Presentation Topic
- Robotics: Functionality & Personality
My original presentation topic was going to be WALL-E however I changed it to robotics since it was a much more interesting subject with more depth to research into.
Research:
What is robotics?
Robotics is the intersection of science ,engineering and technology that produces machines, called robots, that replicate or substitute for human actions.
I was thinking of starting my presentation with an explanation of what robotics is and then clarifying what I was going to be looking at in robotics. As my presentation title and theme says I will be looking at the personality and functionality in robotics.
WALL-E
Even though this was my original topic and I dropped it, I was still going to talk about it since this was a big inspiration for the whole topic I’m talking about now.
Even though WALL-E is a fictional character, his design is very much functional which is what makes the animation all that more enjoyable and believable.
This can also be seen in real life since WALL-E has been built with most his functions in robotics contests.
I then also want to talk more about his personality and this wont be a very serious slide since WALL-E is a fictional character. I was just exploring more of how the animators at Pixar managed to make WALL-E have such a big and innocent character. This was done a lot through the animation, such as the jumpy movement and expressions. Also a major bonus was the sound design, Ben Burtt the same sound designer who made R2D2s iconic sounds was the sound designer for WALL-E. Here is a video I watched further talking about his process of making the sounds effects in WALL-E: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF12uhlT6ZM
Mars Rovers
My next point was going to be what I like to think of as the real life WALL-E, the mars rovers which are currently on mars.
I specifically researched two rovers, Perseverance and curiosity.
Perseverance: Arrived in 2021 and builds on Curiosity’s work with a more advanced set of instruments. Its mission includes seeking signs of ancient microbial life, collecting and caching samples for future return to Earth, and testing technologies for human missions.
Curiosity: Arrived in 2012 and is focused on characterizing Mars’s geology and climate, helping to determine if the planet was ever habitable.
I then did some research into their functionality.
They were both quite similar, however Perseverance had newer technology since it arrived later than Curiosity. They are both equipped with many different instruments to do a multitude of experiments. This is because they are limited on how many rovers they can send to mars so one rover would have to carry out many different experiments. Both Curiosity and Perseverance have a RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator), its essentially a nuclear battery that generates heat as it really slowly deteriorates. This provides a continuous power source for rovers in harsh environments where solar panels are impractical, supplying both electricity for instruments and heat to keep the rovers warm.
I also did some research on personality for these rovers although they literally didn’t have any emotions it was exploring more how humans project personalities onto them.
Starting of with their names, Curiosity and Perseverance both those names are human traits already giving them some sort of identity that a human can relate to. Nasa also have a section on their website which has live locations and blogs on the rovers on mars that the public can access. This allows for anyone to create some sort of bond with a robot millions of miles away. Finally I also came across a couple of memes which were on a rover which lost connection. The final messages read “my battery is low and it’s getting dark” this is information, however people interpreted this as an emotional final message and the internet made many memes on it.
Bobak Robot
I also wanted to try designing and creating a robot on blender, mostly inspired by WALL-E since I really enjoy that movie.
I started of with the design, the one on the far right is the one I actually developed well since I designed it with a function in mind. The robots main function would be to clean vents hence his rectangle like shape.
I also started thinking about what other more detailed functions he could have, like this screwdriver that pops out of its head. I was mainly thinking how and where the pistons would be places inside to make a believable design.
I modelled him in blender and made the eyes using geometry nodes, I followed Stray Creation YouTube tutorial to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofnM5YeeIEs
This is the function of the screw I designed fully animated using bone constraints to create the piston function.
I textured Bobak using substance painter and photoshop.
Here is the final intro showcase of Bobak, I really tried adding as much emotion through the animation and even managed to do some sound design using royalty free sounds off the web.
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