Class Description:

Taught by an artist, a professional hacker, and a roboticist, this class will teach you how to create Halloween-inspired animatronics. You will learn how to detect motion, and then drive motors and trigger sounds. Will you make a skeleton to pop up and scare trick-or-treators, or will you make your pumpkin talk when people go approach? You will design your own project with help from the instructors, and then learn how to bring your creation to life! By the end you'll be saying with the best of them, "IT'S ALIVE!!" *dramatic thunder and lighting*

This class will touch upon multiple disciplines, with the primary focus on electromechanical systems and fabrication. We will be going over the various sensors you can use to detect presence, and what to do with that sensory information with an Arduino micro-controller. We will then cover the different methods that you can use to drive motors and generate motion, which you can use to make things that literally go bump in the night. Sound generation will also be covered, which you might even hear over the screams of your guests. We will then help you design a project and help you bring your creation to life.

Class Goals:

Learn the electronics and fabrication techniques necessary to design and build an awesome animatronic Halloween decoration, and build your creation with the help of three Asylum rockstars.

Prerequisites:

None.

Materials:

Now is the perfect time to put  that old knife switch, or broken but REALLY AWESOME toy to work! Materials will depend very much upon your design ideas. There may be a small fee for additional materials provided by the instructors.

Instructor Biography: Ecco (Sarah Pierce), Jimmie Rodgers, & Gui Cavalcanti

Ecco is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. She's a local artist with a passion for steel, specializing in creating wearable metal accessories (like the horns in her picture, or a set of wings for her back) and designing static and kinetic sculptures of absurdly large cool-looking insects.

Jimmie Rodgers is a full-time hacker, circuit bender, and artist. He designs open source hardware kits and travels around the world teaching people how to solder and make things. For nearly a decade Jimmie worked as a desktop, and then systems administrator at various companies. In his spare time he tinkered with electronics, building things, and teaching others to do the same. In September of 2009 he quit his full time job to become a full time hacker, and has been supporting himself with kit sales and workshops while continuing to travel around the world. His most popular kit has been the LoL Shield, which is a 14x9 LED matrix that you attach to an Arduino micro-controller.

Gui Cavalcanti received a General Engineering degree with a Robotics concentration from the Olin College of Engineering. He works as a robotics engineer at Boston Dynamics, working on cutting edge mechanical design for highly dynamic legged robots like BigDog and PETMAN. Over the course of his career he has developed the mechanical systems for a robotic tuna, several robotic snakes, an ornithopter, and several other robotic animals. In his spare time he builds ridiculous things with ridiculous people, like a flotilla of SUV-sized rubber duck boats to take on the water on the 4th of July.

Class Times:

Session 1:  10/15/2010, 7 PM - 10 PM @ 13 Joy St, Somerville MA

Session 2: 10/22/2010,  7 PM - 10 PM @ 13 Joy St, Somerville MA

Session 3: 10/29/2010, 7 PM - 10 PM @ 13 Joy St, Somerville MA

Session 4: 11/5/2010, 7 PM - 10 PM @ 13 Joy St, Somerville MA