Recently, I've been working on some hardware upgrades for ERNE, involving both the performance and general aesthetics of the robot. ERNE's neck servos were originally supported by 3D printed servo mounts (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9915). Unfortunately, because of their plastic properties, they were quite flimsy, and would easily bend and twist, minimizing the effect of any servo movement from the two roll/pitch servos on ERNE's base. To fix this issue, I decided to scrap the 3D printed mounts, and use metal servo brackets instead. The result is much sturdier than before, shown below. |
Additionally, I was also frustrated by ERNE's original side-profile appearance: since the front face-plate (i.e. the nose, mouth, eyebrows, etc.) all faced forward, the robot had a rather unfinished and messy look from the side, with all the servo wires exposed in a tangled mess. To improve ERNE's appearance from the side, I added a "cheek" and a "cheekbone" (or whatever you'd like to call it) with a pair of flashlight LEDs (one on each side). The LEDs serve a few purposes: firstly, the LEDs illuminate objects in front of the robot, improving the Pixy CMUCam's color recognition capability. Secondly, rhythmic pulsing of the LEDs make ERNE seem more lifelike. In general, living organisms always twitch or breathe in a certain way, and this periodic, regular pattern of motion or change creates a lifelike quality. My intention was for these LEDs to emulate this breathing/blinking quality, so that users interacting with the robot would automatically attribute the essence of these biological processes to ERNE, a robot. Finally, I added the LEDs to give ERNE a more high-tech, finished feel. Compare the old (left) and new (right) appearance of ERNE from 3/4s: |
The illuminated "temples" also feature ERNE's name. Initially, I installed pink LEDs, but I decided that they looked too girly (not that there's anything wrong with that, but ERNE is gender-neutral) and replaced them with white ones instead. |