Automata

On August 2010, I was contacted by the artist Lorenzo Scotto Di Luzio that asked me a collaboration for his exhibition at the Frieze Art Fair in London . So I went in Berlin to realize this stuff with him.

Here in about a week I was designed the controller for the opera. Lorenzo’s desire was an automata that moved randomly (in a few words It would be a slumber playing gym).

In order to create the “brain” of the robot I used an Arduino and a simple chip capable of controlling the rotation of two motors, while for the mechanical movements I used two engines and two small DC servo motors (used for the arms).

One of the most delicate parts of the project was to create a sensor to allow arduino to understand when to reverse the motor rotation (without breaking the hinges). The photoand video you can see how I solved this problem (basically inserting a tab on the axis ofrotation that reached the bottom of a closed circuit race).