Floormonsters

These 3 legged beasts seem to live dormant on the floor. But they're ALIVE! They are activated by movement, sound, light...

Floor monsters are made of cardboard, their body is controlled with simple electronics and their brain is a micro-computer.

Cardboard is a cheap material, easy to find and fun to customize. The electronics are as simple as possible so there is enough room to improve upon.

  • body : cardboard
  • brain : start with micro:bit
  • muscle : servo / motor / electronics

Theo Jansen

I really like the idea that these monster will reproduce, but not in the traditional way. Theo Jansen, the creator of the strandbeesten, describes it best:

The Strandbeest is a self-replicating meme, a brain virus. It infects the student's brain. In fact, the Strandbeest abuse students for their reproduction. For two years, this reproduction fell into a flow acceleration. Now, 3D printers produce walking mini Strandbeests.

Theo is also infected (probably patient zero):

They’ve [the strandbeests] become an addiction, a disease, a virus if you like. I am their victim: The strandbeests are forcing me to make them.

Community

Currently not really a community, but more a description of the people who might be interested in this project.

  • starting with electronics
  • papertoy enthousiast
  • experimenting with micro:bit
  • child & family & technology
  • families looking for an activity they can do together
  • starting with robotics
  • technology and magic :D

And these communities are probably friends:

  • Micro:bit
  • Arduino
  • klooikoffers

Vision

Ikea has a research paper about that parents and kids would like to play more together. But don't know how or have enough time for it.

Other research show that parents have to much screen time, and children would like to do stuff with their parents.

So we need to play more, and this is an ideal project for it.

So play is good, play is healthy, play has benefits:

  • Relieve stress
  • Improve brain function
  • Stimulate the mind and boost creativity
  • Improve relationships and your connection to others
  • Keep you feeling young and energetic

So if that is true, how do we get people to start playing again.

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw

Once people start doodling and building, I hope the IKEA effect will trigger a sense of accomplishment and pride.

The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created. The name derives from the Swedish manufacturer and furniture retailer IKEA, which sells many furniture products that require assembly.

wikipedia

Question that need answers

Because of my developer/designer (aka unicorn) perspective I will look at this project from two views.

From an artist point of view

  • age target audience
  • possible to make it move nice, synchronical, fluent
  • is the electronics too complicated
  • does the monster feel alive
  • enough space to customize
  • easy to customize
  • instructions clear
  • what would you feel as accomplishment
  • name of the monsters (floor-monster is a working-title)
  • website / webshop
  • instructions / video
  • workshops
  • no electronic version?

From a developer

  • balance between explaining everything vs exploring
  • how to create those legs, how to cut
  • micro:bit programming
  • making electronics easier
  • how do the servos let the monster stand
  • are servos strong enough
  • how long does the monster live on one battery pack
  • could it live from light
  • is cardboard to heavy, not flexible enough
  • cardboard to difficult to cut for children
  • what age you can use a knife
  • cutting vs putting it together
  • coding
  • make the leg pattern as simple as possible
  • all the electronics I need to learn

Why?

To create an awesome robot/monster with simple engineering.

Show that technology is not only for nerds but for everyone.

Use simple electronics and programming to make it work.

Use cheap cardboard which is available to anyone. And simple to cut, fold, connect, paint, etc.

Create opensource, because it needs to "reproduce".

Technology should be very simple:

  • micro:bit
  • batteries?
  • servo
  • elastics

There is a lot of repetition in this project. Take for example the leg segments:

  • drawing
  • cutting
  • building
  • connecting

Thats why is a great project to do with more then one person, it will give you time to talk about this project but also other things.

And working with cutting tools always needs your attention, so your focus is here and will help you to unwind, reduce stress.

First prototype

This will be focussed on the monster itself. How will the legs look, how will the electronics work and how will it move.

  • cardboard
  • micro:bit
  • batteries / battery-pack
  • steppen motor / servo
  • PIR (Passive infrared sensor) / motion detection

Second prototype

Here we will investigate possible customisation: is it fun to customize the cardboard legs, is it possible to change the "brains"

  • cardboard monster
  • Arduino / raspberry pi (bigger brain)
  • IOT
  • react on a tweet ( ifttt )
  • website, webshop

Third prototype

This is the third evolution: other materials, and other monsters

  • other materials
    • plastic
    • wood
    • fabric
  • different configurations
    • 3 legs
    • 4 legs
    • wheels
  • other distortions

Playful

  • create an electronic/paper monster that lives!
  • monster will look awesome
  • and is customizable
  • fun to build, better with parents
  • electronics need to be bought, but body is from cardboard (supermarkt)
  • every monster will move different
  • every monster is unique (different cardboard, different put together)
  • how cool will it be to create your own monster
  • search for your own material (cardboard)
  • use electronics to convert one movement to another

Process is key

  • every fase has it goals
  • how will the legs move
  • how will the legs be build
  • how to connect electronics
  • how to move monster
  • create understandable instructions
  • how to keep it simple

brain dump

Besides that the micro:bit is very simple and easy to program, it's also given to English children at a certain age.

Computer science is a course that every student needs to do in primary school.

That why the teachers are looking for cool projects to do.

So speaking about that is a virus will make it more fun

I hope the project is awesome enough to start with it, although it will take some time to finish.

And that the shape will invite people to reproduce it in other ways, like Arduino, 3d printers, other materials, etc