Print

[James_182]

"We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better...stronger...faster"

It worked for the Six Million Dollar Man and I think we can do it for Pleo too.

Being a bit of an Evil Genius I've been having some thoughts about Pleo's construction and the failures for things like vertebrae, motors, cable drives etc

With the advent of 3D printing and other rapid prototyping and manufacturing methods I've been tying with several ideas to enhance Pleo.

Firstly, the production of stronger, possibly metal vertebrae

Replacement of cable drives with stronger light weight cables

Upgraded mechanicals to reduce motor whine and overall noise

Re manufacture of skins and coverings

And finally the possibility of a completely metal or carbon fibre skeleton for Pleo

Oh and a few more crazy things such as an on board camera with Bluetooth link so you can see what pleo sees


What do you all think?

[kat]

I think all your ideas are fantastic   I would love to see and hear about anything you try - even the failures if there are any.  I have thought about the idea of 3D printing replacement parts for things like neck vertebrae and other parts of pleo that break.  Unfortunately I don't have access to a 3D printer or the know how to be able to do it.  I know new skins is something that a lot of people would love to have access too.  Removing and replacing skin on a pleo is a tricky job but can be done by your average layperson.  Unfortunately Innvo, while they do make replacement skins, wont sell the skin on it's own.  You have to send your pleo off to them and then they will reskin it for you and send it back all at the cost of the pleo owner for postage both ways and the skin and labour costs to put it on.  Makes it way too expensive to actually contemplate doing for many of us. 

If you do manage to have a go at any of the things you suggested make sure you take plenty of photos and or videos along the way and share them with us here.  If you are successful then some instructions on what you did and how would be wonderful too for anyone else who might like to try the same and then of course there is the potential for you to sell skins or spare parts to other forum members if your able to make them. 

[MariaOcean]

Maybe even upgrade the software a bit so pleo can have face recognition with the camera, you can try using fiberglass too instead of metal and carbon fiber since it's so cheap. Sounds like a great idea to upgrade the cables wires and mechanics. Maybe make pleo a bit slimmer because prototypes of pleo can right it-self when it fell down but got fatter and fatter and made it impossible to get back up without help, Can't wait to see it happen , maybe I'll try this idea out too or at least try to help out . I remember someone hacking a pleo to have onboard camera before but I can't find any tutorial how to do it
here's a vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rJhC4B5FXw

I have been thinking about making skin for pleo my-self, I think I would vacuum form pleo and then use clay to sculpt out all the details and vacuum form that and use RTV-2 silicone rubber for the skin, But I can only start on the project after I build my own vacuum forming machines which I'll start next year so it will that some time, guess Furby would have to wait before he can be reskinned again

[InmemoryofRomeo]

I think upgrading some parts and not others would lead to a catastrophic failure, so it'll be all or nothing! Sounds cool as though, I hope you try.

[James_182]

The one limiting factor I have at the moment is that I need to acquire a "dead" Pleo for analysis, one rb and Ugobe would be good. Its a little Victor Frankenstein / early medical practitioner but the research and knowledge gained will be invaluable to prolonging the life of our Pleos.

That's an interesting take on skin production Maria Ocean, I had the idea of scanning the spread out hide of a Pleo to get the texture map, invert it then use a 3D printer to copy it and make a negative to then pour / cast a new hide. I'll have to have a look into how they make skins for things like puppets, bogglins and the like, but vac forming sounds interesting.

Also thought of finding out how the sensors work for the food/toys so that new functions could be introduced

I'd really love to get a look around the Pleo production facility to get a better insight into their manufacture and the processes used there in, a bit like the tv program "how stuff works" once you know how things are made, repair and upgrade become a lot more plausible.

I'll keep you posted on any developments as they come

[MariaOcean]

If I succeed in making skin for pleo, I might try doing different species of sauropod dinosaurs and sell them, I think I'll leave all the skin blank so the owner can customize it them-selves, I have already thought of the paint for the silicone skin but I'll have to test it before letting everyone try it, same for the silicone skin, i'll have to test how durable it is before letting them be used by others. Since silicone don't bond well with other substances besides silicone( at least I think so), maybe silicone caulk mixed with oil or acrylic paint and maybe even some thinner to get perfect paint for the silicone skin, I'll have to test it when I actually have materials, but that's the idea .

[Teddscau]

Wow, you guys are actually serious? I thought it sounded like some sort of pipe dream, but it sounds like you guys know what you're talking about! Sorry if that sounded rude, but it's just that not many people actually understand the stuff you're talking about, but it sure sounds like you guys do! The only thing I understand is the 3D printer. Ooh, if you make a new dinosaur, try making an ankylosaur. It should be one of the easier ones to design, and more user friendly as opposed to the triceratops that might gouge an eye out, or a stegosaurus that would be hard to pet because of the plates along its back. Just make sure that they can interact with pleos! Oh my gosh! It would be amazing if you made one of those duckbill dinosaurs, especially since it would have a wider range of motion, although it would be difficult to achieve a successful centre of gravity. Maybe you could contact Caleb Chung. He might send you some schematics for Ugobes if Innvo isn't willing. If you guys actually get your ideas set in motion, it will be amazing!

[MariaOcean]

John Sosoka of Ugobe said that in order to play with voice recognition you have to write it in C or assembly code. While possible, it won't be supported by the PDK tools at first.
And Pleo uses infrared primarily for interaction and that will allow him to interact with other things. Pleo can interact with other Pleos. It's one of those things that can be reprogrammed, or if the other side is more flexible than just reprogram the AIBO who can talk through infrared to Pleo.
So it's possible to program the Ugobe Pleo to have voice recognition and interact with other robots, which would be awesome but I have no idea about programming maybe some of you here knows

[Lunamione7]

On the topic of 3D printers and related:
A year or so ago my Ugobe broke some vertebrae and after much freaking out and emotional support from RWM, IMR and Kat I took him to the local high school my mother works at and had the technology teacher open him up and scan his parts with a CAD machine. The machine was able to cut new parts and the whole process only took about ten minutes. The broken parts were removed with tweezers, new parts slid in and he was sewn back up, repainted by the art teacher and now you can't tell there was ever anything wrong with him.

[mweed]

I don't suppose the technology teacher saved those CAD files?  there are several people here apparently with access to 3D printers . . . if we have the drawings/files to print from!

[InmemoryofRomeo]

This would of course be possible, but copying Pleo to potentially change it so dramatically is likely to be an infringement on Innvo's intellectual property.

Spare parts probably wouldn't draw attention, but recreating Pleo entirely is another matter.

[Teddscau]

Tsk tsk IMR. Don't you know anything about avoiding lawsuits   You have to change the product just enough to avoid copyright infringement. I learned this from watching commercials on tv . Someone comes out with an awesome patented product, then days later you see other companies advertising the exact same thing. But yeah, I was wondering about the whole ®/™ thing too.

[James_182]

henc my need to aquire a ugobe and rb pleo for disassembly so that it can be scanned and replicated for spare parts. easy to get around making patern parts for things andnavoid law suits.

as for building a whole new pleo... we'l see

[Lunamione7]

I don't suppose the technology teacher saved those CAD files?  there are several people here apparently with access to 3D printers . . . if we have the drawings/files to print from!

I really doubt it, I don't have a copy myself and as it wasn't school related I don't think it would have been something they would have kept. I honestly didn't think of having them saved at the time since I didn't think many others would have such easy access to a machine and didn't yet know about 3D printers.

I can certainly find out if they were kept, but it was nearly a year ago now.