Twitchie!
Twitchie is an open source multi-purpose robot kit. It has the capacity
to frighten and scare, but also the power to love and care! It's a
pathos-o-matic! Grown men scream. Maternal instincts long
dormant, suddenly activate. It's a robot unlike any other, and you can
make one.This page is the place to get all of the plans you need to make your own. Alternatively, you can buy a complete kit from makezine.com.
Questions? Need help? Email me.
Here, here and here are some youtube videos that show twitchies in action.
Source Code:
Stock version
Variation1
Variation2
Variation3
CAD Files: PCB Schematic
Wooden Parts
Manual:
Page1 Page2
Instructional Video: part1 part2 part3
Overview:
The fuzzy robots pictured on this page are all built on the same basic kit. Included are laser cut wooden parts that can be assembled in several different configurations. The parts are designed to make it easy to use glue and other craft supplies to attach cloth, fur, buttons, string, doll parts, and all kinds of stuff. There are endless ways to dress them up!
The circuit board is based on the Arduino project, and shows up as a Lillypad in the Arduino programming environment. The cpu is an ATMEGA168. This means that changing the firmware is relatively easy and cheap. There is also a six pin ICSP header for an AVRISP if you are more advanced and can go without a bootloader. As an added bonus, the Twitchie circuit board can be configured to fit easily into a breadboard!
Buy A Kit!
Kits are available at the maker store: makezine.com
For $99, the kit consists of:- 3 Servos
- 6 Laser cut wooden parts
- 1 circuit board
- 1 ATMEGA168 preloaded with Lillypad firmware and Twitchie software
- 1 set of various electronic parts such as LEDs, capacitors and resistors
- 1 printed manual