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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
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@bas, thanks!
@tony I'd be greatful for either a contact OR an intro by you. I've reached out to both magazines and heard nothing back. I'm sure sitting in email box with a million other submissions.
And again thank you for the compliments on ALAN. I'd be very interested in the pic controllers for future versions. Alan's head is but a fraction of the future of what I'm attempting to do. I'm developing a system to teach androids how to record and mimic facial expressions, in a live recording environment. He obviously will be a complete body as well. If Kickstarter/Indiegogo is successful we will be purchasing a large format 3d printer to continue with his body. Great plans for his future, just like Altair!
And again thank you for the offer on mentorship with licensing. When they come I will be asking a lot of questions!
And thanks everyone for the suggestions of contacts, keep them coming.
It's funny if I was promoting a make up product, I'd call up my actor friend Brad Pitt And that would be that. But here in robot/toy land I'm starting from the bottom. So any and all help is very appreciated!
Brad Pitt? I'm told quite often that I look like him....... 50 years from now. Seriously though, I'm not one to spend my cash on startups. However there are two that I couldn't wait to throw money at; EZ Robot and now your little guy here. One question though, do you plan to have some type of base available to cut down on the illusion of not having a body attached? eek That would be the first add on I want to look into. Casual visitors to my home may find him a little unsettling. I'm thinking of something quite simple like the start of a shirt or shoulders. Do you know of the busts of Will Robenson and Dr Smith? Put the ducky on them and it makes all the difference in the world. Something like that available as an add on would make it a little more family friendly and generate added income.
EDIT - He does have a start of a chest but I get the urge to move my arms around in sympathy for the poor guy. Dont get me wrong and maybe I'm just looking at it wrong. He's just fine as he sits and very cool looking but for me a little more shoulder and a shirt would go a long way.
Will,
I would suggest posting to the various Babylon5 groups on Facebook (2 named Babylon5, The Observation Dome, and the Zocalo Today). Very active groups, and your connection to the show will draw a lot of faces to your kickstarter page, and some of these people spend money like water...
If there are fan sites to the other movies and shows you have worked on they might be good too (I'll bet AI and Wild Wild West fans would go for this).
Alan
Great questions. And here are several answers for everyone.
First, I designed it as a starting point for a full sized human. Certainly would not have been interesting selling his feet first! So the head was a likely starting point. It's where all humans communicate.
Next building an animatronic head for the films industry costs 10s of thousands of dollars, so creating "enough " of a head and shoulders for consumers at an affordable price meant thinking about the volume of material used in casting/molding. I went for the greek and roman type bust without the pedestal for balancing issues (the head has alot of torque and weight with the silicone face.)
Then there is the process for making them to consider. Knowing these would not be pressure injected plastic, and would be cold cast resin many factors come into play, including: the molds must fit into a 10 gallon pressure pot for curing, to create bubble free castings. A large shoulder piece would not have fit.
Finally, the "rest" of his torso and shoulders and body are designed to accept the head, neck and shoulder bit of the current Alan.
As this is a kit. I urge and encourage modifications by consumers. If ya want some shoulders to hug on in a shirt feel free to add them until the rest of the body is available! I really looking forward to see the mods people come up with!
I Want one..........maybe even 2!......1 for my InMoov certainly. looks very robust and well designed. very good job !
@Alan very good ideas. I've just posted to google plus groups reaching 500k of people interested in tech and robots.
@nano, I'm glad you like it. I'm working on the mods for the STLs on inmoov to accept my head and neck.
Will, the ALTAIR head now has a dedicated emotion PIC (part of the PIC head network) that is capable of displaying 32 different facial expressions. The emotion side of the ALTAIR is pretty cool I will do some videos soon to show all this in operation.
For servo magazine I will send an introductory email to David Geer and for Robot Magazine an email to Tom Atwood, but I need your email address so I can cc you in. My email address is toymaker(dot)tony@gmail(dot)com
Tony
@Toymaker
what is "ALTAIR head" ?
i was searching on google, but i found nothing.
It sounds interesting!
Boris