drive the speaker we chose. We were able to solve this problem eventually by altering the circuit until it closely resembled a battery-powered speaker from Charlie's room.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are excessively proud of Blue's chonky, robotic frame - designed by our resident mechanical engineer, Calder Miller. We are also very happy with how the LED eyes came out. They seem to have no limit to their expressiveness.

What I learned

We learned that teamwork, collaboration, a winner's spirit, and a small amount of monetary incentives can take you all the way to the top.

What's next for Blue Wants to Win

The next step for Blue is probably to enter the ongoing Presidential race as an independent. We believe that with his winning attitude and financial incentives, he can make it to the Oval Office in 2020.