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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
Lizpoir's Video From My Omnibot 2000 An From My 3D-Printing...
Rural's My Experiment 626
Hmm.. you have to wonder though, if for kids (autistic or not) an expensive, delicate and static humanoid head is preferable over a talking stuffed bear/monkey/zebra that they can hug, carry around and even throw around.
@mtwannabe I have two couples who are friends in our neighborhood. Between them they have three children who are autistic mild to severe on the spectrum. And the way they respond to Alan is pretty amazing. I’m hoping that they will eventually feel comfortable with me to take a video and agree to allow me to share it. You friend and those children can benifit and bond with these robots.
@vertigo My children have stuffed animals they throw around, but their bond with Alan and Alena is as strong as any family member or pet. The robots would not be expensive if mass produced and they are a strong as any kids toy.
Question for you. What purpose do you build your Inmoov? Will it clean your house? Drive you to work? Or even walk? The point is a robot experience is a personal experience. It shouldn’t matter as long as the Builder or consumer is happy and their expectations are met.
Will,
So true about a InMoov build or any other robot build for that matter, over the last 2 years with my major health issues, I don’t no how I would of got through it, if it wasn’t for building a InMoov and also finding EZ-Robots. It gave me great purpose and kept me and my mind active over these challenging times!
Frankly, none, other than having an entertaining/stimulating/educational challenge. Its not that different from previous hobby projects like building an autonomous VTOL aircraft. its not because I wanted a self flying vtol (it hangs somewhere on a ceiling covered with dust) and Im not building an inmoov because I want a humming creeky and somewhat creepy talking head in my living room; the fun is entirely in the challenge and the building process. I honestly dont expect to use it when its finished or when I stop working on it. At most it might be something to show off. "hey, look what i built, how smart am I?", but it will most likely end up in a corner or hidden in a closet.
So to me at least, a finished "inmoov" someone else built, has no value to me.
Just a little sidenote here....
I LOVE GERTY!
And Wavenet is the deal when in comes to TTS...give it a try! Does not come cheap though!
There is a little hack to use it with the native Google translate voice for DIY guys like us, but there will be no vocal choices, other than the standard female voice, plus it is limited to 200 chars per request if I do remember it correctly. Sounds great though...using it on my project for a while!
https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/
As do I
And its a heck of a lot easier and cheaper to accomplish than a humanoid head.
Come to think of it, maybe fxrtst asked my why I decided to build an inmoov humanoid head, and not some other form of robot. And honestly I dont know and Im almost beginning to regret it. I just discoveredjames bruton xrobots youtube channel, and he is building BB-8s, robotic "dogs" and other robots and they look like amazing fun (though very challenging) projects. And Im working on a head that will look silly on wheels and I have no other realistic chance of ever making "mobile"
and completely out of context A robot is a machine to complete repetave tasks for a human the word robot comes fromRoboti’ derives from the Old Church Slavanic rabota’, meaning servitude’, which in turn comes from rabu’, meaning slave’. the inmoov head is not a robot it is an android. Android derives from the Greek ??d?? (andro-), meaning man’, and the suffix -e?d?? (-eides), meaning form, likeness, appearance, or resemblance; hence the definition of android being automaton resembling a human being. So we use a robot slave that is the 3D printer that completes repetative tasks that we as humans cannot do. so we can create a mechanical human called an android. Interesting the 3d printer the CNC machine,. the laser cutter ETC. are the real robots, and we use them without thought. The android head is only for as Vertigo said a Entertaining/stimulating/educational challenge. and for no other reason, the same use as Art.
And these are what the archaeologists will find when they dig up the remnants of the 21st-Century world:
techcrunch.com/2018/11/28/the-alexa-enabled-big-mouth-billy-bass-is-real-and-now-for-sale/