Bebop: A Quick Facial Recognition Robot for Maker Faire Rome

2023-11-10 | By Jorvon Moss

License: General Public License

Bebop is a facial recognition robot I built to showcase at Maker Faire Rome. I wanted to create a ‎quick wearable with decent functions, so I built a pan-tilt mechanism-based facial recognition ‎robot using the Person Sensor. I've made facial recognition robots before, but this was the ‎newest, fastest, and easiest way to put one together. What makes this robot special are the ball ‎joints. With ball joints in almost every mechanism, the robot is poseable, which makes wearing ‎Bebop look cooler.‎

bop_1

Parts

STLs for the 3D-printed parts can be found here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6295476 ‎

Circuit

Tilt Servo, Pin 39 Power, Pin 28 ground, Gpio pin 2 signal

‎Pan Servo, Pin 40 power, Pin 3 ground, Gpio pin 1 signal

Person Sensor. Signal pin 1 Gpio pin 4, signal pin 2 Gpio pin 5, Pin 36 power, pin 38 ground

Optional LED

LED, Pin 36 power, Pin 33 Ground. signal pin 24 Gpio pin 18‎

diagram

The code for this project can be downloaded here:

assembly

Assembly

I attached the person sensor print to the tilt mechanism. The tilt mechanism is used to make the ‎eye move up and down. You can glue the mechanism to the inside of the head, leaving enough ‎room for it to move up and down. The person sensor should be placed outside the head so that it ‎can see people. The entire circuit, including the battery, can be fitted inside the head. If possible, ‎a switch or button should be placed outside the head to turn the device on and off.‎

I recommend having some type of strong adhesive for the 3D printed pieces in this build ‎because I was in such a rush, I didn't design it to use screws, unlike most of my other designs. ‎

design_1

I recommend printing out the base, body, and leg ball joints first. You're going to want to glue the ‎screw to the body on all four sides. This is a ball joint, so once the screw is attached to the body, ‎you should be easily able to test the strength by attaching the ball and then the screw as seen in ‎the picture above. Once that is completed you may print out the shin joints.‎

design_2

To make the full leg, glue the small attachment onto the end of the ball joint. Then, use a 3 mm ‎or 4 mm screw to attach the shin joint. I also made a leg attachment if you want to make the legs ‎longer.‎

design_3

I designed a foot for this build, but it's not really necessary. It's mostly for show, but if you want to ‎use it, I recommend printing it out and then gluing it to the bottom of the little portion of the leg. ‎

design_4

The torso is a simple assembly. It is just a large ball joint, so you should print the large screw ‎piece and the large servo ball joint next. I had to cut the servo ball joint in half because it would ‎not fit with the servo attachment.‎

design_5

I recommend putting the ball joint inside the base of the body and screwing it in there tightly ‎before using the adhesive to glue the top of the ball joint onto the body.‎

design_6

The final product should resemble the image provided below, but with all of the elements ‎combined. ‎

design_7

I recommend printing out Bebop’s skull piece next. This is where most of the circuitry goes. I put ‎a lot of circuitry on top of this piece, including the circuit board, battery, and pan mechanism. On ‎the bottom, you can see there is a hole for the servo horn. You will insert the round servo horn ‎into this small hole and screw it in or use adhesive to secure it in place. This allows the servo to ‎turn the head correctly.

‎In my opinion, the head is the final piece that you should print. It is the complete enclosure for the ‎system. Once you have printed it, you will have all of the circuitry inside and everything working ‎correctly. Simply print it out, and there are two small holes in the back that you can use to add ‎some screws. I recommend using wood screws to keep it in place.

design_8

If you add the LED and you haven’t put the top on just yet, it should look something like this:‎

assembled

This is what it should kind of look like when it's fully assembled.‎

I have a unique way of characterizing the eye by dividing it into three parts: first, a person ‎sensor; second, an eyelid covering the LED; and third, a final covering that I printed in white and ‎painted the upper area black. This gives the eye a cool feature.‎

feature

This build was originally made with my friend Becky ‎https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO3xgYEBuKg who made this really cool carrying bag, but I ‎couldn't take it with me to my last event so I used a GoPro attachment to attach it to the strap of ‎my backpack.

‎You can print a piece to add to the bottom of the robot, and the attachment is the same one you ‎use for any GoPro camera. The ball joints allow you to move it around your body to make it look ‎like it's really holding on to you, and you can get a cool picture like this.‎

hold