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Robots can have bad days just as the rest of us. When machines get nervous, stressed out, weary, or bored, how might they communicate these sentiments? Smoking multiple cigarettes successively is commonly viewed as an indication of uneasiness. We built the smokebot, a chain smoking robot, to playfully emphasize the potential for machines to express their state to us behaviorally.
Functional Overview
The smokebot's respiratory chamber was created by mechanically linking a syringe plunger to a large servo motor. A hose system joins the respiratory chamber to the cigarette holder and the exhalation tube. Similar to a two-stroke engine, the smokebot inhales by kinking the exhalation tube with a small servo before intake stroke. An exhalation is performed by unkinking the exhalation tube before the exhaust stroke. The ash end of the cigarette is inserted into a sealed second-hand smoke chamber.
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Design Context
The smokebot was created in conjunction with James Tichenor and Vinay Venkatraman at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea as part of an InstantSoup workshop taught by Yaniv Steiner and Giorgio Olivero during the spring of 2005. Many thanks also go to the smokers of IDII for supplying the robot with smokes.
Components
Syringe
Soft Rubber Hoses
T-Shaped Hose Junction
15cm Diameter Plastic Cylinder
Large Servo Motor w/ Syringe Linkage
Small Servo Motor w/ Hose Kinker
Wiring Microcontroller Board
Scrap Wood
Screws
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