Gesture controlled robot unicorn made of cardboard, glitter and microbits
I made a very silly gesture controlled robot unicorn because I was bored with personality free robots that move in a straight line. This is a cheap, unreliable, hilarious robot unicorn suitable for beginners. Have fun!
Here's what you'll need. The links below to each part are just examples - with a bit of searching you will be able to find any of these parts cheaper in whatever shop you normally use to get parts like this. Ebay, Amazon, Rapid, Digikey, Kitronik etc.
-
1 microbit or 2 if you want to make one that is gesture controlled (you do) plus their AAA battery packs.
-
2 360 servos with wheels (I used FS90R servos with wheels like this https://www.kitronik.co.uk/2574-wheel-for-fs90r-60mmx8mm.html). 360 servos are super cheap, super unreliable and super easy to hook up, which is exactly why I chose them. Remember, the unicorn not going exactly where you expect it to go is kind of the point.
-
A small swivelling castor wheel plus the niuts and bolts to fix it to the base (something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074WP1QJN/). You can use a marble like castor wheel designed for robots but if you use the cheaper ones designed for furniture you can figure out a special way to get your robot unicorn to rear up like She Ra's flying unicorn Swift Wind. Or sometimes it will just fall over. Either way, it's funny.
-
A 3XAA battery pack with on off switch and leads (something like this https://www.amazon.com/x1-5V-Battery-Holder-Switch-Wires/dp/B01C5J4K3Q/)
-
3 crocodile clips, or alligator clips as Americans apparently call them. Cute.
-
A unicorn horn. Obviously. I modified an old Adafruit file (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:956359) to make it smaller and give it a solid base so it stuck on my unicorn's head. I've included my revised stl file in this GitHub repo if you want to 3D print your own, or you can make a horn from whatever kind of material you like!
-
something shiny for the tail. I used tinsel for some and tiny disco balls for some others. You can even use sparklers if you want to set your unicorn on fire! (Do not do this)
-
3 sheets of A4 card, the shinier the better. I've also used lasercut semi transparent polypropylene for the head and put LEDs, jelly beans, copper tape and glitter inside. The glitter was a total pain and I do not recommend it.
-
some wire strippers and some electrical tape
-
some double sided sticky tape, some sellotape and/or some decent glue. Those double sided padded sticky things work really well for fixing the servos to the cardboard chassis.
-
Make the unicorn body. You can download the ai or pdf files and either lasercut them on card (there are two layers, one for cut and one for score) or print them out on A4 card and use a scalpel or scissors to cut and score them by hand. I've even done a badly lit step by step instruction video on my youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKqrMxuZ6gQ
-
Put on the wheels, then wire up the servos and the battery and the first microbit. Again, just watch my slightly embarrassing video. https://youtu.be/CKqrMxuZ6gQ?t=178
-
Code it! I've done two videos for this, a tester video to get you familiar with using one MicroBit, and another for gesture controlling your robot unicorn with two microbits. Both are totally suitable for beginners. Find them here.
-
Play! Make an obstacle course! Make another one and have a race or a dance off with a friend!
-
Tell me you made it. It brings me joy to know other people make stuff I document, even if it is silly. Say hi on my Twitter @helenleigh and subscribe to my channel on YouTube https://youtube.com/c/HelenLeigh