Android Project Jen

The eyes from Elvis will make adding an in eye camera very hard.

I am replacing all of the motors with servos. I would need to take apart good servos to use the control boards to control the Elvis motors. So why not just use the servos. I know they will work well with the EZ-B.

I will be making a latex face that will have moving eyebrows, lips, eyelids, mouth and eyes. I am still working on how I will make her head turn L/R and U/D as well as tilt side to side. The Elvis robot could do all of that, but the motors were large and loud. I found out the Elvis robot could have winked one eye at a time had they wanted it to. I may need to rebuild the eyes completely to add eye cameras. I have a small pin hole camera on order as well as 10 micro servos. I have latex for the skin already so I will be working on making a mold for her face. Then every part will be made to fit her latex face. I will be cutting holes to make the plastic skull lighter or I will make a lighter skull.

This will be an interesting build. Are you building an endoskeleton with full latex skin or using the manikin body segments with latex skin over mechanical joints?

Full endoskeleton with latex skin. No part of the manikin will be in the finished android. As I build the head and neck parts will be scaled to the manikin. I may have the android head and arms on the manikin for tests, but the finished android will not have any manikin parts. If I put latex skin over a manikin then the stress at each joint would be too high for much movement. She would be very limited. An endoskeleton with some foam under the latex will be needed to maintain shape and max amount of flexibility. This build will take some time as I will be moving and have many other projects at the same time. Also the cost involved will be higher than any other robot I have ever built.

I replaced the Elvis motors with servos for the eyes. The eyes now have greater movement than before.

Hello Jen!

I build mannequin robots too! Have you seen my Robot Betty9? First I used an arduino plus several other systems, now I am using EZ plus Leaf & ALICE (for AI).

My second android project is called: Annadroid. She is based on a friend of mine. I will be using an Elvis for her head.

Elvis's (or is the plural of Elvis, "elvi"?) make great bases for animatronics. I've made several robots using them.

I've got a lot of photos of Betty and the beginnings of Annadroid on my web site:

www.robots-and-androids.com/robot-betty9.html

https://synthiam.com/community/forum/posts.aspx?threadId=1156

I found that it was very hard to mount standard servos inside of Elvis. Instead I use a hybrid for the elvis motors: the original motors + several Hitec 311 servo BOARDS (just the boards) I replace each original hitec pot and motor with an Elvis pot and corresponding motor.

I put hookup instructions on my site as well.

A few months ago I successfully mounted a camera in an elvis eye, but the resolution on that camera was rather narrow. It gave my robot tunnel vision. Also, the eye blink was something that I didn't even think about until I started testing it. Currently I am sticking to a hat-cam or a pendant-cam.

Best of luck to you.

Thomas

I am a friend of Robot Betty9 on Facebook. I have looked at your robot builds. Very nice work. I want the Alice AI and EZ-B to work together for my android. How did you get them working? I have added most of the servos to move everything in the face except the lip servos. It did take a bit of work to get my servos to fit and work, but the movement is better than it was before. The motor to turn the head will no longer fit so I need to find a good replacement servo. This android will need many servos a bunch of EZ-B boards.

I made a short test video of the android so far. It will be a long build. lol I am using my second EZ-B in this build.

Dude, that is soooo creepy. I love it.

I'm freaked out a little.

I need to make a face! I have it so it can turn its head now, so I will be making more videos. I want to make a face and put the head on the manikin body for tests then get the arms moving. Build arms and get them moving. The endoskeliton will be made after I have the head and arms working. The manikin gives me a platform to test parts as I build the android. Not sure if the Elvis neck tilt motors will fit The motor that turns the head left and right is working powered from a servo board and using the pot from the servo board. The Elvis pot went kind of random on me. The robot can turn its head way too far! lol

That is a GREAT Project!

Hey thanks everyone for the comments. The female body seems to be a bit smaller than Elvis would be. Moving the neck is going to be a bit hard as the neck motors in Elvis wont fit in a thin female body. I may need to up her chest size a bit to get them to fit. The things we do for science.

3d printed robot arm link

I am going to save up for a 3d printer so I can build everything I need to make this android work. I am also looking at powerful servos. This will not be cheap, but it will be fun.

I will need the 3d printer the most when I get to the hands. I want them to be able to move as much like real hands as I can.

Wow... once you get past the sunburned skin condition look, it actually looks very good!

I imagine realistic skin color will be tricky, but you could always use blue tint and a white wig and go for the Andorian look... That way you can also make moving antennae And then there is green...

It does look better with skin. lol At least she looks like a she. lol I need to mix the color in good too. One problem is the latex is already orange, so making it the right color will be harder. I need to buy more latex soon and a ton of plaster and clay. I need to figure out how to make her smile and frown. So much to do. I am also trying a few things to get her mouth to move as she speaks.

Nice! Keep on going. I am watching you. And yes we are also learning from this idea!

@Gunner If I gave her green skin I would make her look like Dot from Reboot. I wish they would make a Reboot movie or just bring back the show. Reboot was made in Canada. @Chemcool I hope you share your work also so we can both learn more.

Yes! Dot would be perfect... and more appropriate due to the robotics/programming applications.

Nice work!

Now I need a 3d model of Dot from Reboot. My brother was in love with Dot. He might come and take her if I build one. His wife would make him bring her back. lol

I am saving to buy a 3d printer and saw this cool video about a full scale human size robot being 3d printed part by part and built. This thing is amazing!

I hope to have the money for a 3d printer in a few weeks and then the wait for them to send it to me. Then epic robot building!

Also these parts are a free download if anyone want to build his robot or use parts of it. He does this for everyone who want to build one. You will need to print them or have them printed. Something this big, buy the printer, it will be cheaper in the long run.

The info on that 3d printed robot was on here a few days ago, it looks awesome provided you can get the printer to work like it should. It's what I plan to use as a base for my next project but that's ages away yet so I'll be interesting to see how you get on.

I use a modified ALICE "Program D" that runs on the same PC that runs ARC. It uses simple text files to communicate. Originally I use "Leaf AI Robot" opensource (free!) software for voice input since a year ago I could not write, nor read a file with ARC. I think now it can be done. I will, one day when I have a few hours, again try to read and write files with ARC. The instructions for using ALICE Program D are on the Leaf (Yahoo) usergroup's file section. It worked for me, but the results were a bit comical. You would ask a question and the robot would take a guess at what was said and the answers were often insane. Using voice recognition together with ALICE is a lot like talking to a hard of hearing person with Alzheimer's. I had the Leaf software communicate VERBALLY with the ARC software. But Leaf might not be needed anymore.

I'm currently writing a book on robots and it's taking all of my time. It's called "I, Robot Builder" and will have a EZ-Robot project tutorial in it. It comes out in October.

Book on Amazon: I, Robot Builder

Thomas

Pandora Bots can be based on ALICE and is now supported by ARC natively.

I need to get ALICE for my android, right now my EZ-B overheats too fast so I need to get fans and modify my EZ-B so I can power my larger servos with more than 5 volts. I do have a 3d printer on order. Just waiting for them to build, test and send it to me. Then more building fun with 3d printed parts.

You could run a separate circuit for the larger servos and just run the signal from the EZ-B. I have a 6V regulated supply coming off my battery which provides power for the high torque servos in my build, hardly anything is powered by the EZ-B now, and it stays pretty cool. Just an idea that should stop the over heating.

Did you haft to cut a trace on the EZ-B board or is there an easier way?

Easier way, much easier way...

Basically, put a 6V voltage regulator coming off of the main battery (before it gets to the EZ-B) Connect the +Ve and Ground to a piece of strip board or in to screw terminals, block connectors whatever. Cut a servo cable so only the white wire is on the end that connects to the EZB, solder (or screw) the red and black wires to the above stripboard/connectors/whatever. Plug the servo into the extension and it has 6v (or you could use a 5v regulator).

I use a 6V 5A regulator, details are in post about my build here somewhere. Its an Etronix 6v 5a regulator, advitised as a lipo accessory so 2S batteries can be used for 6V equipment but it's just a 6v regulator really. Parallel them if you need more than 5A.

I forgot to try this. I am upgrading to the EZ-B V4 as soon as it ships. More power for a better android. My other robots will get V4 also as I upgrade them. My humanoid has the same over heating problem. So many servos being powered through the EZ-B. Time to rewire some robots. What is the max that I can send through a servo wired like this and it be safe for the EZ-B?

I need to 3d print the face I want her to have and then make a rubber copy so she can make faces. I need to mix the color in better this time.

I forgot to say, I got my 3d printer and upgraded my animation software to work with it. I took me a while to get everything working, now I can build it in the computer and it prints in plastic in my 3d printer. I can only make parts that fit in a 6x6x6 cube, but you would be amazed what you can get to fit.

I have also printed a few robotic hands for testing. The Inmov hand are scaled after a human male, so I need to make my own to fit my android.

@mcsdaver

I am following this project with great interest. I am very much wanting to see how the face movements turn out. I think you are doing a great job so far!

Thanks rgordon, I will be working on this android as soon as I get her face made in latex. I also want to use the newest EZB in her. Her looks may change to match a character from my Micro Robots story. She wont be one of the robots, she will be an alien from their world. That is they come from her world. Anyway her looks and color have not been even drawn yet. I need to figure out what the people of her world looked like. I can still make her a face even before everything in my story is figured out.

Great! Can't wait to see how it turns out.

looks like its going to be a sexy looking robot when complete! nicee!

Sadly I never got a face to work yet. This project will come back to life.