After a long hiatus, I'm back!

Let's make this Halloween contactless! With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, this Halloween is likely to look a bit different. To solve the issue of social distancing while still giving out candy I figured, why not build a robot to do it!?! I'm going to hack a generic candy claw machine to dispense candy automatically to trick-or-treaters

Here's the plan:

• Show you the normal, boring, operation
• Remove the coin-operated function
• Remove the joysticks to take away any temptation to touch the machine
• Hack in a Windows computer (Atomic Pi)
• Hack in a USB hub
• Hack in an Arduino EZ-B
• Hack in motor controllers
• Hack in a Camera
• Hack in a microphone & speaker
• Hack in a proximity sensor
• Hack in a PIR sensor

The idea is to have the trick-or-treaters be able to interact with the Treat-o-matic and have it dispense Candy automatically for them. We'll need multiple ways to detect people and interact with them. The program and functionality aren't written or developed yet, that's where you come in! Help me with the ideas to make this dream come alive

I also have the alternate goal of embedding a computer running ARC within all my new robots, Computer-based robots are the future!

Join the live chat and add your comments, ideas, and suggestions!