ROBOTIC SCALLOP SWARM MUSIC BOX
Robotics Course at Brown University (ENGN1931U/CSCI1951Y)
Collaborators: Christine Zhou, Vivian Li, Shaun Latip, Eliza Noxon, Dr. Iris
Bahar, and Eva Goetz
Fall 2021
Overview:
I am usually thinking about the ocean. When participating in a pitch session for a robotics course, I was excited to bring together two things I love -- scallops and robots.
ScallopBot was created to bring awareness to the ongoing destruction of ocean ecosystems from climate change and ocean acidification. It was conceptualized to reflect and demonstrate how human interference directly affects aquatic organisms.
I worked with a team of mechanical engineers, artists, designers, and computer scientists over a four-week span to conceptualize, prototype, and build ScallopBot.
Process:
We were initially inspired by this video (scallop swimming).
We sketched high-level overview sketches to replicate the motion of scallops swimming (cam structure).
sketch by Christine Zhou
We then began to draft out the interaction steps for the viewer. How can we highlight human interference affecting these animals? What technology can we leverage to assist this?
mechanical design and debugging by Christine Zhou and Zoe Lee
We created the system to show human interference to increase or alleviate pressure on the scallops. The start sequence is triggered by opening the box to show humans interfering with a natural ecosystem, then a knob increasing or decreasing the speed of the scallops swimming pattern and music to show direct action influencing the animals.
This was accomplished by using the Arduino to create a system that uses hall sensors and a potentiometer.
electrical by Shaun Latip and Vivian Li
Final Design:
