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Edit: Kickstarter campaign failed in 2015.
Starting in 2025 you can build an interactive Alan by joining my Robotics Courseware (links coming soon). You can follow along with detailed video instructions starting with 3d printing parts. Off the shelf hardware components links are included with the BOM. Don't miss out! Be sure to get a head in robotics. Build at you own pace. Coming soon.
Introducing Alan, the android head robot platform kit, soon to be released on Kickstarter.
First a quick introduction. For those that may not know me. I've been a make up effects artist in the film industry for the past 23 years. Robots have always fascinated me since I was a kid growing up in Ohio and watching Lost in Space episodes. That interest never left me and when starting work in the film industry, I taught myself animatronics. That is I would be called upon to make something move via radio controlled, a puppet, or a toaster or ? As CGI took over the animatronics part of my industry, I focused my free time on using that knowledge for robotics. When I saw prosumer 3D printers come on the market 8 years ago, I knew I could get some of my ideas to the table with out the need for a garage full of CNC machines.
Alan is a culmination of of both technologies, animatronics and 3D printing. When this idea started 3 years ago, I had just found EZ Robots and knew that I could build an interestingly designed kit for everyone so they could experiment with robotics. A platform that personifies how we will interact with robots and androids in the near future, by looking them in the face.
My first challenge was to make sure I leaped over the "uncanny valley". To do so, I took the human dimensions and changed them a bit, eyes wider apart, downplayed high details and added features that were without a doubt not human and certainly robotic in form.
The second challenge was keeping the cost down for consumers. A head like this in the film industry, filled with lots of motions like brow, smile, etc would costs $10's of thousands of dollars. So I built Alan with a modular design in mind. Meaning that the store front will carry modules that will allow you to customize and upgrade the same robot without having to buy a whole new head. As an example the front subskull can be replaced with a module with brow movement, allowing you to keep the entire head and eye mechanism. Other silicone skins will become available different colors and genders, styles, etc. The low cost introductory head will include about 22 parts, easy to assemble, with the consumer supplying servos, power supplies EZB, etc. on their own. My website will include links to all the accessories needed, plus mods like LED eyes, built in audio systems and so on. All the parts will be molded and manufactured in Los Angeles. There will be no pressure injected molding of parts this time around. These are cold cast high impact plastic parts and platinum silicone skins. Alans future may include a full body, if the Kickstarter is successful. And you can certainly use this as a replacement head for InMoov . I will look at altering the open source STL files to be able to accept my heads.
I always knew that the EZB would be Alan's brains. And I will promote it as such. As we all know, DJ's commitment and advancement to the EZB is leading us into the future of robotics.There really is no other choice in my mind. But that's in part because I'm no programmer
D. Cochran's EZ-AI is a boon to Alans development. I look forward to where David takes it. And although I have it installed I have yet to implement it with Alan for a few more weeks. All of these working together will be highlighted on the Kickstater video.
I have several more weeks to finish the paint job and run a new hero silicone skin. Then there is the very important Kickstarter video. So we are at least 4 weeks out. But I will post here the links to both the Kickstarter and Alans website when they go live and as Alan progresses.
I look forward to your ideas for programming and how you would mod him. I'd also like to hear how you would like to see him develop. Thanks for your time and enjoy the development pictures and video.
All the best,
Will
Programming
Camera, Speech recognition, speech synthesis, pad touch,
Parts & Materials
Dynamixels, Arduino, USB camera, EZB 4, micro servos and regular servos
Other robots from Synthiam community
PJ's Robosapien ( R.A.I.D)
Budel0's R.O.O.S.T.E.R.
These damn day jobs. They really get in the way.
You got that right Dave!
More from Kuwait.....Kids having fun with Alan. BTW the King of Kuwait is pictured in thread #827 (first picture) eek. It Should now read "Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Centre was honored by the visit of his Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah"
© David Copeman Photography
@fxrtst OMG! Alan really made it to the big screen!
This is amazing, you can be proud of what you achieved with your work, despite of having a demanding day job! I hope we will see more updates, and Alan will get a big push out of this!
@JustinRatliff Keeping it EZ should be our main goal...with a shared common ground, the experience of the ARC platform will grow and our efforts will not be fragmented! The Virtual JD was trying to get the link between Unity and ARC going, but I guess it was already a step too far, by forcing participants to learn and install a whole new software package! Btw, I am still very interested in Unity and am developing for it, so the work might benefit ARC in the end!
@tcopter What type of research are you interested in, Unity has a great implementation for ML Agents...
I am researching a Python based Conversational Bot at the moment, I should be able to get it to work pretty soon, we could open a thread here in the forum about how to implement machine learning to our robotic projects?
I found a really nice converter for it Yesterday!...I'm BACK. I just finished up Avengers 4. So now I can focus on robots for the next few months.
First up, I've had several meeting about Alan and Alena and I'm really getting closer to having them mass manufactured. The difference now:
Alan and Alena would start out as a consumer market product, for use with smart speaker technology. Then, on the profits, the product would expand to include a corporate model, and then a mod kit for the hobbyist and tester.
I've also been contacted by Bose Sound systems and have been working with their R and D dept, where they will be using Alan as a test platform for their soon to come new wearable products. I'm also working with their marketing on a deal to get Alan placed withing the brick and mortar stores to promote the new wearable (2019).
I've changed the GetaheadinRobotics website to reflect the changes in my business plan. This will now be a landing page for interested business partnerships. (Still a WIP).
I just want to be transparent about where my company is going. My main objective has always been, to get these robots to market one way or another. If I have to start in a different sector and work my way up, eventually, I get these robots in to the world, and thats important for growth.
Will, Warm congratulations and welcome back. I'm very happy for you and the path your hard work has taken you.
When you start selling stock let me know. I want in on the ground floor. I think you're going to be the new Microsoft but in a good way.
And I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
Thanks Dave and @warpig, yeah freewill is overrated. Let the overlords decide our fate...lol
Your bot looks amazing!
It seems to work for companies like Prusa. Their design and software are all opensource with a very permissive license (anyone can clone their design and sell it on the market ) yet they cant build printers fast enough to meet demand, despite clones clones costing far less than Prusas..
Since software isnt your thing apparently, keep that as open as possible and let people with more time and software skill improve the software at no cost to yourself. You could make money selling the hardware with injection molded or metal pieces as kits to enthusiasts and sell prebuilt robots for commercial applications. Not everyone has a 3D printer or the time/inclination to print something that complex. And even those that do, need to buy the stuff they cant print. (electronics, servos, connectors, cable harnesses bolts, bearings, etc,...). I wish Gael from inmoov did that, sell kits for his design. It would give him funding and spare me a lot of time hunting down the right components.
Lastly, opensource doesnt mean free. It just means you provide the sources, but you can still restrict commercial use of your intellectual property. You can even charge a fee for using your design. Im not sure I would do that, but you could and probably should restrict commercial use of your designs, so no one else can sell your bots. While still allowing enthusiasts to print their own Alans and make derivatives. Its not that different from ezrobots' business model.