Hat and mouse

I’ve had a couple of crafty days recently. I bought a kit a while ago to build a robot called “Herbie the mousebot“. I finally got around to buying a new soldering iron.

Here are all the parts laid out before we started:

Herbie is very cleverly designed; the solder joints hold the structure together as well as complete circuits. I had a bit of help from River. She held some of the trickier parts while I soldered them together. Here she is putting a resistor through the circuit board.

You might notice that she is wearing a new hat? I just finished it the day before. Knitting projects that can be completed in one day are always satisfying. It is based on this pattern for a roll brim hat, but adjusted to compensate for heavier yarn on thick needles.

Here is the completed Herbie:

Herbie’s eyes are photo-receptors which allow the mouse to follow lights. The whiskers and the tail are also sensors. If Herbie bumps into something, the whiskers or tail complete a circuit causing him to back up for a couple seconds before going forward again. It is fascinating to watch the behavior this relatively simple algorithm generates. Chester and Jumbles thought it was pretty neat, too!