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Racing Cardboard Pop-Ups

Made by Akiva and Brian Yang

We created a set of robotic racers based on the mechanism of pop-up books. These robots are low cost, easy to mass produce, and act as the corner stone in our ongoing exploration into pop-up robotics. To culminate this leg of our research we organised an underground robot racing competition.

Created: December 19th, 2015

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Evolution of the RCP
AkivaMK - https://youtu.be/uNGsKIxmFO8
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Objectives

Entering this project  we had two main goals. 1. Explore the possibility space of pop-up mechanisms in a robotic context. 2. Find ways of making audiences feel strongly about a robot in novel ways other than fear and affection.

We combined the very organic movement style of our pop-up mechanism with the high stakes context of betting on racing. This approach spotlight for the surprisingly animate nature of our robots.
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The final lineup of robot racers. Each racer was giving a unique number, name, paint details, and motion programming.
Bot line 1.thumb
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Outcomes

Our final performance was very successful as a proof of concept that our core ideas have merit. Both the robotic racers and the surrounding race infrastructure worked better than expected. The audience engaged with the races and quickly made strong connections and associations with the unique robots.

One area that needs further work is the competitive nature of the race. Our current generation of robots are still relatively slow and have trouble staying on the track. These shortcomings lead to races that feel underwhelming, and less than competitive. By improving the core design, and by defining a possibility space for future racers we may be to create a competition with real challenge for both robots and robot builders.

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The racetrack setup. The robots race on foam sheets to give them extra traction. Above the robots we display the overhead race track view and the betting odds for audience members who can't see the physical track.
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Implementation

At the core of our project is the basic pop-up robot. This robot was designed to minimize cost and construction time, while maximizing flexibility. Last semester we did a study of pop-up mechanics. We used this knowledge as groundwork for the folding cardboard body of this robot design. Because of the low cost per robot we were able to make hundreds of iterations over the course of the project. This iterative process gave us a chance to fine tune the shape, physics, materials, electronics, fabrication, and programming.

Throughout the project we were able to show off our robots at Maker Faire and Ideate open house. These events offered a chance to get feedback from new audiences and learn how our robots effected them.

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A close up view of one of the robots. On the front: toothed feet, small servo motor. On the back: USB battery pack, Arduino.
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16-375 Robotics for Creative Practice

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This project-oriented course brings art and engineering together into making machines which are surprisingly animate. Students will iterate their concepts through several small projects focused on ...more

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We created a set of robotic racers based on the mechanism of pop-up books. These robots are low cost, easy to mass produce, and act as the corner stone in our ongoing exploration into pop-up robotics. To culminate this leg of our research we organised an underground robot racing competition.