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RoboBrrd to the Rescue!

Submitted by Super-Awesome Sylvia on August 11, 2012 - 2:06pm

While we were at Bay Area Maker Faire 2012, out of nowhere, Robotgrrl came up to us and asked if I wanted her one and only, WaterBrrd! Of course I said yes!

I bet you're wondering what this RoboBrrd stuff is all about....

RobotGrrls robobrrd sitting on its box.

The Robobrrd Brain Board as designed by RobotGrrl

RoboBrrd started out as an interactive robot made of felt, popsicle sticks and an Arduino. Now, Robotgrrl is making it into an easy to solder board and lasercut kit for making your very own open source RoboBrrd!

The kit isn’t quite done yet (it’s hard to put together a kit!), so I just got the wood parts that she made using the laser at Evil Mad Science Laboratories!! Muahahaha!

Sylvia's WaterBrrd in progress of being hooked up

Waterbrrds armature paperclip hooked up to the servo and the wingTo make the wings flap, we used paper clips as armatures connected to little blue servos mounted in the rectangle holes behind the eyes.

Waterbrrds beak in open position
Cardboard and paperclip amarture behind the beak
For the beak, it was a lot trickier! With the top and bottom beak parts loose, I figured out that with some cardboard and a paperclip triangle, you could keep it steady and open and close it. The servo at the back just pushes and pulls the cardboard.

When its fully completed, I want to make my WaterBrrd say my tweets by chirping and flapping its wings twice, or have it tell me the weather and current temperature. The possibilities are endless!
Sylvia's WaterBrrd in progress of being hooked up

For right now, its flapping its wings, beaking around, blinking its eyes, and talking with an old android phone my dad hooked up. The programming was all done by me.

Waterbrrd sitting on table with glowing eyes

I used an Arduino Uno and programmed it very easily. It is just like scratch, except with words and semicolons. The robobrrd will be a great kit and I can’t wait till it comes out! GO ROBOBRRD!!!!!

Sylvia posing with her robotic "WaterBrrd"

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