Jaadu : the Alien in FabTerrarium

A FabTerrarium is a space with different animals/plants which can interact with users or other entities within the terrarium. These animals/plants are either 3D prninted or soft-robots or a combination of both.

Jaadu is an alien in the FabTerrarium who is curious about the different animals or plants in the space. It is a small toddler who crawls in the terrarium reading the emotions of the other entities and displaying those emotions in itself.

PowerHand is the movement controller for the Alien. Moving it around triggers the Alien to move.

Emotion Gateways are the gateways placed in the Terrarium through which the Alien can pick up emotions of other entities.

Read more at our blog on the project and how it came to be.

Repo Details

• alien : Contains the code for the Alien.
• backdoor : Contains the client side code for communicating with the backdoor over MQTT.
• ground : Contains the code for synchronization between the Emotion Gateways and sending the triggers in the ground to the Alien.
• media : Different images/videos used in the repo.
• models : All models designed for laser cutting or 3D printing, some discarded and some used.
• powerhand : Code for control of LEDs and triggers sent to Alien in the PowerHand.
• scripts : Contains scripts used in the project.
• testing_modules : Testing codes and information.

Items used

• Alien :
  • RasPI Zero W
  • Adafruit RGB LED Strip
  • Adafruit LED 8x8 Matrix (2)
  • TowerPro SG90 Servo (4)
• PowerHand :
  • Arduino Nano
  • Accelerometer
  • HC-05 Bluetooth Module
  • Adafruit RGB LED Strip
• Ground :
  • Arduno Uno
  • HC-05 Bluetooth Module
  • HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor (2)
  • Adafruit RGB LED Strip (2)
• Additionally :
  • Finnappee
  • PlexiGlas
  • PLA
  • Breadboard
  • Jumper Cables
  • Tapes
  • Loads and loads of Glue

Thoughts on looking back

• The walking mechanism developed which relies on the Servos is not suitable to be driven by a RasPI. The Servos by TowerPro are not really reliable and go bust often. A better and reliable mechanism is needed.
• Bluetooth HC-05 module keeps disconnecting after some time, not reliable.
• RaspPi Zero W with it's single core is not a good driver for 7 threads. Things get real slow real quick. RasPI 3 might be a better alternative.
• PowerHand doesn't have proper signifiers for how to use it. Design could be better.
• Power requirements for the LED Matrix, LED Strip is quite high. A 1.5A current (given out usually a small powerbank) is not sufficient. A smaller, light-weight and higher output current power source should be thought of.

The Interactive FabTerrarium project was conducted as the Media Computing Project by the Media Computing Group group under RWTH Aachen.