This document provides an overview of a project to design and prototype various robot avatars and buddies with low degrees of freedom that are expressive, engaging, and fun. The goal is to create 10 initial concepts that could be built at low cost and rapidly prototyped in 3D to iterate designs. Students would work with researchers from TAMK Social Robotics to visually design crazy and amazing robots, model them in 3D modeling software, rig and animate them in Unity3D, and create video demos or games to showcase the robots.

1. DASR
Deep
Avatars, Rod
Walsh,
TAMK
Social
Robo3cs
Simple rod.walsh@tamk.fi
Demola
Academy
Robots Spring
2013

2. Visual
Inspiration
hFp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g-­‐yrjh58ms

3. what and why
what
why
Many
proto
concepts
(e.g.
10)
of
all
We
want
to
build
robots
that
are
kinds
of
robot
buildable
Unity3D
brilliantly
expressive,
but
a
kid’s
pocket
money
could
buy
avatars
Low
number
of
mechanical
parts
&
Tiny,
small,
big
&
huge
robot
buddies
degrees
of
freedom
in
a
robot
means
of
all
kinds
low
cost
They
must
have
few
(e.g.
4)
degrees
Rapid
concep3ng
&
protos
in
3D
of
freedom
gives
insights,
ideas
&
itera3ons
Which
means
few
op3ons
to
bounce,
without
physical
build
problems
spin
Cute
buddy
robots
make
viral
But
they
must
ooze
personality,
fun,
youtube
videos
that
kick
shiny
metal…
expressions,
and
engage
aFen3on
They
should
probably
dance
too
for
youtube
love

4. how and who
how
who
(example)
Scrapbook
design
inspira3on
for
low
Client:
Rod
Walsh,
Jaakko
Rohunen,
complexity
human-­‐friendly
robots
(and
more)
from
TAMK
Social
such
as
the
successful
Keepon
and
Robo3cs
project
well-­‐known
Papero
2
or
3
extreme
students:
Go
crazy,
get
visual,
bring
some
new
Visual
concep3ng:
brilliant
and
crazy
and
amazing
ideas
to
the
world
designs,
including
movements
&
Model
in
3D,
rig
and
animate
in
expressions
Unity3D,
add
some
magic
3D
Modelling:
Blender,
Maya,
Experiment
with
Unity3D
4
rigging
&
whatever
cooks
your
noodle
anima3on
techniques
Unity3D:
Import,
rig,
animate,
Show
them
off,
add,
iterate
&everything
that
makes
it
rock
Make
video
or
video
game
stars
More:
kinect
in
–
robot
out;
movie
direc3on,
games
dev,
…