Inspiration
I hate pets but a lot of people like pets. I find them kind of pointless because they just wander around aimlessly and do a wee on the carpet every once in a while. I think people like pets because watching them be helpless and pathetic makes them feel way better about their miserable lives. This is like a pet, but doesn't cost an insane amount in vet bills, you don't have to feed it, and it doesn't even wee where it shouldn't. (Yet. Stay tuned for version 2.0)
What it does
Mostly just sits there. Occasionally wanders forward and backward a bit. Tries to end its life by slamming into walls or barrelling off the edge of a table.
How I built it
I used an Arduino, some motors, and designed some motor drivers to manage the functionality and a couple of switches as sensors. The frame is made of K'Nex 'cause I knew I was going to fuck it up a bunch of times and laser cutting lots of different frames would have been wasteful. Also K'Nex comes with wheels.
Challenges I ran into
It wasn't misbehaving the way I programmed it to due to voltage spikes and noise from the motor. I ripped it apart and soldered in a capacitor to filter a lot of the noise out.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I finished half the bottle of vodka. I didn't cry in front of too many other hackers because not many people showed up.
What I learned
Soldering iron burns: 0 Robot burns: 6 Why did I waste my time on this?
What's next for Depressed Little Robot
When encountering a wall, it should repeatedly slam itself against the wall a few times in desperation before giving up and slowly wandering away.
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