Robodoorman

xanadu

Robodoorman uses a PIR sensor to detect movement and reads a TTS response. 

"Hello""Nice day today isn't it?""Can you put me together?""Go home we're closed"
In the video you have a BS2, EMIC 2, PIR, small audio amp and speaker. TTS is a bit overkill for a precanned response. It is much cheaper to reproduce audio from an SD card. Robodoorman knows no limits and will ultimately require TTS and SD cards. Robodoorman may be a few boards on a desk, but not for long. Soon Robodoorman will maintain a semi-retail environment. Upscale restaurants and Hollywood use animatronics to make lots of money, Robodoorman will crush them all. 
Also, you can make some cool voices using Audacity which I have also been exploring and will share on this post as things progress. 

erco

xanadu, very cool. I can tell you're having fun getting your Makerspace ready... surely that's where RoboDoorman will reside?

xanadu

Thanks! Yes, hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. It will be low profile as depicted here in this crude drawing -


That is the animatronic part. It doesn't do much other than look cool and turn 360. The speakers will be hidden in the ceiling. Different sensors placed about the room will make it turn toward them. I'm working on a sensor that detects coming and going through the doorway so it can hello and good bye accurately. 
I'm using esp8266 modules because they are cheap and it would also put it on my wifi. I have 4 of them so I would be setup for the "head" and three external sensors. I wanted to update this a little more but I can't make it over there today. 

xanadu

I've been experimenting with some Sharp IR to sense people entering vs leaving. The width of the door is 36", using an ADC I can fine tune the maximum distance. The sensor can be mounted away from the door to compensate for the minimum distance.

The door can swing either direction, if it swings inward toward the sensor the door will set off the sensor. Otherwise if the door opens outward the person's body should set it off.

I am thinking about mounting the sensor waist level. It will be powered with a small 9v wall wart and use wireless. I doubt I will use the Stamp for this, but it's fun to play with so I'll use it as long as I can, then redo it in SPIN.

The IR pairs do well pointed directly at florescent lights, and they will be shielded from the sun so I think this is what I will do. I played with the orientation of the IR pairs quite a bit and it seems to work well no matter how I arrange them. They are currently about 3.5" apart.

Here's a quick video


Here is the simple loop of code I'm using to detect movement direction.

main:
DO
IF (LIR = 1) THEN 'detect movement left to right
FOR counter = 1 TO 50
IF (RIR = 1) THEN GOSUB hello2
NEXT
ENDIF
IF (RIR = 1) THEN 'detect movement right to left
FOR counter = 1 TO 50
IF (LIR = 1) THEN GOSUB goodbye
NEXT
ENDIF
LOOP

erco

C'mon, man up and do it right, xanadu!
http://gizmodo.com/behold-a-real-hotel-staffed-by-talking-androids-and-ro-1718009807

xanadu

Nice, dinosaurs too. I wish I had that kind of budget to play with! 

Chris Savage

Very clever! Thanks for sharing!

xanadu

We have an amp and a mouth! $20 at home depot for the speaker and $3 for the ASD1410 amplifier. EMIC sounds a lot better on a larger speaker. The 2.5 amp amplifier is plenty and you can hear it across the room. 

erco

Very cool. Want to give him a funky instant V-shaped LED mouth for $5? Turn this sound level meter sideways, check the video.
http://www.icstation.com/icstation-sound-level-indicator-micro-power-supply-p-3470.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUsUFwhp5-U

xanadu

Here is the speaker, with a pan/tilt attached to a piece of ePVC. I wrapped that in fake carbon fiber sticker. There's a Sharp IR pair, two caps for show, two CdS and a strip of 8 WS212 LEDs. The IR pair won't do much. The Cds will be setup for light tracking.

I have it connected to the Propeller. I decided against putting the EMIC up there, it isn't needed. I'll be playing .wav audio from SD. An ADC will make the WS strip into a VU meter when it plays sound, and some cool routines in between.

I looks pretty cool (to me) in motion with the lights going. So far the people I've showed it to just look at me funny.

It is 180 on the pan. That keeps things simple and also means I will probably add a second setup just like it facing the other way. Two heads are better than one!

xanadu

Shutter speed messes with my LED routines but otherwise we have liftoff!



Time to solder it together and put it in the ceiling.

erco

Cool. What does it say at the end, "A-tars"?

xanadu

"ATARI"

In the Atari ST emulator voice.

erco

This website does different Languages (all robotic) and also generates free MP3 files.

http://codewelt.com/proj/speak

xanadu

Good find, a small donation gets you commercial use too. When it is open to the public I plan to be legit on copyright. It will also have a "we're closed mode" which I can't get into detail on the forum, so we'll have to wait until you get here.

erco

XLNT. Let's pick a day good for you & Gordon soon and I'll come down to check out your space, do lunch & talk robots!

erco

xanadu wrote: »

When it is open to the public I plan to be legit on copyright.

And may I assume you'll use only unleaded solder, kiss babies, and adopt stray animals...?

xanadu

erco wrote: »

XLNT. Let's pick a day good for you & Gordon soon and I'll come down to check out your space, do lunch & talk robots!

Sure, there will be some new additions in the next few weeks. We talked about it and you can't bring flame throwing robots to lunch!