"I don't have a pen"

Finally I have a chance to pick back up on the Mascot Project. I'll start where we left off by publishing the sketch exercise we did last.

Amid scoffs of "it will never work" and " I don't have a pen", we did a brainstorming design exercise where individuals draw their concepts on paper and the paper was passed around to others to draw on, adding their own doodles to the "collective" design. Only a couple of sketches had any combinations of more than one design. Congratulations to those who were able to relinquish their sketch to another's brutal hand. I know it's tough for logical engineer types to "cast about" for inspiration, so congratulations to everyone for participating.

The "logic" of the exercise is to bounce ideas around quickly, building on what another person sees in your idea that you may not. It's also a spin-off on the "two heads are better than one" concept.

I've presented the sketches below and commented on each briefly. Please add your explanation if you are the author and I've missed an important point.

I'll incorporate the ideas, that are new, from this exercise into the CAD model next month. Remember the design criteria...The 4 main design objectives for a "club mascot" should be:

• 1. Light and easy to transport
• 2. Big for visual impact
• 3. Flamboyant, showing off, technological cleverness to be proud of
• 4. Cheap, cheap,cheap
  
  

I took the liberty to combine some of the sketch elements from a couple of different sketches in these first few, sort of in the spirit of the exercise. This one is much like the original design but with arms, head, and camera, added from other sketches. I find the head particulary "modern".

This one uses parts from several sketches.

This sketch is specific about components, call-outs are a good thing. The anthropomorphic "face" in un-mistakable.

The oval head and the square eye band are a cool look. And there's the ubiquitous R2D2 format again.

This sketch had two contributors. This is a fine example of sharing ideas via the community sketch concept. I have entertained the scissor-lift idea before, but I've never seen the folding / right angle / idea before (in blue). It sort of reminds me of retractable landing gear on a plane. I can see this being used for dolly wheels and such.

On first glance, this one can seem to be bullet shaped, but the cone is a collection of leader lines pointing to motor locations. It can look like a wheeled cart with humanoid articulated bot (light blue). Or if you include the leaders and turn the face 180deg., the dark blue cart looks like a left foot and the bullet becomes the face. Right brain optical tricks and accidents can become unique designs.

I was impressed with the idea of the top part unfolding from a cylinder. Puppetry arts is given credit on this one.

This one seems to have a tank tread platform with actuated links to extend the body. The head is a bit like a cockpit with wind screen. I get a very modern, high tech feel from these proportions.

The balancing idea definitely fits for criteria #3, "show off". I'ld put holographic projection in the same category. The R2D2 character has so much appeal, it's become the defacto standard when the word "robot" comes up. No matter what gets built, it will always be compared to R2D2.

This one shows a unique pentagon plan view. The notes suggested a solar panel which I think represents just the kind of redundency, complexity and modularity we've been talking about.

More articulaton is shown here between two box shaped body parts.

This one seems to have a tubular framework and folding outrigger wheels. Reminds me of the "shrimp" locomotion bot. I've been looking again at this platform lately because of it's ability to climb stairs with wheels.

This member clearly wants a battlebot mascot. I believe the intent to do a demonstration robot would preclude destroying it at every presentation, but I could be wrong. Battlebots attract attention. It's possible to fall asleep when "johnny" robot is calibrating his sonars. No so when "etek" is ripping a printer apart. What message do we want to send?

This one gets the award for ambition. I would love to see a pogo stick design made locally. With the cheap accelerometers and gyros available now, it should be at least marginally more attainable.

The gripper is clearly defined on this sketch. Autonomous grippers are out there, but beyond my skill level. A gripper that's remote controlled would be visually appealing, and appearently generally expected.