Tangible User Interfaces - Fall 2011

Description: The idea behind the crawler was to create a round shape that would roll back and forth and to put weights inside the round shape to cause it to move more to one side than the other. In practice, this didn't exactly work, as the roller mainly just rolls back and forth with little forward motion. This "crawler" is made from a plastic bowl with a blue plastic disc taped to the opening. The servo motor is in a small box (I didn't want to tape directly to the servo) which has quarters taped to the bottom and one side to weight it down. I attached the motor head to the plastic disc with pipecleaners.

Other ideas I tried but didn't work included:

• Wheel attached to the servo that was smooth in one direction and jagged in the other so it would roll more in forward direction than backward (similar to a buzz saw blade)
• Hook shaped appendage attached to the side of the motor intended to pull the motor forward
• Motor attached to styrofoam disc underneath it - intended to make the device swivel back and forth like a snake

Materials:

• Plastic bowl
• Plastic disc made from plastic plate
• servo motor
• pipe cleaners
• tape
• small cardboard box
• quarters (for weight)

Code:

Didn't alter the pot controls servo code