To Get to Its Kitty Cat of Course!
Team Project: Liz Estefan and Xueyan Zhang
First Year Grad School Project in Prototyping, Physical Computing with littleBits, 2019.
About
This is a game where the player must maneuver the cat loving robot across a rotating obstacle road to get to its kitty cat on the other side of the street. It is meant to provide a fun activity to younger audiences and those young at heart, while giving the player challenges in coordination and strategy. The concept came about from Yan’s love of games, my curiosity with motion and our shared love of cats.
Materials and Software Used: Robot—littleBits: Power Bit, codeBit, 2 DC Motors, 2 Sliders, split wire, 4 wire bits, 2 wheels, 2 mounting boards; Kitty Cat—littleBits: Power Bit, codeBit, LED Matrix, speaker, proximity sensor, wire bit, 2 mounting boards; The Road—littleBits: Power Bit, dimmer switch, branch bit, 2 servos, XL mounting board; Other Materials: Cardboard, Paint, Artist Tape, Misc construction materials, Cardstock paper.
Let's Take a Peek
Robot + Controller
littleBits: Power Bit, codeBit, 2 DC Motors, 2 Sliders, split wire, 4 wire bits, 2 wheels, 2 mounting board
Kitty Cat
littleBits: Power Bit, codeBit, LED Matrix, speaker, proximity sensor, wire bit, 2 mounting boards
The Road
littleBits: Power Bit, dimmer switch, branch bit, 2 servos, XL mounting board
List of Improvements for Next Iteration
—Controller: Bluetooth connectivity to eliminate the tether of the littleBit wire attachment. Provide the player more mobility.
—Controller: Separate controls, one each for forward and back, left and right, rather than using two sliders at a time for each of the four functions.
—Moving game board floor: Consider using DC motors instead of servo littleBits to get a full 360 degree spin of the moving floor instead of the 110 degree windshield wiper movement of the servo bit
—Robot: Add LED Matrix and sound to the robot.
—Sound/Vocalization: mp3 littleBit would be ideal to provide realistic
and other quirky sounds
and other quirky sounds
—Construction: MDF instead of cardboard, avoid warping,
wobbling and vibration movement
wobbling and vibration movement
