Welcome to the Top Level Folder of "Project Sumomo"
In short, Project Sumomo (yes, project is part of the name and is dutifully capitalized) is a attempt by a senior in Electrical Engineering to produce his own animatronic doll. But just any ol' doll would be boring. This one had to take into account his various obsessions, be cool/awesome in design and approach, and also be cool/awesome to the average mook in the world at large.
To accomplish that, many designs where been pondered. However, one thing became certain early on: to satisfy the "Cool in Design" requirement it had to be small, nay, it had to completely fit inside the doll. To take in obsessions, the character Sumomo from Chobits was selected as the critter to be animated. In the anime Chobits, Sumomo (Plum in japanese) is a small portable computer with a lively demeanor bent on making everyone's day brighter.
The true challange, however, came with satisfying the final requirement; mooks aren't impressed by webservers the size of your thumb or by automatic balancing systems. But what would impress them? It was clear that the audience would be anime lovers (likely at a con,) but what could one do?
Animatronic systems have long been a keeper of mankinds attention. Starting with "It's a Small World" and going all the way to those idiotic talking fish for rednecks, people never seem to get enough of the idea that a computer can move and speak without external aid. Problem with these systems is that they are HIGHLY failure prone, fragile, and difficault to manufacture. So for almost a year the idea was brushed away as "Too Hard".
Finally, after exhausting every other reasonable thing to do, it was decided that there was no other choice: if it didn't move or talk, no one would care. So, some basic parts where purchased and some legos assembled and the first prototype "Sumomo Leg" was assembled. Made of an R/C car steering servo, some steel piano wire, some legos, and a slap-together servo controller (FPGAs ROCK this author's world!) it was decided that the system was plausable.
So, now the adventure is underway and the race is on to design, build, program, and test Project Sumomo before Oct 6, 2006 when she will be put on display as my little buddy at Nan Desu Kan 2006. And you, my avid reader, get to come along for the ride as I go through the planning, design, part sourcing, board layout, assembly, programming, testing, and finally the presentation process. The road will be bumpy, with many pitfalls to avoid, but the end will be rewarding.
So on to the project itself! Most of this will be EE speak, datasheets, schematics, and other such doodads and hoozamawhatsists, so don't be surprised if you cant read much of it. You're not supposed to be able to unless you have the skill to be able to build it yourself. ^.^; Project Folders:- Planning
- This includes all planning info: basic ideas, pre-project work, etc.
- Inputs
- This inlcudes all engineering inputs: Design requirements, Customer (me) Expectations, etc.
- Outputs
- This includes all of the engineering outputs: schematics, software, board layouts, etc.