National Debt Robot

Inspiration

We wanted to build a robot with hardware. We saw the incredible power of using the Google Voice API, and connected it to the theme of the hackathon by adding an LCD screen and having it read out statistics about national debts that it reads from data scraped (legally and ethically!) off the internet.

What it does

Robot uses wheels, robot uses Google Voice API to read informational text, uses Rasp Pi for button/speaker/microphone system.

It moves, it reads financial information off the internet, and the LCD screen reads "NATIONAL DEBT ROBOT $ $ $"

How we built it

Cardboard combined with packing tape. One team worked on the Google Voice API, another on getting the LCD and Wheels running with Motors. Eventually the motors were running, and the Google Voice API was reading information freshly and judiciously scraped off the internet. Much work had to be done debugging the wires.

Challenges we ran into

Google Voice api for reading microphone input was not working. It's google's fault this robot can't respond to commands to "Go forward" or ask about specific countries' national debt.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

IT READS TEXT INSTEAD OF PLAYING A STORED SOUND FILE
Wheels work
LCD Screen works
sturdy glue gun and cardboard construction, with packing tape
Live over the Wifi

What we learned

A huge amount about using Google API How to get a robot to do more than one thing at the same time (VERY HARD) Electronics, fitting things together Perserverance Debugging code and hardware