Yummy

10/06/2012 | Robots

The Yummy machine on the left is a robot that was created for Boondoggle and their client Delhaize. It has over 14 motors, controlled by an Arduino board, with a wireless link to a Flash Air interface. He has a fully functional head and neck, and two arms of which one has a hand for picking up stuff. And of course we made sure he has the absolute maximum amount of cuteness. Visit the actual campaignsite.

It is very important to mention that this project would not have been made without the many efforts by Dieter Vanhoof and Niels Schreyers, the creative team at Boondoggle, and their creative director Hans Kerkhoff, to push this project through. On the right you can see the first scetches they gave me as a brief for this project. Dispite the many technical challenges I believe I came pretty close.

I got a call for this project the morning after I came back from Berlin, where we were attending the Pictoplasma conference. With my head still full of characters you can imagine the excitement I felt, when I could combine 2 of my biggest passions, interactive installations and character design, in one project !

It took me 5 weeks to build this robot. I will post a more extended making-of soon but in the meantime you can watch this video from the shooting of his portrait on the right.