In this task we were asked to create a drawing robot with household objects and anything in the store cupboard.

Before we gathered our materials, I started designing a train-wheel like mechanism as I figured that we would be very likely to have something which had a turning motion.

The next day my team mates brought in a few objects for us to work with including an electric shaver, electric toothbrush and 2 plastic bottles 

Rihanna initially had an idea about creating marks with an electric toothbrush attached to a roller with string glued to the end. 

The device successfully created marks but needed heavy human intervention and required a moderate amount of force to move the device which we didn't think we could achieve with our other components 

The next day, Peter brought in a coffee whisk which showed great potential for mark making and so we immediately started testing the possibilities.

For theses tests used black ink for these tests as it's low viscosity worked best for being thrown around by the small whisk. Our idea for these test was to create as dramatic marks as possible 

These tests showed a lot of potential for the whisk to be used as our mark making component of our robot. 

We then moved onto testing a way to automate the supply of ink into our robot as our aim was to create a robot which required as little human intervention as possible.

We experimented with creating a free standing funnel which would feed ink to the whisk after filling it initially.

We did also have a brief experiment with attaching string to the end of the whisk however this yielded no results due to the string getting caught around the axle 

These tests proved unsuccessful as the ink poured away too quickly and not enough of it made it onto the whisk. The marks made were quite fun however they weren't very easy to see due to the large pile of ink.

After this we realised that we had used a lot of time testing components of the robot with not very much to show for it and therefore needed to get on with creating our final piece.

We decided that my literal 'drawing robot' would be the most interesting concept.

I started work on creating the drawing robot by creating the movement of the robot.

I created our motor by hot gluing a biro onto the small axle from the electric shaver. This proved to be a very effective axle which would power the train wheel mechanism once attached to the center of a wheel. 

After creating the motor and waiting for the glue to set, I started cutting out the pieces for our robot.

For the robot body I thought it would be fun to create Bender from Futurama. He has quite a simple but recognisable design making him ideal for our project.

We got to work using acrylic paint on cardboard to create bender as these materials are quick to use, bold and rigid enough for our robot.

When constructing bender, it became apparent that the train wheel mechanism would not work unless the shoulder joint had a slot which allows it to slide horizontally.

Below you can see the full construction of Bender

If we had more time it would have been ideal to create a stand for the motor which was connected to the base of benders support. This would reduce the strain on the joints and mechanism as well as reducing the need for human input to pressing one button.

Here you can see the result of our 'Drawing robot' and how it created marks.

Overall I feel like the task went very well! I was very happy with the robot conceptually and the finished product. We achieved the goal of creating a drawing robot and required very little human interaction other than pressing a button and holding the motor.

I wish we could have had more time to improve certain aspects such as the stand or making the mechanism smoother and slower.