Heads Will Roll

Posted on April 18, 2021

It’s been rather quiet here. Sorry for that; we’ve been busy procrastinating, self-isolating, and doing all the pandemic stay-home stuff… Anyways, we’ve (or actually Lutz) also carried on designing and building the robot.

The head features a USB webcam for the eye and tree rows of WS2812b LEDs to make the hair glow. The hair is made of off-the-shelf 2.85mm TPU – for 3d printing – which turns out to be a pretty decent light conductor! Also, the hair can be “styled” using a blow-dryer (it is 3d printing filament after all).

There are three micro servos inside the head to actuate three degrees of freedom (all rotational) in the upper neck. The lower neck will also be actuated by two servos giving the head 5DOF. Hopes are that this allows us to create very natural movements.