Duration: 5 months (simultaneous with 3 other uni subjects)
Team: me and 4 fellow students
My contribution: Coding, Eyes, Raising lid, Rotating box + legs
With arduino, sensors, motors and air cylinders we created a rebellious trashcan which opens when you knock on it and sprays graffiti when you're gone.
Process video
Process image during the making of the rotating box base with air cylinders
Demonstration video without paint.
It starts with a sound sensor that recognises when you knock on the trashcan, which triggers the air cylinders to push the lid open to reveal the LED eyes. The distance sensor then registers that there isn't a person in front of the machine (it is alone), and can now move on to the rebellious phase where it turns around and opens the door for the graffiti arm which is motorised and coded to stop at random angles while spraying paint on the canvas. It finishes it cycle of spray painting and turns back and returns to its base position, before giving us a wink, and it's ready to repeat the cycle.
Sensors (sound and distance), LED-eyes, motorised arm and air cylinders (raising/lowering/turning).
Initial concept sketch
Paint spray test
This was a tough mechanics project which taught me to include air cylinders in my Arduino projects. It required a lot of trial and error, and an intense debugging phase. Safe to say we did not sleep the night before presentation, but I wouldn't have it any other way - it was immensely fun.
