WHEN ROBOT BECOMES A BEGGAR

Since I came to New York, I met many kinds of beggars. Beggars are roaming our metropolis, they use their own way to beg for money. Therefore, I decided to make a robot beggar. For Mid-term project, my goal was to increase people’s concern about beggars in our society. The materials to construct the frame were mostly trashes from both parts of old TV and broken umbrella to increase the old and shabby feeling.

For the final project, I changed a little bit of my theme. Since there are so many beggars on the street and in the subway, few people are willing to give their money because they are mostly shaggy and people don’t like them. So, my goal is to make a neat, cute Robbie beggar that could attract people to give him money. The most difference between robot and human is sometime people are even willing to trust a robot instead of a shaggy human. On the other hand, Robbie beggar could also acts as a philanthropist to collect money for the person who really needs help.

Basically, when the user walks towards Robbie beggar, he will stretch out its arm to ask for money and he begins to talk in his robotic language. Meanwhile, led begins to blink to express Robbie beggar is so happy that someone could notice him and might give him money. When the user put penny into the plastic bottle, user will hear a beep sound to indicate that Robbie beggar receives a penny. When user walks away from him, Robbie beggar returns his former quiet. The user can also take their penny back by twisting off the plastic bottle cap.

So, when the user is far away from Robbie beggar, the RGB led is on to try to get attention from the user. For the robot itself, one servo is attached with ultrasonic distance sensor, when the distance between Robbie beggar and the user is smaller than 20cm, the ultrasonic distance sensor will trigger the servo to rotate from 100 degree to 180 degree. At the same time, the blue led begins to blink and the buzzer begins to produce voice to indicate that the Robbie has noticed the user and speak with the user. When user drop penny into the bottle, the action triggers the motion sensor, then motion sensor trigger the red led and the buzzer to show that he receive the penny.