Mr. Cheese Can

You can buy German Cheese in Shanghai, sealed in a nice aluminum can. Since a while I toyed already with the idea of doing sth. with these cans. Too good to throw away. I also had some parts and wheels from a Chinese LEGO clone called Ban Bao as well as two micro gear motors around, so I started to build a 3-wheeled light robot platform.

Using my clothespin gripper...

... and a lying 7-segment display below the SRF05, the robot takes shape:

The control of the 7-segment display is similar like for  Mr. Sunsmile with a diode matrix, a CMOS decade counter/divider 4017 and a Picaxe 08-M. The robot [head] can express following moods:

:D

:)

:(

:|

:P

A close-up of the interior of the robot head:

TBC

2010/4/26: Had time in the fast train to draw some circuit diagrams. Attached you find the 7-seg control unit and the reflection light barrier, which I am using to trigger the gripper.

2010/4/30: Open up mechanism:

And closed:

Home-built tactile sensor:

2010/5/1: Mr. Cheese Can is so far finished, now I have to program him.