Sir Kitt, Robotic TV presenter

Full build details at www.ukrobotgroup.com


Well, where do I start?

Around November 2008 a TV production company came looking for an enthusiast who could build a robot to interact with guests backstage at a large music awards ceremony. I put myself forward for this as I thought it would be a good opportunity to motivate me into producing something decent for a change :)

The TV producer was looking for a humanoid that could wander backstage and interview guests with a camera in its head sending back a feed that could be recorded for the show. Unfortunately, the backstage area was enormous with uneven carpets, cables, etc so a humanoid on its own would not have gone more than a metre before falling over.

I was amazed that the music event was going to be the    Brit Awards    which is a VERY big deal here in the UK each year !!

Step 1 Specs

There was obviously a need for a vehicle that could move the humanoid from guest to guest.

Luckily I had an unbuilt Lynxmotion 4WD1 rover kit and a partly finished Manoi that I had never managed to find the time to finish. So after a long brainstorming session I set about trying to build a robot system as below.

Robotic armchair

Fully adjustable speed and direction
Lightweight body
System for locking and unlocking the humanoid from the seat to stop it falling off
Lightweight LIPO batteries
Video camera to provide second feed
DV Camcorder to record video and audio feeds
Remote speech playback unit
Amplifier and speaker system with mesh grille
RC receiver
fused busbar power system
Hazard flashers
External kill-switch

Humanoid

Finish assembly of Manoi and paint up the shell suitably
Primary Camera in robots head
Upgrade batteries to performance LIPOs
LED eyes and chest lights
Angle head to look upwards
Add gyros, balance and create specific moves

Misc

Belt mounted AV receiver, LIPO battery and 2nd DV camcorder for Manoi head cam and audio feed recording.

Remote controls for chair, Manoi, speech unit and camcorders

Charging and tape swap systems

Mountain of spares, batteries, etc and a system for controlling them.

http://www.lynxmotion.com

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?u=http://www.kyosho.com/jpn/products/rob%20ot/at01/at01.html&sl=ja&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Oh, and did I forget to mention, I had only one month from the final ok from the producer to get the robot built and tested, all for no money as I was to be building this for the 'experience' :(

Comments

[OracsRevenge]

Fiddling with the amplifier today, need to get some sound to light working on the robots mouth.

[eggyeggyeggy]

Try a smaller version of this

[OracsRevenge]

Thanks, the main problem I have is in transmitting the signal back from the chair to the humanoid.

[computer_guy]

HOLY SNAPS THAT MUST BE LIKE, 100 VOLTS OR SOMTHING! LOL. nice.

[OracsRevenge]

Hehe, if I connected them all together, it would be one hell of a hand zapper :) Since then I have added another 20 batteries to the set :(

[firesketch]

This is... AWESOME. I need to make something like this, I want that dance on my desk :)

[dombeef]

LOLWUT? lol